Artists Rely on Qube! to Manage Renders on Spots like Nike’s Blockbuster Ad, “The Last Game”
Los Angeles, CA (October 8, 2014) – When you’re responsible for Nike’s visual message to World Cup fans, the pressure is intense. Not ready in time? Then Nike just missed their shot. For Passion, rising to the occasion meant using PipelineFX’s Qube!. Their reward was the award-worthy hit “ The Last Game” – another in a string of successes managed by the no.1 render farm manager for VFX.
With its superstar characters and incredible animations, “The Last Game” is far from an anomaly. For years, Passion has been producing commercial and film VFX for multi-million dollar campaigns. Charmin, Dove, the BBC are clients. But behind the glamour of the big names is a production-proven system that puts render efficiency on a pedestal.
“The ability to assess what you’ve done is particularly powerful,” said Daffer Al-Faiadh, IT Manager at Passion Pictures. “With so many variables to account for when you’re managing render queues, the benefit of Qube! is that it can manage most of them automatically, while still offering performance charts that let you know if it’s performing to the levels we require.”
Performance graphs come standard with Qube! licenses and can show everything from farm performance to resource utilization rates. When a firm is growing rapidly like Passion was during “The Last Game” production – 150% increase in artists, 100% increase in farm capacity – it becomes increasingly important for techs to have easy routes to that data.
“Efficiency begins with automation and gets better with adjustments,” added Al-Faiadh. “Qube! plays to these needs brilliantly; it’s always working for you, routing prioritized jobs and feeding available workers so your farm has as close to zero downtime as possible.”
One of the main hurdles for other render farms is a lack of compatibility with some of the industry’s most popular tools. After 12 years in existence, Qube! has amassed a large job-type collection that makes it easier to insert into production pipelines like the ones at Passion’s London and New York offices. Project regulars like Softimage, Maya and Nuke were covered by these job types on day one, ensuring that the integration process could move on to more complex needs.
When a complex need arose, PipelineFX’s support team worked remotely or onsite to rectify any issues. Not limited to an introductory package, this support staff is available to subscription customers indefinitely, so as the pipeline develops, so does Qube!.
“We have a lot on our plates, and the last thing we want is to be limited by our tools,” said Al-Faiadh. “Qube! helps us trust our projections, so when we say it’ll be done on time, we know we aren’t lying.”
About Qube!™ and Smart Farming™
Qube! is an intelligent, mature and highly scalable render management solution that can be quickly integrated into any production workflow, and is backed by world-class technical support. Smart Farming delivers intelligence to productions by providing business-critical insight into render pipelines, maximizing investment in rendering infrastructure and automating manual processes. Qube! works out of the box with all leading content creation applications and is truly cross-platform with all software components available on Windows®, Linux®, and Mac OS®X operating systems.
About PipelineFX
As the leading provider of intelligent render farm management solutions for digital content creation, PipelineFX provides software, support, consulting and training services worldwide. Qube! manages more than 30,000 render nodes at over 700 customers in 51 countries and is used to render film and visual effects, post production, broadcast, design, games and education media. Clients include Apple, Arc Productions, Base FX, BBC, Cinesite, Deluxe, Digital District, Dyson, Efilm, Electronic Arts, Google, HBO, Hasbro, L.M.U., Lockheed Martin, Method Studios, MPC, NBC Sports, Next Media Animation, Nvidia, NHK, NYU, Original Force, Pratt Institute, Procter & Gamble, ReelFX, South Park Studios, SVA, Target, Technicolor and many others. PipelineFX is headquartered in Honolulu, HI, and has offices in Los Angeles, London, Portland, Las Vegas, and Vancouver.
About Passion
Passion is a unique independent integrated entertainment company that tells stories in every format through every medium. With offices in London, Paris and New York, Passion has won multiple Oscars, BAFTAs, Emmys and advertising awards for its feature films, TV and commercial content.
