• Challenge:
  • Although extremely talented, Luminetik is a small company competing against major studios like Sony and Pixar in the 3D animated film market.
  • 3D animated films are incredibly expensive to make. Studios need to see proof of concept (essentially a “sneak peek” of the film), which can itself be costly and time consuming. Additionally, recent $200 million budget films have not produced terrific returns. As a result, funding for such projects is difficult to achieve.
  • Currently, the company is racing to deliver the highly anticipated 3D animated short, “Dis_Konnected”, featuring popular 3D characters Alex and Justin. 
• Solution:
  • After extensive testing, the solution delivering the highest quality image and competitive pricing proved to be a dual AMD Opteron processor-based workstation using the NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics card.
• Impact:
  • AMD64 processor-powered systems with Direct Connect Architecture helped Luminetik in terms of price competitiveness and performance.
  • Cost: “Where big studios are spending $200 million on making 3D animated films, we can produce the same quality faster with a $60 million budget,” said Akiko Ashley, founder.
  • Efficiency: According to Ashley, the efficiency of the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture blew away the competition. Specifically, she says the competing processor needed to be serviced at least twice as often, which not only delayed deadlines but interrupted the creative process, and often crashed during inopportune moments. Luminetik also saw a 14-fold increase in rendering tests, which was such a dramatic delta that Ashley stated, “There was such a performance difference that we found with the AMD Opteron processor, the larger the file, the larger the difference.”

Organizational Profile
Luminetik Animation Studios was founded by self-proclaimed “fearless trailblazers and geeks” from a wide range of atypical studio executive backgrounds who rallied behind the idea of creating something completely different in the animated film genre. A mixture of gut-feel and extensive market research supported the idea that an animated feature aimed at “tweens and teens”, a demographic commanding a whopping $170 billion in spending power, could be created with a large ROI—unlike recent animated films produced by larger studios. As such, the company is preparing to release its first 3D animated short, “Dis_Konnected.” The eagerly-anticipated film features characters such as Alex and Justin who were introduced to the public a few years ago and have been gaining momentum since.

Challenge
Luminetik has an impressive array of talent within the company but its founders understand the company is playing in a highly competitive space against major production studios like Sony and Pixar. To level the playing field and even provide a competitive advantage, Luminetik understands that technology can give the company the edge it needs to compete.

While major production studios typically use hundreds of processors in the production of big-budget animated releases, Luminetik needed a more modest solution that could nonetheless provide them with the capabilities they required. Specifically, Luminetik was looking for a solution that could increase efficiency and reduce costs. These criteria were especially important as the company began to go into production of its first 3D animated feature, “Dis_Konnected”.

Solution
After running extensive comparative tests, Luminetik chose the dual AMD Opteron processor-based workstation using the NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics card. Through the tests, Luminetik found that a competing processor-based system was extremely disruptive to the creative process, causing unnecessary inefficiencies. Founder Akiko Ashley explained the competing system was incompatible with many critical software programs, crashing systems at inopportune moments and requiring at least twice as much service as systems powered by the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture.

The company is currently running 10 AMD Opteron processor-powered systems. “We’re no strangers to hardware and software so we make educated decisions,” said Ashley. Luminetik has found that rendering (the process of adding light, texture, etc. to achieve the final look of one slide) is 14 times faster working with the AMD64 processor powered-systems.

Impact
The AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture provided the one-two punch of optimal performance with low costs. The increased performance helped Luminetik in both pre- and post-production of “Dis_Konnected.” When conducting rendering tests for creating the proof-of-concept in order to receive budget approval, Luminetik found a dramatic increase in performance, which saved the company multiple hours of creating shorts. And with this rapid efficiency, Ashley stated, “We can effectively create and meet deadlines now—which is a unique value proposition in this industry.”

This efficiency was also critical for the creative process: the competing processor-based system would shut down so often it disrupted the development cycle. Ashley continued, “When the software would crash due to the processor, it was like removing a brush from a painter’s hand.”

The cost of running an AMD Opteron processor-powered system is so affordable that, according to Ashley, “AMD has allowed us to create films with $60 million budgets where previously no one ever thought you could produce such a high quality film at that price point.”

“Major studios typically use hundreds of processors to create big-budget animated films. We have found that we can do the same activities such as performance capture and CG-tests with ten AMD Opteron™ processor-powered systems. The AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture provides a studio solution and is competitive in both price and performance,” said Akiko Ashley, founder.

About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises and governments to individual consumers. For more information, visit www.amd.com.

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