Computing Collaboration
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: panda, dreamworks, HP | Themes: Digital Entertainment
2. Computing Collaboration
For over seven years DreamWorks has built up a partnership with Hewlett-Packard. It started with computer supply, and progressed to storage, networking, and collaboration. Then it moved on to specialized equipment, such as HP’s new 30 bit DreamColor monitor.
This integration was deemed critical to DreamWorks’ steep innovation in this and other films, as well as continued setting of new high-bars for the industry, according to the CTO, Ed Leonard.
Eighteen months ago, said DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg at a press screening of Kung Fu Panda, the “very rich, beautiful, and extraordinary textures and detail would not have been possible. “ Without this innovation, the environmental details, as well as mixing and matching between them, would not have been so seamless.
The DreamWorks-HP collaboration has also resulted in two "rules of rendering."
| Shrek’s Law, coined by DreamWorks animators, states that for every sequel, computer render hours are roughly doubled. We can expect approximately 50 million render hours for a Kung Fu Panda 2. | |
| Shrek | 5 x 10 to the 6th power render hours |
| Shrek 2 | 10 x 10 to the 6th power render hours |
| Shrek 3 | 20 x 10 to the 6th power render hours |
| Kung Fu Panda | 25 x 10 to the 6th power render hours |
| Madagascar 2 | 30 to 35 x 10 to the 6th power render hours estimated |
| 2009 Films | 40 -50 x 10 to the 6th power render hours; all will be stereoscopic 3-D |
Each finished film is approximately 50 Terabytes; two to three terabytes are rendered nightly.
A corollary to Shrek’s Law is Jeffrey’s (Katzenberg) Law: You always want more (render hours, computing capability) than you have.
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THERE it is.
Ugh.