Larry Gritz of BMRT aka Blue Moon Rendering Tools has left PIXAR to form Exluna with Matt Pharr and Craig Kolb, also of Pixar.
What’s really interesting about this is the talent behind Exluna – Larry Gritz as mentioned is the creator of BMRT, Matt Phar is also a rendering programmer and Craig Kolb was the primary force behind Rayshade.
What will come of this? My guess is either a new renderman-compliant renderer, or an entirely new rendering system beyond the current renderman spec – both of which are pretty darn exciting imho.
In the meantime, I recommend that you check out BMRT. You can get the renderman compliant raytrace/radiosity renderer here and the interface which is supported within 3DStudio MAX and Softimage called: MAXMAN and SOFTMAN , created by the great folks at Animal Logic
For those concerned about the continuing development on BMRT you don’t have to worry:
“There was much speculation when Pixar hired me that BMRT would go away, and it didn’t. I can assure you that there’s even less of an issue now that I’m part of a company in which I’m a co-owner. Let me state unequivocally that BMRT will continue to be distributed under similar if not identical terms as it always has.” – Larry Gritz
kudos to Larry Gritz and Animal Logic for providing users with one of the best rendering solutions on the planet, and i look forward to seeing what happens in the future.
-chris bond
