Well, I did some digging, and it turns out that for a quality Renderman program, it would cost me $3500! Granted, there are other programs I could get from Renderman, but those apparently cost anything from $600-$3000. Looks like I am sticking to book learning.

Lately I have been pondering why it is that when the human figure is created in a digital program why they look so different on computer games when compared to films. The answer I found is that most rendering software used for designing computer games builds images based on geometric shapes. These shapes when added together make a figure, and each plane can have a different color, size, etc. In programs such as Renderman however, characters are built up in layers, with only one seen by the viewer. This means that textures can be designed and look much more realistic. Compare for example, Toy Story and The Sims. Both have human characters with entirely different shapes, textures, and movement. I don't want to say that one form is necessarily better then the other, but it seems to me, the more realistic it is, the better it is. I suppose it depends on each individual viewer. Recently however, companys such as XBOX have been using software with this layering technique creating video games far more realistic then anything the world has ever seen before. It is really amazing to look at the changes over the last twenty years.