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|  | Dr. Robert Ballard, Institute for Exploration @ Mystic Aquarium | | | Jim Blasingame, Small Business Network, Inc., | | | Bill Camp, Sandia National Laboratories | | | Andrew Cross, NewTek | | | Dan Gregoire, Previsualization Effects Supervisor, JAK Films | | | Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson Guitar | | | Wayne Kugel, Cray Inc. |
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Studio 64
Dan Gregoire
Previsualization Effects Supervisor, JAK Films
Note: To view/listen to these files you will need the Real Media Player. Click here to download.
Video - View
“Pre-visualization is the art of visual story telling, and it’s my department’s responsibility to make sure that George Lucas’ ideas get translated so that he knows whether or not his ideas are actually working in a digital sense, in a movie sense. He can take the movies that we create for him early in the process and use them to maintain a higher level of creative control over the entire production process. That way, there are no questions about what he really wants in the end. So today, I am here to talk to you about why JAK Films is committed to using AMD’s 64-bit Opteron processors in the production of Star Wars, Episode Three.
First of all, the back end. Servers in one view rack mount render nodes. We created over 4,000 shots for Star Wars, Episode Two, and we intend to do a lot more for Episode Three. That’s a lot of data to move around and we are confident that with AMD’s 64-bit Opteron systems, their scalability will keep up with our production process. The one view rack mount servers, with their eight gigabytes of addressable RAM will enable us to handle much larger files much faster than we ever have been able to do before. Of course, the same is true on the desktop. I actually have a quick demo over here for you, if you could move the monitor. I just want to show you this shot for context. It’s a shot that we created for the Episode Two DVD. It’s a little digital R2D2 here behind our main characters, and a lot of extra digital elements behind here. What’s really important is 32-bit Maya running in the background. Now, this is a 64-bit workstation provided by Boxx Technologies, with an NVIDIA FX2000 card, fully functional on the 64-bit platform. It’s completely lit, shaded, textured, and running absolutely seamlessly. That’s what is so beautiful about AMD’s 64-bit architecture. You can take advantage of the software that takes advantage of 64-bit without having to throw away all of your other 32-bit apps. This is an absolute boom for the effects industry and it’s very important for us.
Not only for the effects industry, but also for the film industry. As you know, George Lucas is an incredible champion of digital cinema. He is a leader in the field. AMD’s 64-bit architecture finally provides a platform that can deliver cinema quality HD content not only at the theaters but also to people’s homes.”
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