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SGI InfiniteStorage NAS 2000

Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Daley Miller, Reel FX Creative Studios

High-Speed NAS Solves Production Bottlenecks

As a producer at Reel FX Creative Studios, a 3D animation and visual effects house, I recently faced production challenges when our company more than doubled its size.

As with many post houses, storage and networking are a key concern. As our commercial spot production and entertainment work grew, we expanded our render farm from an initial 20 machines to more than 100. The number of desk-tops supported increased from 25 to 54, while our Discreet-based effects suites went from three to five.

With that rapid expansion came growing pains, felt most acutely when artists and animators all needed to access the same data simultaneously. To meet our particular needs, we decided that the best solution was an IP-based networking and centralized storage system with high-speed, simultaneous data access. The operating system wouldn't matter. We tested IDE and SCSI RAID, Windows-based RAID, and NAS and SAN units from a couple of companies, but nothing seemed designed to support the way we worked.

However, when we spoke to Silicon Graphics, we found that its SGI InfiniteStorage NAS 2000 delivered all the needed features for our multiple-platform media facility.

As network attached storage, the SGI NAS 2000 integrates with our large number of Linux, IRIX, Mac OS X, and Windows animation, rendering, audio production, client proofing, video editing, and compositing seats. Reel FX artists and animators using any operating system can access the same files at the same time on the same network, with no file copying necessary. The storage system consists of a 4TB SGI TP9300 and an SGI Origin 350 server, which holds four Gigabit Ethernet cards.

Our move to SGI's NAS system came just in time. Reel FX has almost doubled its workload over the last year, and we expect to expand more as new commercial spot production and entertainment work is awarded.

A key part of our purchasing decision? We learned that we could use all of the existing SGI NAS 2000 hardware and software as a stepping stone to an even more capable system. Our current NAS can upgrade to a heterogeneous SGI SAN with Fibre Channel and SGI CXFS shared filesystem software. Our bandwidth will increase, allowing more seats to come online, and we can add hundreds of terabytes of storage if we need to.

When I joined Reel FX as animation producer for SpyKids 2 — that was before we had the SGI setup — there were so many shots and so many renders that our visual effects teams had to stagger production through the night. Each day they worked until midnight, then set their machines to render. They'd have to wait an hour, two hours, or longer before they could get back to the machine and start working again. This is obviously not cost-effective; production was slowed to a crawl. Several times we had render problems, which made us worry about losing data.

Before the SGI NAS 2000, we would render to the server and work would slow as a result. It would take literally minutes just to browse the directory. Now you don't even know that the system is rendering, and moving through the directory is a breeze.

Here's how production has improved. Last September and October, with the SGI NAS 2000 installed, we worked on the NBC movie Saving Jessica Lynch. Meanwhile, a second movie in-house, Pixel Perfect for the Disney Channel, ran over schedule into November. At the same time, we were well into our Christmas rush of television commercials. We worked on 24 spots, including heavily animated Hasbro spots for Nerf, Transformers, Super Soaker, and My Little Pony.

Due to all the television commercial productions, it would have been impossible to fill the suites during the day with both movies. To solve the crunch, we worked a night shift on our entertainment projects while the commercial team worked days. The speedy, networked SGI setup helped us render faster. I believe we significantly increased the quality and efficiency of each job, even while we enjoyed the opportunity to accommodate more work. Before this, we couldn't have scheduled that night shift, since we wouldn't have had enough storage space unless all the commercial work was offloaded each evening.

Another problem we faced: If the night shift working on the movie effects set up the renders at the end of their shift, the work wouldn't be done by 9 a.m. when the commercials workers arrived.

So far, our experience with SGI NAS 2000 has been that we can't make it slow down. It's been able to handle all of it — everybody going at it full force.

Another important benefit of the SGI NAS 2000 is that we can now respond to clients calling with quick last-minute requests. Even though you've completed the movie and it's already aired, they may need a music video, a quick promo, or stills for a movie poster.

For this, you need to pull up an entire 44-minute show — at the same time that you already have every other current production on the system. This happens all the time. You've archived something, but then clients need it and you've got to pull it back up. Before, we simply did not have the space. But now, with all this fast storage, the new SGI equipment allows you to pull up whatever you need, whenever you need it, and you're not saying “What are we going to do? It's going to take weeks!” Now we can say, “Sure we can do that. No problem.”

Daley Miller is executive producer for the Reel FX entertainment division. Reel FX's portfolio includes projects from national commercials to film and TV programs. Recent projects include GI Joe: Spy Troops, a CG movie; SpyKids 2; Pixel Perfect for Disney; and commercial production for Gatorade, Nissan, and Hasbro. The Dallas-based company's studio houses five visual effects suites, an art department, an animation department, and a team of producers. For more information, visit www.reelfx.com.

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