Linux takes Hollywood by storm
The ornery, mud-loving creature morphs into a romantic hero through some of the richest digital animation yet created. Producer DreamWorks SKG gives considerable credit for the performance to another transformation -- animators' use of the free Linux operating system instead of software from the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Silicon Graphics Inc.
Linux is becoming a significant force for how movies are being made," says Ed Leonard, DreamWorks' chief technology officer. "For a certain amount of investment, you get dramatically increased returns."
Linux is indeed going Hollywood. Industrial Light & Magic, the San Rafael, Calif., division of George Lucas's production empire that created special effects for Star Wars, says it is preparing to replace nearly half of its 1,300 SGI workstations with a variety of Linux-based hardware still to be decided.
Pixar Animation Studios, which helped bring Walt Disney Co. into computer-generated animation with "Toy Story," is also converting its workstations to Linux. The studio was in the process of switching from SGI technology to Microsoft's Windows NT platform, but shifted to Linux in midstream as it gained momentum and credibility, says Ed Catmull, president and chief technology officer of the Emeryville, Calif., company.
Though not a huge market, movie-making technology has always carried prestige. SGI, Mountain View, Calif., cites a seven-year string of Academy Award winners and nominees in special effects. Sun Microsystems Inc. gloats about Pixar's longtime use of its servers for features that include the coming "Monsters Inc."
But Linux is being used on an increasing number of animators' workstations, as well as the rendering servers that apply shades and textures to images that the artists create. The trend is a public-relations coup for a technology that still has a somewhat anticorporate image.
"Although we're a shop of 1,300 people, we don't have the clout to get Microsoft to change their operating system," says Andy Hendrickson, director of systems development at Industrial Light & Magic. "With Linux, we can do it all ourselves."
