A lot of people don't know this, but the origins of the company we now know as Pixar actually didn't start off as a 3D animation company. Instead, many of their early 3D animations were only created to show off their hardware and software to potential customers. Fast forward a few decades and you don't have to be into 3D animation to know who Pixar is. However, most people outside the 3D world probably don't know that Pixar has continued their software development side throughout all these years. This week Pixar announced that their their flagship product, RenderMan, which has been used in their own animations as well as numerous other CG projects over the years, has undergone an incredible price drop. Licenses that used to cost thousands of dollars are now significantly cheaper at only $495 per license. Are you a hobbiest or student? There's even better news for you! Non-commercial licenses of RenderMan are now free. Or, they will be free once Pixar has them ready (they should be ready in early August, around the same time as SIGGRAPH). If you want to learn more about this news or register for a free non-commercial license of RenderMan once it's available, check out Pixar's RenderMan site where you can watch a great video by Pixar's president and co-founder Ed Catmull himself talk about some of the motivations behind the price changes. We're excited to see how this news will affect the availability of RenderMan for students and professionals alike! What are your thoughts? Have you used RenderMan? Let us know in the comments below!