San Jose, Calif. - BlueArc Corporation has announced that Starz Media, the animation studio behind the computer-generated animation feature film, Everyone’s Hero, benefited from the company's Titan storage system, equipped with more than 100 terabytes, to deliver more than 1450 individual shots.
Everyone’s Hero, which debuted September 15, grossed $6.2 million in its initial weekend at the box office. Bringing America’s favorite pastime to animated life was a major challenge, as Starz Media had to bring not only the main characters to life, but also the crowds, dust, and excitement of Major League baseball.
Some shots included more than 8000 individual characters, dust, and cloth simulations, which taxed Starz Media’s technology infrastructure. With more than 700 rendering processors and hundreds of artists all accessing centralized storage, Starz Media knew that it would be critical to have a solution that could perform reliably.
Starz Media reaped the greatest benefit of BlueArc’s hardware architecture during the heaviest loads generated by rendering, compositing, and color correction.
“The deadline never moves," says Jeff Bell, vice president of technology for Starz Media. "If you can take a file load time from 10 minutes to 5 minutes across 60 animators doing two to three shots a day, this is a significant advantage for image quality and scheduling.”
“Animation can be one of the most demanding environments for storage, and we are pleased that BlueArc’s Titan could help Starz Media focus on their creative efforts without having to compromise due to storage limitations or slow downs,” says Steve Daheb, vice president of marketing and business development for BlueArc.