ACADEMIA

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Side Effects Software(TM), developer of the award-winning Houdini® family of 3D software, and Sun Microsystems today announced that Axyz Animation, Inc. has successfully achieved distributed rendering across a Linux-based compute farm using Sun(TM) Grid Engine software with the Houdini 3D solution. Axyz has managed to distribute all of its render-intensive functions from within Houdini -- including building geometry, compositing and animation -- to dramatically reduce the amount of time in which jobs are completed. Houdini is one of the first professional 3D applications with production-proven support for Sun Grid Engine software. Axyz Animation is a Toronto-based boutique animation house specializing in digital visual effects for commercials, television and feature films. Sun Grid Engine software in combination with Houdini software has enabled Axyz to cost-effectively distribute jobs to and from Linux systems, eliminating pipeline bottlenecks, increasing server utilization rates to nearly 95 percent and cutting production time in half. The combination of the low-cost Linux platform with Sun Grid Engine software, which is available as a free download, offers animation studios like Axyz Animation the technology necessary to increase productivity and system utilization while keeping IT expenditures to a minimum. "What we needed was a flexible solution that didn't require re-inventing the wheel in our Houdini animation production pipeline," explains John Coldrick, Senior Animator, VP, Axyz Animation. "What we discovered in Sun Grid Engine software was a remarkably robust, flexible, and scalable product that fit our needs like a glove. Animators don't have to be concerned about what machine is available, or massaging their scripts to maximize speed. Every available CPU in our farm is put at their disposal, and jobs that typically took a whole night in the past can often run in a fraction of the time. Bottlenecks are a thing of the past." "Sun's vision and worldwide leadership in grid computing for the Solaris(TM) Operating Environment and the Linux platform can help businesses of all sizes be more competitive in the deadline-intensive industry for animation and digital content creation," said Fred Kohout, director of marketing for Technical Market Products at Sun Microsystems. "Sun's Grid Engine software product family is the clear market choice with more than 5,000 grid deployments to date. As businesses discover the direct impact that grid computing can make to their bottom line, Sun's open grid architecture approach will provide the robust grid solutions these new markets require." "The Sun Grid Engine solution is of significant value to the DCC industry for distributed computing and rendering efficiency," commented Tony Cristiano, General Manager, Side Effects Software US. "Axyz Animation's leadership in the processing and rendering of Houdini files across a Linux farm presents a very powerful and cost-effective example for professional animation facilities of all sizes."