CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Pixar's Renderman released for free

Boing Boing: Pixar has released its Renderman imaging software to the public free to download. This version is identical to the software it uses on it's own films, which was invented in-house, and is used today by major film and video game studios for animation and visual effects.

2 comments:

Jason Cohen said...

This is literally just another reason why Pixar is one of the most amazing, creative, and innovative companies on the planet. Over winter break I read “Creativity Inc.” which is a book written by the founder of Pixar. In the book he basically describes how to create and sustain a creative and collaborative environment using real examples from the development of Pixar (which did not have the smoothest coming of being to it’s current state than you would think it would). Of all the books that I have read in my life time this was probably the most influential book I have ever read that I can also see elements of the content in my real life. My love continue to grows for the company, and will probably never ever stop. Thank you for everything you do, and I hope that one day I am fortunate enough to work for you.

Nikki Baltzer said...

While I find the release of this software absolutely cool, my biggest question for Pixar is why now? Why are they releasing a similar version of their program out to the public for free. Are they hoping that this will allow people to want to start learning how their software works, find a passion, and apply to be on their creative team so that can bring fresh new minds into their creative team? The fact that this has happened now truly baffles me. I have been watching the rise and fall of Pixar very closely my entire life. I always saw them as a visionary of storytelling. What I first loved most about them was their ability to grab the audience want and attention through their trailers because it gave you an idea what the concept of the movie was about but not giving anything of the actual plot away. I have noticed over the years and for their last couple of movies they have switch this model into creating an industry standard trailer. I don’t fully understand why they stopped doing what they would good at but I fear Pixar may be in trouble. What I have also always know Pixar to be great at was their ability to constantly create movies with characters that were going through a emotional experience that everyone has either experienced in their life time or could easily relate to feeling. That method right there is one of the defining characteristics that made Pixar one of the great storytellers.