Superior technology key to developing top-end animation studios

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: The Ittina Animation Studios is a studio with state-of-the-art creative, technical and production capabilities and the goal to foster a new generation of animation storytelling in India.

Manu Ittina, who set up the studio in October 2005 in India, has worked with Dreamworks on Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Shrek 2’ and ‘Madagascar’. Takshaa, the new educational division of the studio can accommodate up to 250 students and boasts of a state-of-the-art lab equipped with 100 high-end workstations.

Takshaa, spread across 15,000 sq feet, has the potential to become one of the largest computer animations schools in the country. According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), India has presently a very thin slice of the $50 billion global animation industry pie, at about 300 million.

But this is expected to increase to about $1.5 billion by end-2006. A studio for animation and graphics require huge investments and trained manpower to deliver high-quality, creative output. It requires the best of processors and high-end PCs or workstations to accelerate the creative process, be upgradeable in the long run and process large amounts of data quickly.

The challenge before Ittina was to install systems that can provide fast and superior performance for long hours. After a detailed market research, Ittina decided to install 50+ HP 9300 workstations. These machines are high performance PCs which run on AMD’s dual-core Opteron processors.

Ittina required machines that were easier to switch from single core to dual core, had usable dual core technology and provided competitive costing. Autodesk— Maya— software is the world’s most powerfully integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects and rendering solution. Performance of Maya on the machine was a big question. Ittina required a workstation with significant advantages in power saving; the creative team needed superior technology which was easy and fast to work on — thereby enhancing their productivity. Inspite of having worked on the competitive processor platform, Manu decided to install AMD’s Opterons. These processors were tailor-made to suit his requirements and were optimum for his needs. At Ittina, all AMD-based machines are specifically used for production as they are high-end systems. Ittina uses Maya for production and Maya’s performance has been recorded to be superior on AMD systems as compared to competitor systems. After discussion with AMD India and a technology briefing by AMD’s marketing and technical team, his decision was made.