Post0611_cov 6/22/11 3:43 PM Page 1 Post wwwpostmagazinecom Changemo2010 CREDIT: TECHNICOLOR CREATIVE SERVICES MONTREAL Post0611_046WorkflowMLV2finalFINALREAD.qxd6/2/115:08PMPage46 workflow Laika’s huge data needs for ParaNorman ORTLAND,OR — As the scope and needs to increase artist collaboration and “We need our artists focused on the cre- complexity of animated motion accelerate project completion. ative process,not waiting for render jobs to P pictures escalates to satisfy hun- “IMT designed our new data centers and finish or content to migrate,so a single, grier and hungrier audiences,film companies helped us through that complex implemen- shared storage resource that can accommo- face massive data challenges.During Laika tation process,”explains Jonathan Rozes,di- date a range of access patterns and perfor- studio’s production and post production of rector of IT at Laika (www.laika.com).“Our mance requirements is a game-changer for the Oscar-nominated Coraline,the studio most critical asset is the animation and CG us,”explains Rozes.“Before Isilon,we had to faced a need to expand quickly and to con- artists,and the more iterations they can get manage our workflows separately,which siderably upgrade its storage capacity. in a fixed period of time,the better the film made management a hassle and limited our Laika and Focus Features,responsible for looks and the better it is for the studio.IMT productivity.By moving to Isilon,we’ve con- Coraline,are re-teaming for Laika’s next two understood the sensitivity and pressure of solidated our entire production operation projects:The first of the duo, ParaNorman, any kind of disruption,and got everything on one,simple solution,which not only min- will be released nationwide in August,2012. set up quickly and made the transition as imized management,but helped expand our Following Coraline, ParaNorman,directed seamless as possible.” bandwidth for new projects.” by Sam Fell and Chris Butler,is currently only Owned by Nike co-founder/chairman Laika deployed three tiers of Isilon scale- the second stop-motion animated feature to Philip H.Knight,Laika features two divisions: out NAS — the high-performance 5400S be made in 3D.In the comedy thriller,a Laika’s Entertainment division,which pro- for its IOPS-intensive compositing workflow, small town comes under siege by zombies duces animated feature films and shorts, the 10000X-SSD for metadata-intensive and calls on misunderstood local boy Nor- and Laika/house,the commercial man,who is able to speak with the dead. division behind animated cam- paigns for Frito Lay,M&Ms and DATA CENTER NEEDS Planters.Prior to Isilon,Laika’s tra- With one facility in Portland and another ditional NAS system segregated its 20 miles away in Hillsboro,and its second range of workflows across dis- Jonathan Rozes (one of the Hillsboro work- This studio shops is inset):“We need our artists focused on the creative process,not waiting for render jobs prepares for to finish or content to migrate...” its next 3D computer graphics apps,and the 12000X for highly concurrent stop-motion effects. stereo job. Using SmartPools,Laika has simplified management to less than one full-time equivalent (FTE) and unified all of its pro- duction operations on a single,shared pool of storage.Additionally,using Isilon’s NL-Se- ries in combination with its asynchronous replication application SyncIQ,Laika can much-anticipated animated feature already in parate file systems,complicating manage- backup its projects to a secure,reliable off- pre-production,Laika didn’t want to change ment,slowing application performance and site cluster,ensuring maximum data availabil- course and invest in an expanded brick-and- limiting artist collaboration. ity and business continuity in the event of mortar data center.Instead,they called on In- data loss or disaster. tegrated Media Technologies (IMT) to design THE SET-UP “IMT has an excellent understanding of and implement two portable 20-foot storage Working with IMT and using Isilon’s the feature film industry,and animation in par- containers to house all of its new data trans- SmartPools software application,Laika has ticular,”adds Rozes.“After we evaluated com- fer and storage solutions. unified three performance tiers into a single petitive proposals,IMT asked the most intelli- As a result,Laika has deployed more than file system,consolidating its compositing, gent questions and came up with a solution a Petabyte of EMC Isilon scale-out NAS as computer graphics and stop-motion work- that was the best fit for us,”says Rozes.“The the primary storage platform for its end-to- flows onto a single,shared storage resource, fact that they decided to go with Isilon was a end animation and computer graphics work- streamlining production operations and im- reflection of their knowledge of the industry flow,simplifying its huge data management proving IT efficiency. and what our needs were.” 46 Post • June 2011 www.postmagazine.com.