Tronic Taps ResPower for Gigantic Microsoft Animation

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If you've been through JFK airport in New York lately, you've probably seen it: a large installation of video screens set up as part of the product launch campaign for Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista.

The installation is hard to miss. It covers 230 linear feet and containes 40 individual 70-inch plasma screens. There are actually 8 individual "displays," each consisting of 5 screens side by side. On each of these displays a 60 second computer animation produced by Tronic Studios is playing in a loop. Because each display is actually 5 screens wide, the animation itself was rendered at a whopping 10,000 pixels wide by 1,080 pixels high. That's 5 times the highest resolution HD specification, and it makes for some stunning images.

The animation shows off some of Vista's new features like better navigation, faster searching, and integrated security, but also has some pure eye candy. Part of the sequence shows several dozen reflective and transparent chips emblazoned with the Microsoft Windows logo bouncing through the scene, or piling up to fill the entire frame.

Because each display consists of 5 side by side 70 inch screens, image quality for the renders was of the utmost importance. Using a combination of 3ds Max with Brazil r/s at a resolution of over 10 megapixels, render times for these shots often exceeded 10 hours per frame. At that rate, it would take over 12 days to produce 1 second of animation on a single computer, a complete impossibility for this project's tight 5 week schedule.

To speed things up, Tronic turned to ResPower, the global leader in the on-demand computer graphics rendering industry. ResPower divided the job across its array of over 700 computers located in Huntsville, AL. This huge resevoir of computer speed enabled Tronic to speed through producing this massive animation.

The decision to go with ResPower was an easy one for Jesse Seppi, co-founder of Tronic, who said, "With a final resolution of 10,000 x 1080 we knew we were going to be in for a challenge with our render times. Luckily we had worked with Respower before and knew that they would be up for the task. Using Respower freed up our time and machines to focus on doing the animation, rather than rendering it. We hit the deadlines and we created a project that both Tronic and Microsoft were proud of."

"Typically work on the ResPower farm includes feature film projects, like the renders we did for Herbie, Fully Loaded, interactive DVD menus, game trailers, architectural visualizations, and product visualization," says Early Ehlinger, ResPower's president. "Working with Tronic is always interesting because they are constantly extending the medium of 3d graphics. Displays with an aspect ratio of nearly 9:1 are basically unheard of, but Tronic always manages to innovate and impress, no matter how restrictive the project's requirements are. It's a privilege to be a part of that."

Ehlinger goes on to explain that ResPower doesn't do any "creative" work, focusing instead on providing artists with the ability to get their work done in a timely manner. He likens ResPower to a film development shop, only for 3D computer graphics rather than conventional film.

You can see a quicktime of the video here, but for the full effect, you have to see it on the very, very big screen. The results are stunning, and the experience is immersive. For once, there is a reason to travel to JFK airport, and not just through it.

Founded in 2000, ResPower today houses the largest and fastest third-party computer graphics rendering solution in the world. The ResPower Super/Farm™ supports over 58 configurations of eleven render engines, and is available for unlimited use for the lowest prices in the industry. With more than 3,600 GHz of on-demand rendering power, the Super/Farm turns any computer graphics crew into a major studio. The Super/Farm is available for projects of every size, from one-frame graphics to feature-length movies. ResPower's client list includes Nickelodeon, Technicolor, and Country Music Television. For more information on how to render over the Internet, please log onto http://www.respower.com/.