Powerful Technology Pushes the Boundaries of VFX Film Production

Featured by Supermicro and AMD

Production 2.0 pushes the boundaries of what is possible in visual storytelling, creativity, and filmmaking. In this VB Spotlight, Supermicro and AMD executives talk about new technologies that are completely transforming the way the entertainment industry works.

Watch free on demand now.

Before the advent of cinematic computer graphics, production consisted of three stages: pre-production, production, and then post-production, during which visual effects were incorporated. Today, thanks to the increase in computing capacities, production has become a much more efficient and profitable iterative process. In addition, new tools capable of taking advantage of these computing resources, such as Threadripper, the AMD EPYC processor, 3DS Max and Houdini, make much more sophisticated motion capture and visual simulations possible.

This technology paves the way for extraordinary visual storytelling, says James Knight, Global Director of Media and Entertainment/VFX at AMD.

“Good content is about suspending disbelief: over the years, audiences expect more realism,” Knight said. “When you watch content, you want to stay there for an hour or 90 minutes, and that's your reality. Good visual effects add to the story and reinforce the illusion that what you see is real in this storytelling. »

And modern GPUs enable real-time rendering and an explosion of iterative virtual production possibilities. Now creators and editors can create and use new assets at any point in the production process, as well as easily make adjustments on the fly, in real time, on set and off.

“Virtual production and real-time rendering: they changed everything,” said Erik Grundstrom, director of FAE at Supermicro. “Advances in technology have allowed us to have more realistic visuals, faster render times, more complex effects, increased detail and resolution. We are heading towards 8K. »

Hardware under the hood

Five years ago, GPUs were built with 10 or 12 cores (16 at the high end), relatively low clock speeds, and very basic inter-process communication. But modern GPUs have gotten far more powerful, Grundstrom said.

“Today we have these huge math monsters,” he explained. “The innovation has been significant. This sort of thing was unheard of five years ago. When you have a ton of cores at a ton of frequency, it's really changed our capabilities in terms of lead times, desktops, and multi-tenant storage, across the board. »

He cites 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors, with up to 96 CPU cores, and Ryzen Threadripper PRO, with 64 cores and a clock speed that runs 100% above 3GHz. This kind of power makes it possible to create virtual machines in studio production for virtual workstations, with true multitenancy and full 3D acceleration, with all-flash storage that saves and transfers files faster and more efficiently.

“Rising core and thread counts have generated a revision in how studios and projects view their pipelines,” Knight added. “It turns out that the processors were a drag. As virtual production, real-time visualization and specialized visual effects become more ubiquitous, increased track capacity and the ability to connect more elements to a system have had a huge effect on the production. »

The impact on virtual production

When a visual effects studio or production company is given a film and television production project, they often need to hire as quickly as possible. And with the compute capabilities of data centers around the world, a show can be staffed incredibly fast and the workflow is much more efficient.

"Artists can devote more time to their art thanks to the increased computing capabilities," said Knight. “They can make more mistakes in the same time frame. This translates to better storytelling for the audience. »

And it's a power that all remote workers have access to, wherever they are, up to hundreds of them. And multitenancy means a workstation can now be shared among many users, Grundstrom said.

"Now they have, from any computer, from any interface, all the power that traditionally sits behind a tower that sits on their desk in an office," he said. explain. "You can be literally anywhere in the world, and as long as you have a decent enough internet connection, you can be on your laptop in a coffee shop somewhere and have access to a fully 3D accelerated workstation with all the resources you would have if you had a box on your desk."