One of the film industry’s most sophisticated and successful franchises, George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, is scheduled to return to theaters in 2005 after a complex creative process that is being helped along by production tools that rely on AMD Opteron™ processors.

Daniel Gregoire of JAK Films (a division of Lucasfilm)

“In that not-so-distant past, the image-rendering process often meant a coffee break,” Gregoire said, “and while the computer chugged along trying to assemble and display a new image, a production artist could lose a lot of valuable time. Today, these tasks move much more quickly.” Gregoire adds, “Speed is just one of the benefits JAK Films has realized.”

Gregoire describes the process now underway at JAK as “storyboarding on steroids.” Right now, he and his team are using computer software including Alias’ Maya and Adobe’s After Effects to build sets in 3D and match them to plates shot in Sydney. These pre-postproduction shots form the foundation of the finished film. “The plates for the film are mostly blue screen, which makes it difficult to see if scenes are working. We use AMD64 technology-based hardware to roughly place the appropriate digital sets in with the actors and of course we do this without spending an exorbitant amount of money,” Gregoire says.

“This is an incredibly powerful tool for George (Lucas) to have in his arsenal.”

“Thanks to the AMD Opteron processor and off-the-shelf software (which JAK Films uses exclusively), we can deliver even more punch for every shot. Twelve guys working for a week can produce 180-plus pre-postproduction shots on these machines—from the first 3D track to the last 2D composite and everything in between,” says Gregoire. “The chips are awesome,” he agrees. “We can upgrade to a 64-bit native chip, and it’s totally legacy compatible. But there’s also an incredibly well thought out internal architecture, HyperTransport™ technology, which helps realize the full benefit of faster-than-ever chips.”