Pixar gives away RenderMan, too late for Kochadaiiyaan

What was the software used in the animation film Kochadaiiyaan?  Everywhere I look, it is termed ‘Photorealistic Motion Capture Technology’ also called ‘Performance Capturing Technology’.  While the former sounds like laboratory test that my physician would recommend, the second sounds like a sleazy ad for pleasing my GF, found on 2nd rate magazine.

I am sure the software company would prefer to keep its name out of the credits, after reviewing Kochadaiiyaan.  The young brigade in the audience was openly jeering, and you can not blame them.  For guys and girls brought up on Cartoon Network and TNT, and passed out on Avatar, 300, 10000 BC and TinTin, Kochadaiiyaan does look pretty lame.

To put it in perspective, I feel:

• the attempt to animate living actors is too early, and even in future may prove to be an impossible task in Indian filmdom. 
• the attempt to animate a large number of people may have been the next failure.  If they had tried a story with less number of people - a story like Muthu - perhaps it might have turned out better.
• too many ornaments, flamboyant dresses and scenes might also have contributed to the crassness of the film.  Instead of paying attention to characters, the animators must have put in much more time paying attention to unimportant objects.  
• the lack of attention to details, like facial expressions and smoother motion may have been a direct consequence.  
• perhaps this lack of attention was due to the software quality or a hotchpotch of software used in the animation - they did it at first in London, then in Qatar/India, and finally in HK/China.

Whatever it is, it must be galling for the Kochadaiiyaan team to learn that Pixar is giving away its latest version of RenderMan animation software free for non-commercial and personal use.  They propose to slash the fee of RenderMan for commercial, meaning film making, purposes.

Pixar owned by Disney in a statement has said it it would release a free version of RenderMan without any functional limitations, watermarking, or time restrictions for non-commercial users like students, institutions, researchers, developers, and for personal use.

The new version of RenderMan is due to be released ahead of the Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (Siggraph) conference in August 2014.  This move by Pixar/Disney must definitely raise the standards of animation techniques, even in India.

If you did not understand what I mean by attempting too much detail, here is a side by side snapshot from the Hollywood movie Brave and the Kollywood movie Kochadaiiyaan.  In which movie would you think more attention, time, and detail would have been paid to characters rather than peripheral objects?

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