The HP Z800 workstation was among the HP technology used by Dreamworks Animation to create the latest Shrek sequel.
Technology from Hewlett Packard is once again at the heart of a DreamWorks Animation film; this time "Shrek Forever After." The 3-D film from DreamWorks Animation opened last Friday and has grossed over $76 million already.
HP technology has powered the development of the entire Shrek series. HP Z800 workstations were used by DreamWorks production artists for everything from characters to lighting. The render farm for "Shrek Forever After" was the largest and most powerful yet for the studio. More than 46 million render hours were required in production, with nearly 76 terabytes of data consumed. In 2001 the original "Shrek" movie used 6 terabytes of data and near 5 million render hours.
ProLiant BL460c G6 blades were used for server management, DreamColor Displays and printers to ensure color accuracy and Z800 workstations aided story artists. HP StorageWorks X9000 series storage system was used as well.
“DreamWorks Animation is famous for pushing the limits of innovation to engage with audiences in new ways,” said Jeff Wood, director, Worldwide Marketing, Workstations for HP. “HP is committed to a continued investment in research and development to provide customers like DreamWorks with innovations that break through creative barriers to enable the next generation in film.”
Some fun facts about "Shrek Forever After":
- Beast Fiona’s “hair cut” took about nine months of development between digital artists
- In the ogre camp, there are 35 torches in 59 shots. That’s 2,065 layers of torches, and 4,130 layers accounting for stereo.
- “The Shrek Forever After” crew generated 74,016 different ogre variations, of which the same 51 were used throughout all the ogre shots.
- Fiona’s old castle room has 449,166 pieces of particles floating around in the air.
