LoTR , Linux, and Database Management

minus23 writes: "Very interesting article over at Digitalanimators.com, talking about some of the challenges faced by the crew working on the second installment in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Interesting bits include managing an off-site database of 45TBs, Linux workstations from IBM, 1400 processors, and the animation methods to be used on Gollum. It's a good thing. :)"

Comments

Tolkein just used words

[saphena]

When I read LOTR many years ago, when computers were hard to come by and certainly not used for frivolity such as generating fairy tales, I had no trouble whatsoever "seeing" Gollum and all the other characters just from the textual descriptions.

Does all this computing power mean we've advanced?

Re:Tolkein just used words

[zootread]

The movies are a supplement to the books in this particular case.

Does all this computing power mean we've advanced?

It means our technology has advanced, yes. Is using technology for art and entertainment frivolous? I think not. We, as humans, are creative, and using technology to exhibit this creativity is in our nature.

Re:Tolkein just used words

[hdparm]

I asked the same question myself when my 11 year old son came home after watching the movie.

He started reading the trilogy when he was 9 and hasn't lost a bit of energy to read it again and again. He was (is) absolutelly fascinated by Tolkein's masterpiece. I was very surprised when he told me how disappointed he was with the movie. Explanation? Very simple and sincere - someone else has completely ruined the world my son was imagining, creating and dreaming of for over two years - his words.

Nothing helps now - telling him about the freedom of artistic impression/expression, amazing technology that made all this possible, nothing. He can't start reading LoTR anymore.

I don't know, seems too much - doesn't help even knowing that most of it was engineered on Linux.

Re:Behold, the power of brain.

[loply]

Heh. Yeah...
And JRR Tolkiens one brain imagined with the power of those 1400 processors, plus the power of the 230 graphics artists, dedicated asset management company, production team, audio guys, actors, and so on :)

Wiered to think...

am i missing the point?

[siliconwafer]

"The problem with Linux is that it's an open source system, so if you are having issues or difficulties with its stability, it's like pushing on a rope; there's no single vendor to deal with. You have to be self-deterministic in terms of how things work. You have to make your own choices and do your own tests on motherboards, graphics cards, applications, operating system releases, all those kinds of things."

Call up any vendor. Tell them their systems are unstable out of the box. Think they're gonna say something like, "oh, yeah, just tweak this little setting...". I don't think the quote above is very logical; no vendor is going to be that helpful with stability issues. Maybe "stability issues" was just a poor choice of words?

Asset Management Issue?

[malakai]

I'm amazed in this day in age, they are having a problem with asset management/tracking. Although it's underplayed in the interview, it seems as though the Informix Media 360 was a complete bust.

I can't imagine it was beyond their programmers prowess to create plug-ins or custom scripts that could save the media to a server under some GUID of a filename, and insert a row into a table someplace with the meta-data for that asset. A homegrown content management system is really simple with todays scripting/filesystems/XML. Hell you could throw out the database insert, and just write a filename.xml in the same directory, then harvest the information later.

I'm amazed they stumbled on this, and even more amazed they payed for the Informix product (didn't IBM buy them, and drop that product anyhow?).

Also, is it just me or does it seem like this CTO was 'released' at an odd time?

-malakai

mmmmm.....

[prmths]

i was really happy with the first movie...
even though all of the bombadil saga was pulled out.. etc...

but i guess they cant leave it all in since it'd take about a solid day to play the full thing...

i cant wait to see the two towers... i havnt seen anything with treebeard... anyone heard anything?

i'm also kind of curious on how much crunch power the fellowship took compared to the two towers...

Re:Just a thought

[zenyu]

Alright, so... what am I missing here? You've got IBM behind your efforts. Whats the problem?

He's probably comparing IBM service with SGI service. IBM will support your PC as well or better than Dell or Compaq, but SGI will send a guy in a cab with extra workstations if you have a problem. They charge for that type of service when you buy one of their PC's, but when they lend you an Origin on short notice you appreciate it.

SGI will gladly sell you Maya for your Linux box, but it's up to you to set up the scanner, find the right 1000Mbps network card, compile a custom kernel, pick the filesystem, etc.

Re:What software are they using?

[Oculus Habent]

I recall an article on WETA. Don't know about the entire rendering process, but they created a program called Massive - it allows each individual character to interact with the environment while still moving with others, i.e. soldiers shifting their weight over unever terrain while still marching.

They are also using Shake from Nothing Real for compositing. Not sure about anything else they use, though.