BlueArc Si8700

At Toronto-based Mr. X, we specialize in feature film visual effects and animation for international and local producers. We have more than 30 feature credits released or in development, including the spring 2003 zombie-plagued blockbuster Dawn of the Dead. More recently, Mr. X created more than 200 shots for Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the sequel to 2002's monster combat thriller.

Visual effects studio Mr. X chose the Si8700 system for its scalability and rendering power.

The highly competitive visual effects industry requires a tremendous amount of storage while placing heavy demands on the network. Our solution? Mr. X relies on a BlueArc Si8700 storage system to create the highest quality visual effects.

We're primarily a Maya shop. We'll use RenderMan, Mental Ray, and Maya to render out. For our film projects, we usually work with image files at 2K or 4K resolutions. During a typical production, multiple teams of artists need to access these images at the same time.

Given that film runs at 24fps — and any shot can consist of multiple rendered layers — the number of rendered images required for each shot adds up quickly. In order to meet our deadlines, we need to render images 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That means high levels of bandwidth must always be available.

We first began using our BlueArc system during the fall of 2003 for Dawn of the Dead, for which we created more than 100 effects shots. The feature posed unique challenges that pushed our storage system's limits to the edge.

Before the decision to go with BlueArc, we faced a server bottleneck, both in reading and writing files to workstations, and in moving files off to our render farm. We knew we had to make a change, since we found it unacceptable for artists to wait hours for a shot to render. We want our creatives to focus on using their talents; efficiency is critical for meeting deadlines.

We looked into several options and decided the BlueArc SiliconServer best fit our needs. The reasons? Performance was primary. We also needed a system that came in at a good price point and used an architecture that was flexible and scalable, something we could grow and evolve with.

BlueArc's performance far exceeded any that of the other storage solutions we tested. The Si8700 runs at “wire speed” and includes both Ethernet and 2Gbps Fibre Channel interfaces. It isn't limited by CPU, memory, or bus traffic, as with traditional NAS appliances.

The technology showed no perceptible signs of performance degradation while rendering the largest of files. That saved us a great amount of time and allowed our artists to focus on what they do best.

In addition to the performance capabilities, the system is scalable. That means we won't have to buy another separate storage array when we need more capacity. BlueArc's solution gives us the option to add terabytes of storage as we need them, by adding drives to the same unit. This was a key driver in our decision. It prevents us from having to overbuy storage capacity now. Other products we looked at quickly became expensive, since we would have had to buy entire, separate arrays to add storage.

Another good point: BlueArc allows you to mix Fibre Channel and ATA drives in a single system, which is perfect for the varying types of data we need to store. The Fibre Channel drives serve as our primary project repository, housing everything from 3D scene files to final rendered images. By using Fibre Channel for this purpose, we are taking advantage of its higher I/O speed, which is an ideal way to service the frequent requests for this data from our artists. Meanwhile, the ATA drives act as our online archive, perfect for data we access less frequently, since it frees up space on the higher-performance arrays.

By the time we started Resident Evil: Apocalypse, we had our revamped storage in place. The BlueArc is now central to our operation. Composites and 3D scene information are accessed through the server, and then rendered on one of the computers in our render farm. As soon as the rendered image is complete, it automatically transfers back to the BlueArc. No matter how busy it gets, we haven't seen any performance degradation, while we've eliminated the render failures that cost us time and money.

BlueArc's SiliconServer was instrumental in our delivery of Resident Evil: Apocalypse on time. We now have a system in place that we can depend on, something that will support our future growth.

David Singer is operations manager at Mr. X. Toronto-based Mr. X has more than 50 feature film credits for international and local producers. By working with filmmakers at the script level, the creatives at Mr. X help define the very look and feel of a film. Projects of note include Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Dawn of the Dead, Wrong Turn, and The Sweet Hereafter. For more information, visit
www.mrxfx.com, or call (416) 595-6222.