

Considering that RenderMan is the gold standard of the industry, a cloud rendering solution built upon that foundation of success and reliability results in a service that users will know to be of the highest quality and efficiency. Pixar have led the visual effects and animation revolution with RenderMan. This isn’t the first cloud rendering solution for studios, but it is arguably the most important.
RENDERMAN RENDERFARM WINDOWS
Initially targeted at small to medium sized studios that operate in a Windows environment, RenderMan On Demand will expand into a comprehensive solution for larger studios, in addition to Linux environments, over the next two years. Studios no longer have to employ their own render farm to output their imagery.Īccording to Pixar’s press release, the service will allow users to connect to hundreds and thousands of additional rendering cores. Pixar’s partnership with Greenbutton, who specializes in performance cloud computing solutions, has resulted in a solution that grants nearly instantaneous burst rendering for RenderMan on Demand users. Like Buzz Lightyear lifting the train out of the gorge, RenderMan On Demand supports small and medium studios by connecting them to high-density rendering cores via the cloud.

This is where RenderMan On Demand steps in. The paradox of the render farm is that the smaller studios that need the power and speed of a render farm to compete at the level of large studios typically cannot afford the equipment and upkeep costs required to deliver those kind of results. Expensive hardware purchases aside, render farm costs are high because of the monumental electricity use, as well as the costs in keeping the farm cooled. Most large studios operate their own render farms, which require vast amounts of capital for upkeep and operation costs.

This is generally done on massive farms of CPU cores, through which distribution of the processing allows for a speedier result. Rendering is an intensive process, and can take anywhere from a few hours to days per frame to complete a single image depending on the complexity of the scene. Typically, these images are frames used for creating portions of film. In computer graphics, rendering is the process of turning what is essentially data in a graphics package into images. Let’s pause for a moment to give a quick background on what we’re talking about here. RenderMan On Demand is an awesome example of cloud technology, and it’s shaking up the industry by changing much about how studios can render imagery in production. This product, called RenderMan On Demand, comes from a joint effort between Pixar and GreenButton, offering cloud rendering services to studios worldwide. Recently, Pixar Animation Studios released a new product in their RenderMan lineup.
