RenderMan Shading Language(ID:1518/ren001)

Pixar's graphical rendering language
References:
  • Antti Nurminen "The RenderMan Interface and Shading Language" Department of Computer Science and Engineering Helsinki University of Technology view details Abstract: The RenderMan interface is a standard for 3D scene description and high-quality off-line rendering. It was defined by Pixar in 1987-1989 (versions 1.0-3.1). The interface is quite flexible and has not changed since. It is widely used in commercial production of computer-generated images and animations. It defines a file format for storing or transferring 3D scenes, a number of renderer requirements and capabilities, a C API and a shading language that is used to define lights, materials, geometry displacements, volumes, global transformations and imaging transformations. The standard does not specify or recommend any particular rendering algorithms. Implementation-specific rendering details may be included using generic attribute and option mechanisms.

    External link: Description of Renderman by Antti Nurminen at Helsinki
  • The RenderMan Companion, S. Upstill, A-W 1989, chaps 13-15. view details
  • Hanrahan and Lawson: "A Language for Shading and Lighting Calculations" pp289-298 view details
          in Computer Graphics 24(4) August 1990 view details