Pixar / Disney has decided to release its flagship animation software called RenderMan for free to non-commercial users. As part of the company’s long-term commitment to foster the future growth of the production industries. The animation software used to create classics like Toy Story, Wall-E and other Pixar’s 3D animation movie masterpiece.
Software licenses for the purposes of evaluation, education, personal training, experimentation and research will be completely free of charge. The same goes for developers who is interested in building applications and tools for RenderMan. This is not a stripped down version of RenderMan either, this is the full version of the software without watermarks, any sort of functionality limitations or time restrictions. Professional users still need to pay though – $495.
The latest build comes with enhancements across the board and “establishes an entirely new modular rendering architecture called RIS that provides highly optimized methods for simulating the transport of light through multiple state of the art algorithms,” according to Pixar.
Important Notes
RenderMan is advanced technology for shading, lighting, and rendering. RenderMan is not an animation or modeling package.
RenderMan can be plugged into one of the following tools, Maya, Houdini, Katana, or Cinema4D. If you use one of those packages you can try RenderMan. You can also use RenderMan if you have your own custom tool(s) for generating renderable 3D assets (RIB) for purposes such as scientific visualization.
RenderMan by itself does not have a user interface or GUI.
Free Non-Commercial RenderMan is scheduled for release in August 2014.
Click Register to be added in the waiting list.
Updated: Heres a little something for you who wish to learn to use RenderMan, Mark Flanagan is kindly enough to teach you how via his YouTube video tutorials.
@denicocc @bloglovin I’ve shared 9hrs of tut’s on the earlier #RenderMan 17: https://t.co/ChBU1JeHlK Can’t wait to update them to 19.
– mark flanagan (@marknaught) June 7, 2014
Related articles
- Attention young animators: Pixar to give away its 3-D software, RenderMan (csmonitor.com)
- Pixar is unleashing its Oscar-winning rendering software – for free (dailydot.com)
- Pixar set for new version of RenderMan, free non-commercial licenses (electronista.com)
- Pixar Rendering Software Now Free For Personal Use (geeksaresexy.net)
- Pixar Restructures RenderMan Pricing, Non-Commercial Licenses Now Free (macobserver.com)
- Soon You’ll Be Able to Grab the Same Software Pixar Used to Make Wall-E, For Free (gizmodo.co.uk)
