Introduction to RenderMan
Taught by Liam Whitehouse
- Duration:
- 5 hours 20 minutes
- Software Version:
- 26
- Launch Date:
- November 2024
- Course Number:
- RND111
3D
3D
It explores sampling controls, camera settings, and lighting tools, including advanced options like Stylized Looks and MaterialX LAMA for modular shading. The course also introduces RenderMan XPU, Pixar’s hybrid GPU & CPU renderer for faster look development, and dives into OpenColorIO-ACES for color management. Additional topics include Bump Roughness optimization for efficient detail rendering and procedural patterns for creating realistic textures and effects. Ideal for artists aiming to master RenderMan’s full potential in feature film-quality rendering.
Liam Whitehouse is an Australian based senior VFX artist who has been in the 3D industry since 2003 and has used RenderMan for many years. He has worked on various projects over the past 21 years including most recently environments in The Fall Guy, underwater environments in Aquaman 2, Lindon forests in The Rings Of Power, photorealistic canyon environments for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney Plus, and the hollow earth environments for Godzilla vs Kong, as well as photogrammetry rocks in Avatar 2.
Class Listing
Class 1: Introduction
A bit of RenderMan history with a look at traditional feature film polygon assets and rendering them with subdivision & displacement. An overview of the user interface and layout of RenderMan for Maya and where all the menus and settings are located.
Class 2: Settings
A look at sampling controls, selecting the RIS or XPU renderer, configuration of Open ColorIO and enabling Stylized Looks. Also, how to enable AOV's on output for multi-pass rendering in Nuke.
Class 3: Camera Settings
A look at the physical camera settings including Bokeh, Depth of Field, and Shutter (motion blur) in order to replicate digital cinema cameras like the ARRI Alexa with prime lenses.
Class 4: Lighting in Maya
The RenderMan for Maya Lighting tools and ready to use lights which can be used for any lighting scenario. A look at the PxrRectLight, PxrDiskLight, PxrSphereLight, PxrDomeLight, and PxrEnvDay Light, as well as other controls such as Light Filters such as the PxrBarnLightFilter and other controls.
Class 5: RenderMan XPU
A look at the new Pixar Hybrid GPU & CPU renderer, RenderMan XPU which is useful for refining materials and doing lookdev for complex assets. XPU can reduce render time for iterative creative work on materials and surfaces so that the final assets can go into RIS for final output with a faster turnaround.
Class 6: MaterialX LAMA
Developed by ILM, MaterialX LAMA is an excellent node-based material system that introduces a modular layering approach to building material networks and includes recent shading R&D work on energy conservation and dispersion. With LAMA, one can layer hand painted procedural masks and use shaders such as LamaDiffuse, LamaDielectric, LamaEmission, LamaHairChiang, and LamaSSS (subsurface scattering).
Class 7: Stylized Looks
Stylized Looks provide a great way to create hand drawn looking images using RenderMan, giving exciting sketched or outline appearances to models and surfaces. Also, a look at how lights can be used to control the transition between Stylized Looks and photoreal renders.
Class 8: Colour Management
A focus on the setup and use of OpenColorIO - ACES. ACEScg is designed to be an ideal working and rendering space for computer graphics. Using the ACEScg wide gamut space results in much more realistic and photographic cinema quality renders than spaces such as Rec709, Rec 2020, and others.
Class 9: Bump Roughness
A look at PxrBumpRoughness, which automatically switches from a bump map to a roughness value depending on the size of a feature in the camera, effectively improving render times by lowering the sampling rates needed to render such details. This system helps to keep micro details visible when objects are far from the camera while using far fewer samples.