Developing a feature-length film was a colossal undertaking for Reel FX and the studio relied on a complete Dell solution comprised of Dell Precision workstations, Dell Latitude laptops, Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Networking, Dell Storage, and Dell UltraSharp monitors to meet the intensive demands of the project under a condensed timeline. Courtesy of Dell

Round Rock, Texas, USA - November 01, 2013


• Reel FX leveraged powerful and reliable Dell technology to develop, produce and animate its first feature-film “Free Birds,” in theaters today

• Dell PowerEdge servers helped Reel FX reduce render time per frame by 30 percent, allowing them to meet condensed production timeline

• Dell Precision workstations provided the processing and graphics power for Reel FX artists to create complex effects in “Free Birds”


Dell announced today that award-winning animation studio, Reel FX, utilized Dell technology to develop, produce and animate its first full-length feature film, “Free Birds”, an animated feature about two turkeys who travel back in time to try to take themselves off the Thanksgiving menu.

Courtesy of Dell

In theaters today, the film is directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!) and features the voices of top comedy stars, including Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler.

The film’s release today marks the introduction of Reel FX Animation Studios brand to consumers, as it is the studio’s first home-grown movie after 20 years of creating animated content, including films, commercials and interactive projects, for Fortune 500 businesses and nearly every major entertainment company.

Courtesy of Dell

Developing a feature-length film was a colossal undertaking for Reel FX and the studio relied on a complete Dell solution comprised of Dell Precision workstations, Dell Latitude laptops, Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Networking, Dell Storage, and Dell UltraSharp monitors to meet the intensive demands of the project under a condensed timeline.

Courtesy of Dell

For Reel FX, “Free Birds” is a testament to the fact that “with incredible machines in the hands of brilliant, creative artists, anything is possible,” said Chuck Peil, the vice president of business development at the studio.

Courtesy of Dell

Reel FX was nearly halfway through production with a target release date of late 2014 when a significant film vacated its November 2013 target release timeframe.

Reel FX decided to push up the timeline for “Free Birds” by an entire year to take advantage of this prime pre-Thanksgiving opportunity.

Courtesy of Dell

The new timeline meant turning more frames in a shorter amount of time and having the processing power to move the film’s incredibly complex scenes through the production pipeline quickly and reliably was critical to success.

Courtesy of Dell

“In a typical animated film, as you near the end of production you’re producing 35-40, maybe 50 shots a week,” said Kyle Clark, chief operating officer at Reel FX.
“In ‘Free Birds,’ because the schedule was compressed, we were doing upwards of 200 shots a week. So the technology had to be on point and very consistent. Any downtime minutes were critical at that point.”

Courtesy of Dell

With so many shots to render in a relatively short period of time, Reel FX needed more horsepower so it turned to Dell to help it scale its render farm quickly and without any downtime.

Courtesy of Dell

Reel FX increased processing power to 12 cores per machine and moved from 24GB to 48GB systems with an upgrade to Dell PowerEdge C6220 rack servers, allowing them to reduce render time per frame by 30 percent.

Courtesy of Dell

“Dell provided the processing power we needed for our artist workstations, production laptops and render servers, in order for us to successfully produce and render our feature film,” said Ross Moshell, Director of Business Technology for Reel FX .
“Dell's outstanding reliability meant we were able to scale our render farm in the middle of production, and have powerful machines delivered to our door, right on time for us to hit our critical milestones.”

Courtesy of Dell

“Free Birds” contains a large amount of feathered turkeys, dense forest scenes, and many complex effects – all elements that require a lot of processing power to generate and as many iterations as possible in order to define and refine the look of the finished frames.

Courtesy of Dell

To meet these high demands, artists and animators at Reel FX used Dell Precision T5600 workstations, which offer the high-end graphics and power they need to run compute-intensive professional applications including Side Effects Houdini, The Foundry NUKE, Autodesk Maya and a home-grown plug-in for Maya to create the characters’ feathers.

