RENDERMAN MEETS PHOTOSURREALISM

Learn how to create illustrative looks in RenderMan with Dylan Sisson

As a renderer for high-end VFX, RenderMan can create stunning photorealistic images, which is fantastic… for some things, but what if the end goal is a render that looks like an illustration, a cartoon, anime, or even a painting? What if the art direction is Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR)? If you haven’t been living under a rock (and no offense to under-a-rock inhabitants) then you’ve noticed over the last few years an increasing amount of stylized looks in feature animation. At Pixar, we have been exploring new frontiers of NPR looks and have some updates for you, to photorealism and beyond! To paraphrase everyone’s favorite space ranger.

Pixar is currently investigating many different techniques for creating stylized looks, including building a flexible NPR system directly into the path-tracing ‘brains’ of RenderMan. Deep integration in RenderMan promises a number of benefits, such as support of interactive ‘live rendering’ for fast stylized look development. This tutorial is a technology preview where you’ll see some early workflows and potential integration of NPR into RenderMan. Thanks to a recent collaboration, these techniques are now being tested and developed in conjunction with the NPR experts at LollipopShaders, and show the possibilities of leveraging path tracing to create unique stylized looks.

For this tutorial, I will begin with the initial concept and take that to model, PBR shading and lighting, and finally compose an illustrative treatment.

01 CHOOSE AN ARTISTIC STYLE