About support RenderMan

The following software is necessary to use a bridge for RenderMan.

RenderMan 21 or later:

• RenderMan Pro Server

RenderMan 19/20:

• RenderMan Pro Server (19/20)
• RenderMan Studio for Maya

Please install RenderMan Studio for Maya even if you do not have Maya. "It" tool in the software is required to show a preview of a rendering result.
*In the initial state, it does not appear in the installer of RenderMan. Locate it and install.

Shaders for RenderMan

You can set the following shaders for RenderMan on [Material setting]. Available shaders depend on your version of RenderMan.

Shader	Supported version
PxrDisney	All versions
PxrSurface	RenderMan21 or later
PxrMarschnerHair	RenderMan20 or later
PxrGlass PxrHair PxrLMDiffuse PxrLMGlass PxrLMMetal PxrLMPlastic PxrLMSubsurface PxrSkin	RenderMan19/20 only

If you want to know more information on each parameter, please refer to the Pixar's RenderMan documentation. (*Open an external site)

Light

It is to place the following shape of the light.

• Rectangle light
• Disk light
• Sphere light
• Cylinder light
  • It was abolished in RenderMan version 21, but it was added again in version 22.2.
• Spot light
• Distant light
  • The light source is located in the distance. Regardless of the location, it raises light parallel to the direction of the arrow.
• Geometric light
  • An object that is currently selected in [Object panel] is set as a light source with an arbitrary shape.
• Environment map
  • It is to set the image as a light source.
• Day light
  • A simulated sun is placed as a light source.

From the list on the right, you can select and edit a light that you have created.

Move

It is to move the selected light.

Scale

It is to scale the selected light.

Rotate

It is to rotate the selected light.

Copy

It is to duplicate the selected light.

Delete

It is to deletes the selected light.

Delete all

It is to delete all of the light.

Rendering

When you click, rendering will start.

Quick preview

If you check it, you can preview the effects of light.

The setting of a Light

Available parameters depend on the type of lights and RenderMan version.

Lighting

Exposure

Setting the intensity of the light.

Color

Setting the color of the light.

Diffuse

Set amounts of the influence of this light on diffused light.
(on RenderMan19/20) - Setting the color of the portion to be illuminated in this light.

Specular

Set the amount of reflected light of this light.
(on RenderMan19/20) - Setting the color of the reflected light of this light.

Cone angle (Spot light)

It is to set the angle of the apex of the cone of [Spot light].

Highlight angle (Distant light)

It sets the angle of the highlights.

File (Environment map)

Specify the image file to be the light source. Ambient light is expressed using the HDR image (.exr, .hdr, .tif, .tiff).

Sun size (Day light)

It is to set the size of the sun.

Haziness (Day light)

It is to adjust the degree haze of the color of the sky. The lower limit (the most clear sky) is 1.7. The upper limit is 10.00.

Sky color (Day light)

It is to set the color of the sky.

Ground (Day light)

It is to set the color of the ground.

Show background (Environment map, Day light)

When you checked it, the image set is displayed as the background in rendering.
*If the background image is rough, adjust the following points.

• Use a higher-resolution image.
• Increase the value of [FOV] in [Disp > View panel].

Shadow

Shadow color

Setting the color of the shadow caused by this light.

Distance

Set the maximum length of the shadow that can be generated by the light of this light.

Distance Disabled	Distance 400.0

Falloff

It can be set only when [Distance] is set. Set the distance at which shadow falloff begins.

Falloff gamma

Set the amount of shadow falloff. The larger the value, the more the falloff.

Distance 400.0 Falloff 50.0 / Falloff gamma0.5	Distance 400.0 Falloff 50.0 / Falloff gamma1.0

Cone softness (Spot light)

Sets the blur of the spotlight. The larger the value, the stronger the blur of the light boundary.

Cone softness 0.0	Cone softness 0.5

Penumbra angle (Spot light)

(on RenderMan19/20) - It is to set the blur of the penumbra. Blur is strongly when you increase the numerical value.

Penumbra exp. (Spot light)

(on RenderMan19/20) - It is to set the strength of the penumbra. The boundary of light becomes clear when you increase the numerical value.

Transform

Set the position, scale and angle of the light.

Direction (Day light)

It is to set the direction with the sun.

Altitude (Day light)

It is to set the altitude of the sun.

Material asset library

You can use the material asset provided in RenderMan.

Select the material you want to use from the list and click [Add a material]. It is added to [Material panel].

Camera

Depth of field

If you check it, you can set on the camera.

• F-stop - It is the setting of the F-stop of the camera. If the value is small, when rendering, blur is larger. Conversely, when you increase the value, the blur is less.
• Focal distance - It is to set the distance to the object from the camera. If you check [Synchronize view], it synchronized with the 3D view.

Lens aperture (Bokeh)

When checked it, you can set the light when you use the out-of-focus effect.

• N sides - The shape of the reflected light is the n-gon.
• Rotation angle - It is to set the angle of the reflected light.
• Roundness - It is to round polygon of the reflected light.
• Density - It is to adjust the density of the reflected light.

N sides: 5, Rotation angle: 0, Roundness: -0.50, Density: 0.00

Rendering setting

Resolution

It is setting the resolution of an image to be output in [Rendering].
When you click [Preset], often used image resolution is can be selected.
There is a limit to the resolution in Metasequoia 4 Standard.

Trace

• Forward - It is suitable for a simple scene because it ignores the refraction of light. Rendering time is short.
• Bidirectional - It is effective in a scene where light is more reflective. But it takes time to render. If [max samples] is small, noise is likely to occur.

Caustics

(*Only if [Trace] is [Forward]) When checked it, the place where light is collected will be focused on output.

Forward	Bidirectional
Forward with Caustics

Max samples

It is to adjust the rendering of accuracy. The larger [Max samples] produces more clear rendering image. However, it takes a longer time to render.

ShadingRate

When you have set the Environment map in [Light] and shown the background image, you can adjust the resolution of the background image. If the background image is rough, the image quality will be improved by reducing this value. But it takes a longer time to render.

ShadingRate: 1.0	ShadingRate: 0.1

Use subdivision

When this item is checked, the number of divisions for [Patch Catmull-Clark] or [OpenSubdiv] is not used, and the faces are rendered as limit surfaces.

Denoise

A rendered image is processed reducing noise when you checked this.

Denoise Off	Denoise On

*It is necessary to install RenderMan 20 or later if you want to use this function.
*If you checked it, [Output] is to file only. You cannot check the process of rendering on realtime by [It] or output rib file.

Output

It is to set the output location of the rendered image.

• File - Directly, to output the image as a file. (BMP, PNG, JPG, TIFF)
• With It - When rendering, launch the It tool. You can check the progress of rendering. If you want to save the rendering result of the tool to a file, select [File > Export file...] on the tool.
• rib - The rib file is output.

RenderMan version

The version number of installed RenderMan is displayed.