Cloud Computing Democratizes Digital Animation

kenekaplan writes "John McNeil is the chief creative officer and founder of a digital arts and communication company based in Berkeley, CA. After turning to Amazon's Elastic Cloud Computing service for the first time to finish animation under tight deadline, he was impressed by how it would let him compete with bigger studios. He said, 'Cloud computing is the first truly democratic, accessible technology that potentially gives everyone a supercomputer...it's a game changer. I could never compete or be able to deliver something at the level of a Pixar or a Disney, given what I have at my disposal inside the walls of the studio,' McNeil said. 'But if I factor in the cloud, all of a sudden I can go there. And then the limitations of whether or not I can deliver something great will be on my own talent and the talent of the people that are part of the studio.'"

Comments

gives everyone a supercomputer... right

[Anonymous Coward]

"And then the limitations of whether or not I can deliver something great will be on my own talent and the talent of the people that are part of the studio." ... and also how much money I can put. Using a massive computing power on a cloud requires a lot of money.

Re:gives everyone a supercomputer... right

[WrongSizeGlass]

Small studios produce a title every few years. With the cost of keeping their hardware current this option makes a lot of sense for them.

Re:What a load...

[wisty]

Let's not forget, you can render a really nice smooth teapot for peanuts, but you can't tell a good story, choreograph a chaotic rescue scene, or draw the expression on the protagonist's face when a little old lady kicks him in the nuts. You also have no chance of getting Jack Black or Angelina Jolie as voice actors.

Pixar is not just a render farm. It's also a studio. The South Park guys showed you can still beat a studio if you are willing to target a new demographic (people who liked The Simpsons, and want sex jokes as well as fart jokes) and have talented actors and writers, but it's not easy.

Re:Why is Slashdot not blacked out?

[ByOhTek]

I think the SOPA blackout is useful because it helps inform the general public who is unaware of the problems and ramifications of SOPA and it's three vile siblings.

I doubt there is anyone on slashdot who is unaware of the ramifications, even those of use who support some copyright stuff, and who are against piracy, are aware that SOPA is a dangerous piece of legislation that will only harm society, and not help any artist.

Re:Bandwidth ?

[partiklehead]

The problem is not getting a video file from one computer to the next, it's the rendering. One single frame of a high end 3D animation film can take days to render even on a supercomputer. So the fact that transferring the result takes say 5 minutes instead 1 minute is negligable compared to the gains in rendering time.