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05/10/2006 Entry: "“HOOT” Feature Film Gets VFX Boost from Powerful BOXX Workstation"
BOXX® Technologies Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance workstations and render nodes, today announced that Lee Roderick, freelance compositor, completed the majority of visual effects elements produced for “HOOT” using the 3DBOXX 7300 (now 7400) Series Workstation. The system’s superior speed, performance and optimization when running Autodesk®’s Combustion® were key components that enabled Roderick and his team to produce more than 130 shots within the film’s deadline and budget.
Austin, Texas –— May 9, 2006 –— BOXX® Technologies Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance workstations and render nodes, today announced that Lee Roderick, freelance compositor, completed the majority of visual effects elements produced for “HOOT” using the 3DBOXX 7300 (now 7400) Series Workstation. The system’s superior speed, performance and optimization when running Autodesk®’s Combustion® were key components that enabled Roderick and his team to produce more than 130 shots within the film’s deadline and budget.
New Line Cinema’s “HOOT” is a motion picture adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s Newbery Honor family bestseller and premiered nationwide on May 5, 2006. For more information on “HOOT,” visit the New Line Cinema’s website at: www.moviepublicity.com/nltheatrical/hoot_synopsis.html.
With a VFX post crew consisting of four compositors and one colorist, the team used Autodesk Combustion with RE:Vision plug-ins and Adobe® Photoshop® on 3DBOXX Series 7400 Workstation to deliver 130 shots for the feature film. The 3DBOXX workstation acted as the “finaling” station for the team’s contracted 130 shots. While all of the shots originated at the facility, 80% of the contracted 130 shots for “HOOT” were done on the 3DBOXX workstation from start to finish.
“The BOXX workstation delivers the right speed-for-cost for the type of visual effects work we were doing on ‘HOOT’,” said Lee Roderick. “When working with Autodesk Combustion, BOXX performs like a turnkey system, offering the level of optimization and integration necessary for my production work. What impressed me the most are the workstation’s front panel ports, over 2 GB of RAM, and super clean cabling, which makes installing hard-drives a snap. It’s the first thing I do for each project and there’s never anything in the way. The 3DBOXX 7400 Series Workstation is a great return on investment and delivers the power needed for my visual effects work.”
In additional to Roderick’s work for “HOOT,” he has also used the 3DBOXX 7400 Series Workstation processors to create over 150 shots for the 2005 motion picture “Little Manhattan” and the main title sequence for the 2006 motion picture “Blind Guy Driving.”
3DBOXX 7400 Series Workstation
BOXX workstations offer superior performance and stability when running advanced VFX applications—from modeling, texturing, animation and compositing, the 3DBOXX 7400 Series Workstation delivers the best of dual-processor workstation technology available today:
The 3DBOXX 7400 Series Workstation features:
* Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ processors 200 Series
* Dual NVIDIA® nForce™ Professional 2050 and 2200 MCPs for a high-performance, scalable architecture that provides advanced workstations features
* Dual PCIe x16 slots include full x16 speed on each slot – providing exceptional dual monitor performance
* Both 32- and 64-bit computing capabilities (Microsoft® Windows™ x64 Professional edition or Linux)
* Expanded I/O options include SATA 3Gbps and storage for large datasets (up to 5TB internal), multiple chassis options for high-performance RAID local storage and hotswap storage options
About Lee Roderick
Lee Roderick started working in video production in 1984 for Viacom. In 1996, Roderick transitioned to freelance production and post. He currently teaches and works out of "North Gate,” his facility in Walnut Creek, Calif. Roderick has served as the Lead Compositor on the theatrical features "Little Manhattan" (Twentieth Century Fox 2005) and "HOOT" (New Line Cinema 2006). As a Certified Autodesk Training Specialist for Combustion, Roderick co-authored Autodesk's Combustion 2 Courseware, Combustion 4 Courseware and wrote the Combustion chapter of "Photoshop for Nonlinear Editors" from CMP books.
About BOXX Technologies Inc.
BOXX Technologies Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance workstations and render nodes specifically designed to meet the high-performance and reliability requirements of digital content creators working in the 3D, animation, special effects, digital film, game development and broadcast markets. BOXX’s rapid integration of cutting-edge computing technologies selected and optimized to deliver the best possible performance when running digital content creation (DCC) applications is reflected in its extensive line of uniquely featured and highly customizable systems, including BOXX APEXX™ 8, BOXX APEXX™ 4, 3DBOXX™ workstations, GoBOXX and RenderBOXX™ render nodes. For more information on BOXX Technologies Inc., visit the BOXX website at www.boxxtech.com.
