"With the Windows user interface we provide a complete push-button environment for our designers, so instead of having to write code they can do what they're hired to do-create spectacular animation. As a result, they're probably five times more productive than they would be in a UNIX environment."
Paul Bryant
Director of Operations
Foundation Imaging
Business Solution
Support for microcomputer-based animation modeling and 3-D rendering
Architecture
Enterprise-wide network including three Alpha 275s, four MIPS
R4400s, seven Dell P100s, six 486 PCs, 25 Commodore Amigas, and
two Macintosh systems accessing a custom-built 100-gigabyte Novell
NetWare server over a 10-base T Ethernet hub
Products and Services Used
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Office Standard
Microsoft Visual Basic
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows for Workgroups
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation
Benefits
Has enabled a small startup to produce elaborate and sophisticated
3-D video animation for one-quarter the standard industry cost.
Mainframes may have put people on the moon, but microcomputers will land them on Mars, at least in the televised version. Airing as a CBS Movie of the Week, Journey to Mars will lead viewers through a computer-generated landscape of fiery volcanoes, bottomless craters, and shimmering, white-hot lava fields-the handiwork of an energetic startup using machines running the Microsoft® Windows NTTM Workstation operating system. Known as Foundation Imaging, the 11-person Los Angeles-area company has been building fantastic planets and other imaginary worlds and creatures since its launch in 1992. In its first six months of operation, the firm won an Emmy for its work on the initial episode of Babylon 5. Babylon 5 was the first television program to have all of its visual effects generated by computers. Today, the snazzy "space opera" is a popular weekly series, with each episode featuring three and a half minutes of full-screen 3-D animation.
In response, Bryant and his colleagues Ron Thornton and Shannon Casey turned to the Microsoft Windows NT operating system technology. "We needed a powerful and scalable platform that could also help us leverage our existing work on the Amiga," Bryant points out. "Windows NT seemed an ideal choice."
In early 1994, Foundation Imaging began performing its back-end, 3-D rendering work on the Deskstation Technologies MIPS® R4400 running Windows NT version 3.1; later, it used that system and the Aspen Alpha 275 running Windows NT Workstation. In December 1994, after Newtek ported a full version of its LightWave software to Windows NT Workstation, Foundation Imaging began performing its front-end modeling work as well as some 3-D rendering on Alpha and PentiumTM machines.
Over the following months, Foundation Imaging acquired an assortment of new hardware and systems. Today, the Foundation Imaging computing environment consists of three Aspen Alpha 275s, four Deskstation MIPS R4400s, and seven Dell® P100s, all running Windows NT Workstation; five desktop systems running the Windows® operating system and one running Windows® for Workgroups; 24 Amiga 68040/32s; a Macintosh® 840AV; and a Power MacTM 8100/100. All systems are connected over a 10-base T Ethernet hub to a custom-built 100-gigabyte server running Novell® NetWare®.
On the server, a Microsoft Access-based application tracks a 4-gigabyte structure of scene and object files and image maps. On the desktop systems running Windows NT Workstation, an application created with the Visual Basic® programming system provides a front end to Foundation Imaging's distributed rendering-control system.
To build the computer animation stored in the 120 gigabytes of files that Foundation Imaging produces each year, the designers execute a step-by-step process culminating in the 3-D rendering, which is highly computation-intensive. The three and a half minutes of animation shown in each episode of Babylon 5, for example, requires continuous computation for 2 weeks, and rendering the animation in Journey to Mars required 10 weeks of nonstop computing.
"With the Alpha, we're using what the Guinness Book of Records calls the fastest microprocessor on the planet as a computational appliance," Bryant says. "We don't just run our machines hard-we make them glow in the dark."
For example, animation-software packages in the microcomputer environment are one-third to one-tenth the cost of their counterparts in UNIX®-based environments. As a side benefit, Foundation Imaging enjoys its choice of some of the most advanced software on the market. "Since our software costs are minimal, we can experiment with new products at a relatively low risk," he says.
Ease of use provides its own advantages in cost and efficiency. "With the Windows user interface we provide a complete push-button environment for our designers, so instead of having to write code they can do what they're hired to do-create spectacular animation," Bryant says. "As a result, they're probably five times more productive than they would be in a UNIX environment."
Integration is another benefit of using Windows NT Workstation, says Bryant. "When we first installed the new computers on the network, Windows NT Workstation immediately recognized our Novell server, with no modifications required on our part," he reports.
Compatibility and interoperability are also concerns that Foundation Imaging addresses through its use of Windows NT Workstation. "As we make the transition to Intel® and RISC hardware, it's imperative that we maintain transparent access to the thousands of files we've created on the Amiga and Macintosh systems," Bryant explains. "Through its seamless compatibility with other systems and especially its support for long filenames, Windows NT Workstation enables us to leverage these absolutely essential resources."
Bryant also appreciates the built-in OpenGLTM 3-D graphics library, which enables Foundation Imaging to run real-time 3-D simulations on any Windows NT Workstation-based machine. The systems-management capabilities of Windows NT Workstation are another advantage, he says. "The command line is especially handy for delving into complex questions," he says. "When it comes to diagnosis, Windows NT Workstation is a better UNIX than UNIX."
Looking ahead, Bryant and his colleagues hope one day to apply Foundation Imaging's talents and tools to film animation-and wait for the development of microcomputer-based applications that would support that demanding discipline. "We would love to be the first people to do large-scale film animation on microcomputers, and we know that Windows NT Workstation is capable of supporting that kind of work," Bryant says.
