Newsgroups: comp.graphics.rendering.renderman,comp.answers,news.answers

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.rendering.renderman,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: RenderMan FAQ - monthly posting
Followup-To: comp.graphics.rendering.renderman
Approved: [email protected]

Archive-name: graphics/renderman-faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 3 Feb 97

This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list for the
comp.graphics.rendering.renderman newsgroup. Please review this FAQ
before posting questions to c.g.r.r.

Contents: (* indicates changes since last time)
---------

Administrivia:
Q: What is the charter for comp.graphics.rendering.renderman?
Q: What other newsgroups have closely related material?
Q: Where is comp.graphics.rendering.renderman archived?
General RI Questions:
Q: What is "RenderMan"?
Q: Where can I find documentation on the RenderMan Interface?
Q: What's the difference between the procedural interface and RIB?
Q: What features are required in the RenderMan Interface? What features
are optional?
Q: What do I have to do in order to call my software "RenderMan compliant"?
Implementations:
Q: What implementations of the RenderMan standard are available?
Q: Is PRMan a ray tracer? / How can PRMan do reflections if it's not
a ray tracer? / Was a ray tracer used for reflections in Toy Story?
Q: Is there a Macintosh/DOS/Windows port of BMRT? In the works?
Will the author of BMRT let me do the port to Mac/DOS/Windows?
Miscellaneous:
* Q: What front ends (modelers, etc) support the RenderMan Interface?
Q: What other net resources exist which are related to RenderMan?
Q: Where can I get the Pixar videos?
Q: What is the correct capitalization of "Pixar"?

Nomenclature:
RI = RenderMan Interface, often refers to the spec document.
RC = _The RenderMan Companion_ by Steve Upstill.
SL = Shading Language.
PRMan = Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan product
BMRT = Blue Moon Rendering Tools

===========================================================================

Q: What is the charter for comp.graphics.rendering.renderman?
-------------------------------------------------------------

comp.graphics.rendering.renderman is an unmoderated newsgroup
intended for the discussion of the RenderMan standard (e.g.
definition, semantics, usage, tips), the RenderMan shading language
(e.g. posted shaders, questions, tips), particular RenderMan
implementations, software that uses the RenderMan interface (e.g.
RIB-producing modelers, third party shaders), and comparisons,
comments and questions about RenderMan in general.

This group is NOT intended for the distribution of images or RIB
files. Large data or binary files should be uploaded to appropriate
FTP sites and announced on the newsgroup, but not posted directly.

Q: What other newsgroups have closely related material?
-------------------------------------------------------

comp.graphics.animation : computer animation
comp.graphics.algorithms : algorithms for graphics
comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing : the technique of ray tracing
comp.graphics.visualization : visualizing scientific data
comp.sys.next.programmer : programming NEXTSTEP
alt.movies.visual-effects : discussion of movie effects
sci.image.processing : technicalities of image processing
alt.graphics.pixutils : pixel and image utilities

The FAQ's for these groups (and most others) can be found at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers and many of them have
HTML FAQ's at
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-list.html

Q: Where is comp.graphics.renderman archived?
---------------------------------------------

Tal Lancaster has all c.g.r.r articles archived in the RenderMan
Repository: http://pete.cs.caltech.edu/RMR/

Q: What is "RenderMan"?
-----------------------

Here's the most brief explanation I could come up with:

According to RI (p. 3): "The RenderMan Interface is a standard
interface between modeling programs and rendering programs capable of
producing photorealistic quality images."

RenderMan is in many respects similar to PostScript, but for 3D
primitives. The goal is to provide a standard mechanism for modeling
and animation software to send data to rendering systems in a device-
independent way, and with minimal regard to the actual rendering
algorithms being used. A particular RenderMan implementation may use
scanline methods (z-buffer, REYES), ray tracing, radiosity, or other
methods.

An important aspect of the RenderMan Interface is the Shading
Language (SL). SL breaks the restrictive paradigm of surfaces being
described by a small number of parameters (Ka, Kd, Ks, etc.). SL
allows the user to write her own arbitrarily complex descriptions of
how lighting and shading should be computed.

