Hybrid Rendering
RenderMan's hybrid architecture delivers a dazzling array of solutions for any situation.
The Best of Both REYES & Rays
Today RenderMan is a hybrid renderer offering not only the latest advancements in ray tracing, but also excelling in those areas that have been the traditional strengths of RenderMan: displacements, motion blur, extreme memory efficiency, and unmatched flexibility. RenderMan allows these different techniques to be integrated in creative ways (from pure ray tracing to pure scanline rendering with REYES). At Pixar we know that every production presents new challenges and surprises, and Pixar's RenderMan has been developed to handle whatever comes next.
Advanced Features
Versatile Re-Rendering System
The process of shading and lighting is a well-known production bottleneck which Pixar's RenderMan addresses with a system for re-rendering that is built right into the core renderer. This system offers two re-rendering modes to handle everything from pre-visualization to complex final frames. Used not only at Pixar but at studios around the world, RenderMan's re-rendering system is a proven production tool, which is increasing the productivity of shaders and lighters everywhere.
Physically Plausible Shading
With the recent addition of Physically Plausible Shading, RenderMan delivers highly realistic lighting with minimal setup, including full support for multi-bounce ray traced global illumination and ray traced subsurface scattering. New additions to the shading language and enhancements to the core renderer make these traditionally expensive effects a production reality.
Deep Textures
Deep Textures have helped revolutionize compositing. In a deep texture each pixel contains all the samples in Z-space (making it "deep"), allowing edges to be filtered correctly with any composited elements, including traditionally problematic effects like depth of field. RenderMan is capable of generating deep textures, which can be used with a compatible compositor (like The Foundary's Nuke).
And More Production Focused Tools ...
The toolset of Pixar's RenderMan is broad and deep. It's one system that can deliver many types of effects which can be integrated in a variety of ways, but it is also customizable and flexible to accommodate any production pipeline.
