Sydney, Australia - 18 January 2007 -
Network Appliance (NetApp) today announced that Animal Logic,
producers of the new hit movie Happy Feet, relied on NetApp®
storage and data management solutions to store, manage, protect and
access data whilst making the animated film. Animal Logic created a
fully animated movie with remarkable visuals and effects that
required simplified storage architecture with consistent high
performance and scalability.
Animal Logic used NetApp fabric-attached storage (FAS) systems
holding over 300TB of data in a mix of primary storage and
secondary storage for archival. The NetApp solution provides the
production house with high-performance, reliable and cost-effective
storage to accelerate the delivery of its digital effects.
Backed by the high performance and robust nature of NetApp storage
systems, Animal Logic has continued to push the boundaries of
computer-generated animation in movies like
The Matrix
Reloaded, Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge!, TV programs
such as
David Tench Tonight and television commercials
such as the award-winning Carlton United 'Big Ad'.
Over time, animation has evolved from an entertainment alternative
produced primarily for children to an industry targeting a much
broader audience. As the animation industry has grown, digital
production houses have looked to technological improvements to help
meet the increasing demands. For production houses like Animal
Logic, success would be far more difficult without a highly
responsive and highly available storage network and software
applications that can adapt to greater demands. Industry
specialists consider that animation is amongst the most demanding
applications for storage system in terms of performance, with 1000s
of concurrent processors accessing and storing data at any point in
time.
The success of Animal Logic and its resulting dramatic growth has
led to the creation of hundreds of terabytes of data that needs to
be stored, managed and easily accessible.
Xavier Desdoights, Director of Technical Operations at Animal Logic
said, "Audiences expect us to deliver breakthrough visual effects
and animation, and as such, our films are incredibly complex to
create. In the animation business, with its short delivery lead
times, it's absolutely vital that data is readily accessible. We
continue to use NetApp as it can handle the highly intensive
applications required to create animation such as Happy Feet.
"NetApp offers a reliable and simple management interface and they
understand the post-production sector and its tight deadlines.
Providing around the clock support, as well as reliability and
scalability are important factors for us and NetApp delivered
consistently."
Mark Heers, Director, Marketing and Alliances ANZ, said, "Animal
Logic's creative team can't have their time and creative energy
hampered by dealing with performance, management or scalability
issues. NetApp is trusted in the animation and rich media industry
because of the simplicity, performance and reliability our storage
solutions provide."
About Animal Logic
One of the world's most highly respected digital production
companies, Animal Logic produces award-winning design, animation
and visual effects solutions for the film, television and
advertising industries. The company has a studio in Sydney,
Australia and a production office in Los Angeles. Information about
Animal Logic is available at
www.animallogic.com.
About Network Appliance
Network Appliance is a world leader in unified storage solutions
for today's data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992,
Network Appliance has delivered technology, product, and partner
firsts to simplify data management. Information about Network
Appliance™ solutions and services is available at
www-au.netapp.com.
NetApp is a registered trademark and Network Appliance is a
trademark of Network Appliance Inc. in the United States and other
countries.
Press Contacts:
Mark Heers
Director Marketing and Alliance
Network Appliance
Tel: +61 2 9979 5623
mheers@netapp.com
Rachel York
Max Australia
Tel: +61 2 9954 3492
Rachel.york@maxaustralia.com.au