Q: Where can I find documentation on the RenderMan Interface?
-------------------------------------------------------------

The official RenderMan Interface 3.1 specification is surprisingly
readable for a standard document, but not in any way a tutorial. A
must for any serious RenderMan user, it's available directly from
Pixar for US$20 (in the US, including S&H) or US$25 (outside US,
includes S&H by air). Their address is:

Pixar
1001 West Cutting Blvd.
Richmond, CA 94804

It turns out that a PDF version of the 3.1 spec (with corrections!)
was distributed on the SIGGRAPH '95 course notes CD-ROM. So if you
have access to this, you can print it yourself.

_The RenderMan Companion: A Programmer's Guide to Realistic
Computer Graphics_, by Steve Upstill (Addison-Wesley, 1989, ISBN
0-201-50868-0) is an excellent introduction to the procedural API and
the Shading Language. Unfortunately, it doesn't address RIB at all.

If you're interested in SL, or procedural shading in general,
check out _Textures and Modeling: A Procedural Approach_, by Ebert,
Musgrave, Peachey, Perlin, and Worley (Academic Press, 1994, ISBN
0-12-227760-6). The source code (including RM shaders) can be found
at URL ftp://archive.cs.umbc.edu/pub/texture.

Moving to the more obscure, there are good course notes from
Siggraph '90 (course 18 - The RenderMan Interface & Shading Language),
Siggraph '92 (course 21 - Writing RenderMan Shaders), and Siggraph '95
(course 4 - Using RenderMan for Animation Production).

Here are some technical papers that discuss either the RenderMan
Interface or some of the technologies behind its implementation(s):

Cook, Carpenter, and Catmull. "The Reyes Image Rendering Architecture",
Computer Graphics 21(4):95-102, 1987. (Describes the rendering
method that prman uses.)

Gritz, Larry, and J.K. Hahn. "BMRT: A Global Illumination
Implementation of the RenderMan Standard", _Journal of Graphics
Tools_, Vol. 1, to appear, 1996.

Hanrahan and Lawson. "A Language for Shading and Lighting Calculations",
Computer Graphics 24(4):289-298, August 1990. (Describes SL.)

Reeves, Salesin, and Cook. "Rendering antialiased shadows with
depth maps", Computer Graphics 21(4):283-291, July 1987. (Describes
the methods that prman uses to compute shadows.)

Slusallek, Pflaum, and Seidel. "Implementing RenderMan--Practice,
Problems and Enhancements." Proceedings of Eurographics '94.
(Describes their implementation.)

Q: What's the difference between the procedural interface and RIB?
------------------------------------------------------------------

Two bindings exist for the RenderMan Interface. The first is a
procedural API, i.e. a collection of library routines callable from
a C program. Those functions all start with Ri, for example RiBegin().
The procedural API is explained in great detail in _RC_ and in the RI
standard document.

The second binding is called RenderMan Interface Bytestream (RIB).
RIB is an ASCII (or binary) metafile format. In general, there is a
one-to-one correspondence between the API calls and their equivalent
RIB directives. RIB is useful for archival and later rendering,
rendering over a network, and hacking scenes by hand. RIB is
unfortunately not documented in _RC_, but is exhaustively detailed in
_RI_.

The usual way that RenderMan is used is for a program (modeler) to
make the procedural API calls. The program is linked to a library
which, for each API call, outputs the corresponding RIB to a file.
That archived RIB can later be sent to a standalone renderer which
inputs the RIB and outputs rendered images.

Q: What features are required by the RI? What is optional?
-----------------------------------------------------------

The full list of requirements for a RenderMan-compliant renderer
is given in RI on pp. 5-7.

Basically, a RenderMan-compliant renderer should minimally provide
the following features:

Complete hierarchical graphics state
Orthographic and perspective viewing transformations
Hidden surface removal
Pixel filtering and antialiasing
Gamma correction and dithering before quantization
Produce images containing any combination of RGB, A, and Z at a user
specified resolution
Support all of the geometric primitives of the standard (including
quadrics, polygons, bilinear and bicubic patches, and NURBS)
Provide the 14 standard light source, surface, volume, and
displacement shaders

This is actually quite a lot -- you'll find few rendering systems,
free or commercial, which provide as many features as even the minimal
RenderMan requirements.

