Linux In Hollywood: Status Report

segment writes "TechNewsWorld is running an article about Linux in Hollywood. The article describes speed advantages, cost advantages, movies in which Linux played a role (including Shrek, Star Wars, and Titanic). Mentions of the embrace for Linux with history on Apple, Microsoft, and other vendors, and how they've adapted to the use.`As a rule, no major studio will rely on a tool without access to the source code. The risk is too great. It's not that the studios want to putter around modifying commercial programs, rather it's insurance -- insurance that they can do so if they must to meet a production deadline.` Very informative article." Robin Rowe (the author) is the project manager for Cinepaint (formerly "FilmGimp"), but writes about 3D applications, barriers to software entry in Hollywood, and more.

Comments

Alas, poor SGI

[fm6]

Anybody working at SGI (Silicon Graphics before the big rebranding) will find this story extremely discouraging. It isn't just that it talks about Linux/commodity systems taking over a market that used to be dominated by Irix/SGI systems. It's the attitude expressed in the article, which has to have been picked up from the people the reporter interviewed: SGI products are legacy technology. They don't compete with Linux based systems -- they're just something people have to hold onto unti l the corresponding Linux technology matures enough for to replace it.

The one SGI product mentioned that is moving forward is the Linux version of Maya -- and the reporter seems unaware that Maya is an SGI product! A sad outcome for a company that once dominated computer animation.

Re:Alas, poor SGI

[Anonymous Coward]

SGI bet on NT and lost. Also, both SGI and E&S had a difficult time transitioning their graphics experience into the PC market. They couldn't bring themselves to stripping their cards down to an affordable price, they lacked PC interface experience, and that market is simply more brutal than the workstation market. 3DLabs and then NVidia ate them up at the low end.

Re:Alas, poor SGI

[gmack]

SGI has been wanting to dump Irix for years with good reason.. I recall SGI making noise about going NT on Intel before finally unleashing a small army of developers on the Linux kernel to bring performance up to par for their needs.

I still have archinved posts of Linus flaming one of their enginneers for trying to mod the linux OS to improve the performance of Maya when an app change would have been more efficiant.

Make no mistake, SGI was one of the earliest backers of Linux in movie production and actively sells Linux/Intel hardware to the studios.

Re:Alas, poor SGI

[fm6]

I think your psychic powers are failing. I was working at SGI when they began the Linux drive. Which was never about replacing Irix with Linux. If it were, they'd be selling Linux for their MIPS-based system. But nobody would buy such a system: their existing MIPS users are all used to IRIX -- and MIPS systems continues to be their bread and butter.

What their Linux drive is about is selling systems based on Itanium processors. They simply decided it would be cheaper to join the Linux movement than to port Irix to the Itanium. They still sell both Irix/MIPS and Linux/Itanium systems. Neither of which Hollywood seems to have any interest in.

What your Linus story has to do with anything escapes me.

Re:Alas, poor SGI

[AJWM]

SGI bet on NT and lost.

Yep, and the guy responsible for SGI betting on NT, Rick Belluzzo, went on to head up Microsoft's internet operations. A reward for a job well done, even as SGI was tanking?

Re:what exactly could they do?

[code_echelon]

"Thankfully, though, Lightwave has a neat little SDK. So somebody could write a plugin that says "first render this model in this pose here, then move the model over to where the second guy is supposed to be and render it over there, rinse and repeat...". I think it's called instancing. Instead of having 1,000 monsters in RAM, you just have one."

Yes the feature you are talking about is called instancing I believe. Seems to be a really useful took to have availalble to you. Here is a link that I found interesting on the subject.

• Instancing article

RTFA, Bunky

[foandd]

He plainly states in the article that the studios make special deals to have access to the source code for the commercial software they use, often at very high expense.

Discreet launched first Linux online editor

[StandardCell]

Note: I submitted this as a news story, and I believe it was major Linux-related news but it was rejected. Fortunately it's still relatively fresh and this a good topic to repeat it in. It clearly demonstrates that Linux is an excellent platform for editors in the broadcast field.

From this link:

Discreet Launches First High-End Online Editing System for the Linux Operating System Press Release -- Discreet

Debuts smoke 6 Standard Definition Online Editing and Finishing System Page 1 of 1

MONTREAL (Sep. 04, 2003) -- Discreet announced the high-end non-linear editing and finishing system for the Linux operating system, smoke 6. The addition of Linux workstation support in the version 6 release, combined with new pricing, will significantly extend Discreet's market for smoke; ensuring its accessibility to broadcasters and a new segment of mid-range post-production facilities. Discreet will debut both Linux and Irix versions of smoke 6 at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (booth 7.421) from September 12-16, 2003.

With more than seven years of leadership in online editing, smoke will be one of the most sophisticated digital media applications ever released on the Linux operating system. The performance of today's PC workstations combined with newly enhanced capabilities of the Linux operating system enables robust support for the rigorous editing and finishing performance demands of smoke. smoke 6 on Linux is a standard definition (SD) editing system designed to work with Red Hat Linux 8 and will ship as a turnkey solution on IBM's high-performance IntelliStation Z Pro 6221 workstation.

Re:Funny use of the word rule

[wbattestilli]

Disclaimer I work for Alias and I do custom development for major film studios but I do not speak for them.

