Other Links

(links to other neat sites )

Other great places to visit:

RenderMan FAQ --

comp.graphics.rendering.renderman.FAQ -- The FAQ for the C.G.R.R. USENET group. Read it impress your friends. Be the center of attention at party's.

Books

-- The books section have been redone and moved here

Air

-- is a set of Animation and Image Rendering tools that run under Windows/NT systems. As of 1.2 now has Global Illumination.

AQSIS

, a RenderMan Renderer that is: Open Source; runs under Posix and Windows. Now in beta testing.

(BMRT home page)-- Larry Gritz' "Most Excellent" shareware implementation of RenderMan. Hey it supports ray tracing and radiosity. What else could you ask for? SGI, Linux, and W95/NT.

Dot C Software

has a renderer RenderDotC. Has a compliant RenderMan Shading Language and RIB interface. Runs on SGI and W95/NT

Info on prman and lots of other goodies.

Siren

a scanline renderer that runs under MS-DOS. Siren was written by Scott Iverson

Vision

, a project being worked on at The University of Erlangen. This site is doing some very interesting stuff to RenderMan. Some of which include creating an renderer which is capable of reading and rendering RIB files, a Shading Language Compiler, and a modular RIB parser. If you meet the requirements, I believe that you can get the library and Shading compiler.

SilverCreek Software

-has a product for the Mac called Photo 3D. It is a modeler and render. It also is suppose to have support RenderMan.

Language Bindings

There was a time not too long ago, that one's only programming options to access RenderMan bindings was C (based on the libraries included with prman and BMRT). Now the following are also available:

Java RenderMan Bindings

available from Sean Cier

A Perl 5 binding for RenderMan

available from Glenn Lewis

A Python binding

- by Ture Pålsson.

SnakeMan

, a second Python binding. Author: Jeffrey A. Newquist.

A TCL binding is available, compliments of Wave

at FTP: adam.tar.gz flex/yacc grammars can be found at:


http://www.alicorna.com/opensource.html
(rmansl-grammar)



   dspace.dial.pipex.com/adrian.skilling/reyes/reyes.html
 and 


   http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=3932

Converters

AnimalLOGIC

has three products: MaxMan

3DS2RIB

dos and linux program to convert 3D Studio to RIB. Also From this page there is a beta for a 3DStudio Max RIB exporter. Brought to you by Alex Segal of RMC CG & Animation Studio.

DoberMan

is a collection of scripts to convert 3DMax scenes to RIB.

DriveMan

from Gestel

Ethel

a Mental Ray

Mike Hough

has a Hash plugin

iv2rib

converts Inventor 2.0 and VRML 1.0 files to RIB. Brought to you by Cowhouse Productions

LtoR

- a Lightwave

LightMan

, by Timm Dapper

MTOR

, part of the RenderMan Artist Tools suite from Pixar

mi2rib

-- A Mental Ray to RIB converter.

PaC Man

is a converter by Przemyslaw Koprowski

Pov2Rib

-- A POV to RIB converter, by Christian Vogelgsang.

Subdivisional Mesh

with prman and Houdini! Keita Maeda

vtkRIBExporter

exports scenes from the Visualization Toolkit

Okino Computer Graphics, Inc

-- has a product called PolyTrans. For example it allows one to export 3DMAX and Lightwave

to information to RIB.

Modelers & Animation

AC3D

-- polygon based 3D modeler for Linux, SGI, SUN, and W95/NT. It outputs RIsupportsB and other formats.

Ayam

a free 3D modeling environment for the RenderMan interface. It runs under Unix and Win32.

Font3D

generates 3D text objects. The source code is available.

Geometique

-- polygonal modeler geared towards subdivisional meshes. Output prman3.8. Runs under NT4.0.

Geomview

-- a geometry viewing program that can generate RIBs.

