Rendering for Beginners : Image Synthesis Using RenderMan

'Rendering for Beginners is bound to become a must-read for anyone interested in Pixar's RenderMan. Saty's experience as both RenderMan practitioner and RenderMan teacher gives him a unique and valuable perspective. I can't wait to add a copy to my own graphics library.' Dana Batali, Director of RenderMan Development, Pixar Animation Studios Whether you are an animator, artist or 2D illustrator looking to move to 3D rendering you will be amazed by what can be achieved with RenderMan. Saty Raghavachary offers a complete, non-technical introduction to RenderMan and rendering in general - finally a guide you don't need a math degree to follow! Full of clear explanations and plenty of samples on the associated website - www.smartcg.com/tech/cg/books/RfB - for you to play with, this color guide will quickly get you up to speed with this powerful, professional program so you too can harness the power of the program to create top quality imagery. The book features: \* Clear explanations of rendering concepts to get you up and running fast \* Extensive color illustrations to inspire you to make the most of your skills \* An associated website with numerous self-contained examples which you can download, reproduce, modify and learn from \* Comprehensive coverage of RenderMan's functionality to show you how to get the most out of this powerful renderer \* Coverage relevant for all versions of the package, including a section on global illumination introduced in Release 11, as well as the key, general rendering concepts Pixar's award-winning RenderMan is one of the best renderers available and has been used to create visual effects for dozens of movies since 1985. It is also the renderer used to make blockbuster animated movies such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. As the beautiful images in this book show, in addition to photoreal imagery you can also use it to create illustrations, visualizations, simulations of natural media and even abstract art! Contents: Rendering; RenderMan; RIB syntax; Geometric primitives; Transformations; Camera, output; Controls; Shading; What's next; Resources Saty Raghavachary is a senior graphics software developer at DreamWorks Feature Animation. He has written software used in The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Shark Tale. He is also a part-time instructor at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, USA where he teaches RenderMan and MEL (Maya) programming. \* Harness the power of Pixar's RenderMan with this introductory guide for the artist - you don't need a maths degree! \* Coverage is relevant for all versions of the package, including v11 and also explains general, key rendering concepts too \* Fully illustrated in color with numerous examples to inspire you to make the most of your skills Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 4 Preface......Page 6 1.1 - Artistic rendering......Page 14 1.2 - Computer graphical image synthesis......Page 15 1.3 - Representational styles......Page 18 1.4 - How a renderer works......Page 27 1.5 - Origins of 3D graphics, future directions......Page 36 2.1 - History, origins......Page 38 2.2 - Interface, implementations......Page 40 2.3 - How PRMan works......Page 45 3.2 - Formats for graphics description......Page 52 3.2.2 - SVG......Page 53 3.2.3 - PostScript......Page 55 3.2.4 - Wavefront .obj......Page 60 3.2.5 - Maya .ma......Page 62 3.2.6 - HTML......Page 65 3.3 - RIB structure......Page 66 3.3.2 - Syntax......Page 67 3.3.3 - Commands......Page 74 3.3.4 - Scene structure......Page 79 3.3.5 - External resources......Page 82 3.3.7 - Storage formats......Page 84 3.3.8 - What RIB is not......Page 85 4.2 - Points......Page 86 4.3 - Curves......Page 89 4.4 - Polygons......Page 101 4.5 - Polygonal meshes......Page 107 4.6 - Subdivision surfaces......Page 113 4.7 - Patches......Page 118 4.8 - Spheres......Page 140 4.9 - Cylinders......Page 141 4.11 - Tori......Page 142 4.12 - Hyperboloids......Page 143 4.13 - Paraboloids......Page 144 4.15 - Blobbies......Page 146 4.16 - Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)......Page 151 4.17 - Procedurals......Page 156 4.18 - Instancing......Page 159 4.19 - Reference geometry......Page 161 4.20 - Handedness, sides......Page 163 5.1 - Coordinate systems......Page 170 5.2 - Translation......Page 171 5.3 - Scale......Page 174 5.4 - Rotation......Page 177 5.5 - Perspective......Page 180 5.6 - Skew......Page 181 5.7 - Rotation, scale......Page 183 5.8 - Translation, scale......Page 187 5.9 - Rotation, translation......Page 190 5.10 - Rotation, scale, translation......Page 196 5.11 - Concatenating transforms......Page 200 5.12 - Transformation hierarchies......Page 204 5.13 - Custom spaces......Page 212 6.1 - Proxy viewpoints......Page 214 6.2 - Camera angles, moves......Page 215 6.3 - Camera artifacts......Page 223 6.4 - Output: frame......Page 232 6.5 - Output: channels......Page 237 6.6 - Fun with cameras......Page 247 7.2 - Image-related controls......Page 252 7.3 - Object-related controls......Page 262 7.4 - REYES-related controls......Page 267 7.5 - Miscellaneous controls......Page 272 8.1 - Introduction......Page 274 8.2 - Using light shaders......Page 277 8.3 - Using other shaders......Page 286 8.4 - The RenderMan Shading Language (RSL)......Page 293 8.5 - Surface shaders......Page 298 8.6 - Displacement shaders......Page 328 8.7 - Light shaders......Page 333 8.8 - Volume shaders......Page 342 8.9 - Imager shaders......Page 346 8.10 - Global illumination......Page 349 8.11 - Non-photoreal rendering......Page 357 8.12 - Wrapup......Page 365 9.1 - Next steps for you......Page 368 9.3 - Future directions for rendering......Page 369 10.1 - Books and papers......Page 374 10.2 - Courses......Page 375 10.4 - Forums......Page 376 10.6 - Miscellaneous......Page 377 Index......Page 378 'Rendering for Beginners is bound to become a must-read for anyone interested in Pixar's RenderMan. Saty's experience as both RenderMan practitioner and RenderMan teacher gives him a unique and valuable perspective. I can't wait to add a copy to my own graphics library.' Dana Batali, Director of RenderMan Development, Pixar Animation Studios Whether you are an animator, artist or 2D illustrator looking to move to 3D rendering you will be amazed by what can be achieved with RenderMan. Saty Raghavachary offers a complete, non-technical introduction to RenderMan and rendering in general - finally a guide you don't need a math degree to follow! Full of clear explanations and plenty of samples on the associated website - (http://www.smartcg.com/tech/cg/books/RfB) www.smartcg.com/tech/cg/books/RfB - for you to play with, this color guide will quickly get you up to speed with this powerful, professional program so you too can harness the power of the program to create top quality imagery. The book * Clear explanations of rendering concepts to get you up and running fast * Extensive color illustrations to inspire you to make the most of your skills * An associated website with numerous self-contained examples which you can download, reproduce, modify and learn from * Comprehensive coverage of RenderMan's functionality to show you how to get the most out of this powerful renderer * Coverage relevant for all versions of the package, including a section on global illumination introduced in Release 11, as well as the key, general rendering concepts Pixar's award-winning RenderMan is one of the best renderers available and has been used to create visual effects for dozens of movies since 1985. It is also the renderer used to make blockbuster animated movies such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. As the beautiful images in this book show, in addition to photoreal imagery you can also use it to create illustrations, visualizations, simulations of natural media and even abstract art! Rendering; RenderMan; RIB syntax; Geometric primitives; Transformations; Camera, output; Controls; Shading; What's next; Resources Saty Raghavachary is a senior graphics software developer at DreamWorks Feature Animation. He has written software used in The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Stallion of the Cimarron, Legend of the Seven Seas and Shark Tale. He is also a part-time instructor at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, USA where he teaches RenderMan and MEL (Maya) programming. The author provides animators and artists with a complete, non-technical introduction to the RenderMan renderer, rendering and the 3D graphics pipeline in general, so they can use RenderMan to create great imagery