Pixar Animation Studios has released RenderMan Studio 18, which incorporates all the performance and feature advantages of RenderMan Pro Server 18 within an intuitive suite of tools designed for the creation of 3D animation and visual effects.
Major features in RenderMan Studio 18 include new controls for lighting, geometric area lights, and accelerated re-rendering, powered by RenderMan's state-of-the-art path tracer. The standard shading library has also been expanded with features such as advanced subsurface scattering and support for per-light AOVs. In addition, the image tool, it, has been totally rewritten from the ground up, providing improved performance and usability for shading and lighting. Through these new and productive workflows, the outstanding power of Pixar's RenderMan is accessible to visual effects creators everywhere.
RenderMan Studio 18 is designed to provide every user of Autodesk's Maya with fast and easy access to Pixar's Oscar-winning rendering technology. The release is compatible with the following 64-bit operating systems: Mac OS 10.8 and 10.7, Windows 8, 7, and Vista, and Linux. RenderMan Studio 18 is compatible with Autodesk Maya Versions 2013, 2013.5, and 2014. For renderfarm dispatch, a license of Tractor 1.7 is included and additional licenses are available as a standalone product. For local workstation dispatch a free LocalQueue utility is supplied as standard.