Mops

-- A 3D modeler. Some highlights: exports RIB, custom objects, scripting in Tcl, displays in OpenGL. This site has some pretty nice pictures. Mops is done by Randolf Schultz

ShellyLib

-- allows one to create seashells. One of the formats that it exports is RIB. The program runs under Linux, IRIX, and W95/NT. Author: Randolf Schultz

Shave and a Haircut

-- is a PC program for modeling and animating hair. Works nicely with Lightwave

Animal Logic

sure has been busy. 1st SoftMan

Houdini

-- a great procedural modeling and animation package (their particles and dynamics aren't too shabby either). It has one of the best interfaces to RenderMan that I have come seen. Brought to you by Side Effects Software. Runs on SGI, NT and soon Linux.

Rhino3D

NURBS based modeler for W95/NT. from Robert McNeel & Associates

RhinoMan

, maintained by Brian Perry

SolidThinking

-- A really cool modeler with excellent support for RenderMan.

Vertigo

-- 3D animation and visualization which can write out RenderMan RIB files.

Sced

-- a Constraint Based Scene Design modeler. Sced is an X-based modeler which can be obtained in source form. One of its output formats is RIB.

PiXELS:3D

a modeling and animation package that runs on the Macintosh has RIB export support. The company may be working on Linux and NT ports, too.

High Dynamic Range images

At Paul Debevec's site

there is a link to HDR Shop

Misc

The Affine Toolkit

, by Thomas E. Burge, is a compilation of libraries for reading/writing RIB; conversion tools; RIB utilities; and filters.

CEC in Computer Animation and Digital Effects

has a website containing subjects and examples for subjects like lighting, Houdini, and RenderMan

DeathFall

has several BMRT and MTOR tutorials. The site also has a bunch of other links and news items on CG.

DigitalMarquette

has various links to RenderMan related plugins, tools, and shaders.

dream.com.ua

has a bunch of RenderMan related links and utilities. Things like: renderFarm (program to distribute BMRT renders) and slcEditor (a material previewer). Just to name a few. NOTE: These utilities only run under Windows. Also some of the popular english RenderMan resources have been translated into Russian Russian.

HaRM

, by Ian Stephenson

HIGHEND3D

has a set of forums on various 3D topics. There are also some sections dealing specifically to RenderMan and MTOR

od[force]

is a great place with tips, tricks, and scripts with Houdini

Rendermania

-- another site with RenderMan info. Maintained by: Simon Bunker

RenderWrapper

(RW) a simple Tcl/TK script for setting paramters for the various BMRT renderers. It runs on both UNIX and W95/NT systems.

TKMatMan

, by Andreas Butz

Jan Walter

has a set of Python export scripts for Blender

Johan Aberg

has set up some RenderMan Related pages. These include: ShaderLib, BMRT Benchmark, and Rhino & BMRT tutorials.

Speaking of Benchmarks, it looks like somebody has put together a BMRT benchmark in honor of BMRT's creator, called Gritzmark

Katsuaki HIRAMITSU

has a link called My RenderMan Study it is a work in progress, while he is learning RenderMan. Right now he is working on CGI trees. BTW --he was the one who was seen at the "Stupid RenderMan Tricks", showing how to do worlds with just a couple of spheres.

Steve May's

Digital Lighting class

Neal Mcdonald

has a web page with some shaders and perl scripts

Jonathan Merritt

has a web site, raybmrt

Jonathan now has a particle systems library with RenderMan-compliant output, PartSys

Malcom Kesson

is teaching a course on Programming Models and Shaders

Genetic Graphics Inc. has put together 4500 shaders at: ShaderBank

. NOTE: You will need a special program (from Turbo Squid) which currently only runs under Windows to get access these shaders. Also you will have to pay for these shaders. (There are a handful available to download for free).

Cinema Graphics

is selling ShadeTree

Ugo Varetto

has a web site that has a some programs that work with BMRT. One of these is called Free Dimensions, a modeling/animation program.

vtkRIBExporter

by Bill Lorenson, RIB exporter for vtk

Makina Works

has a WEB site. It has a lot of pictures rendered by RenderMan.

Nicholas Yue

has a website