Real-time rendering of animation is now possible, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey
Katzenberg told an audience at the Techonomy conference this morning. In a
joint development agreement with Intel, the company has been able to rewrite
its software to take advantage of scalable multi-core processors—an advance that will revolutionize the animation process.

DreamWorks is a story-telling company first, but Katzenberg added, "we are as
much a technology company as we are an animation company." DreamWorks and
Pixar are the two companies using the most technology in film production.

Katzenberg witnessed hand-drawn animation on a "catastrophic path to extinction," following the failure of Sinbad, and the rise of digital with the company's first digital movie, Ants (1998). It was a jarring experience to move from hand-drawing to digital, he said, as about one-third of the workforce was obsolete and another third had to be retrained. As a result, the company always seeks new technology.

In animation, the "holy grail" has been to work in real-time—to see work as animators are actually creating it, Katzenberg said. Artists typically work with low-resolution versions, then send it for rendering. This requires multiple passes and an expert animator can do about three seconds of animation in a week.

Intel had shown DreamWorks its roadmap with scalable multi-core processing, which most
software can't really exploit. The pair has the most expensive technology effort going on in Hollywood to rewrite all of the company's software to use all the cores. As a result, artists can do effects and color work in real-time.

Katzenberg called it revolutionary and said it has implications for any business that uses high-end rendering, whether in oil simulations, airplane design, or medical imaging. Two years ago he thought the desktop was dead, but now when he sees the power that is going to come to the desktop, he believes it will advance all kinds of businesses.

In the most complicated aspects of its process, the company can now run at 50 to 70 times
faster than it did before, Katzenberg said. Everyone does a breathtaking amount of waiting and this will eliminate that.

The process of rewriting the software is a four-year effort, which is about two-thirds
finished and already used in a number of the products.

Making an animated movie today has 12 stops on the production line, including story
boarding, rough layout, rough animation, finished animation, and lighting and
effects. With the new technology, DreamWorks will simplify from 12 to less
than six.

So, will this save money? Katzenberg said DreamWorks makes complex films; it takes 400
artists on average four to four and a half years to make, costing about $150 million consistently over the past few years. The company tries to take improvements in technology and use half of it for productivity and half for improving the movies.

The company is now incubating software companies that take its software and apply it
to social media. Most of our sharing today is text-based, Katzenberg said, but it's more instinctual to watch and listen.

Real-time animation rendering has been a goal in the industry for decades. If DreamWorks really has it working now, this is a tremendous breakthrough.

Source: Forward Thinking