In addition, RenderMan-compliant renderers may support several
optional capabilities. Many of these features are very advanced, and
some rendering algorithms simply cannot support certain features, so
the availability will tend to vary from implementation to
implementation. The optional capabilities include:

Solid Modeling (CSG) Trim Curves for NURBS
Multiple Levels of Detail Motion Blur
Depth of Field Area Light Sources
Deformations Displacements
Spectral Colors Texture Mapping
Environment Mapping Bump Mapping
Shadow Depth Mapping Volume Shading
Ray Tracing Radiosity
Programmable Shading (in Shading Language)
Special Camera Projections

Q: What do I have to do in order to call my software "RenderMan
---------------------------------------------------------------
compliant"?
-----------

You must support all of the required features, including all of
the geometric primitive types. You must implement all of the API
calls or RIB requests, even for features you don't support (i.e. at
least have function stubs so your library accepts the calls). You
must not allow information to be sent through any alternative calls
not defined by the interface, and you may not use any alternate
language for programmable shading.

If you write a RenderMan compliant renderer, you must obtain a
no-charge license from Pixar (in writing). You basically attest that
your software is compliant with the standard and that you won't abuse
Pixar's trademark and copyrights.

Modeling programs which use the RI standard (i.e. output RIB or
make the API calls) may do so without a license, but must display
Pixar's copyrights as follows:

The RenderMan (R) Interface Procedures and Protocol are:
Copyright 1988, 1989, Pixar
All Rights Reserved

Q: What implementations of the RenderMan standard are available?
----------------------------------------------------------------

There are currently two widely used RenderMan-compliant renderers:
PRMan and BMRT. Several other proprietary implementations no doubt
exist (I know of a couple), but to the best of my knowledge they are
not available commercially or otherwise.

Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan ("PRMan", for short) is the most
widely used implementation. These guys are, after all, the
originators of the standard, so their implementation is of very high
quality. PRMan is used by many production houses, including ILM,
Digital Domain, Disney, and others. It was used to render effects for
The Abyss, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Casper, Apollo 13, and many
other films. And of course, it was used to render Toy Story.

PRMan is available on several UNIX systems as the RenderMan Toolkit
(retails for $5000 per processor). Call Pixar for product information
(800-888-9856).

PRMan also is bundled with other products like Vertigo, Macromedia
Macromodel, and the now defunct Pixar Showplace. The NEXTSTEP
operating system comes with prman and qrman (Quick RenderMan, Pixar's
RIB previewer).

Larry Gritz has a shareware implementation, called the Blue Moon
Rendering Tools (BMRT). It supports ray tracing and radiosity, area
lights, full implementation of Shading Language, volume and imager
shaders, and other advanced features. It also comes with real-time
RIB previewers (under X11 and/or OpenGL). BMRT runs on SGI, HP,
NEXTSTEP, Linux, IBM RS/6000, and DEC Alpha. There are no Mac,
Windows, or DOS versions. It is available from
ftp://ftp.seas.gwu.edu/pub/graphics/BMRT. More information about BMRT is
available from http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/bmrt.html

Q: Is PRMan a ray tracer? How can PRMan do reflections if it's not a
ray tracer? Was a ray tracer used for reflections in Toy Story?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

PRMan IS NOT A RAYTRACER. It uses the Reyes algorithm (more or
less as described in the 1987 SIGGRAPH paper, though with many
enhancements and improvements). Environment and reflection mapping do
quite reasonable approximations to reflection and refraction, in a
fraction of the time it usually takes a ray tracer. Sometimes the
reflections don't look quite correct compared to a ray tracer, but
this is almost never a problem and almost always worth the time
savings.

Pixar used the very same version of PRMan for Toy Story (and all
their other work) as they sell to the public. You can see examples of
how well PRMan does reflections and refractions, not only in Toy
Story, but also in The Abyss and Terminator 2.

Q: Is there a Macintosh/DOS/Windows port of BMRT? In the works?
Will the author of BMRT let me do the port to Mac/DOS/Windows?
-----------------------------------------------------------------

In short: No. It is unlikely that the list of supported platforms
will grow in the near future. It's extremely unlikely that BMRT will
ever be ported to the Mac, DOS, Windows, NT, or any other non-UNIX
environment.

BMRT is currently supported on SGI, Linux, HP, NEXTSTEP, Solaris
(on SPARCs), IBM RS/6000, and DEC Alpha. If you have a PC, I strongly
recommend looking into Linux, a free (!) UNIX implementation that runs
on Intel 486/Pentium systems. NEXTSTEP also runs on Intel-based
hardware, and comes with PRMan built in (and can also run BMRT).

