What is Digg?306 Comments
- Zippo, on 08/18/2008, -18/+256From what I've gathered, it's only the rendering that's done on Linux. Not to downplay rendering, as that's still a very, very important part of the process. But, from what I've heard, the backbone design-work and animation is done on a different system, such as OS X or Windows, and then the rendering is done on a Linux-based farm.
If I'm mistaken, please tell me so. - iyatoni, on 08/19/2008, -15/+149I don't get it. Do we thank the operating system for every task performed on it now?
Oh glory be to Windows XP for the email I just wrote. - economicdecline, on 08/19/2008, -26/+126If a nerd is in a circle jerk about what OS he's using, it's Linux
- BurgerPunch, on 08/19/2008, -3/+97GET BACK TO WORK!
- nonymous666, on 08/19/2008, -7/+98I thought it was the CPU that did the work.
- davzie, on 08/19/2008, -7/+91Sorry but that's false, I'm currently sitting in a systems office for a very large post production / visual effects house in London where we look after all 500 Linux / Unix workstations running CentOS.
- flxfxp, on 08/19/2008, -15/+97Modeled on Mac
Rendered on Linux
Financed on Windows - salamnder, on 08/18/2008, -11/+68I thought that Pixar always talked about their mac farms.
- salmonmoose, on 08/19/2008, -1/+49Maya, XSI, Cinema 4D, Houdini - in fact the one that sticks out as not working in Linux is 3dsmax.
They're less commonly "public" versions - presumably because they require more support.
The real shame, is there is no competitor to Photoshop, available. - srg13, on 08/19/2008, -0/+41For 3D modelling and animation, a lot of people use Maya on Linux.Also, I think Pixar has their own proprietary software that runs on UNIX or Linux.
Then there's compositing, where almost any package (Nuke, Shake, Inferno, and Flame to name a few) will run on Linux. And it's pretty common for digital colour grading too - the Lord of the Rings movies were done in what became Autodesk Lustre in Linux (or again maybe a UNIX or variant).
Other than that, Mac OS is used quite a bit too, but it's not that common to see a Windows machine... - punkcat, on 08/19/2008, -13/+50nope, in fact we would all be starving if it weren't for linux.
/sarcasm
but yeah from what i know you are correct. - wedderburn, on 08/19/2008, -1/+34Maya runs on linux both in 32bit and 64bit :)
- dr-steve, on 08/19/2008, -2/+34And all that great animation in the 50s and 60s? Frelung, Jones, Jay Ward? And the generation before, the 30s and 40s? Clampett?
Naah.
Great pencils! We should thank those great pencils, brushes, and inks! Blessed be, imagine the disaster if they had used *a different brand* of ink!!! - usingpond, on 08/19/2008, -2/+34Thanks Steven.
- rootnik, on 08/19/2008, -8/+38That email was sent through a Linux server though...
All hail Linux! All hail Linux! - BDOUG, on 08/19/2008, -10/+39They tried using Windows machines but Clippy the Paperclip kept popping up asking if they wanted to render A. Jar-Jar, B. Gollum, or a C. Velociraptor and crashing the whole process so they'd have to start over.
- AsusMobo, on 08/19/2008, -0/+29I've worked in the industry a while and have first hand experience with Imageworks, ILM, Dreamworks, DD, and R&H. All of them use Linux and the desktop. Its common to see production assistants with Mac, or even even Winodws, but those machines are too expensive for the VFX industry. Margins are very tight, nobody is buying 600 new Macs every 5 years when you can get twice the machine and run all major VFX software on Linux.
The reason we use Linux is not because its open source, its because VFX houses are really nothing but extreme rapid prototype environments. You need the flexibly and the insane amount of functionality that comes out of the box. Linux provides lots of nice ways to glue different types of systems and data together to form working pipelines. - LoungeActx, on 08/19/2008, -2/+26What 3D application runs on Linux besides Blender?
