Company Success Stories - Rhythm & Hues Studios
Rhythm & Hues Uses AMD Processors To Push Boundaries of the Digital Frontier
Profile
Rhythm & Hues Studios
http://www.rhythm.com
September 17, 2002
"For our render suites, the AMD Athlon™ MP processor-based systems run brilliantly"
Academy Award-winning Rhythm & Hues Studios has steadily grown in size and stature to become one of the largest privately held visual effects and computer animation houses in North America. The company develops and produces computer-generated imagery for both entertainment and advertising; currently, their creative efforts are destined predominantly for the big screen. Rhythm & Hues (R&H) has dozens of film credits in the last five years alone, including Men in Black 2, Scooby Doo, and Sum of All Fears, all major films whose graphics were rendered on AMD Athlon™ MP processor-based servers.
Mark A. Brown, vice president of technology for R&H, works directly with hardware and software manufacturers to create better tools for the more than 150 graphic artists he supports.
For Brown, the ongoing challenge is to ensure the infrastructure is in place to support the compute-intensive work of his artists. Meeting that challenge involves ongoing evaluations of emerging technology. To create "Scooby-Doo" electronically for the Warner Brothers film, Brown decided on Linux desktop systems.
"I knew I wanted Linux on the desktop. I started looking for the best price/performance. We looked at AMD processor-based systems and found they did quite well. The systems we looked at from Angstrom Micro ran dual processors and ran them brilliantly. So we started examining the systems more carefully by running render and display evaluations, and the AMD Athlon™ MP processors were as fast as the competition. So we went and got a rack of AMD processor-based systems. My animators screamed for more."
In Rhythm & Hues animation projects, such as Warner Brother's production of Scooby-Doo, the actual post-production, rendering and compositing performed on the AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems required both stability and high performance.
"An artist using our AMD Athlon MP processor-based workstations moves a low resolution model of the character around, using computer generated lights to make him look good," said Brown. "When they get what they want, they submit them to what we call a 'rendering queue,' which takes a high resolution computer-generated model and adds final fur and color and lighting to get a finished look of Scooby. After that, it's composited or put together in a live action frame. Then the artist examines the frame to see if he got what he wanted. This process goes on frame by frame by frame."
With the new AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems, Brown reported that he was able to render more than 100,000 frames over a single weekend, a result he called "unprecedented" for Rhythm & Hues.
"The typical concerns focus on heating and power consumption as well as compatibility issues," said Brown. "None of those have been problems at all. The AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems perform seamlessly. For our render suites, they run brilliantly."
Boston-based Angstrom Micro provided R&H with quality Brown could see and touch. "The box was well engineered," he said. “I was very impressed. Plus they have a lot of Linux experience as well. So we entered into a relationship that's been good for us. They're skilled, they’re nice, and we've had great thermal results. They've studied airflow and know how to maintain constant temperature."
The good news for Rhythm & Hues goes far beyond enhanced productivity for a single film. Brown sees a dramatic change in the industry that ultimately benefits its artists.
"Two years ago, there was a very high bar to get into this industry. The systems we required cost $30,000, the software was expensive, and only a few people could use the equipment. We spent a lot of money on infrastructure. Now the infrastructure supports the artist and not the other way around. It's an amazing difference. Today's $2,500 machine does several times the work of the state-of-the-art systems we used a few years ago."
Of course, the dramatic improvement in price/performance affects not only Rhythm & Hues, but its competitors as well. Brown sees this as a good thing.
"Sure, we're in a more competitive environment, which means we have to be better. Frankly, we'd rather sell the work of our artists and not the prowess of our systems. For animators, some of the biggest challenges were effects like animal fur, fire, and water. Now, those challenges are easier to overcome. With the performance we are getting from the AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems, we can stretch our wings and push the existing boundaries in our industry. Certainly, we can't rest on our laurels, we have to keep moving, and moving fast. It's very exciting."
? 2002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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