(Press Release) Hollywood has found an unlikely ally in its efforts to lower costs in the increasingly complex world of digital filmmaking: Intel Corporation. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, revealed its latest Intel technology deployment of 600 Pentium 4 processor-based animation workstations. ILM is one of many studios adopting Intel technology to assist with the future of filmmaking.
ILM began using Intel-based systems on "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," and then with "Men in Black II" and "Minority Report." They are currently employed in the development of "Star Wars: Episode III," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "The Hulk" and "Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines."
Use of Intel technology is on a rapid rise in Hollywood because of the convergence of four key factors. First, the performance of Intel-based systems over the past two years has consistently surpassed that of proprietary systems, while system costs have come down. This has led to significant savings for studios. Next, major studios are increasingly outsourcing the rendering of digital effects to "render farms" that use large banks of small servers, and in that model Intel's high-volume, high-performance, low-cost, any-software approach makes sense. In addition, studios are now using a variety of operating systems, and Intel technology provides them the most flexibility. Finally, the results of Intel's multi-year effort to make movie software more Intel-friendly has borne fruit. Applications from such companies as Adobe, Alias/Wavefront, Digital Domain, Discreet, Macromedia and Softimage have reached critical mass.
