Colombia. DreamWorks Animation has selected Lenovo as its preferred workstation innovation partner, delivering the high-end power and performance needed to bring its next cutting-edge animated films to life.
The expanded partnership follows the deployment of a new Lenovo on-premise computing infrastructure designed to transform DreamWorks' data center into a sustainable, ultra-scalable, high-performance operations center for the creation of all its content.
With demand for quality animation content at an all-time high, DreamWorks Animation turned to Intelligent Devices Group for innovative workstation solutions that could address their growing expectations, increasingly complex workflows, and faster production schedules. Designed for high productivity, Lenovo workstations deliver industry-leading power, performance and reliability, enabling artists to bring their creative ideas to life.
"At DreamWorks, the ability to operationalize our workflows at the speed of our creative thinking process is critical to capturing those moments of expression that shape the unforgettable experiences our animators and creative professionals develop. Workstations must exceed what the relentless imagination of our artists demands of them. Hardware must be an enabler that drives performance and speed to meet your expectations," said Bill Ballew, chief technology officer at DreamWorks.
From modeling, editing, finishing and 3D simulations to high-performance animation and creating photo-hyper-realistic renderings, DreamWorks animation specialists, artists and engineers alike leverage high-performance computing capabilities. Relying on the flexibility and future-proof platforms offered by Lenovo workstations, the DreamWorks team can focus on their creative goals with the peace of mind that they know they are equipped with the world-class technology needed to navigate workflows.
In addition to the Lenovo ThinkStation P620, DreamWorks Animation also features the ThinkStation P920, Lenovo's most advanced dual-processor workstation, built with the latest generation of Intel® Xeon processors®. Similarly, the producer makes use of other devices such as the ThinkVision P27H-30 monitor and the ThinkPad P14s G2 and G3 laptop.
"We are thrilled to expand our collaboration with DreamWorks Animation and equip them with workstations that help them facilitate their increasingly demanding workflows," said Rob Herman, vice president of Lenovo's AI business unit for workstations and customers. "Our workstation collaboration is yet another example of Lenovo's ability to provide end-to-end support to our customers with the most advanced technology solutions on the market, enabling them to innovate faster and transform their respective industries."
The performance potential of liquid cooling
DreamWorks' data center was 22 years old, leaving them with space issues and power constraints. The animation powerhouse knew it needed technology that offered more efficiency in the same space to stay ahead of animation technology.
"We know we're not going to get more space, that we're unlikely to get more power, so the ability to do more work with the same watts is increasingly critical for us in the future. When we started hearing about Lenovo's liquid cooling options, we realized we could get more density and many more cores without having to do major renovations," said Skottie Miller, technology fellow and vice president of platforms and infrastructure at DreamWorks Animation.
With Neptune Liquid Cooling and Lenovo's high-performance computing cluster, the production company can increase the amount of energy extracted per square foot of the existing data center by more than a hundredfold.
The changes support improved workflows, allowing artists greater interactivity as they work to imagine new worlds. Since DreamWorks Animation's renderer, MoonRay, can be scaled up to use cores on multiple machines, more power means more possibilities.
"All of a sudden you're seeing things that would take minutes or even hours rendered in real time in front of you," said Scott Chapin, director of Systems Engineering at DreamWorks Animation.
With Lenovo's Neptune liquid cooling system, water from existing sources is harnessed to reduce energy consumption by a third.
Lenovo complied with rules limiting capacity in the data center by innovating new procedures: when firmware issues arose, for example, it invented a process that allowed power supplies to be replaced with the cluster still running, eliminating downtime.
A week after commissioning, the new systems were carrying out production work. DreamWorks experienced a 20% performance increase in the Neptune cluster compared to traditional air-cooled servers in its render farm, thanks in part to liquid cooling technology that mitigated acceleration due to overheating.
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