BMRT's author doesn't wish to release source code, nor does he
currently want to port to non-UNIX OS's (on which he has neither the
access nor expertise, nor the desire to acquire either). He's turned
down offers to port to Cray (among others), so it's not likely you'll
convince him to port to the Mac. This is not a snub at users of the
Mac or any other platform, just a reality of the life of the author
and his finite time and resources.

Q: What front ends (modelers, etc) support the RenderMan Interface?
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This information was supplied by many people, so it's hard to verify
its accuracy, and it certainly contains individuals' opinions. Often,
this info comes from the companies supplying the products. I do not
necessarily endorse any of the products listed, though if I find out
that any are particularly good or bad, I will note it. The products
are listed in no particular order, though I've broken it into the
categories of: modelers, plugins or converters, and "other". If you
know of other front ends or products which use RenderMan, please send
me a short paragraph and I will include it here.

Modelers which can output RIB
-----------------------------

AC3D is a 3D modeler by Andy Colebourne. It's polygon based, but
does extrusions, revolutions, etc. It's actually quite nice, runs
on Linux, SGI, and Sun, and is free! And it outputs RIB, among other
formats. More info, and downloading the software, available at:
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/andy/ac3dlinux.html

Vertigo's Animation Machine software (modeler & animation system)
has very nice support for RenderMan output, but it's only a polygon
based modeler. You can generate RIB files or render directly.
Vertigo comes with the prman runtime library linked in for integrated
rendering, or you can buy Vertigo bundled with prman. Their phone
number is 604-684-2113.

Macromedia's MacroModel's was a spline-based modeler for Mac and
Win, with pretty good RIB export. But it's now defunct. So it goes.

MicroStation is a general purpose CAD program which can be used as
a modeler. It supports NURBS, CSG, fillets, and blends, and can
output RIB. It's available for UNIX, DOS, and Windows. I believe it
is actually written by Bentley Systems, but is marketed by Intergraph.
Cheap academic versions are available ($150?). Bentley Systems can be
reached at: (610)458-5000 or [email protected] (regarding the
academic package.)

3DReality from Stone Design Corp. (505) 345-4800 [email protected]
Runs on NEXTSTEP. A little long in the tooth and has some quirks, but
it's built of dynamically loadable bundles and offers a very accesible
API for adding your own shapes, tools, etc. Reads and writes RIBS just
fine. Really, really good academic discounts and very friendly tech
support.

Side Effects PRISMS animation system for SGI's running UNIX, has a
pretty complete implementation, 416/504-9876, get blurb from Janet
Frasier. PRISMS 5 is polygonal, so it spits out polygons, but can
also do patch meshes.

Side Effects' new Houdini system (modeling & animation) has very
good RenderMan support (both PRMan and BMRT). It also includes the
ability to create shaders *within* the program by a visual means and
export out the shader source for tweaking and compiling. [ed. note -
I have heard great things about this package.]

Hash Inc. sells a spline based animation package that is excellent
for character animation. The .ribs are exported frame by frame. It
is available for PC, PowerPC, and WinNT on SGI, MIPS and a few others.
It has particle effects, skinning, channels, spline deformation and
more. http://www.hash.com/~hashinc/ [ed. note: I've been told that
this package produces very bad RIB]

Amapi 2.05 is mainly a modeller that is fairly good for creating
characters. It uses NURBS, Splines and Polys. Intuitive interface
unlike any. http://www.yonowat.com

Alias PowerAnimator (also for SGI), versions 5 & 6, output rib,
NURBS including trim curves. [ed. note: Alias's RIB output is
notoriously mediocre.]

Intuitiv'3d from Intuitive Systems, Inc. tel: 415-852-0245
fax:415-852-1271, [email protected]. Runs on NEXTSTEP. Sports a
terrific interface but is rather slow. Great realtime previews of
lighting and shape, so-so modeling tools, great shader manipulation,
including "MetaShaders" which store surface, color, displacement and
lighting shader info in a single entity. Reads RIBS but saves to its
own proprietary format (.i3dw)

solidThinking from Gestel Italia, Ph.:++39 444 964-974
Fax: ++39 444 964-984 Email: [email protected], WWW: http://www.gestel.it
For NEXTSTEP, this industrial-strength modeler from Italy
approaches Alias in its power and refinement. Great modeling tools
including NURBS, control of every RenderMan parameter, fast and smooth
manipulation of objects and lights. Reads and writes RIBS, support for
both PRMan and BMRT, reads Wavefront, TDDD and DXF files too. Support
for things like particle animation, 3D mice is planned.
Version 2.4 of solidThinking adds: export/import from 3D Studio, VRML.

