RenderMan is a rendering application programming interface (API) associated with film production, an essential tool for creating many of the effects and images in recent animated films.

This book is a self-paced tutorial that facilitates the understanding of many of the features of RenderMan. The tone of the book is set in the preface, where Stephenson explains why he wrote the first edition and the reason for the second edition. In each chapter, Stephenson provides code segments or complete code, and shows the resulting image. Many of these images are included in the color plates, with some extra images illustrating the power of RenderMan. Most chapters have a summary of the idea, and related commands. The book has three parts: overview, geometry, and shading.

The overview includes: what RenderMan is and isn’t; a summary of the RenderMan API features; where to get software that implements the RenderMan API; and how the book can be used. I strongly urge you to follow the author’s suggestions.

The geometry part uses mostly spheres, although the standard teapot also makes an appearance. Stephenson starts with a simple scene, extends it by using positioning commands, and then adds other round objects, such as cones. Coloring options are then added to the code. To enhance the final image, camera and lighting features are introduced. At this point, the surface is plain, which leads readers to the next four chapters on: standard and complex surface types, shadows with shadow maps, motion blur, and depth of field (DOF). Stephenson shows the C language interface; I wondered why until he used it to enhance an image with multiple objects and features (something difficult to accomplish by hand coding). The example makes multiple spheres, with each one moved in three-dimensional (3D) space from the others, using a loop. Coding this by hand would be very error prone and boring, and thus it shows the power of this coding feature. It also changes the reader’s mindset for the joys of particles, and introduces simple shaders and their associated code.

The shading part deals with writing code for a wide variety of shaders, starting with the basic shader introduced in Part 2 and moving on to global illumination (GI) with multiple features along the way. The chapters cover, in order: simple lighting; color ramps; simple, tiling, and repeating patterns; projections and coordinate spaces, including the math details for those interested; painted textures; displacements; noise; aliasing and how it solves many, but not all, problems; highlights models; advanced lighting; and, finally, GI. Stephenson points out the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods, and shows ways to improve the final image with code samples.

Overall, I found the book interesting, helpful, and a good introduction to the subject, although a bit terse in spots. On the flip side, Stephenson makes reference to the book’s Web site, which I could not find in the book, and the last three chapters have some misspelled words (not a lot, but enough to show a certain lack of care).