The tools that can last are the ones that can roll with the punches. For Dallas, Texas, and Santa Monica’s Reel FX, one tool has helped them manage 4.5 million render jobs in the most efficient way possible. Now in its 11th year of use, PipelineFX’s Qube! plays the guardian role for a production queue riding high on the success of “Free Birds” and the impending release of the new Guillermo Del Toro-produced feature with 20thCentury Fox, “The Book of Life.”
33,000 Unique Weekly Jobs
PipelinFX’s Qube render farm management software forms the backbone of Reel FX’s render farm and is used weekly to distribute and process up to 33,000 unique render jobs that cycle through the firm’s production departments. The render queue at Reel FX is loaded up with work for commercials like for Audi and Interactive Minion clips for the Universal Studios ride.
“Qube! is in the middle of every commercial, short and animated film we’ve produced,” said Ross Moshell, Head of Technology at Reel FX. “As a production studio, we squeeze every last drop out of our software. Qube! helps keep our render farm busy 24 hours a day so we rarely have downtime.”
Qube! made its Reel FX debut in 2003 while the studio was working on its first long-form animation project, “GI Joe: Spy Troops.” A sudden shift in demand for high-volume, quick-turnaround rendering forced the hand of the growing shop, leading them to Qube! which had already made a name for itself as an intuitive solution to their problem.
“PipelineFX was a helpful, engaging partner right from the beginning,” said Moshell. “Their blend of helpful user interface tools and powerful command-line functionality helped make our early projects successful despite having limited render-management personnel. The same customer-service values and focus on functionality are why Reel FX continues to use Qube! today.”
World Class Support
PipelineFX has long offered world class support for its Qube customers and is a major factor in the reason Reel FX has been so happy with Qube.
“During the initial roll-out, PipelineFX would come on-site to tailor Qube! to our specific needs while we learned the basics,” said Moshell. “Over the years, we have grown to depend less and less on Qube! support, primarily because the system is so robust and stable, and because our internal render management team understands the software so well now.”
These days Reel FX can focus more on making the most out of Qube’s powerful features. Custom job types allow render wranglers to manage pipeline automation, media creation and other useful non-rendering tasks, saving time and company resources. When pure automation doesn’t make sense, Qube!’s versatility affords the company the ability to enable/disable machines on a smart schedule that taps the power of artist workstations that go idle at certain hours. This promotes full utilization of equipment, ensuring that priority renders are getting all the juice they need.
01 – PipelineFX’s Qube 6.6 Artists View, a screen shot of part of their world class render management software system used by hundreds of studios around the world. Runs on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows platforms and has dedicated Apple iOS apps.
With growth on the rise and a $110 million blockbuster in their rearview, Reel FX is poised to become a big player in the animated feature world. “The Book of Life,” starring the vocal talents of Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Ice Cube and Diego Luna, should continue that forward trajectory.
“We are in a great place right now,” said Moshell. “The staff is excited about the work, audiences are responding, and we are meeting our goals head on. Keeping on this path means that we have to maintain the hard work and good choices that got us here. We count Qube! as one of those good choices.”
About Qube and Smart Farming
PipelineFX’s Qube is an intelligent and highly scalable render management solution that can be integrated into any production workflow across a range of visualization industries, supporting all the leading professional 3D tools. Smart Farming delivers intelligence to production pipelines by providing business-critical insight into render pipelines, maximizing investment in rendering infrastructure and automating manual processes.
Qube is truly cross-platform and works with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems and platforms and even includes Apple iOS native tools for render management.
02 – Qube is fully supported with innovative iOS-based mobile apps. This one shows it on iPad 3.
Qube! is an intelligent, mature and highly scalable render management solution that can be quickly integrated into any production workflow, and is backed by world-class technical support. Smart Farming delivers intelligence to production pipelines by providing business-critical insight into render pipelines, maximizing investment in rendering infrastructure and automating manual processes. Qube! works out of the box with all leading content creation applications and is truly cross-platform with all software components available on Windows®, Linux®, and Mac OS®X operating systems.
To learn more about Qube visit them here online.