Breeze Designer is a 32-bit 3D modelling and design tool for
Windows NT, Windows 95 and Win32s with exports for the Persistance of
Vision raytracer, RenderMan, and VRML. Breeze Designer is still under
developement, and updated are posted regularly. The beta latest beta
version is available from the above location. All beta's are
distributed as copyright freeware.
http://povray.org/ftp/pub/povray/modellers/breeze/BreezeDesigner.html

The Valis Group's Pixel Putty Solo for the Mac ($349 retail, $299
direct?) offers an extremely versatile and fluid spline-based modeler
featuring nine different NURBS, lattice deformations and boolean
operations on patches, direct rendering to RenderMan using .slo
shaders, and event-based key frame animation with inverse kinematics.
More information can be had from Valis at: [email protected] or
1-800-VALIS-04.

Alias Sketch 2.0 for the Mac is a spline and polygon surface
modeler which supports NURBS but does not have shader support. Price
is around $600.

Autodesys form*Z is a CAD modeler on the Mac which goes for $1500.
Polygons, CSG, and spline meshes are supported. No direct shader
support.

VIDI's Presenter Professional for the Mac ($1500) is a
spline/patch-mesh based modeler with excellent RenderMan support; you
can manipulate shader parameters and everything. More info at:
http://erehwon.caltech.edu/vidi/vidi-homepage.html
There's also a site at
http://www.webnation.com/vidi/
which contains more info and some useful shaders.

FastCad 3D by Evolution Computing; 437 South 48th Street, Suite
106; Tempe, AZ 85281; Phone: (602) 967-8633. FastCad 3D is a 3-D
modeling system capable of producing a RIB file for rendering with a
program like Pixar's Renderman for Windows. This DOS program can
produce 3D models quickly due to the fact that it is written in
Assembly language.

DesignCad 3D for the Mac ($300) and DOS ($500) is a polygonal
surface modeler which outputs RIB. Supports CSG. No direct shader
support.

VisLab 3D Animation Software by Engineering Animation Inc.has a
full renderman interface. Normal rendering is done entirely in
hardware, but everything can be automatically piped over to prman, or
written out as an .rib file. Both hardware and prman can also be
combined in the same scene. The interface is really great. Contact:
Engineering Animation Inc., 2321 North Loop Drive, Ames, IA 50010,
515-296-9908

Poser is a human shape and pose modeler from Fractal Design. Poser
2 will soon be released and supports animation, clothing, and
exchanging body parts with various 3D objects. It runs on Mac,
PowerMac, and Windows. It can export RIB. Details can be found at
http://www.fractal.com/poser/ or by calling (800)297-COOL.

ThreeD, by Kieran Jones is a scene modeler that runs under NEXTSTEP
and supports RenderMan. I haven't tried it, but it's available for
FTP from ftp://next-ftp.peak.org/pub/next/binaries/graphics.
You can contact the author at [email protected].

ShellyLib2.0, a shell-shape-generator which outputs RIB (among
other formats). is available from
http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/~rschultz/shellylh.html

VTK, Bill Lorensen's OO scientific visualization toolkit, can now
output RIB. It's not really a modeler, but if you're into SciVi, you
may think this is very cool. See http://www.crd.ge.com/~lorensen/vtkrib

PhotoSynthesis 1.0 is a primitive modeler that has full support for
RenderMan on PowerMac platform. Rendering features include automatic
reflection and shadow generation, softbox reflections, and easily
set-up Depth of Field blur. Shaders are fully supported with unique 3D
cursor that replaces Up/At Vector. Exports RIB file format. Full
featured NURBS, Boolean Operations and 3DMF File Import/Export will be
available in Spring of '97. Available directly from Silver Creek
Software. For more information call 888/880-0551 or e-mail to
[email protected].

