RenderMan

Particle Simulation

The basic aim of this project was to learn about RenderMan's Points procedure. Maya FBX data was used to create the RIB files for the simulation. To allow for the flexibility of applying different shaders and lighting conditions at render time, placeholders were used in the RIB files. These placeholders could then be substituted at render-time by a shell script. The RIB code below highlights the use of the placeholders (e.g. __AMBIENT__) and RenderMan Points.

# fbx07_0038.rib

Display "__FILENAME___0038.tiff" "file" "rgba"
...
(Standard RIB header information goes here)
...

WorldBegin
  LightSource "ambientlight" 1 "intensity" [ __AMBIENT__ ]
  ...

  Color [ __COLOUR__ ]
  Surface "__SURFACE__"

  Points "P" [41.0977735 113.9722231 ...]
  ...

WorldEnd

Each RIB file was about 5 MB and contained point information for 150000 particles. Render times were still very fast as the optimised Points are not rendered as true 3D objects but as small, flat flakes, orientated towards the camera. The large image accessed from the link below shows a single frame of the particle simulation, rendered with a plasma shader.

Render of particle simulation

Render of particle simulation:
View large image

The movie clip below shows the animated particle simulation.

Still of particle simulation

Particle simulation:
Download Clip
Filename: particleWeb.mov
File size: 1.5 MB