Courtesy of Dell

To manage its dynamic software environment in a limited amount of time and with a limited amount of man hours, Reel FX used the Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance.

Courtesy of Dell

“Our Dell Precision workstations have enabled us to create and animate 97 characters with a team of six people, which is practically unheard of in a larger studio. So, we've obviously got some performance muscle behind us,” said Monika Sawyer, fur, feather and hair supervisor on “Free Birds” at Reel FX.
“We're very happy with our Dell Precision workstations. They're very stable, fast, powerhouses that enable the artists to process the data and open scenes quickly, move assets around and make as many iterations of the shot as possible.”

Courtesy of Dell

High-speed networking is also important for Reel FX artists to have quick access to the data they need, allowing them extra time for more iterations.

Last year Reel FX switched from its previous vendor entirely to Dell Networking for the low latency, high speeds and full breadth of product range.

With Dell Networking S55 and S4810 high-performance switches, Reel FX was able to increase network throughput, taking the studio from a 10Gb backbone to a 20Gb backbone.

Courtesy of Dell

“We've been partners with Dell for a very long time. They've provided great customer service and are always there when we get into a bind at the end of production. There's someone we can call, they respond in a timely manner, and we feel like they understand our business,” said Ross Moshell, director of business technology for Reel FX.
“And then of course from the pure technology perspective, we benchmark our machines, processors and infrastructure on a very regular basis and Dell continues to win in those benchmarks.”

Courtesy of Dell

“We are excited to partner with Texas-based Reel FX to provide the technology used to develop their first feature film ‘Free Birds’,” said Andy Rhodes, executive director, Dell Precision Workstations.
“The film industry is a very dynamic and competitive business, so our mission is to make sure our film customers have the most powerful and reliable technology in place to move through the production pipeline on time and without interruption so they can focus on exploring new story ideas and creating new looks.”

Courtesy of Dell

About Dell

Dell Inc. listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more.

For more information, visit www.dell.com  


Dell World

Join us at Dell World 2013, Dell’s premier customer event exploring how technology solutions and services are driving business innovation.

Learn more at www.dellworld.com  , attend our virtual Dell World: Live Online event or follow #DellWorld on Twitter.


Media Contacts

Lauren Mauro
Dell Inc.
Round Rock, Texas
(512) 723-6957
lauren_mauro@dell.com  


Related Articles


Dell Rocks Accelerated 3D Workflow for Production of New Linkin Park Video, “A Light That Never Comes”

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/secure/2013-10-15-dell-precision-workstations-3d-graphics-customer  


Pixomondo Brings “Game of Thrones” to Life and Pays Homage to “Star Trek” Franchise with Complete Dell Solution

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/press-releases/2013-07-02-dell-media-entertainment-solution-pixomondo  


Award-winning Animation Studio Blue Zoo Turns to Dell to Ramp Up Rendering for New TV Series and Move into Feature Films

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/secure/2013-09-16-dell-media-customer-blue-zoo  


Source: Dell Inc.

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/newsroom-press-releases  



ASTROMAN Magazine - 2013.08.16

Dell Helps Arroware Industries Launch myApollo

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=1517  


ASTROMAN Magazine - 2013.02.09

Dell Enters Into Agreement to Be Acquired By Michael Dell and Silver Lake for $24.4 billion

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=1406  


ASTROMAN Magazine - 2012.08.19

Dell Bulks Up its SMB Storage Portfolio

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=1300  


ASTROMAN Magazine - 2012.05.26

Dell Completes Acquisition of Cloud Client Computing Leader Wyse Technology

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=1244  


ASTROMAN Magazine - 2012.05.13

Dell Opens New York City Solutions Center

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=1237  


ASTROMAN Magazine - 2012.05.13

New 22nm Intel Xeon Processors to Boost Dell Micro Servers' Performance by 95%

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=1236