Pixar Animation Studios released version 2.0 of RenderMan Studio and version 3.0 of RenderMan for Maya. Built on the common foundation of Pixar’s core rendering technology, both releases feature substantial performance enhancements for production rendering, including faster multi-threading, optimized ray tracing, and other enhancements that will dramatically impact most scenes. New levels of customization will allow studios the ability to develop their own unique pipelines, and both releases provide full Maya 2009 compatibility. In addition, RenderMan Studio 2.0 offers premium features such as a new version of Pixar’s shading program, Slim, with many significant enhancements for creating sophisticated and high quality visuals looks.

• RENDERER ENHANCEMENTS
  1. Enhanced Threading - Significant gains when using multiple processors
  2. Accelerated Ray Tracing – Substantial performance optimizations
  3. Faster Depth of Field – For scenes with fast objects and heavy blur
  4. Faster Subsurface Scattering – With a new threaded version of PTFilter
  5. Faster AOVs – Significant improvements for secondary outputs
  6. More Efficient Polygons – Complex meshes have big performance gains
  7. Optimized Long Curves – Long hair is now easier to render
  8. Organized Point Clouds – Better performance through improved memory efficiency
  9. Ray Traced Procedural Unload – Trace procedural geometry with greater memory efficiency
  10. And much more …
• PLUG-IN FEATURES
  1. New Workspace Editor – Improved asset management
  2. Enhanced Extendibility – More flexible for production pipelines
  3. RSL for Maya Materials – Now may be easily customized
• NEW COMPATIBILITY
  1. 64 bit Vista Support
  2. Maya 2009 Support
  3. Mac 10.5.x Leopard Support

Both RenderMan Studio and RenderMan for Maya are designed to provide fast and easy access to Pixar’s photo-realistic technology used to create the stunning visual effects in most contemporary feature films. Both products offer the Autodesk Maya user a seamlessly integrated interface that provides an unparalleled combination of ease of use, creativity, performance, and cinematic image quality. A free no time-limit evaluation version of RenderMan for Maya 3.0 is available for all Maya 2009 users to try out at https://renderman.pixar.com/forum/eval/

“The improved integration of RenderMan Studio 2.0 into Maya has been great for our artists and we are seeing incredibly fast renders with its new performance features.” said Jamie Macdougall, Senior 3D artist at Artifex Studios. “In particular being able to render directly to OpenEXR and hand the compositors all the passes that they require is a huge time saver.”

RenderMan For Maya 3.0 and RenderMan Studio 2.0 are compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.5 and above, Windows XP, and Windows Vista 64-bit. In addition, RenderMan Studio 2.0 is also compatible with both Linux 32-bit and 64-bit.

The upgrade price from RenderMan for Maya 2.0 to RenderMan for Maya 3.0 is $295 and can be purchased from the Pixar e-store at https://renderman.pixar.com/store/ The upgrade price from RenderMan Studio 1.0 to RenderMan Studio 2.0 is $400 and the upgrade price for the RenderMan Embedded Renderer is $300. In addition, Pixar’s maintenance program benefits RenderMan Studio customers with access to ongoing support and version upgrades for an annual fee. For more information please visit www.pixar.com or contact rendermansales@pixar.com.