Not saying I don't believe you, but I was under the impression that the rendering is normally done using Linux. All the 3D studios I've worked with run Windows and OSX and then toss it over to a Linux render farm to be rendered. - inactive, on 08/19/2008, -3/+27"Designed in OSX, rendered in Linux"
Pirated in Windows. - inactive, on 08/19/2008, -5/+24You know, I'm a proponent of Linux (Mandriva, currently). I'd like to see more people using it. I'd like to see more people recognise it as a viable alternative to other OSes for most situations. I'd like more games to be developed natively for the system. And I like to think I can criticise it when it needs criticising because, taking it into perspective, it's not the be-all and end-all of OSes out there and fanboyism is just wrong wherever it rears its ugly head.
Therefore this evangelical desire to sell it all the time, the almost daily articles on Digg enthusing you to give it a go or switch from windows or debunking myths, including this pretty lame one about animation in the film industry, is getting pretty annoying. I can see why users of other systems are getting fed up with it, and are tired of raising the same old rebuttals that Linux users don't appear to be listening to.
C'mon guys, you'll only get people interested in Linux that WANT to become interested. Preaching at them is only going to harden their hearts in a different direction entirely. - hattonn, on 08/19/2008, -16/+32Strange i always thought it was animation software that did special effects not operating systems... If anybody has a tutorial on how you can create wall.e using compiz i'd greatly appreciate it...
- candafilm, on 08/19/2008, -1/+17Well considering Steve Jobs owns most of Pixar, it's not surprising.
- Lynx77777, on 08/19/2008, -14/+30Great, shall we now list all the places that use Microsoft....or Apple for that matter?
No, because it would take too dam long... - davzie, on 08/19/2008, -2/+18se1zure, I agree to a point but each platform is used to it's advantage. Where I'm working now we have 3D artists using Maya for 3D Scenes and also a lot of artists using Apple Shake, this is all done on a Linux CentOS OS and works very well and is very fast. The majority of the time artists will use GIMP with a Wacom however some prefer Photoshop which we run in a Virtual Machine running Windows XP 64 Bit (each machine has at least 8 gig of ram with at least 2 physical CPU's each quad core).
OSX is indeed used to edit the footage together in production suites I believe but by no-means is all the editing and colour grading done only on a Mac, each platform plays a significant role and they compliment each other in the production pipeline. Windows doesn't get used too much to be honest unless there are modelers that like 3DSmax over Maya but the majority of the time-consuming creative work (3D, 2D Compositing etc.) is all done on a Linux workstation and is all rendered on thousands of Linux Servers in our render-farm. - reisrocks, on 08/19/2008, -0/+16Alias Wavefront Maya, now known as Autodesk Maya.. this is for the bread and butter 3D. Shake for the compositing, Renderman for the Rendering.. oh and a whole other Myriad of software.. both third party and proprietary.
- skywake, on 08/19/2008, -0/+15well I know for a fact that one of the more popular pieces of 3D animation software Maya is platform independent. I suppose the fact that they use Macs for the design stuff is more because of personal preference then anything else... Macs have always been huge with the "artsy" types.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(software) - reisrocks, on 08/19/2008, -6/+21Well for all the Harry potters the entire post production - 3D special effects - was carried out on Linux workstations running Fedora Core 2, with some windows boxes for photoshop.
- brownspank, on 08/19/2008, -0/+15But the CPU and GPU do the work.
- mahler, on 08/19/2008, -0/+14You can select:
"My Profile" > "Settings" > "customize topics" > uncheck "Technology > Linux" > "Save Changes" - sjvn, on 08/19/2008, -11/+25Nope. Pixar actually barely talks at all, but the usual work process is to 'sketch' on Macs and then do the heavy lifting on Linux clusters.
Steven - directrix13, on 08/19/2008, -0/+13@dbr_onix:
Having an open source desktop doesn't make all your apps open source. So the source access to the underlying desktop would be mostly a non-issue except for automation. The fact that the OS is Linux is no more arbitrary than your 3D package is Maya or whatever. It just so happens that Linux will always be the cheapest and most easily automatable, so you might as well save a few bucks/headaches on licensing issues. BTW, thanks should go to the open source folks who provided you a whole operating system for free, and to the 3D app makers for seeing the obvious path to take. - reisrocks, on 08/19/2008, -5/+18Yeap. You are incredibly wrong.. I've worked in this industry for years.. most of all operators are put on linux machines which can access the network transparently, run centrally installed software locally, can run a myriad of scripts on their scenes / file sequences, and perform all the tasks required in the incredibly complex pipeline required in post production, need stable OSs so their machines do crash as they're modelling the Centaur's nose.
