In the last 16 years, every film nominated for a Visual Effects Academy Award has used RenderMan.
He was the first to use Monte Carlo techniques in computer graphics, particularly important in the special effects industry, because it allowed computer-generated imagery to match the motion blur and depth of field of the live-action footage with which it was combined. In 1987, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award in recognition of lifetime contributions to the field. In 1999, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. He has been named to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and to the National Academy of Engineering.
Rob Cook received an award in ACM SIGGRAPH Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to the fields of computer and visual effects in 1987. In 1999, he received an award in Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2001, he received an Academy Award of Merit (Oscar) “for significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar’s RenderMan”. In 2009, he received the Steven Anson Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics.