2016
Lynda
Christos Obretenov
4:33
English

Ever wondered how Pixar makes all their animated feature films and how most studios around the world do their visual effects? Meet RenderMan. Created by Pixar, and available for the first time ever for noncommercial use, RenderMan is the high-end 3D rendering package that can be used for any 3D rendering projects: animation and visual effects, but also architecture, visualizations, and commercial work. This introduction teaches the basics of using RenderMan with Autodesk Maya, including features such as arbitrary output variables (AOVs), the path tracer, and integrators. It dives into all the lights offered in the software (area lights, mesh lights, etc.), as well as the main shading networks (PxrDisney and LM-layered materials) and beginner-intermediate rendering settings in RenderMan's new RIS path-tracing rendering engine. Shading architect Christos Obretenov also demonstrates techniques for creating realistic glass surfaces and still life scenes, so you can see what possibilities RenderMan offers straight out of the box.

Introduction
Welcome
What you should know before watching this course
Using the exercise files
1. Getting Started with RenderMan for Maya
Background: RenderMan for Maya
Lay of the land in RenderMan for Maya
Your first render
IT basics
Your first render: Materials
Your first render: IPR (Interactive Render Preview) vs. regular render and LocalQueue
AOVs (arbitrary output variables)
AOVs in Maya
AOVs
AOVs in the IPR window
2. Rendering
Introduction to integrators
Path tracer vs. VCM integrators: A technical breakdown
Path tracer vs. VCM integrators: Diagrams
Setting up a scene: Mesh lights
Setting up an object as an emissive light
Adding a glass material and tweaking its settings
Comparing path tracer to VCM with glass and emissive
Comparing the test renders
Max Path Length
First look at the still-life scene
Max Path Length: Still life
Max Samples and Pixel Variance
Applying Pixel Variance to the still life
BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution functions) vs. light samples
3. Materials
PxrDisney BRDF overview
PxrDisney vs. PxrLM materials
Maya Material Viewer
LM-layered materials overview
LMDiffuse and Clear Coat
The making of still-life renders
Layering with LMLayer
Glass shadowing examples
Glass shadowing applied
Tangent fields examples
Tangent fields applied
4. Lighting
Area light overview
Area light, env light, and mesh light
Conclusion
Next steps: Exercises to try and more advanced topics

lynda.com/Renderman-tutorials/Pixars-RenderMan-Essential-Training/442861-2.html

Download File Size:1.3 GB

---