IBM Business Partner Case Study Industry: Media and entertainment

PipelineFX and IBM face new frontiers in world of animation

IBM Business Partner: PipelineFX
Founded in 2002, PipelineFX produces Qube!, software that manages thousands of simultaneous 3D graphics programming tasks on large clusters of computer servers called render farms. PipelineFX is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, with offices in San Francisco and Vancouver.

Since the 1934 release of the first Disney animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world of animation - with help from the information technology industry - has been taken to such new heights that it has greatly influenced popular culture in the dawn of the 21st century. Today, innovative animators turn to companies like PipelineFX, an IBM Business Partner, to produce Qube!, software that manages thousands of simultaneous 3D graphics programming tasks on large clusters of computer servers called render farms. Originally built for the groundbreaking 1999 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the first fully-animated feature film, Qube! by PipelineFX combines state-of-the-art techniques for batch queuing, distributed processing and render farm management for film production, game development and digital media education around the world.

These techniques maximize production job throughput and accelerate the millions of computational tasks that occur during the image rendering and software build processes used for animation in movies and games. As a result, productivity is improved and content quality increased with hardware resources optimized throughout the pipeline workflow. Which is why, said Troy Brooks, chief executive officer of PipelineFX, the company teamed with IBM. We saw that IBM was getting into digital media, and with the breadth of its server product line, the company seemed a perfect partner for us, Brooks explained. With its great marketing clout, buying power and tremendous Linux experience, we felt our partnership played on the strengths of both companies. Plus IBM is there to face any challenges with its vast portfolio of services and support.

Today, PipelineFX is a Premier IBM Business Partner and participates in IBM PartnerWorld Industry Networks, which offers a rich set of benefits to all

We saw that IBM was getting into digital media, and with the breadth of its server product line, the company seemed a perfect partner for us.
Troy Brooks, chief executive officer, PipelineFX

IBM PartnerWorld members who want to team with IBM to build their vertical market capabilities, expand their partner network and attract potential customers in the markets they serve worldwide. PipelineFX is optimized in the media and entertainment industry, which means it has developed further specialization by optimizing its applications with IBM technologies, achieving success with its own solutions and other criteria. PipelineFX has achieved other designations of excellence from IBM, including IBM ServerProven, which means it has implemented software solutions on IBM systems in real-world customer environments, including those that can operate in Linux, Windows XP, 2000 and 2003, and MAC OS X operating systems. Qube! also has been implemented on 60 dual-processor IBM Blade servers known as eServer BladeCenter. It is highly customizable and extensively scalable, and can be integrated into any production workflow with custom pipelines for creative applications like Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, NUKE, SOFTIMAGE|XSI, Shake, Adobe After Effects, among others. In addition, as a Ready for IBM Grid Computing provider, PipelineFX software is able to hide infrastructure complexities, allowing multiple users to share and collaborate through a unified interface. Such computing capabilities allow users to implement real-time collaboration to support common goals and streamline processes. Partnerships like PipelineFX and IBM can optimize computing and data

resources, pool them for large capacity pipeline workflows and share across networks -- all crucial to collaboration. These capabilities were just what Starz Animation, Toronto, (formerly DKP Studios) needed when it turned to the IBM and PipelineFX open solution, which can be easily integrated into Starz Animation software within the render farm. As one of the largest 3D animation, effects and compositing facilities in Canada and a leading studio for breakthrough digital production in Toronto, Starz Animation has gained a reputation for its commitment to excellence in high-end digital animation. Since we have implemented Qube! on our IBM BladeCenters, we have been able to run our render farm management much more efficiently, with a lot less babysitting. All of our production applications integrate with Qube!, said Terry Dale, vice president of production for Starz Animation. In combining Qube!s great application programming interface, the advanced scheduling features, good clustering control and detailed reporting, with the power of the IBM BladeCenters, we have created a rendering/batch processing environment that stands up to our needs and one that is flexible enough to change as our processes change, Dale said. Now, Starz Animation is able to advance its character animation and continually raise the bar in CGI (computer-generated imagery) animation production by offering the most high-end technology and visual tools available on a variety of platforms, Dale said.

For more information For more information on IBM grid offerings, go to ibm.com/grid/ gridandgrow.shtml Please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner. Or you can visit us at: ibm.com For more information about ISV resources from IBM PartnerWorld, visit: ibm.com/partnerworld/ industrynetworks To learn more about PipelineFX, visit: pipelinefx.com To learn more about Starz Animation, Toronto, visit: starz.com/starzmedia/ animation/

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