Trust me linux plays a Major role in post production.. and if you don't know what you are talking about, which you clearly don't then please don't speculate. - inactive, on 08/19/2008, -2/+14And GPU too. I saw those pics showing several GPU cards SLIed together for rendering jobs.
- dbr_onix, on 08/19/2008, -1/+13Yes, and you also have a tech support department, and a pipeline department, and an RnD department, and a software-development department (or various combinations or merges of those).
That is why the "linux is great, animation and visual effects companies use it!" argument annoys me - they use linux because the fact it's open-source is genuinely a benefit - they have employees who can read and modify that source, the fact there are far less licensing issues with it also helps.
Besides, the fact the OS is Linux is arbitrary. A few years ago it was probably SGI/IRIX. Why? As it had better graphics-processing stuff, so the software was written for it. The thanks should probably go to the software vendors who make things like maya, or renderman, or shake, or nuke that run on Linux.
LouneActx/"What 3D application runs on Linux besides Blender?": Most of them.. Mainly Maya and XSI. 3DSMax and Mudbox are the only big 3D applications I can think of that don't.. - spdorsey, on 08/19/2008, -1/+12I have not tried with Maya 2008 yet, but Maya 8.5 and earlier was truly a BITCH to install in Linux.
That's why we use it with Windows 64.
But all the good renderfarms we work with use Linux for their render nodes. - srg13, on 08/19/2008, -7/+17You'd be surprised just how wrong you are...
- Chirp08, on 08/19/2008, -0/+10It seems you are correct, but can you believe there is no solid article about the details out there. They converted entirely to OSX when the new G5's first came out, all creative/design work, and not to mention any computer in the office. I found an article saying that they started out using Linux when they were small since alternatives were way too expensive. They are still using linux because in terms of filesystem performance and clustering it has clear advantages in speed and ease to tweak, not to mention it costs a fraction of what it would take to comprise the same setup out of Xserves.
- thelizardreborn, on 08/19/2008, -4/+14Pixar does graphics rendering, not sound. Disney and Nickelodeon like to include Macs or Mac look-alikes in their movies because that's what's "trendy".
- vinnieT, on 08/19/2008, -1/+11For those of you who don't know, Hollywood studios do NOT use Macs or Windows machines for CGI. They've always used high-end UNIX workstations with specialized software. This used to be SGI's bread and butter, and then Sun grabbed some of that market. These days the companies have been switching to Linux systems because of cost.
- thtroyer, on 08/19/2008, -2/+12Besides, that's horrible logic.
4 = a number.
6 = a number.
Then doesn't 4 = 6? - soapycub, on 08/19/2008, -0/+9Lucky they all used the Blackwing 602.
Funny how things like this never change. Back then it was pencils, now it's Operating Systems. - amphoterous, on 08/19/2008, -0/+9Good morning to you!
- inactive, on 08/19/2008, -2/+11Mark the calender, folks - that's a Windows user and a Linux user *agreeing on something*, and it happened right here on your very own Digg.
Miracles CAN happen, if you let them. ;) - Zounas, on 08/19/2008, -0/+9Don't forget people, mouse, keyboard, motherboard, RAM, electricity and atoms.
- inactive, on 08/19/2008, -8/+17Nice try, but you do realise Compiz isn't an OS, don't you?.
- atrus123, on 08/19/2008, -0/+9Workstations are largely Linux based as well. Weta in New Zealand runs their Maya workstations on RH.
- reisrocks, on 08/19/2008, -3/+12What productoins? when? where? please enlighten me on the OSX side of things. I have rarely run into it in the past.. and have worked in this industry for years.
- thelizardreborn, on 08/19/2008, -3/+11@BurgerPunch - Could've done it in any OS, and they chose Linux.
- srg13, on 08/19/2008, -0/+8"Pixar's render software is called RenderMan. It's not proprietary anymore, you can buy it."
He was referring to the software they actually model and render on, called Marionette, which is not commercially available. - Galaxylander, on 08/19/2008, -0/+8thelizardreborn, uh, yeah, they do include Mac references, but it has nothing to do with it being trendy. Pixar's CEO used to be Steve Jobs and most of them still have a passion for Macs.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 308 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is