FAQ — RenderMan for Maya

Purchasing

  1. How much does it cost?
  2. Is there an evaluation version?
  3. Can I get help purchasing RenderMan for Maya?
  4. When I purchase will I receive a physical package through the mail?
  5. Are volume discounts for render farms available?
  6. Can I build a render farm using RenderMan for Maya in batch mode?
  7. What platforms does RenderMan for Maya run on?
  8. Will there be a Linux version?
  9. What support options are available?
  10. Are floating licenses an option?
  11. How much does it cost to upgrade from v2.0 to v3.0? 
  12. Can I transfer my license to another platform or machine?
  13. Can I upgrade from RenderMan for Maya to RenderMan Pro Server?
  14. When will the next version of RenderMan for Maya be available?
  15. Is there a educational discount?
  16. Is RenderMan for Maya compatible with RenderMan Studio?
  17.  Is a traditional maintenance policy available as with RenderMan Pro Server?
  18. Are there alternate payment methods besides credit card?
  19. How much does it cost to upgrade from v2.0 to v3.0? 

 

 

Maya Related

  1. How is RenderMan for Maya different from RenderMan Artist Tools?
  2. Does RenderMan for Maya support Maya Hair and Fur?
  3. Are Maya Materials supported?
  4. Does RenderMan for Maya support Maya's subdivision surfaces?
  5. Are Maya particles supported?
  6. Does RenderMan for Maya support Maya Paint Effects?
  7. What does RenderMan for Maya not support in version 2.0?
  8. What versions of Maya does RenderMan for Maya support?
  9. How is RenderMan for Maya a next-generation rendering plug-in?

 

 

RenderMan Related

  1. Is RenderMan for Maya a "lite" version of RenderMan Pro Server?
  2. What is the difference between RenderMan for Maya and RenderMan Pro Server?
  3. Can RenderMan for Maya use RenderMan shaders written in the RenderMan Shading Language?
  4. Can RenderMan for Maya write RenderMan shaders? 
  5. What kind of motion blur does RenderMan for Maya use? 
  6. Does RenderMan for Maya support global illumination?
  7. Is subsurface scattering supported? 
  8. Does RenderMan for Maya make use of two processors on a dual processor machine?
  9. Is RenderMan for Maya better than the Maya renderer? The Mental Ray renderer?
  10. Can RenderMan for Maya do network rendering?
  11. How about support for AOVs (arbitrary output variables)?

 

Purchase Questions

1. How much does it cost?
RenderMan for Maya costs $995 (US dollars) per license and is available for purchase online from Pixar's web site.

2. Is there a evaluation version?
A free watermarked version, RenderMan for Maya Eval, is available for download now. After registering, you may download the fully-functional evaluation version for free. And it's is easy to install! Get the RFM eval

3. Can I get help purchasing RenderMan for Maya?
There is an extensive Help section available on the Pixar online store.

4. When I purchase will I receive a physical package through the mail?
By default RenderMan for Maya is delivered electronically. A physical backup CD is available at a small additional cost.

5. Are volume discounts for render farms available?
No. RenderMan for Maya is primarily priced for small to medium scale rendering projects. For larger render farms, RenderMan Pro Server is probably a more suitable solution, and extensive volume discounts are available. We are always happy to discuss your rendering needs with you at rendermansales@pixar.com.

6. Can I build a render farm using RenderMan for Maya in batch mode?
Yes. RenderMan for Maya can be run in batch mode, using Maya's familiar batch render. 

When rendering in batch mode with RenderMan for Maya the amount of RenderMan for Maya licenses consumed will depend on whether you chose to license your product with node-locked or floating licenses. For more info about the differences between floating and node-locked licenses refer to the FAQ: Are floating licenses an option?

7. What platforms does RenderMan for Maya run on?
Currently, Windows XP and Mac OS X are supported.

8. Will there be a Linux version?
A special Linux build for larger render farms is available upon request. For more details behind please contact RenderManSales@Pixar.com

9. What support options are available?
There are two support options:

(1) Every RenderMan for Maya customer is granted free access to a dedicated online support forum. We expect most of your questions will be answered on this forum by either the RenderMan support and development team or by other customers who have encountered similar issues.

(2) During the first 30 days of ownership, if the support forum cannot solve your problem, you may contact Pixar support directly. From the 31st day, if you have a problem requiring personalized attention, the RenderMan on-line store offers a $149 single call option or a $449 value package of five calls that can be used at any time.

