News: Technology

Vicon, makers of optical motion capture systems, recently announced that ILM has acquired 40 Vicon MX40 Cameras.

Autodesk has issued a press release about how its products have been used in these year's blockbusters, including the use of Maya and Inferno systems (for Sabre) at ILM for the VFX in Mission: Impossible III, Poseidon, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Lady in the Water.

ILM CTO Cliff Plumer made a few comments regarding the release of Apple's Shake 4.1 which includes a huge price drop for the OSX version and a Universal binary that can run on Intel-based Macs.

Acopia Networks, a company specializing in network switches for file vitualization solutions, listed ILM as a customer when it announced that it received $20 million in funding.

ILM Senior Systems Engineer Michael Thompson has brief comments about the release of the Data ONTAP GX operating system from Network Appliances and used in their HPC (high-performance computing) storage solutions.

ILM has standardized on IRIDAS FrameCycler Professional 3.5 for uncompressed frame-based playback and is also being used at Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and Skywalker Ranch.

FXGuide has interviewed ILM Digital Supervisor Grady Cofer where he explains the work the Sabre team did on Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith and War of the Worlds.

The May/June 2006 issue of Oracle Magazine has an article detailing how Oracle databases are being used at the Lucasfilm companies, including ILM and LucasArts. Lucasfilm CTO Cliff Plumer, Oracle DBA Jeff Odell and IS Director Lori Gianino comment on the benefits of unifying the database infrastructure.

IGN, Next Generation and GameDaily Biz magazines have coverage on the presentation Chris Williams of LucasArts and ILM R&D Director Steve Sullivan gave at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. They discussed how a unified pipeline, based around ILM's Zeno, has streamlined work at both companies.

The March 2006 issue of Computer Graphics World has an article detailing the network attached storage (NAS) infrastructure at the Letterman Digital Arts Center. Systems Developer Michael Thompson details some the challenges involved.

E-on Software has just announced that ILM will use its Vue 5 Infinite environment creation software. Lucasfilm CTO Cliff Plumer and ILM Digital Matte Artist Susumu Yukuhiro comment on the decision to use it.

Mobility Guru has interviewed Cliff Plumer, Lucasfilm and ILM Chief Technology Officer, about his career, the move of the data center to the Presidio and the technological prowess at the new campus.

The Computer World magazine have articles discussing the data center at the Letterman Digital Arts Center at the Presidio. Lucasfilm Chief Technology Officer Cliff Plumer and others give detailed descriptions of the renderfarm and network infrastructure of the home of ILM and LucasArts.

VFXWorld.com has an extensive interview with ILM CTO Cliff Plumer where he discusses the development and use of Zeno, the move to the Presidio and the new technology infrastructure, previs and working with LucasArts.

Lucasfilm and Hewlett Packard announced today that they have entered a 3 year deal technology and marketing agreement. HP will supply high performance workstations to the Letterman Digital Arts Center and the Singapore animation facility. CTO Cliff Plumer comments on the rollout which includes 1,000 workstations for the Presidio to be used in film and video game production. HP is also working on a storage solution for Lucasfilm.

Millimeter magazine is running an article about the state of the art in rendering in feature films, both VFX and animated. Associate VFX Supervisor Christophe Hery, along with representatives from Digital Domain, Imageworks, Rhythm and Hues, Double Negative, PDI/Dreamworks, Blue Sky Studios, Pixar, Hammerhead, Mental Images, Splutterfish and NVIDIA discuss the current practices, the challenges and what the future might bring.

AMD issued a press release about the use of their Opteron processors at the Letterman Digital Arts Center at the Presidio. ILM Chief Technology Officer Cliff Plumer, who gave a presentation about this during SIGGRAPH 2005, comments why they chose AMD.

Pixologic, makers of the ZBrush modeling and painting application, have announced that ILM has integrated it into their modeling and art pipeline. CTO Cliff Plumer mentions some of the features that made them incorporate it at ILM.

The June 8, 2005 edition of the Hollywood Reporter has an article on the Letterman Digital Arts Center. CTO Cliff Plumer discusses the infrastructure for the site including this being the biggest 10 gig network in the world by Cisco, plus capacity to handle 4k images and video.

Digital Vision announced that ILM used its AGR4 ME motion-compensated grain and noise management system to prepare the digital master of Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith. The system supports the 4:4:4 RGB format used for the film. Rick McCallum commented that the system was used to enhance the image and help blend the different elements like 3D rendered elements and digital matte painting with the live action shot on digital video.