[PLUG-TALK] Movie compute servers

[wes]

On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:

>
> My definition of a "big computer" is 1 "WETA", that is,  greater
> than 34TeraFlops, the distributed PC compute power that WETA
> Digital used to render the Lord of the Rings movie.  Enough
> computation to produce serious economic results (just add
> hundreds of starving artists).
>
> On the back of the January 2009 Linux Journal (thanks, John!)
> is a Microway ad for a 36 Nvidia Tesla GPU + 36 CPU Cluster in
> a 24U rack (it will fit under a desk).  Each GPU (optimized
> for graphics, but good at general purpose computing) can
> perform at 1 Teraflop rates for appropriate tasks (for example,
> drawing millions of pixels in a 70mm film image).  That is,
> a bit more than 36Tflop, or greater than one WETA.
>
> Your eyes glaze over.  The take home message is that a team of
> artists can produce a professional animated feature film with
> a computer that fits under a desk, and probably costs less
> than $100K.  Since there are many artists out there that will
> work for the publicity, it might be possible for a small group
> of professionals and a larger group of part-time artists,
> working together but spread around the world, to produce a
> box-office grade movie.
>
> The hardest part of animation at this time is realistic
> movement.  There are a lot of actors out there that don't
> have Hollywood looks, but can move well.  Perhaps with a
> bit of digital re-imaging, a 50yo former star can become
> a teen heart-throb, or a Portland actor with great moves
> and a face made for radio could become an international
> star (while maintaining privacy).  Record the movements,
> and animate on top of them.
>
> Perhaps there are some artists around here brave enough to
> attempt this.
>
> Sell your movie studio stock.  There is more than one way to
> kill the MPAA and other digital censors.
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
>

You buy the machine, and I'll move any which way you want me to.

-wes
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