RenderMan is back on the Mac, at long last. Pixar Animation Studios late on Friday announced the release of RenderMan Pro Server 11.5.3 for Mac OS X v10.3 “Panther.”
Pixar’s RenderMan Pro Server included RenderMan, Pixar’s core 3D graphics and animation rendering technology, Irma, a re-renderer used for accelerating shading and lighting, and Alfserver, the remote execution server. The Academy Award-winning software has been used by Pixar to produce its own animated feature films like Finding Nemo. It’s also used by other Hollywood special effects studios like Industrial Light & Magic to create the effects seen in movies like The Mummy, Men In Black II, Minority Report, and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
This news is the latest chapter in a story that first came to light in June of 2003, following Apple’s 2003 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Calif. Following Pixar President Ed Catmull’s appearance in an introduction video for the new Power Mac G5, Pixar announced that it was considering producing a version of RenderMan Pro Server to run on the Mac. Pixar followed up that news with a definitive announcement in September stating that they would indeed bring RenderMan Pro Server to the Mac.
RenderMan Pro Server costs US$3,500 and requires Mac OS X v10.3.1 or higher. With version 11.5.3’s release, RenderMan Pro Server is now supported on Mac OS X, Red Hat Linux, SGI IRIX, SuSE Linux and Windows XP Pro platforms. Educational pricing is available.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.