Pushing Redshift Hard for LEGO Animation – Featuring M2 Animation
Learn how YellowDog helped M2 Animation spin up so much GPU power that it was officially rendering on the 8th fastest supercomputer in the World.
YellowDog caught up with Head of Studio, Marty Knox, to learn how the team benefited from spinning up so much GPU power that they were officially rendering on the 8th fastest supercomputer in the world.
High Quality Animation Requires High Quality Rendering
M2 Animation has equipped itself well to cope with most of its rendering needs. It has invested heavily in its people and has made the effort to get up to speed with Redshift, to make sure it could pump out high quality renders as fast as possible. It is also familiar with using cloud rendering solutions during times of peak demand, or emergencies.
However, despite this impressive setup and the level of internal knowledge, the team encountered a need that they couldn’t meet. According to Marty, “When we had this latest crunch, we needed something special to help us. We needed a reliable, easy to use render solution. But most of all, we needed crazy levels of GPU on demand.”
The Future of Productions
So what impact will faster renders, and faster deliveries mean for producers like Marty?
“Technologies like Redshift and YellowDog are turning previously slow renders into fast ones. Producers will rightfully take advantage of the technology but it will put different pressures in different places.”
Producers know that there is no such thing as ‘more time’, just ‘time spent elsewhere’. That elsewhere, for Marty at least, could be in the emergence of higher quality entertainment, which he considers an exciting tipping point in the industry:
“We can start to achieve things that we couldn’t do before because the barriers of time have been lifted…almost. If you watch some streaming sites, you see straight away where budget decisions have been taken to compensate for the impact of render times on higher quality images. That kind of stuff is going to disappear from our screens over the coming years.”
The Creative Reputation of South East Asia
Marty is particularly buoyant because of the shift in Thailand’s creative reputation.
“For years, people have turned to Korea, Philippines, China, and India,” Marty acknowledges. “These are the big four for international animation and there are some good reasons why that is the case – but there is an incredible talent pool in South East Asia. The industry seems to be realising that we’re creating world class work and it won’t stay under the radar for much longer.”
Countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore are on the up and we believe that at YellowDog, we’re doing our bit to help studios scale no matter where they are based.