EMERYVILLE, CA — (January 22nd, 2008) Pixar Animation Studios today released the first version of its RenderMan Certified Courseware created in association with Escape Studios. With contributions from the world's most accomplished visual effects and feature animation studios, Pixar's RenderMan Certified Courseware is the perfect educational resource for everyone from the beginner to the advanced professional.

Pixar's RenderMan Certified Courseware is divided into four main categories. The "Fundamentals" section covers all of the key concepts of Pixar's core rendering technology. In the "How To" section, these key concepts are applied to real-world production scenarios. The "Production Examples" section provides case studies from leading film studios as they describe methodologies for creating feature film effects, and in the "Library" section, course-notes and references are provided for further study. Additionally, universities, colleges, and training establishments, are provided with detailed lesson plans that cover all aspects of teaching these materials in a classroom environment.

Backed up by a formal Certification program, Pixar's RenderMan Certified Courseware provides access to the hard-won experience of the world's most advanced RenderMan users, and represents an invaluable resource for production focused techniques and insights unavailable elsewhere.

"The Courseware is both awesome and stellar. This is going to fill a huge void in the world of CG, and everyone from students to seasoned VFX pros can finally turn to a single authoritative source to acquire their RenderMan knowledge." said Saty Raghavachary author of Rendering for Beginners: Image Synthesis using RenderMan. "I really look forward to using these materials to teach my RenderMan classes."

"Solving rendering problems in the thick of production requires a fundamental understanding of RenderMan and knowledge of the tips and tricks that users and studios have developed over the years." said Apurva Shah, Effects Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios. "The Courseware does a great job of presenting both aspects in one central repository."

"Great resource! There's so much experience in here, I wish I'd spent the last 10 years at the beach and then just read this!" said Martin Hill, Shader Supervisor at Weta Digital.

Available worldwide from Escape Studios as a site license for educational establishments, production studios, and individual use, Pixar's RenderMan Certified Courseware establishes a new standard of educational excellence for those learning how to use RenderMan.

For more information about Pixar's RenderMan Certified Courseware, please register to review the sample version at pixar.escapestudios.com/demo or contact Escape Studios directly at pixar.escapestudios.com.

About Pixar Animation Studios
Pixar Animation Studios, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is an Academy Award®-winning film studio with world-renowned technical, creative and production capabilities in the art of computer animation. Creator of some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and most recently, Ratatouille. The Northern California studio has won 20 Academy Awards® and its eight films have grossed more than $4 billion at the worldwide box office to date. The next film release from DisneyoPixar is WALL·E (June 27, 2008).