Just to clarify the above post. Alias does not give any customer access to the Maya source code. Many major studios do, however, pay us to develop certain features that they require.

This service is available to any customer. For those interested, feel free to contact me directly.

--
Whitney Battestilli
Software Engineer
Alias
wbattestilli at aw.sgi.com

What about the G5

[benwaggoner]

Based on the article, it seems like Apple's new G5 systems would almost be a better fix for Linux for a lot of this stuff. SGI was too slow, and Windows too different an API to port. Mac OS X lets you run all the Adobe stuff natively, a real UNIX underneath for porting, and with the G5, a processor fast enough to get in the ballpark of x86 for price/performance. As the article mentioned, Shake on Mac is so much cheaper, you basically get the Mac for free!

The new Photoshop CS announced yesterday definitely has the deep paint (and non square pixel support!) required to make it a great film/video app for a lot of stuff.

The one big barrier I see is a complete port of Maya (Maya Complete not being complete, of course).

*NIX to OS X porting will get a lot easier with 10.3 (out within 30 days?), which has X11 built-in, and a lot more Linux-like API stuff.

Re:Hipocrits

[malducin]

You neglect the fact that "Hollywood" is a big heterogenous machinery. Movie studios (Disney, Universal, Fox, etc.) are the members of the MPAA. VFX studios (ILM, Imageworks, Digital Domain, Weta, Tippett, Rhythm and Hues, Cinesite, Framestore/CFC, etc.) work for Hollywood by providing a service. They are not more than contractors, not much unlike the catering company, or even say you plumber. VFX studios are not members of the MPAA and have no say on projects or policies.

Re:what exactly could they do?

[black mariah]

Keep in mind that Duff's Device came around as a way to speed up an animation playback program at Lucasarts. Small optimizations make huge differences.

http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-device.html

Re:Funny use of the word rule

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Because the department I run would be using that software if we had access to it. Even in our closest vendor/client relationship we do not have access to the source code (though in some cases we may have escrow arrangements to deal with a vendor's bankruptcy) and we are a major effects house backed by one of the largest studios.

Take one example, Alias|Wavefront. We have a dedicated developer from them who has helped with writing plugins in house as well as making some small tweaks to our custom version of Maya. But we do not get to look at the source code at all under any circumstances.

Re:what exactly could they do?

[Lumpy]

FYI: they hadn't figured out nor written the software to do the hair on the main character in Monsters Inc until the project was more than 50% completed and they were ready to start rendering to film.

Yes, hollywood doesnt use the junk that users use... they actually get their hands dirty and dive into the process...

Dont even think that a low end app like lightwave or maya could even touch what they do at pixar.

Re:Poor SGI my ass...

[fm6]

First of all, you're reading too much into what I said when you assume that I'm defending SGI's mistakes. Perhaps you don't know the literary reference behind "Alas"?

Second, your notions of how the movie biz works are pretty naive. Is your idea of an "Indie studio" a bunch of film geeks scraping together a few thou to make a bad horror movie? Real film making is expensive. Nowadays a "low budget" movie costs a minimum of $3 million to make. And the studios mentioned in the article spend more than that on catering!

Yeah, they can save some money buying open source applications instead of Maya. Probably not that much. I suspect that they probably buy whatever makes their animators most productive. The salaries they pay those guys dwarfs any sum they might spend on animation software.

Of course, open-source apps may have an edge if they need a feature they can't find in any closed-source app: they can just hire somebody to write the feature in. Of course, that makes the open-source app much more expensive! I don't know how often this happens, but I'm inclined to believe that most studios use a mixture of open and closed source applications.

Anyway, this isn't about applications, this is about the platform: Linux, running on commodity computers. This trend is happening not because Linux is a little cheaper than Irix. It's happening because commdity computers are a lot cheaper, crunch for crunch, then RISC computers. Commodity computers are less powerful, but with current clustering technology, you can just throw more processors at a problem and still spend less money.

Re:Linux on artist desktops too?

[ChaosDiscord]

A good chunk of the artists out there doing 3D stuff need Photoshop. What are they using in its place? (or do they have a Mac room running Photoshop elsewhere?)

Well, I found the following information in an article online. You might have stumbled across it before, although it wasn't widely announced.

Disney funded Linux developer CodeWeavers to make the CrossOver emulator run Windows Adobe Photoshop 7 on Linux -- without Windows.

and

Deep paint, with more than 8 bits per channel of color depth, is necessary to support the higher dynamic range of film. Could the Hollywood market support a commercial deep paint tool tailored to motion picture production? Considering the small market niche, studio technologists didn't think so.

Hollywood came up with a novel solution. What if the popular Linux open-source GIMP program was enhanced for motion picture work? Although the industry couldn't justify developing a deep paint program from scratch, it could support a few open-source programmers to make a deep GIMP.

...

Film Gimp was subsequently used by Rhythm & Hues for Scooby-Doo, Dr. Dolittle 2, and Planet of the Apes. Sony Pictures Imageworks picked up Film Gimp for use in Stuart Little 2. Hammerhead Productions used it in Showtime, Blue Crush, and 2 Fast 2 Furious.

HTH. HAND.