Hi guys,
I read recently on the official Pixar website
that something called Renderman has helped them put together their feature and short films. I didn’t really
understand what it is and what their relationship was to Pixar.
Can anyone help me out? This is an
just-out-of-curiosity question 
I’m a computer person but sometimes technology goes right over my head,
lol!
Thanks,
Christine
[url=https://renderman.pixar.com/products/whatsrenderman/index.htm]What’s
RenderMan?[/url]
This is part of the section of Pixar’s website about RenderMan. You can read about what
it is, awards it has won, a list of movies that have used it (even movies made by other companies), and
testimonials by industry experts.
Hope this helps.
~~=oP
Unfortunately, you didn’t answer my question 
I read the description on the exact same part of their website but, due to my sheer stupidity, I still
don’t understand what it is or what it’s used for. I was hoping that you might be able to provide me with a
layman’s explanation
Thanks,
Christine
Haha. Dash is on the phone with me and he told me he is doing just that right
now.
I’m sorry I can’t do it myself. I’m not a techie. Neither is Dash, but he can explain it better
than I ever could.
~~=oP
No worries, it’s all good
Christine
Hi Christine!
I’m no expert but let me explain it
to you as I understand it. Renderman is what’s called rendering software or more specifically the series of
rendering programs used by Pixar for the different elements of a movie. It basically puts the movie together.
When a scene is completed by an animator he tells the computer what to do. The scene has been set as 3D setting
kind of like a stage. You actually have a 3D space with boundaries and solid 3D objects that occupy this space
each on meticulously created to have its own laws and properties that must be addressed for a photorealistic 3D
image to be created. Basically the computer has to simulate the laws of Physics - and these can be very
complicate laws! In particular and one of the most important aspects is light. Take a look around you. You
have certain light sources (lamps, the sun, flames, etc) of various intensities, brightneses, and colors directed
in various angles and directions. This is fairly straight forward to program in. But then there are various
effects of light, shadows behind solid bodies, reflections off of mirrors and shiny surfaces, various scattering
effects, etc. When it comes to reflections, many times it’s an image that is reflected by light bouncing off of
an object and then being reflected in another object (this is especially true with things like shiny sports cars
as are featured in Cars but you can also see it in picture frames, window, wood floors, and about anything that
has a gloss to it. Naturally an artist can’t go in and frame by frame create all of these little details by
hand so instead the physics behind these details is written into the objects design. The light sources are then
set and it’s up to the computer to do the rest. This of course is just one example since it’s the most
prominent but the same process is basically applied to anything else like the motion of hair or fur as a
character walks, the movement of water or fire, the movement of cloth as it is slung about or draped on a body,
and basically any other “event” that is not deliberately animated. Each of these types of
“events” has a special coding and program that is part of the Renderman series of programs. It’s all
written up for the computer to do instead.
This is where Renderman comes in.
Now that the code has
been made for each item, it’s the individual Renderman program’s job to run through all of that code and follow
all the rules to make sure each frame has a 3D photorealistic quality. That’s why it’s such a big deal - it
basically makes the movie because it has to be exact! Renderman itself is such a big deal however because it is
the mother of all rendering systems capable of processing practially anything and the standard by which all
rendering is measured. It’s not a simple process though. Even though Pixar has the latest greatest computer
technology (Using more computing power than anyone in the US except for NASA), it takes hours to render a single
frame! As an example, for Cars, despite the fact that it was using processors 4 time more powerful than the
computers in The Incredibles, it took an average of 17 hours to render a single
frame! Now depending on how much activity was going on in the frame and how many “events” had to be
rendered this time varied greatly (as you can imagine rendering a simple shot like Lizzie just sitting on her
porch at night took a much shorter time than a scene from the big wreck in the first race). But at an average of
17 hours per frame with 24 frames per second an 7200 seconds in a 2 hour movie thats 172800 frames and 2937600
hours of rendering time! An equivalent of more than 335 years of total rendering time! That means it took
Pixar’s army of 3000 computers over 40 days to render the film working around the clock. As you can see,
rendering is a very serious business.
Dr. Catmull and the team were sheer geniuses in the development of
this technology and were very much in the right to receive a special Oscar for its development. As I said, this
is the standard by which all Rendering is measured. Anytime a computer is used for visual effects the whole
scene must be rendered to achieve realism and Renderman has set the bar dating all the way back to it’s debut in
Young Shirlock Holmes in 1985. Besides all 7 Pixar movies it has been used on scores of other major motion films
including almost every major blockbuster of the last 20 years. In fact ever Oscar
nominee (not just the winners) in the visual arts category for the last 10 years
used Renderman, an unprecedented Academy Award record. And of course all of this is because of the good men and
women at Pixar - it’s founders. Is it any wonder that Steve Jobs and John Lasseter were named the most powerful
men in Hollywood?
I really hope this helps and that you can understand it. There really isn’t any good
layman’s explanation out there. If you have any more questions I can help with then please just ask. =)
Thanks Dash! Your information was really helpful and
informative
I definitely know that the Harry Potter films and Chicken Run used Renderman to package
their films together but it’s actually more evident to the viewer when watching Chicken Run.
I just
rewatched it last night (hilarious film btw!) and couldn’t believe the amount of work just for a 2 hr animated,
clay-mation film! Wow!
Go Pixar!
Christine