SIGGRAPH 2015, Los Angeles, CA – Thinkbox Software showcased advancements to Deadline, its scalable high-volume compute management solution. Fast, flexible and compatible across platforms, Deadline enables studios to easily link any combination of local and cloud-based resources into one logical pipeline.
Deadline 8 on-demand metered licensing
For ultimate scalability, Thinkbox is introducing on-demand metered licensing with Deadline 8, which will start beta soon. The feature will work with both local and cloud-based farms alongside existing permanent and temporary licenses. Usage is tracked per minute, and can be purchased and managed round-the-clock via Thinkbox’s e-commerce portal. Additionally, the store will host on-demand per-minute licenses for select third party rendering options, including The Foundry’s NUKE render, with more to come.
“Thinkbox, with its new on-demand licensing option, has created a smart solution that provides artists with more flexible ways to scale solutions like their NUKE rendering requirements,” said Philippa Carroll, Head of Media Production, Business Strategy and Operations, The Foundry. “The new store and Deadline 8 reflect today’s business realities, addressing the fluctuating demands studios may face throughout the creative process and offer a feasible way of managing this fluxation.”
01 – Deadline is a hassle-free administration and compute management toolkit for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X based render farms.
Deadline 8 also adds a Proxy Server application that allows users to securely connect to and interact with remote and cloud-based render farms over public Internet without the need for a virtual private network (VPN). An updated user interface with enhanced interactivity improves the Monitor experience, while the new sandboxed Python environment facilitates additional rendering and event stability.
“Anyone can build a workflow around Deadline; it enables studios to work the way they want, with the tools they want and be cloud-ready, if they choose. With our new store, users have even more flexibility to use every possible core at their disposal when they need it, whether local or in the cloud,” shared Chris Bond, Founder, Thinkbox Software.
Cloud rendering support by Deadline
Currently, Deadline supports cloud rendering on Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and OpenStack, among others. Leading up to SIGGRAPH 2015, Thinkbox released Deadline Cloud Wizard for Google Cloud Platform and a beta version for Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2); the wizards automate the configuration of cloud-based render farms running Deadline into a one-time automated task completed in less than 30 minutes. Similarly, Deadline was made available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace for one-click access to the software.
Thinkbox also recently launched the beta for Deadline 7.2. New features includes new Quick Draft options to create movies from rendered images or perform file conversions without having to create template scripts. Integration with NIM Labs’ NIM pipeline management tool enables the creation of NIM renders, and automates the uploading of thumbnails and movies to NIM when jobs complete. Enhanced support for SideFX Software’s Houdini introduces Jigsaw region rendering, HServer interactive rendering, and HQueue simulation node slicing.
For more information on the latest updates to Deadline, visit Thinkbox Software at SIGGRAPH in booth #329, or see www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales.
About Thinkbox Software
Founded by Chris Bond in 2010, Thinkbox Software develops production-proven tools for visual artists and backs each product with highly responsive support. Used across entertainment, architecture, engineering and design, Thinkbox’s products include Deadline® high-volume compute management software used to render, manage and process files locally and across the cloud as well as standalone point mesher Sequoia and particle renderer Krakatoa, which are used to create, visualize and modify massive datasets. For more information, visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com or follow @thinkboxsoft on Twitter.