Always wanted to work for Pixar? Now’s your chance to prove you’ve got what it takes

AMD and Pixar have joined forces once more for this year’s RenderMan challenge, the pair have announced. 

The challenge sees artists, graphic designers, and other content creators bring their cinematic visions to life using Pixar’s VFX and animation rendering software. 

The CPU manufacturer has revealed that this year’s challengers will also gain access to ‘The AMD Creator Cloud’. Powered by the company’s EPYC server processors and 3D V-Cache technology on the Microsoft Azure platform, Creator Cloud will let challengers render designs using the high-performance chips for the first time.

Rise to the challenge

The RenderMan Challenge (opens in new tab), which has been running since 2017, offers artists and designers a “unique opportunity to interact and receive feedback from Pixar professionals,” according to the Disney-owned animation studio. 

But the challenge, sponsored by the likes of ILM, Adobe Substance 3D, and Nvidia, isn’t just a chance to get all-important eyes on an artist’s work, with AMD’s Media & Entertainment Director James Knight hailing the team-up as a way to make “this competition accessible to many more people, allowing them to design and create incredibly fast, from anywhere inspiration strikes.”

This year’s theme is ‘NASA Exploration’ – no doubt inspired by Pixar’s latest space-based cinematic outing, Lightyear. Challengers can take advantage of a host of scientifically accurate 3D models, from telescopes to planets, courtesy of the US space agency.

“With every RenderMan Challenge, it’s amazing to see how the entries become more sophisticated and complex every time,” said Dylan Sisson, RenderMan Digital Artist at Pixar and one of ten judges on the panel. 

“With the advancements we are seeing in hardware and software, this now allows individual artists to create images of ever-increasing sophistication and complexity. It is a great opportunity for challengers to unleash their creative vision with these state-of-the-art technologies.”

Alongside the partnership announcement, AMD, which recently made waves with its AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor, unveiled a new film detailing how the firm is working with Pixar and NASA to make this year’s RenderMan challenge “more accessible and inspiring” than ever before. 

Artists and graphic design aficionados can submit their RenderMan work to Pixar now. Submissions close on 15 November 2022.