Converters & plug-ins for modelers
----------------------------------

Pixar's new ATOR product is an Alias plugin that produces excellent
RenderMan output. Also includes compositing software and a system for
distributing rendering jobs across a network. Details available
directly from Pixar.

DriveMan from Gestel Italia converts IGES and Alias Wire files
to RenderMan, for use with either PRMan or BMRT. There's both
a freeware version and a more complete commercial version.
More information from: http://www.gestel.it/driveman/index.html

SoRender is a freely distributed interactive graphical interface
from Softimage to the RenderMan standard. The interface is currently
composed of eight tools that are all written as plug-ins to Softimage
and are built on Softimage's DKit. Features Include: Interactive
Previewing of RenderMan rendered images from within Softimage;
Interactive tools for working with shaders and adjusting parameters;
Tools to make working with shadow maps and environment maps easier;
Shader Keywords to facilitate parameter animation; Support of both
PhotoRealistic RenderMan and BMRT; Access to all tools from within
Softimage; Support of motion blur. SoRender can be obtained at
either:
http://www-viz.tamu.edu/htdocs/Software/SoRender/SoRender.homepage.html
or ftp: viz.tamu.edu/pub/software/SoRender.v1-0.tar.gz

WaveMan, a Wavefront-to-RenderMan conversion tool, is available
from Minds Eye Graphics ([email protected], 804-643-3713).

SoftMan(TM): an interface tool between SoftImage and RenderMan sold by
Animal Logic. Details can be found at: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~softman
including a downloadable version. For more information contact:
email [email protected] ph 61 2 9906 1232 fax 61 2 9906 7433

Lost In Space makes a product called Siren which converts SoftImage
scenes into RIB files. Info is available from [email protected].
Siren converts Softimage 3D scene and model files into RenderMan RIB
and shader files. Siren 2.0 works only on SGI's running IRIX 4.0.5 or
later. It can read Softimage 2.66 scene/model files. SiRen only has a
comandline/scripted interface, but is now being upgraded to a point
and click version 2.1. To run siren you must have a copy of the
Softimage Developers Kit. US$2000 per license, bulk discounts
available. 30% discount for educational institutions. Source licensing
is available. Siren + Renderman deals available. Pay for Siren2.0 and
get a free upgrade to Siren2.1 when it is released.

There is a 3D Studio to RIB converter by Alex Segal on the net, see
http://www.ufa.ru/rmc/3ds2rib.html for details.

Envisions Solutions sells Envision-It, which converts DXF to RIB.
Not a modeler. Sells for around $200.

Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. has a product called the NuGraf
Rendering System, which includes a very high quality Renderman export
capability. For Renderman users, the software can convert from DXF
(best DXF reader around), 3D Studio (100% conversion), Lightwave,
IGES, Wavefront, CAD3D, and many more. In addition, the software can
create extruded 3d fonts which can be exported to Renderman.
A demo and other info are available from http://www.okino.com.
Contact: 905-672-9328 (voice), 905-672-2706 (fax).

Okino Computer Graphics has also released a cross-platform data
translation product called "PolyTrans" that runs on Windows, DOS, SUN,
SGI and DEC machines. For Renderman users, the software can convert
from DXF, 3D Studio, Lightwave, trueSpace, IGES, Strata StudioPro,
Wavefront, 3DMF and many more. RIB output files use optimized meshes
with vertex normals that are properly segmented according to shader
assignment. Files translated with PolyTrans are "Render Ready"
requiring little or no tweaking necessary to render equivalent images
to those of the originating 3d package. A demo and other info are
available from http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm. Contact:
905-672-9328 (voice), 905-672-2706 (fax).

Syndesis has a product called InterChange, for Windows and SGI,
that converts between more than fifty 3D file formats, including
Softimage, Alias, LightWave, 3D Studio and many others. It can export
geometry to a simple RIB file. http://www.threedee.com/

Syndesis also just released a new product called Megahedron. It's
a rendering engine controlled by a high-level interpreted language.
It's not Java, it's not POV, it's not Renderman, but I bet anyone who
tinkers in Renderman would find it interesting. It's interactive,
inexpensive, and easily reprogrammed, right down to shaders and
procedural objects and motions.

Other Tools
-----------

Cinema Graphics is now selling a product called "Shade Tree"
which is a dataflow system for writing RenderMan shaders. Info
at http://www.cinegrfx.com/

Pixar used to sell Showplace for the Mac and Typestry 2 for the
Mac and PC. They're nice little programs if you can get your hands
on them, but Pixar no longer sells these.

