MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 12 — SGI’s
long-time customer Tippett Studio created more than 60 3D-animated
shots for Warner Brothers’ Cats & Dogs and over 150 3D-animated
shots-plus 15 all-CGI 3D creatures-for DreamWorks SKG’s Evolution,
using a powerful combination of high-performance IRIX, Linux and
Windows NT OS-based workstations, servers and storage from SGI.
Academy Award winner for visual effects for the films Jurassic Park
and Return of the Jedi, Tippett Studio relied on its recent
purchase of 10 Silicon Graphics Octane2 IRIX OS-based visual
workstations, 25 Silicon Graphics 230 and Silicon Graphics 330
Windows NT OS-based and Linux OS-based workstations, an SGI 2100
high-performance visualization server and a 2TB SGI TP9400 storage
system, in addition to previously purchased Silicon Graphics O2
workstations and SGI Challenge and SGI Origin family servers.
“This was the first time we had IRIX, Linux and Windows NT
workstations from SGI all working on the same production,” said
Eric Leven, Tippett Studio’s CG supervisor on Evolution. “We
started with a large number of Silicon Graphics O2 workstations and
a render farm made up primarily of SGI Origin 200 servers. Later we
added a smaller number of dual-processor Silicon Graphics Octane2
workstations and, for the first time in the shop, we began using
Windows NT and Linux operating systems running on Silicon Graphics
230 and 330 visual workstations. Compositors used 10 Linux OS-based
machines from SGI with 20 processors to run Nothing Real Shake and
additional processors to run Pixar RenderMan. The animators used
the Silicon Graphics 230 workstations, and we found that those
boxes gave us the best performance from Alias|Wavefront Maya on
Windows NT. The technical director, the paint artists and the
modelers used Maya and Alias StudioPaint software on the IRIX
OS-based O2 and Octane2 workstations. Then everything was networked
together and rendered on SGI Origin family servers.”
Tippett Studio designed all the visual effects sequences in
Evolution, including 15 never-before-seen creatures. Maquettes were
sculpted from the final creature designs and scanned into Silicon
Graphics O2 and Octane2 visual workstations using a 3D laser
scanner. The digitized creatures were then refined and manipulated
by Tippett Studio’s world-class character animators. The studio’s
120-plus Evolution crew also created many other unique CG effects
to accomplish the 150-shot production, from the seemingly adorable
dog sequence to the apocalyptic finale-all created on its networked
mix of SGI high-performance visual workstations. SGI technology was
key to finishing the immense project on time. According to Leven,
“From the very beginning of preproduction to the last shot was
about 11 months, from July 2000 to June 2001, which was a crazy
schedule. I think we were averaging about six shots every week for
the entire duration of production. It was absolutely the shortest
schedule we ever worked on.”
For the live-action Cats & Dogs, which turns the age-old
animosity between house pets into a full-scale war, Tippett’s
50-artist team again used the full complement of SGI
high-performance workstations to create 60 shots of digital cats,
primarily to replace the live-action cats’ heads to animate facial
expressions. Using Silicon Graphics Octane2 workstations, Tippett
created two CGI dogs, including a digital beagle who catches a
boomerang, is propelled around a room and lands at the feet of a
digital cat, where a fight ensues. On the Silicon Graphics O2, 230
and 330 visual workstations, artists also designed a 3D CGI version
of the mercenary villain, called “the Russian,” who is a Russian
Blue kitten outfitted in a CGI weapons vest complete with guns and
knives.
Scott Souter, Tippett Studio’s co-visual effects supervisor with
Blair Clark on Cats & Dogs, said the producer’s primary
directive was photo-real animation-the stock-in-trade of the
Berkeley, Calif. facility, which has used SGI technology since it
opened in 1983. “Our studio came into play because of our history
with naturalistic, yet fantastical, animation. Our ability to blend
those two characteristics, to keep something real-adhering to
enough physics to keep it believable and natural-yet be able to
take the character beyond and into the realm of, in this case, very
acrobatic, highly specialized fantastical animations is a very
large part of our trade,” said Souter. To truly achieve
photo-realistic animals, Tippett Studio’s in-house research and
development team created its own fur software. “We linked the fur
software between Maya and RenderMan; it’s a little thing that
bridges the gap between the two,” explained Souter. “It was just
for fur and fur curve information, written primarily on Silicon
Graphics O2 systems.”
Souter noted that Cats & Dogs compositors and animators were
just as pleased with the Linux and Windows NT OS-based Silicon
Graphics 230 and 330 visual workstations, as were the artists who
worked on Evolution. “We started production on the IRIX OS-based O2
workstations, and then toward the middle and end of production we
started animating in Maya on the Windows NT OS-based workstations
from SGI,” Souter said. “That worked out very well. It’s definitely
the choice of our animators, because Maya seems to perform better
on Windows NT boxes from SGI.”
“Tippett Studio’s technological evolution-the networking of
IRIX, Linux and Windows NT OS-based workstations from SGI-creates a
powerful production pipeline that enables artists to complete an
amazing amount of content creation and effects work to meet
seemingly impossible deadlines,” said Greg Estes, vice president of
corporate marketing, SGI. “Tippett’s continued choice of SGI
technology to meet the ever-increasing demands of visual effects
production is testimony to the power of SGI’s strategy to be the
computer company for the entertainment industry-regardless of
operating system. We are particularly pleased that the Linux
OS-based workstations from SGI played such an important role in
these two summer blockbuster films.”
About Tippett Studio
Located in Berkeley, Calif., Tippett Studio was founded in 1983
by President Phil Tippett and his partners Jules Roman, vice
president and executive producer, and Craig Hayes, creative
director and visual effects supervisor. The studio has more than
125 artists, designers, engineers, technical directors and
animators. A visual effects and animation studio for feature films,
Tippett Studio has won two Academy Awards for visual effects
(Return of the Jedi and Jurassic Park) and two Emmys (Dinosaur! and
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor) and has received Academy Award
nominations for visual effects for five other feature films
(Starship Troopers, Dragonheart, Willow, Dragonslayer, and Hollow
Man). Tippett Studio has also received an Academy Award for
technical achievement in the development of a motion-input device
for motion capture. Tippett Studio is currently working on the
vampire movie sequel Blade II and will soon be lending its talents
to commercials. The studio is also preparing to expand into
producing full-length animated feature films and mixed live-action
and CGI features.