12 ms·

Free Non-Commercial Renderman

265 points by ykl 12y ago

SloopJon 12y ago
Cool. This was announced almost a year ago. Pixar seems to define non-commercial reasonably, although there may be some fuzzy areas, such as YouTube. Okay, so long as you're not posting to a channel for which you share in the ad revenue? I was curious to see what a full license costs, and I was surprised to see that it's only $500 plus maintenance. Didn't this used to cost $10,000 or so?
- teraflop 12y ago
  From the FAQ: > Indirect revenue generating activities such as personal images or clips posted on YouTube or Vimeo that may result in advertising revenue are permitted. Please include a credit that your work was rendered with Pixar's RenderMan. If you are uncertain as to whether your requirement qualifies as non-commercial, please contact rendermansales@pixar.com for clarification. http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849 http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849
  - SloopJon 12y ago
    Thanks. I searched the FAQ for "adv", but somehow missed that.
- berkut 12y ago
  Yeah, the new price is really aggressive, and half the cost per node of VRay and Arnold (the two renderers that over the past three years have been eating into PRMan's VFX marketshare quite dramatically).
msie 12y ago
Free Unity, Unreal, Maya, Renderman... Creators these days have it so good!
- wlesieutre 12y ago
  Free Maya? Last I heard it was $20/month for LT, and that's the no-raytracer version for making game assets. Alternately, around $800 upfront for an already outdated copy of LT that's missing features like the Unreal Engine exporter. Because screw anybody who wants to buy software instead of renting it. EDIT: Maya LT costs $30/month and the "buy an outdated version" option is being terminated after this year. $20/month is the rate if you pay for a 1-year subscription upfront. The version with rendering is $185/month.
  - codazoda 12y ago
    The buy page says it's $3,675. At first glance, free Renderman looks like it's going to cost a lot to actually use.
    - wlesieutre 12y ago
      Yup, and perpetual licenses are going away next January. Full version of Maya will be $185/month or $1470/year. Ouch.
    - berkut 12y ago
      Using Maya isn't the only way to use Renderman: * via Rib files (there used to be Blender exporters) * via the RI API * via Katana (not that that's free either, but...)
  - tfinniga 12y ago
    I think student licenses of Maya are free. There used to be a PLE, but it looks like it's been discontinued.
    - wlesieutre 12y ago
      Correct, most everything Autodesk is free for noncommercial student use. Assuming it's like AutoCAD, any file modified in an edu version gets a "PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT" watermark, and if you so much as import one line from that file to another, the watermark infects that other file as well. But mostly it's the .edu email address requirement that makes it a no-go for me.
madez 12y ago
I was wondering whether they released it as free software or as software that is free as in free beer. It is the latter.
krschultz 12y ago
10. How does Pixar define "Non-Commercial" use? Simply, any usage of RenderMan that does not generate direct profits. Examples of non-commercial usage include evaluations, personal projects, learning, student and academic use, experimentation and research. There is a narrow line between "personal project" and "commercial". What if you come up with something that has ads on YouTube, are you commercial now? What if you come up with something, and then subsequently make a kickstarter with the characters you created in the original "non-commercial" project? edit: as people pointed out in the replies, there is an exception for video ads, which really just reinforces how complicated free-as-in-beer can get 13. Are there any profit earning exceptions to the "Non-Commercial" use rule? Yes. Indirect revenue generating activities such as personal images or clips posted on YouTube or Vimeo that may result in advertising revenue are permitted. Please include a credit that your work was rendered with Pixar's RenderMan. If you are uncertain as to whether your requirement qualifies as non-commercial, please contact rendermansales@pixar.com for clarification.
- bch 12y ago
  I was wondering the same thing, but I felt the key phrase was "direct profits" -- would your examples generate "indirect profits" and thereby be allowed ?
  - supercoder 12y ago
    Yeah, can I use it to create an ad for my iPhone app ?
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  >What if you come up with something that has ads on YouTube, are you commercial now? Don't put ads on it? It would be nice if it had a $100/year or so exclusion, I guess. Edit: Apparently the FAQ says video hosing ads are okay. Don't push it too hard, perhaps? >What if you come up with something, and then subsequently make a kickstarter with the characters you created in the original "non-commercial" project? That seems obviously not direct.
- halflings 12y ago
yzh 12y ago
I really wish that Arnold could also release its free academic version.
- ykl 12y ago
  Solid Angle doesn't have an official individual student license option, but I have heard of Solid Angle coming up with case-by-case arrangements with students that contacted them directly.
- CyberDildonics 12y ago
  They didn't even have a webpage until about a couple of years ago.
ams6110 12y ago
Pretty sure some version of Renderman was bundled with NeXT workstations back in the day, along with Sybase and some other normally-commercial stuff.
amelius 12y ago
The license is complicated, but fortunately, the current trend for illustrations on the web is 2d.
- tudorw 12y ago
  A current trend is a trend about to be supplanted :)
virtualritz 12y ago
3Delight is RenderMan compliant and has been free for non-commercial use since 2001. The renderer is more or less on feature parity with Pixar's product. It does some things better and others worse but if you needed a free RenderMan compliant offline renderer to do a non-commercial project, these differences would reasonably not be of any concern to you.
joeblau 12y ago
Is the video Buffering like crazy for anyone else? I feel like I just jumped back 15 years to the Real Player days. Edit: It's working a lot better now. I don't know much about 3D but this tool looks amazing!
chx 12y ago
I filed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8252108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8252108 when they announced it and noone cared.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

