If you are setting out to exploit emerging technologies to create the glitziest movie studio in the business, you need to sign up with the runaway market leader in computer systems for special effects, and so it is no surprise that DreamWorks SKG, the entertainment company formed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen has, as reported briefly yesterday, been knocking on the Mountain View door of Silicon Graphics Inc. The partners plan to invest an estimated $50m to create the DreamWorks Digital Studio for animation, feature film and television production – in which Cambridge, UK company Cambridge Animation Systems Ltd will play a leading role. Silicon Graphics will develop a new animation production system called DAD, for Digital Animation Dreammachine, and a computer system to be used for DreamWorks’ first full-length animation project and for future feature film, television, music and interactive products, with first systems to be ready in September 1996. The studio will be designed as an open network available to third-party hardware and software vendors and will include Onyx graphics supercomputers, Indigo2 workstations, Indy desktop workstations and Challenge servers at its heart. Cambridge Animation will provide the key cel animation component of the digital animation studio: the partners plan to install more than 100 Cambridge Animo 2D software systems to provide digital ink and paint compositing, line testing, camera and effects, and Silicon Graphics is sealing the deal by buying a minority stake in Cambridge. All products and technology developed under the agreement will be available to the entertainment industry as standard products from the Silicon Studio subsidiary of Silicon Graphics. DreamWorks is already in bed with Microsoft Corp in the DreamWorks Interactive joint venture to create interactive multimedia programming.