10. Are floating licenses an option?
Yes. You may choose whether you wish to license RenderMan for Maya with node-locked or floating licenses. We offer floating license capability with a purchase of five or more copies of RenderMan for Maya. 

A single license (floating or node locked) provides the following capabilities:

  1. 4 threads maximum in either interactive, batch, or a mixture of both.
  2. Up to 4 separate invocations of RfM can be run in parallel.
  3. Up to 4 separate users can start a single thread render.
  4. Limited to host machine

Example run-time scenarios:

  1. 1 interactive session rendering with 2 threads and 1 batch with 2 threads
  2. 1 interactive rendering with 4 threads and no batch renderer
  3. 1 batch render with 4 threads and no interactive session
  4. 2 batch renders with 2 threads each and no interactive session
  5. 4 batch renders with 1 thread each and no interactive session

 

11. How much does it cost to upgrade from v2.0 to v3.0? 

The cost for upgrading from RenderMan for Maya 2.0 to 3.0 is $295.

 

12. Can I transfer my license to another platform or machine?
Yes. This is an option that can be purchased in the online store. There is an administrative charge of $199.

13. Can I upgrade from RenderMan for Maya to RenderMan Studio?
Yes. Please contact rendermansales@pixar.com. for further details.

14. When will the next version of RenderMan for Maya be available?
We are working on the next version but have not announced a date yet. Existing RenderMan for Maya customers will be offered an upgrade option.

15. Is there a educational discount?
Not for individuals. As RenderMan for Maya is sold directly via the web there is no way to automatically validate personal educational status. We will however consider requests from academic institutions with established 3D programs upon application to rendermansales@pixar.com.. 

16. Is RenderMan for Maya compatible with RenderMan Studio?
Everything created for RenderMan for Maya will render the same in RenderMan Studio. No additional setup or workflow is required. Upgrading to RenderMan Studio is straight forward. 

17. Is a traditional maintenance policy available as with RenderMan Pro Server?
At a $995 price point we have not implemented a traditional maintenance policy. Customer feedback directed us to the free forum support option coupled with chargeable direct support calls to be used on an as-needed basis.

 

18. Are there alternate payment methods besides credit card?Yes. You may pay by bank wire transfer. This option appears on the checkout page.

 

Maya Related Questions

1. How is RenderMan for Maya different from RenderMan Studio?
RenderMan for Maya is meant to work as an alternative to the Maya renderer. 

RenderMan Studio contains a suite of tools, including RenderMan for Maya Pro, which allows advanced functions like RIB out and other features. 

2. Does RenderMan for Maya support Maya Hair and Fur?
Yes. RenderMan for Maya supports both Maya Hair and Maya Fur. Fur and hair are rendered in software and are not a post-process effect. Fur and hair can be animated using both dynamics and keyframe techniques.

3. Are Maya Materials supported?
All common Maya shading and utility nodes are supported by RenderMan for Maya. There are only a few rarely used nodes that are unsupported, which are fully documented.

4. Does RenderMan for Maya support Maya's subdivision surfaces?
Yes. RenderMan for Maya provides full support for Maya's hierarchical subdivision surfaces, including partial creases. 

5. Are Maya particles supported?
Yes. All of the Maya particle types are supported. Additionally, RenderMan for Maya renders all particles in software, so compositing is not an issue.

6. Does RenderMan for Maya support Maya Paint Effects?
RenderMan for Maya supports a selection of Maya Paint Effects. Paint Effects are rendered as curves or meshes, so you can do anything with the Paint Effects that you would with regular geometry, like motion blur, transparency effects, and shadowing.

7. What does RenderMan for Maya not support?
Maya Fluids and some glow/optical effects are currently unsupported.

8. What versions of Maya does RenderMan for Maya support?
RenderMan for Maya supports Maya 2009, Maya 2008, and Maya 8.5.  

9. How is RenderMan for Maya a next-generation rendering plug-in? 

RenderMan for Maya uses Maya's "Unified Rendering Workflow" to seamlessly integrate into Maya, and because of this tight integration rendering with RenderMan is as simple as selecting the RenderMan renderer. RenderMan for Maya also allows for advanced customization through an initialization file, which provides control, not only for creating custom UI's, but for also creating custom passes and jobs.

 

RenderMan Related Questions

1. Is RenderMan for Maya a "lite" version of RenderMan Pro Server?
No. RenderMan for Maya is not a "lite" version but rather the same RenderMan renderer, streamlined to work inside Maya's workflow. The same high quality images and extensive range of effects associated with RenderMan are fully accessible.