265 points by ykl 12y ago

Cool. This was announced almost a year ago. Pixar seems to define non-commercial reasonably, although there may be some fuzzy areas, such as YouTube. Okay, so long as you're not posting to a channel for which you share in the ad revenue? I was curious to see what a full license costs, and I was surprised to see that it's only $500 plus maintenance. Didn't this used to cost $10,000 or so?

teraflop 12y ago
From the FAQ: > Indirect revenue generating activities such as personal images or clips posted on YouTube or Vimeo that may result in advertising revenue are permitted. Please include a credit that your work was rendered with Pixar's RenderMan. If you are uncertain as to whether your requirement qualifies as non-commercial, please contact rendermansales@pixar.com for clarification. http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849 http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849
- SloopJon 12y ago
  Thanks. I searched the FAQ for "adv", but somehow missed that.
berkut 12y ago
Yeah, the new price is really aggressive, and half the cost per node of VRay and Arnold (the two renderers that over the past three years have been eating into PRMan's VFX marketshare quite dramatically).

msie 12y ago

Free Unity, Unreal, Maya, Renderman... Creators these days have it so good!

wlesieutre 12y ago
Free Maya? Last I heard it was $20/month for LT, and that's the no-raytracer version for making game assets. Alternately, around $800 upfront for an already outdated copy of LT that's missing features like the Unreal Engine exporter. Because screw anybody who wants to buy software instead of renting it. EDIT: Maya LT costs $30/month and the "buy an outdated version" option is being terminated after this year. $20/month is the rate if you pay for a 1-year subscription upfront. The version with rendering is $185/month.
- codazoda 12y ago
  The buy page says it's $3,675. At first glance, free Renderman looks like it's going to cost a lot to actually use.
  - wlesieutre 12y ago
    Yup, and perpetual licenses are going away next January. Full version of Maya will be $185/month or $1470/year. Ouch.
  - berkut 12y ago
    Using Maya isn't the only way to use Renderman: * via Rib files (there used to be Blender exporters) * via the RI API * via Katana (not that that's free either, but...)
- tfinniga 12y ago
  I think student licenses of Maya are free. There used to be a PLE, but it looks like it's been discontinued.
  - wlesieutre 12y ago
    Correct, most everything Autodesk is free for noncommercial student use. Assuming it's like AutoCAD, any file modified in an edu version gets a "PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT" watermark, and if you so much as import one line from that file to another, the watermark infects that other file as well. But mostly it's the .edu email address requirement that makes it a no-go for me.

madez 12y ago

I was wondering whether they released it as free software or as software that is free as in free beer. It is the latter.

krschultz 12y ago

10. How does Pixar define "Non-Commercial" use? Simply, any usage of RenderMan that does not generate direct profits. Examples of non-commercial usage include evaluations, personal projects, learning, student and academic use, experimentation and research. There is a narrow line between "personal project" and "commercial". What if you come up with something that has ads on YouTube, are you commercial now? What if you come up with something, and then subsequently make a kickstarter with the characters you created in the original "non-commercial" project? edit: as people pointed out in the replies, there is an exception for video ads, which really just reinforces how complicated free-as-in-beer can get 13. Are there any profit earning exceptions to the "Non-Commercial" use rule? Yes. Indirect revenue generating activities such as personal images or clips posted on YouTube or Vimeo that may result in advertising revenue are permitted. Please include a credit that your work was rendered with Pixar's RenderMan. If you are uncertain as to whether your requirement qualifies as non-commercial, please contact rendermansales@pixar.com for clarification.

bch 12y ago
I was wondering the same thing, but I felt the key phrase was "direct profits" -- would your examples generate "indirect profits" and thereby be allowed ?
- supercoder 12y ago
  Yeah, can I use it to create an ad for my iPhone app ?
Dylan16807 12y ago
>What if you come up with something that has ads on YouTube, are you commercial now? Don't put ads on it? It would be nice if it had a $100/year or so exclusion, I guess. Edit: Apparently the FAQ says video hosing ads are okay. Don't push it too hard, perhaps? >What if you come up with something, and then subsequently make a kickstarter with the characters you created in the original "non-commercial" project? That seems obviously not direct.
halflings 12y ago

yzh 12y ago

I really wish that Arnold could also release its free academic version.

ykl 12y ago
Solid Angle doesn't have an official individual student license option, but I have heard of Solid Angle coming up with case-by-case arrangements with students that contacted them directly.
CyberDildonics 12y ago
They didn't even have a webpage until about a couple of years ago.

ams6110 12y ago

Pretty sure some version of Renderman was bundled with NeXT workstations back in the day, along with Sybase and some other normally-commercial stuff.

amelius 12y ago

The license is complicated, but fortunately, the current trend for illustrations on the web is 2d.

tudorw 12y ago
A current trend is a trend about to be supplanted :)

virtualritz 12y ago

3Delight is RenderMan compliant and has been free for non-commercial use since 2001. The renderer is more or less on feature parity with Pixar's product. It does some things better and others worse but if you needed a free RenderMan compliant offline renderer to do a non-commercial project, these differences would reasonably not be of any concern to you.

joeblau 12y ago

Is the video Buffering like crazy for anyone else? I feel like I just jumped back 15 years to the Real Player days. Edit: It's working a lot better now. I don't know much about 3D but this tool looks amazing!

chx 12y ago

I filed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8252108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8252108 when they announced it and noone cared.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]