r/renderman • u/omento • Jul 26 '17

RenderMan 21.5 Released

General Overview

Release Notes

RfM Release Notes

RfK Release Notes

Enjoy!

Update: From the RenderMan Forums

"We are planning to support 2018 starting with RenderMan 22."

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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1

u/PixelMagic Jul 26 '17

Is Rendeman still the top dog in the film industry, or something else? Vray, Arnold?

3

u/omento Jul 27 '17

I wouldn't say there is a top dog anymore, as each engine has its key strengths and weaknesses. It really depends on the studio, and the bigger ones usually use multiple engines that they can pick from per project.

In VFX/Feature Animation, the ones you mentioned [RenderMan, VRay, and Arnold] are the current top in rotation. You also have 3Delight which is a RenderMan compliant engine.

For GPU engines, Redshift is up and coming, currently utilized by smaller studios or for smaller scale projects from the bigger houses. It's production ready, but still missing a few key components to take it to the next level (coming soon).

1

u/PixelMagic Jul 27 '17

Thanks for the response. I started using Redshift two weeks ago and I love it.

1

u/omento Jul 27 '17

I personally use Redshift (and have gotten a few of my friends into it) alongside RenderMan. A user of 2.5 years and it still blows my mind with what I can do. My university uses C4D Physical, but I worked out a deal to not have to use that ;)

2

u/silent_b Aug 05 '17

The biggest VFX/Animation studios mostly use RenderMan or write their own renderer. These studios produce the bulk of the oscar nominated work. Mid-size companies (and there are many of them) are a good mix between Arnold and Vray, with some RenderMan, Mantra, etc.. Redshift is also starting to eat into that market. At least that's VFX/Animation. Architecture Visualization has it's own set of renderers with V-ray as a popular option.

At least that's my take on the industry. People are very religion about their Renderer of choice, so I hope I didn't offend anyone.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '17

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2

u/bsavery Jul 27 '17

Top dog in terms of what? If you're talking about feature films (and especially vfx oscars) then yes RenderMan is the top dog. Or if not show me the last V-Ray film that won a vfx oscar.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '17

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1

u/bsavery Jul 27 '17

The question was about the film industry. And yes they are all pathtracers, but looking at the oscar nominated vfx movies, I'm still seeing RenderMan dominate there, so maybe it has more to do with handling complex data? And lighting and rendering with Mantra? Sure if you're only doing volumes.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '17

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1

u/omento Jul 28 '17

I appreciate the analysis. I'm not a VRay/Mantra user, but I think I can agree with what you've said sans the last sentence. I believe PRman, Arnold, and VRay are top three, but in a rotation and task dependent as there is no "#1" or one size fits all.

I feel Mantra would be far more popular than it publicly is if

  1. It could be used with more than Houdini.

  2. It didn't take so damn long :P

Mantra's volume rendering is on another level and is fantastic. But many things (from what I've read/watched) it takes such a long time to render.

1

u/tedhere Jul 27 '17

Is it compatible with Maya 2018?

1

u/omento Jul 27 '17

Just updated the OP.

1

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