RenderMan & RISpec, ANN: TweakAIR and AIR 3.1

comp.graphics.rendering.renderman - RenderMan interface & shading language.


RenderMan & RISpec >> ANN: TweakAIR and AIR 3.1

by Scott Iverson » Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:21:12 GMT

SiTex Graphics is pleased to announce the release of TweakAIR, a new
interactive rendering tool based on the AIR renderer. TweakAIR is
designed to allow interactive tweaking of high-quality images with the
full range of advanced rendering effects supported by AIR.

TweakAIR accepts regular RIB files as input. At the beginning of an
interactive rendering session TweakAIR creates a "deep" framebuffer for
the current view, in about the time required for a normal preview
rendering. Once the deep framebuffer has been generated, shading and
lighting for the scene can be modified, and the rendered image will
update to reflect the changes. Although updates are not usually in
real time, TweakAIR employs caching and re-evaluation heuristics to
accelerate re-rendering of scene elements. In the first release
specific emphasis has been placed on efficient re-lighting.

TweakAIR is currently supported by Animal Logic's MayaMan plugin for
Maya. Adding TweakAIR support to an existing RIB export plugin is
straighforward using the TweakAIR developer's kit, available by request
to developers and registered users.


SiTex Graphics has also released version 3.1 of the AIR renderer for
Windows and Linux. New and improved features include:

- New display driver and image reader for Adobe(tm) Photoshop(tm) image
formats

- Enhanced multipass/multilayer rendering support in AIR shaders and
tools

- New shader documentation in the AIR user manual

- New geometry export options

- Re-designed AIR Control tool for launching renders on Windows

- Fast cellular patterns with new voronoi() shading language function

- Faster lighting for MayaMan users

- Version 0.5 of Vshade, the visual shader authoring tool

More information and an evaluation copy of AIR, BakeAIR, and TweakAIR
are available on the SiTex Graphics web site:

http://www.sitexgraphics.com

Features:
Fast Scanline Rendering - Ray Tracing - Multithreading -
Programmable Shading - Indirect Illumination - Motion Blur -
Depth of Field - Displacement - Subdivision Meshes - Blobbies -
Trimmed NURBs - Curves - Particles - Area Lights - Caustics -
Texture Mapping - Shadow Mapping - Automatic Meshing -
Procedural Geometry - Level of Detail - Ambient Occlusion -
RIB compatibility - Distributed Rendering with Vortex -
Image-Based Lighting - High-Dynamic Range (HDR) Input and Output -
Subsurface Scattering - Toon Rendering and Illustration

--
Scott Iverson
SiTex Graphics

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1. ANN: AIR 4.1 & AIR Space Interactive Shading and Lighting Tool 

SiTex Graphics has released version 4.1 of the AIR, BakeAIR, and
TweakAIR rendering software.  New and improved features include:

- New AIR Space user interface (Windows)

- Many fixes and performance enhancements for TweakAIR

- New, much improved environment map filtering

- Support for conditional RIB statements

- Support for gzip'd RIB

- New interpolation option for subdivision mesh texture coordinates

- Automap improvements

- AIR Show display support for AIR texture maps

- Automatic tangent vectors for polygon meshes

- New shader conventions for 2D and 3D pattern placement and sizing

------
AIR Space

AIR Space is a new interactive shading and lighting interface for AIR
and TweakAIR.  With AIR Space you can import a 3D model, assign shading
and lighting properties, and render final images with AIR.

AIR Space uses TweakAIR to display a high-quality Interactive Preview
Rendering (IPR) of the scene as you adjust its shading and lighting.
You can perform many common editing functions simply by clicking in the
IPR window.

Features:

- Import model data in RenderMan RIB and Wavefront OBJ formats.

- Interactively assign materials, select shaders, and tweak shader
parameters.

- Interactively add, move, and tweak lights.

- Unlimited undo and redo of all shading and lighting changes.

- High-quality interactive preview, including soft shadows, antialiased
textures, procedural patterns, reflections, global illumination, and
ambient occlusion.

- Pickable IPR view: click in the IPR window to select objects or
materials, position & scale textures, target lights, and more.

- One-click re-import of a modified model, preserving existing project
settings.

- Automatic texture conversion for optimal rendering.

- Texture linking and tracking.

- OpenGL 3D viewport for camera and light manipulation.

- DarkTree shader support.

- Integrated asset browser for materials, textures, light sets, and
DarkTree shaders.

- Distributed rendering over multiple machines with Vortex.

For RIB scenes AIR Space also provides a special relighting mode that
preserves existing material properties (e.g., surface and displacement
shaders).

More information and demo versions of AIR, BakeAIR, TweakAIR, and AIR
Space are available at

www.sitexgraphics.com

Regards,

Scott Iverson
SiTex Graphics

Features:
  Fast Scanline Rendering - Ray Tracing - Multithreading -
  Programmable Shading - Global Illumination - Motion Blur -
  Depth of Field - Displacement - Subdivision Meshes - Blobbies -
  Trimmed NURBs - Curves - Particles - Area Lights - Caustics -
  Texture Mapping - Shadow Mapping - Automatic Meshing -
  Procedural Geometry - Level of Detail - Ambient Occlusion -
  RIB compatibility - Distributed Rendering with Vortex -
  Image-Based Lighting - High-Dynamic Range (HDR) Input and Output -
  Subsurface Scattering - Toon Rendering and Illustration -
  Volume Rendering

2. ANN: AIR 8.0 Introduces Shader-based Procedural Modeling - RenderMan & RISpec

3. ANN: AIR 2.6

4. ANN: AIR 2.9 - RenderMan & RISpec

5. ANN: AIR 2.5

6. ANN: AIR 2.7 and Vshade 0.2 - RenderMan & RISpec

7. ANN: AIR 2.8 with Subsurface Scattering and Outlining for Toon Rendering

8. ANN: AIR 4 with Volume Rendering and Automatic Shadow Maps - RenderMan & RISpec