Renderman

RenderMan is a rendering software package developed by Pixar Animation Studios. It provides a high-quality, production-proven renderer and a rendering architecture that supports integration with major visual effects pipelines. The toolset includes a rendering engine, a programmable shading language, and interfaces that allow communication between 3D applications and the renderer.

Historically, RenderMan originated in Pixar's internal production technology and became available to the wider industry in the late 1980s. It evolved from a REYES-based renderer—emphasizing micropolygons and shading per-vertex data—to modern path-tracing-based global illumination under the RIS architecture. It supports physically based lighting, depth of field, motion blur, volumetric rendering, and subsurface scattering, with a focus on production efficiency and image quality. The shading language, originally RSL, enables artists to write custom surfaces, lights, and volume shaders; Open Shading Language and various plugin shaders are also supported.

RenderMan is used extensively in feature films, television, and commercials for production rendering and look development. It is offered as RenderMan Pro Server, a stand-alone render engine, and as integrated bundles such as RenderMan Studio or RenderMan for various DCC apps (e.g., Maya, Houdini, Katana). The product supports integration into large render farms and cloud-based pipelines.

Availability and licensing: Pixar licenses RenderMan to studios and individual artists. A non-commercial version is available for learning, experimentation, and personal projects.