DreamWorks Animation's latest blockbuster "Kung Fu Panda" benefited from the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's (LCF) Jaguar supercomputer. A research group from DreamWorks used Jaguar to develop image generation algorithms. "They had previously been rendering in batch mode, with lots of animators working with low-resolution models to try things out," explained Sean Ahern of the Oak Ridge LCF. The team then had to pick their favorites and render higher resolution images overnight which was time consuming. To accelerate the process and reflect changes to the model in real time, DreamWorks researcher Evan Smith wanted to come up with a new breed of image-generation algorithms that could take advantage of multiple processing cores. Scientists use visualization for increased understanding of data; animators use it for entertainment. "They don't do it to help you understand the science, they do it to tell the story," Ahern said, adding, "but they drive realistic image generation."
|
