Renderman and Python

Today was my last class of six on Technical Directing (TD) and Renderman training here at Tippett. Over the past six days I've learned the pipeline and set up and rendered an old training shot. During this time I've also started to get involved in the Python scripting language, which is great!

Python is a programming language, which we use to write our scripts to help our workflow. And of course, Renderman is a product of Pixar, which we use to create our images.

I'm not sure if I'm planning on becoming a TD full-time, but it is always good to know more about the processes involved in creating images for the screen! One thing which is keeping me away from becoming a TD is the extremely long render times for images. You are, after all, rendering something from nothing. Compositing is basically A over B, with a little (or a lot) of C through Z! It is much faster to composite than it is to light and render. I guess you could call TDs lighting and rendering artists.

After doing the first several tutorials of Python, I feel comfortable getting around the language, but there is still much to learn! It takes me back to when I was studying AP Comp Sci back in high school. Except we were studying Fortran, or Pascal, or Turbo Pascal, or something. I don't even think we touched on C.