Pixar donates $150,000 worth of software

CVBT reports that Pixar has donated computer software programs valued at $150,000 to California State University, Fresno.

Students in Fresno State animation, interior design and video courses will see a dramatic decrease in the amount of time it takes to create videos and film by using the software.

The new software – Renderman Pro Server 13.5.3 and Renderman Studio 1.01 – will allow students to complete a film image in less than an hour, the university says.

“Pixar’s RenderMan product is by all accounts a strong industry standard used by many – if not most – of the largest studios in the world,” says David Gaines, the Fresno State information technology consultant/manager who secured the gift.

“The support they were willing to offer was beyond anything I could have hoped for,” he says. “The opportunities this opens to students are phenomenal. They now have at their disposal a professional industry standard suite of applications. That is going to give them a great advantage in the job market.”