A pair of press releases from StudioGPU, creators of MachStudio Pro, this morning announce two big deals. The first is that they’ve now added support for using Pixar’s Renderman for high-end ray-tracing visuals, if you aren’t amazing enough by the built-in GPU visuals. It’s a seamless workflow moving directly from authoring and modeling into the final rendering.
“We are pleased that StudioGPU has closely integrated RenderMan inside of MachStudio Pro,” said Chris Ford, RenderMan business director at Pixar Animation Studios. “The ability to preview renderings before the export of final shots to RenderMan helps streamline the creative process in a way that benefits everyone.”
In addition to this, they’ve announced new options for Student Pricing that make it more attractive for educational uses. Now a student can get MachStudio Pro and a working ATI FirePro V7800 for $999, or just the software for $499, a substantial savings from the full prices of both.
“Students should be encouraged to explore creativity however possible,” says Rob O’Neill, director of the Digital Arts Research Lab at Pratt Institute and partner at Kickstand in New York City. “By offering MachStudio Pro at educational pricing for students, StudioGPU is helping to remove the production barriers that can easily stifle a student’s access to cutting-edge tools. Now with MachStudio Pro, students can focus on the art of animation instead of the workflow limitations of long renders.”
Good news for students and experts alike. Full press releases after the break.
StudioGPU MachStudio Pro Adding Support for Pixar RenderMan Software
Open Architecture in Advanced Real-Time Non-Linear 3D Workflow and Rendering Software to Offer Seamless Path to Ray Tracing and More with Industry-Standard Rendering Solution
SIGGRAPH 2010 — Los Angeles, CA — July 26, 2010 — StudioGPU announced today its MachStudio™ Pro non-linear real-time 3D workflow and rendering software will soon offer support for Pixar RenderMan®—the Academy Award®-winning industry standard rendering software in use by studios of all sizes worldwide to meet the most demanding 3D and animation visual effects rendering challenges. StudioGPU is working closely with Pixar to build a completely open path from MachStudio Pro to RenderMan, offering real-time high-quality render previews in MachStudio Pro that can be offlined wholly or in part to RenderMan for final rendering at the highest quality possible.
Visit StudioGPU in the AMD Booth (# 301) during SIGGRAPH 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, July 27-29 to see the real-time non-linear workflow benefits of MachStudio Pro working with Pixar RenderMan on the latest ATI FireProTM 3D workstation graphics accelerators.
With a direct path to RenderMan, MachStudio Pro artists can easily choose between the software’s fast high-quality built-in GPU renderer to produce previews or view final results, or utilize the unsurpassed quality of the CPU-driven RenderMan renderer to create beauty shots and/or specific render passes. Artists also have the flexibility to use the MachStudio Pro and the RenderMan render engines simultaneously, combining the different passes from the two robust render engines to create almost any desired look.
“We are pleased that StudioGPU has closely integrated RenderMan inside of MachStudio Pro,” said Chris Ford, RenderMan business director at Pixar Animation Studios. “The ability to preview renderings before the export of final shots to RenderMan helps streamline the creative process in a way that benefits everyone.”
All shaders shipped with MachStudio Pro will have RenderMan Shader Language (RSL) equivalents. MachStudio Pro will also offer artists the ability to import, edit and create custom complied RSL shaders, parameters and attributes from directly within the application. By creating and importing custom RSL shaders, artists have the benefit of not only using their existing RSL shader libraries but also unlimited options for creating new shaders.
In the pipelines of the most creative visual effects studios around the world, including Weta Workshop, Zoic Studios and The Third Floor, MachStudio Pro is democratizing 3D workflow with award-winning non-linear real-time 3D workflow and advanced rendering technology. By offering support for RenderMan, MachStudio Pro continues to improve productivity options within the 3D pipeline, offering artists the tools and creative flexibility they desire at every step of the process.
MachStudio Pro is real-time non-linear 3D shot finaling and compositing software that harnesses the power of today’s massively parallel processing units in off-the-shelf professional graphics accelerators, changing the equation of time versus quality in the production pipeline. Frames that typically take hours to render can now be rendered in seconds and sub-seconds.
StudioGPU MachStudio Pro Opens Up Creative Options for Students
Powerful Non-Linear Real-Time 3D Workflow and Rendering Software Now Available with Attractive Student Pricing
SIGGRAPH 2010 — Los Angeles, CA — July 26, 2010 — StudioGPU announced today the full-feature version of its award-winning MachStudio™ Pro non-linear real-time 3D workflow and rendering software is now available at educational pricing to qualified students. MachStudio Pro bundled with the high-performance ATI FirePro™ V7800 workstation graphics card from AMD is available at the student price of $999 (USD), while the software only version is available for $499 (USD).
Visit StudioGPU in the AMD Booth (#301) during SIGGRAPH 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, July 27-29 to see the real-time non-linear workflow benefits of MachStudio Pro on the latest ATI FirePro 3D workstation graphics accelerators.
Many leading studios around the world, including Weta Workshop, Zoic Studios, and The Third Floor are using MachStudio Pro; leveraging the horsepower of off-the-shelf professional graphics processing units (GPUs) to achieve real-time and near real-time 3D workflow and rendering performance on the desktop.
MachStudio Pro allows artists, designers, engineers, directors, and technical directors (TDs) to work with 3D lighting, camera views and multi-point perspectives in an interactive non-linear fashion with real-time high-fidelity views as they will appear in the final rendered format. Coupled with the ATI FirePro V7800 workstation graphics card from AMD, artists get the benefits of a high-end workstation solution featuring ATI Eyefinity technology, 2 GB ultra high-speed GDDR5 memory and more than quadruple the computational power of previous generation products. The ATI FirePro V7800 offers 1440 stream processors and a parallel processing architecture that helps maximize throughput by automatically directing horsepower where it is needed. With ATI FirePro graphics accelerators, customers can take advantage of MachStudio Pro features that are exclusive to ATI accelerators such as real-time hardware tessellation and displacement mapping.
“Students should be encouraged to explore creativity however possible,” says Rob O’Neill, director of the Digital Arts Research Lab at Pratt Institute and partner at Kickstand in New York City. “By offering MachStudio Pro at educational pricing for students, StudioGPU is helping to remove the production barriers that can easily stifle a student’s access to cutting-edge tools. Now with MachStudio Pro, students can focus on the art of animation instead of the workflow limitations of long renders.”
About MachStudio Pro
Award-winning MachStudio Pro supports Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista operating systems on most professional graphic accelerator cards. The MachStudio Pro student bundle is available for $999 (USD) to qualified students in North America. This version includes a full version of the MachStudio Pro software and an ATI FirePro V7800 workstation graphics accelerator card. A software only student version is available in North America for $499 (USD). Proof of full-time enrollment in an Associate, Bachelor, Masters or Doctoral program is required to qualify for all student versions. The commercial version of MachStudio Pro software is available in North America for $3,999 (USD) or bundled with the ATI FirePro V8800 3D workstation graphics accelerator card for $4,999 (USD). For pricing in other regions, visit www.studiogpu.com/buy/locator. Education and volume licensing is also available upon request. For more information about MachStudio Pro and to download the free full-featured MachStudio Pro 30-day trial software, visit the StudioGPU web site at www.studiogpu.com.
About StudioGPU
StudioGPU develops software and technology that frees digital artists from the creative shackles of time, money and resources. MachStudio Pro empowers artists and designers working in film, broadcast, game development, computer-assisted design (CAD), and pre- and postproduction to create and manipulate fully rendered film-quality 3D design and animation in real-time.
