Studio Pixar has released a free version of RenderMan - software for rendering 3D-animation. The utility is used to create animated and feature films.
RenderMan released by Pixar in 1986 and is used by many famous production-companies. It uses a 3D-ready files created by other editors, and renders frames allowing to change the position of the camera, lighting and other effects. With the use of this program have been removed such blockbusters as "Avatar", "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End", "Guardians of the Galaxy", "Transformers".
RenderMan works on Mac and PC, supports plug-ins for Maya and Katana, and in the future will be able to work with Cinema4D and Houdini. Plugins for 3DS Max, Modo, Rhino, Lightwave and Blender listed as possible. Also, the studio launched a community of users of the program in which you can discuss the work and share their projects.
RenderMan is now available without any technical limitations, but can only be used for non-commercial purposes: research, educational projects, etc. The platform is available for Windows, OS X (10.9, 10.8 & 10.7), Linux (64 bit glibc 2.12+ and gcc 4.4.5+).