What's New

RenderMan^® version 24 delivers a suite of exceptional tools for advancing look-development workflows for feature film animation and VFX

Release Notes

RenderMan XPU™

Pixar’s new hybrid CPU + GPU rendering technology is Pixar’s next generation rendering engine, rewritten for speed and efficiency on film production assets.

RenderMan Supercharged

Starting from a system architecture that can leverage the latest developments in multi-core CPU and GPU hardware, separately or in combination, XPU has been developed to handle the scale and complexity of Pixar’s feature animation projects.

XPU is Fast!

Make creative choices faster than ever by using all your computing resources during your look development.

CPU or GPU, RenderMan XPU can use it.

Reliable and Predictable

Look develop with XPU and transition seamlessly to RIS for final shot production.

The Future is Here

In this first release, XPU has been designed for look development and to provide an excellent match to RenderMan's production pathtracer, RIS. When there are differences, XPU will still create images that are predictive of what you will get from RIS. Ongoing XPU development will add more production features and address look differences that are found.

A state-of-the-art Layered Material system developed and battle tested at Industrial Light & Magic.

Modular Materials

MaterialX Lama (Layered Material) has been battle tested in the most demanding visual effects at Industrial Light & Magic. Featuring a modular approach to building material networks, MaterialX Lama also introduces new work on energy conservation and dispersion.

Advanced Hair Shading

The new Lama Hair Chiang material makes hair shading more predictable and controllable than ever, including advancements in specular highlights and more efficient sampling.

Turning Red © Disney/Pixar

Mix and match Lama layers in all of our bridge products, you can even save Lama materials and share them through the Preset Browser.

"With its robust set of responses and controls, Lama is an amazing tool for look development."

- Eric Wachtman, CG Look Development Lead, Laika

Stylized Looks™

Create unique artistic styles with non-photorealistic rendering. With Stylized Looks you can interactively create lines, hatching, and brushstrokes.

Explore a huge range of unique looks, from illustration to anime, with this powerful new toolset.

Bump Roughness

Innovative system developed at Pixar Animation for rendering micro details such as scratches efficiently and automatically, without expensive sampling.

It's All in the Details!

Fine details, such as scratches, are hard for pathtracers to find, especially when far from the camera. Bump Roughness helps us keep these micro details in medium and wide shots, as shown in this Cars 3 example. This allows you to achieve details faster and with greater efficiency.

The process is seamless and automatic, simply plug in your texture map and RenderMan takes care of the rest.

Live Statistics

Watch your rendering resource usage live, thanks to a completely redesigned statistics system focused on interactivity and extensibility.

OpenColorIO

Robust support for the industry standard ACES color management system in all bridge products.

A Wide Color Standard

RenderMan has new artist-centric tools for supporting the Aces color standard, which has been designed for and embraced by the animation and visual effects industry.

Worflows are automatic in all bridge tools, including changes to materials, lights, textures, and IT, RenderMan's interactive Image Tool.

What's New?

Innovation in look-development and industry collaborations highlight this landmark release