CompuServe Messages

Doug, Renderman is generally used to produce photorealistic stills. It uses PIXAR's Renderman technology as opposed to 3D Studio's texture mapping, phong shading method. The Renderman technology (shaders) is generally accepted to produce the most realistic stills. Also it offers incredible control over texture mapping and texture projection. It comes with an animation package to do 3D animations. It cannot be compared with 3D studio for animation. 3D studio is a dedicated animation package. The advantage of using Renderman over 3D studio is that you can do animations and still images for far less money and unless you are planning on diving into deep waters (ie. learning 3D studio) it may be all one needs. Thanks for your interest.