Pixar RenderMan
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer graphics, 3D rendering |
| Founder | Pixar Animation Studios |
| Headquarters | Emeryville , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | RenderMan (3D rendering software) |
| Owner | Pixar Animation Studios |
| Parent | The Walt Disney Company |
| Website | renderman |
Pixar RenderMan—commonly referred to simply as RenderMan—is a cutting-edge 3D rendering software focused on photorealism, created by Pixar Animation Studios. While Pixar employs RenderMan extensively for its proprietary 3D animated productions, the software is also available commercially to external users. Since 2015, a complimentary version intended for non-commercial use has been offered.
Name
The term "RenderMan" traces back to a compact circuit board equipped with a Transputer chip utilized during Pixar's early experiments in parallel rendering. This board was dubbed "Renderman" by engineer Jeff Mock, who drew inspiration from the then-popular Sony Walkman, ultimately influencing the naming of the software.
Technology
RenderMan functions according to the RenderMan Interface Specification, which establishes a standardized protocol for interaction between 3D modeling and animation tools and the rendering engine responsible for generating high-quality images. Its origins lie in the Reyes Rendering Architecture, first introduced as an industry standard at the 1993 SIGGRAPH conference. This effort was led by Pat Hanrahan and involved collaboration among various companies, with full compliance achieved approximately two years later.
The software incorporates support for Open Shading Language to define intricate textures. During its early development phase under Steve Jobs, RenderMan was envisioned as a pivotal system-level technology of the 1990s, analogous to Adobe’s PostScript. To ensure broad platform compatibility, Pixar developed it using the C programming language.
Historically, RenderMan combined the Reyes algorithm with sophisticated techniques such as ray tracing and global illumination. However, starting in 2016, support for Reyes rendering and the original RenderMan Shading Language was discontinued. Contemporary versions rely on Monte Carlo path tracing methods to produce images.
Awards
RenderMan has been instrumental in creating digital visual effects for numerous high-profile Hollywood films including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Toy Story, Jurassic Park, Avatar, Titanic, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and The Lord of the Rings. It has earned four Academy Scientific and Technical Awards: initially in 1993 honoring key contributors such as Ed Catmull and Pat Hanrahan; again in 2001 recognizing Pixar’s advancements exemplified by RenderMan; later in 2010 for pioneering point-based rendering techniques; and once more in 2011 acknowledging David Laur’s contributions. Additional honors include the Gordon E. Sawyer Award (2009) and The Coons Award. Notably, RenderMan holds the distinction of being the first software product awarded an Oscar.
Feature films
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Toy Story (1995)
- Bug's Life (1998)
- Toy Story 2 (1999)
- Chicken Run (2000)
- Monsters, Inc. (2001)
- Finding Nemo (2003)
- The Incredibles (2004)
- Valiant (2005)
- Chicken Little (2005)
- Cars (2006)
- The Ant Bully (2006)
- Ratatouille (2007)
- Space Chimps (2008)
- WALL-E (2008)
- Up (2009)
- Astro Boy (2009)
- Toy Story 3 (2010)
- Cars 2 (2011)
- Brave (2012)
- Monsters University (2013)
- The Lego Movie (2014)
- Inside Out (2015)
- The Good Dinosaur (2015)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- Cars 3 (2017)
- Coco (2017)
- Incredibles 2 (2018)
- Toy Story 4 (2019)
- Onward (2019)
- Soul (2020)
- Luca (2021)
- Turning Red (2022)
- Lightyear (2022)
- Elemental (2023)
- The Garfield Movie (2024)
- Inside Out 2 (2024)
- Elio (2025)
United States
- Pixar
- Industrial Light & Magic
- Disney Animation
- Laika
- Tippett Studio
Canada
- Bardel Entertainment
- Bron Studios
- Mr. X
- Spin VFX
Brazil
- StartAnima
United Kingdom
France
Germany
China
South Korea
- Dexter Studios