Make the Next 'Toy Story' With New Free Pixar Tools

Yahoo Makers
Updated
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Pixar releases a free version of the software that helped make “Toy Story” and its other animated classics. (Photo: AP)

If you’re an amateur animator looking to make the next “Toy Story” or “The Incredibles,” this news will likely make you happier than Buzz Lightyear on an adventure.

Following up on a promise it made a year ago, Pixar Animation Studios just announced that it has finally released a free version of its Academy Award-winning software RenderMan. DIY animators and moviemakers can now download it free of charge for Mac, Windows and Linux. 

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The RenderMan software that helped make “Cars” is now available for home users… for free! (Photo: AP)

RenderMan is rendering software used to add shadows, light shadings and reflections to 3-D images to make them look more lifelike. It was used in animated Pixar classics like “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles,” “Cars” and “Up.”

Pixar also licenses the technology to other studios, who use it to jazz up the special effects in live-action movies like “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Noah.”

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Groot from “Guardians of the Galaxy” was also created with help from RenderMan. (Photo: Disney/Marvel)

But, as Fast Company Design points out, you can’t make your own animated films using RenderMan alone; you still need 3-D modeling software like Maya, which you can also get for free.

The free RenderMan software doesn’t come with watermarks, restricted capabilities, time limits or many of those annoying limitations companies often tack on to free versions of their software.  But it does come with one huge catch: it’s for non-commercial use only. If you plan to use your animated creations to make money in any way, shape or form, you’ll have to license the software for $500.

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RenderMan is free but only for non-commercial use. (Photo: RenderMan)

Still, if you want to make animated movies to impress your friends, this free software release could help take your animation game… ahem… “TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!”

WATCH: “Toy Story 4 Announced” 


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