Thread - *Off Topic* I remember Loki and I joking about CPQ and the Titanic some time ago. Well, as it turns out, the CGI for the movie was done on DEC Alpha machines. Here's the article...
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Digital Equipment Corporation
Oscar Winner Titanic's Special Effects Dramatize Sizzle of
Alpha Power For Business Computing
Digital Overshadows SGI's Hollywood Presence
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- They may not realize it, but the millions of
movie-goers thrilled by Titanic, which last night captured the Oscar for Best Special Effects, have
seen the future of special effects wizardry. Further, Titanic's jaw-dropping special effects provide
compelling evidence of a dramatic shift in Hollywood's choice of computing tools, on which
audience-appealing cinematic effects increasingly depend.
Titanic, history's biggest box office hit and winner of 11 Oscars, vividly illustrates how Digital
Equipment Corporation (NYSE: DEC - news), Maynard, Mass., is quickly becoming the first
vendor to successfully challenge Silicon Graphics (SGI) in the technology-hungry computer
generated imaging (CGI) market. Many of the now-famous ''How did they do that?!'' special effects
were made possible by image rendering and film compositing solutions based on Digital's 64-bit
Alpha computing platform.
''Digital congratulates everyone associated with Titanic,'' said Jesse Lipcon, Digital vice president,
UNIX and OpenVMS Systems Business Unit. ''It's fitting the film that smashed all-time box office
records should showcase the blockbuster performance of Digital's Alpha technology. Titanic
demonstrates clearly the performance and reliability advantages of our 64-bit solutions.'' Ironically, in
an era when audiences have come to equate special effects with images such as super-realistic aliens
and human morphing, Titanic may for the first time call attention to what many see as the next wave
of special effects -- those the viewer can't perceive, such as Titanic passengers strolling on deck,
gorgeous sunset backgrounds, and the din of the engine room. These and other ''invisible'' special
effects in Titanic were created using some of the world's most powerful computing applications.
Lipcon added, ''Hollywood is just one of the many places showcasing Digital Alpha systems. Look
behind the scenes and you'll find Alpha speeding complex data mining, powering compute-intensive
data modeling, and driving many of the world's largest and most popular Websites.'' For example,
the same level of performance Alpha delivers to technology-hungry CGI creators also enables
corporate managers to make split-second business decisions based on ''mining'' of competitive
gems from massive, diverse data stores.
Serious Computing for Demanding Applications
To meet its film debut deadline, Hollywood's Digital Domain studios, which oversaw the entire CGI
production for Titanic, came to Digital. ''When you look at the grand scenes of the ship in Titanic,
you're not seeing just a picture filmed by a camera - you're also seeing hundreds of gigabytes of
data,'' said Scott Ross, president and CEO of Digital Domain. ''Without the Alpha systems, we
knew that compositing the frames would take far too much time. In film-making, as in any other
business, time is money, and that's why we chose the Alpha platform.''
The computing power of Alpha is enabling CGI staffs across Hollywood and beyond to be more
creative and work faster and at lower cost than ever before. In addition to Digital Domain, creator
of Titanic, Terminator 2-3D, Apollo 13 and many other feature films, such studios as Kodak
Cinesite (Sphere, Jerry Maguire, Space Jam, Batman & Robin) and Santa Barbara Studios (An
American Werewolf in Paris) are moving rapidly to exploit the performance advantages of Alpha for
some of computing's most taxing applications. Other studios include Threshold Entertainment, Area
51, indimension3, Mass Illusions, and Netter Digital, which is producing all the new episodes of the
TV series Babylon5 with special effects powered by Alpha.
A Boatload of Computing Power
Building a ship the size of Titanic is a massive undertaking, whether on a sound stage or on a
computer. To render the visual effects of the ship and its thousands of passengers during Titanic
post-production, Alpha-based workstations and server systems crunched through terabytes of data.
Digital Domain relied on the power of more than 200 Alpha processors running 24 hours a day for
two straight months, averaging an astounding 800 million computer instructions per second.
Looking to the future, the advent of new media, such as high-definition television, or HDTV, and the
''digitalization'' of the broadcast studio, requires a level of computing performance available today
only from Alpha. For example, many broadcasters are implementing the ''virtual set,'' eliminating the
need for expensive studio sets for programs such as sports analysis programs, talk shows, and other
productions. By rendering a backdrop in real- time, solving parallax and ''front/back'' issues with a
computer, they can generate electronically a very realistic, economical, easily altered ''set.''
Complete CGI Solutions
Only Digital offers both UNIX and Windows NT rendering solutions. Digital is the only player in the
plug-and-play rendering market of SGI compatible UNIX systems that also offers a Windows NT
solution using the same system. Customers can purchase a Digital UNIX Alpha solution today
knowing that, if they decide to implement a Windows NT rendering solution in the future, the same
Alpha hardware can run Windows NT applications.
Software providers such as Softimage, Discreet Logic, Silicon Grail, Cinema Graphics, Eyeon
Software, Lambsoft, Modern Cartoons, and others are porting to Alpha systems on Digital UNIX
or Windows NT for the power and value Alpha solutions give their customers.
Digital Equipment Corporation, recognized for product and service excellence, is a leading supplier
of high-performance, Web-based computing solutions that help enterprises compete in the global
marketplace. Digital gives its customers a winning Internet advantage through a comprehensive
portfolio of Internet solutions based on award-winning systems, advanced networking infrastructure,
innovative software, and industry applications - including those from business partners. The expertise
and experience of Digital employees help customers plan, design, implement, manage and support
Internet solutions in countries throughout the world. For the latest company information, visit Digital
on the World Wide Web at: digital.com and/or newsdesk.com
NOTE: Digital, AlphaServer, OpenVMS and the Digital logo are trademarks of Digital Equipment
Corporation. Oscar and Academy Awards are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences.
SOURCE: Digital Equipment Corporation
John |
