Renowned globally for its creative and technical achievements, 3D animation pioneer Pixar Animation Studios is planning to bring its proprietary rendering solution ‘Renderman’ to India.
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, Chris Ford, Business Director for Renderman at Pixar Animation Studios stated, “Pixar would like to invest in the Indian market, as we see it as one with significant potential for the future. We intend to visit India during the September/October time frame”
“At this early stage we are primarily talking about our RenderMan solution which is essentially the de-facto standard renderer for the animation and visual effects industry. For Indian production companies to bid on out-sourced work and services from Europe and North America demands a recognizable and production proven solution. Likewise we believe that RenderMan offers the same quality standards for visual effects work and animation in the internal Indian market” he added.
Interestingly, Pixar is releasing a low cost plugin version for Maya (US$995) which the studio states, ‘Will be easy to use and enjoy all the benefits of Renderman production quality’
On being asked to elaborate on details of the visit, Chris informed, “We see a visit revolving around 3 components: presentations, hands on training, and studio visits. The presentations will include contributions from Pixar technical experts, some of whom are of Indian origin”
“We appreciate that Renderman skills in India are currently very rare, and we have work to do to seed a community of users. There are several paths to this goal – for example, Pixar has traditionally made Renderman easily accessible to students and accredited academic institutions” concluded Chris.
The studio which has in partnership with Walt Disney Pictures, created and produced animated blockbusters like Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003) and The Incredibles (2004) is responsible for many important breakthroughs in the application of computer graphics for
filmmaking.
Pixar’s planned initiative to push RenderMan in the Indian market is an indicator that the Indian animation industry is being taken seriously in the markets that matter. It will also fuel more international interest in Indian animation.
Stay tuned to Animation ‘xpress to be updated on Pixar’s visit to India!