2. What is the difference between RenderMan for Maya and RenderMan Pro Server?
The main difference is that RenderMan for Maya is a "Maya-centric" workflow that emphasizes deep Maya integration and ease of use over the high degree of customizability and connectivity to the outside world available in RenderMan Pro Server (i.e., you cannot edit RIB files or write custom DSOs).

RenderMan for Maya will automatically translate Maya Materials into RenderMan equivalents, and it also renders (in software) particles, hair, fur, and even Paint Effects, all in one render pass. In terms of tools, it is totally self-contained ; you just set up the scene in Maya, select RenderMan as your renderer and go.

RenderMan Pro Server provides a workflow for customized production solutions. Together with RenderMan Studio, you can build custom shaders, write your own tools and effects, build large render farms, and generally do anything you like.  There is also a graphical shader editor, Slim, and Alfred, a job dispatcher for distributing rendering over networks.

Following is a list of the limitations of RenderMan for Maya:

  1. There is no RIB in or out. You cannot write a RIB file and send it off to your render farm to be rendered with RenderMan Pro Server. Neither can RenderMan for Maya read RIB from any source.
     
  2. No DSOs. You cannot write a DSO to extend the renderer capabilities. Fur is handled natively by RenderMan for Maya without the use of a DSO.
     
  3. RenderMan for Maya is embedded as a plug-in to Maya, therefore Maya is always resident in memory.


3. Can RenderMan for Maya use RenderMan shaders written in the RenderMan Shading Language?
Yes. RenderMan shaders can be imported, allowing custom RenderMan shaders (written or created with Slim) to be used with RenderMan for Maya.

4. Can RenderMan for Maya write RenderMan shaders?
Yes. Nearly all of the Maya Materials have been translated into the RenderMan Shading language, which means you can assemble Maya Materials, and RenderMan for Maya will compile these networks into RenderMan shaders. You can choose to write these RenderMan shaders to disk, where they can be used like any other RenderMan shader.  

5. What kind of motion blur does RenderMan for Maya use?
RenderMan for Maya uses high-quality 3D motion blur. Pixar's implementation is fully supported and very fast.

6. Does RenderMan for Maya support global illumination?
Yes. RenderMan for Maya supports ambient occlusion and "final gather" style of illumination. These capabilities are enabled by custom attributes at the Render Globals or surface shader level.

7. Is subsurface scattering supported?
Yes, as with global illumination above, extra attributes can be added to materials to create subsurface scattering effects.

8. Does RenderMan for Maya make use of two processors on a dual processor machine?
Yes. RenderMan for Maya is multi-threaded. A single license (floating or node locked) of RenderMan for Maya provides the following capabilities:

  1. 4 threads maximum in either interactive, batch, or a mixture of both.
  2. Up to 4 separate invocations of RfM can be run in parallel.
  3. Up to 4 separate users can start a single thread render.
  4. Limited to host machine

Example run-time scenarios:

  1. 1 interactive session rendering with 2 threads and 1 batch with 2 threads
  2. 1 interactive rendering with 4 threads and no batch renderer
  3. 1 batch render with 4 threads and no interactive session
  4. 2 batch renders with 2 threads each and no interactive session
  5. 4 batch renders with 1 thread each and no interactive session

 

9. Is RenderMan for Maya better than the Maya renderer? The Mental Ray renderer?
At the core of RenderMan for Maya is the same rendering code used in our RenderMan Pro Server product. This renderer has been engineered to effectively deal with industrial-strength scenes. Literally hundreds of feature films have used Pixar's renderer, including every Pixar film. We believe that RenderMan will deliver images where others fail.

10. Can RenderMan for Maya do network rendering?
RenderMan for Maya is a plug-in to Maya and provides exactly the same remote or network rendering capabilities. Maya batch can be used to render on remote workstations. When used in this mode, Maya will consume a batch render license and RenderMan for Maya will consume one full license. If you have a current network distribution system in place that works with Maya, it should work without any changes. Alfred, from RenderMan Studio, can also be used to distribute RenderMan for Maya rendering.

11. How about support for AOVs (arbitrary output variables)?
The short answer is yes. To use arbitrary outputs as an output display, there must be a cooperating shader that presents the desired output variable to the display system. As the product is available, there are currently 10 to 15 pre-defined output variables. If you are writing your own RenderMan shaders you will be able to create additional AOVs.


If this FAQ does not completely answer your questions, please contact us directly at rendermansales@pixar.com.

TM & © 1986 - Pixar. All Rights Reserved.