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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!
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