Nothing uses up hard disk storage like 3D animation. The combination of video and 3D means that tremendous amounts of storage are needed for creating and rendering the film.
Industrial Light and Magic buys gigabytes of storage regularly. In Hong Kong there is Imagi, a world-class animation studio that makes about one film a year. The last film the firm released was TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), a 3D animated version of the 1984 comic book series.
Imagi chief executive Douglas Glen has been in the business for many years and has seen the industry move from hand-drawn 2D animated cartoons to the masterpiece he presided over, TMNT. Mr Glen said that computer generated (CG) animation had brought about tremendous changes in the industry.
'In the early days of CG animation, studios differentiated themselves in terms of technological prowess. Most studios developed their own animation and rendering tools. Now most of the shops use industry-standard third-party software and add a few special apps of their own on top. With a more or less level playing field technologically, the advantage goes to the studio with the best storytelling and character acting abilities,' he said.
The need for storage, speed, capacity and more is never ending. Imagi visual effects supervisor Yan Chen said so much was needed that if it was not done right, it could cause delays in the production of the film.
'In CG animation production, additional 3D renderings and constant adding of objects are always needed and each modification requires a vast amount of data. Even the slightest hitch in the storage system can result in sub-optimal workflow. As such, having a scalable and efficient data storage system is business critical and can also cut down our capital expenditure cost,' Mr Chen said.
Imagi uses several technologies to achieve the high-speed access and vast amount of storage it needs. The firm recently made a deal with Datacraft, an Asian-based IT (information technology) services and solutions company, based in Singapore.