WavesWorld, a set of UI, modeling and animation objects available only
atop NEXTSTEP, available via http://wave.www.media.mit.edu/people/wave/
An object oriented framework consisting of two "kits" of objects and
lots of examples, WavesWorld is based directly atop the RenderMan
interface.

Q: What other net resources exist which are related to RenderMan?
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Tal Lancaster of CalTech (now a TD at Disney) has set up a "RenderMan
Repository" for dissemination of shaders, RIB files, etc. Among other
things, this site has pointers to just about everything else that has
RenderMan related stuff. It's also got all c.g.r.r. articles archived.
Here's the URL:
http://pete.cs.caltech.edu/RMR/

The Ebert, et al. book _Texturing and Modeling_ (mentioned earlier)
has an FTP site with the examples from the book, including RenderMan
Shading Language source code:
ftp://archive.cs.umbc.edu/pub/textures

Professor Ken Musgrave (one of the authors of the T&M book) taught a
graduate seminar at GWU on procedural texturing. Student projects,
images, and shaders can be found at:
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/graphics/ProcTexCourse/

Similarly, Stephen May recently taught a course on digital lighting
at Ohio State. A Shading Language tutorial and student projects
can be found at these addresses:
http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/~smay/DigitalLighting/Course.html
http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/~smay/RManNotes/RManNotes.html

BMRT home page: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/bmrt.html

Michael B. Johnson (a.k.a. "Wave") has a home page at:
http://wave.www.media.mit.edu/people/wave/
He's built a lot of software that runs on top of RenderMan (see
the description of WavesWorld earlier in this FAQ).

Pixar home page: http://www.pixar.com. Not much there yet.

ThreeD, by Kieran Jones is a scene modeler that runs under NEXTSTEP
and supports RenderMan. I haven't tried it, but it's available for
FTP from
ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/pub/software/NeXT/binaries/graphics.
You can contact the author at [email protected].

Geomview is an interactive 3D geometry (in the mathematical sense)
viewing program written at the Geometry Center. It can export RIB.
URL is http://www.geom.umn.edu/software/download/geomview.html

SoftMan(TM) (Animal Logic's Softimage->RenderMan tool) information
and demos: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~softman

Alex Segal's 3D Studio to RIB converter is on the net, see
http://www.ufa.ru/rmc/3ds2rib.html for details.

Doug Ward has a site that's about using VIDI Presenter 3D. If you
look on: http://www.webnation.com/vidi/ (select the shaders button on
the frame) you'll find some shaders and other goodies that may be
useful even if you don't use Presenter.

Quido Quaroni has put up several shaders at
ftp://ftp.gestel.it/pub/incoming/shadersrc.tgz (this is a .tar.gz
file) and compiled versions of those shaders for both PRMan and BMRT
at ftp://ftp.gestel.it/pub/incoming/stshader.tgz

VTK, Bill Lorensen's OO scientific visualization toolkit, can now
output RIB. See http://www.crd.ge.com/~lorensen/vtkrib/

Q: Where can I get the Pixar videos?
------------------------------------

Pixar's animation video (which contains Luxo Jr, Reds Dream, Tin Toy
and Knickknick) is available directly from Pixar. The cost is $25.00.
Just call 1 800-888-9856 or 510-236-4000. The tape is available in
both VHS NTSC and PAL formats.

Recently, the Pixar shorts were released by Disney Home Video as
"Tiny Toy Stories". You should be able to find them at your local
video store for around $10.

Q: What is the correct capitalization of "Pixar"?
-------------------------------------------------

It's written "Pixar", just as it is throughout this FAQ. I don't
know why people keep capitalizing it, perhaps they are trying to
duplicate the logo, which is in a particular typeface and happens to
be all caps. In any case, it's not an acronym like IBM. It's a
regular company name like Disney.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This FAQ was mostly written and maintained by Larry Gritz, who wishes
to thank the contributions of: Antoine Durr, J.J. Hoesing, Steve
Hollasch, Michael B. Johnson, Joshua Kolden, Andrew MacRae, Nino
Mendolia, David Milner, Pohl Longsine, Steve Weintz, and others.

Please send comments, additions, gripes to: [email protected]