HP and DreamWorks Animation Cast Innovation as a Lead in "Rise

HP and DreamWorks Animation Cast Innovation as a Lead in "Rise of the Guardians"

PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/19/12 -- HP (NYSE: HPQ) and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (NASDAQ: DWA) today marked the latest chapter in their ongoing collaboration by working together to create an epic adventure for worldwide audiences with the breakthrough animation of the studio's upcoming 3-D movie, "Rise of the Guardians."

Like each DreamWorks Animation film before it, "Rise of the Guardians," which hits theaters on Nov. 21, pushes the boundaries of digital animation as the studio's most technically advanced film to date.

To create a new level of visual richness in an animated film, DreamWorks Animation uses HP Converged Infrastructure technologies that included HP Cloud Services, HP Z Workstations, HP DreamColor displays, HP Networking and HP Proliant server solutions, HP Managed Print Services and digital rendering resources.

"Our goal is to push the limits of what is possible in digital animation and storytelling," said Derek Chan, head, Global Technology Operations, DreamWorks Animation. "Using HP Converged Infrastructure technologies, we increase the functionality that allows our artists to create more innovative animation with every film."

DreamWorks Animation uses HP technology throughout the production cycle -- from creating character designs, to developing detailed animation scenes, to processing massive amounts of data. Throughout the years, HP technology has played an integral role in creating DreamWorks Animation's groundbreaking animated feature films, including the franchise properties of "Shrek," "How to Train Your Dragon," "Kung Fu Panda," "Madagascar" and "Puss in Boots."

"Rise of the Guardians" tapped the power of several HP technologies, including:

 
--  The HP Z800 and Z820 high-performance workstations, powered by
    Intel(R) multicore processors. The Xeon(R) E5 based HP Z820 was
    used to process more than 1 million "Rise of the Guardians" render
    jobs in the desktop render farm, utilizing spare computing power
    residing on desktop workstations at night and on weekends.
--  HP DreamColor professional monitors supporting 1 billion active colors
    and providing color consistency across multiple depar
tments in the
    studio. Jointly developed by DreamWorks Animation and HP, HP
    DreamColor Monitors surpassed the performance of all other LCD
    displays available on the market.
--  HP Remote Graphics Software, allowing for seamless collaboration for
    artists split across multiple locations to finalize intricate details.
    DreamWorks Animation's studios are located in Glendale and Redwood
    City, Calif.
--  HP Flexible Compute Cloud Service, providing 20 percent of total
    rendering in 2012, up from 5 percent in 2010. As digital resource
    demands continue to increase from production to production, HP has
    helped the studio to stay within their existing data center footprint
    -- eliminating a multimillion dollar physical expansion, while
    continuing to provide the needed resources to meet artistic demands.
--  HP Networking: To support the studio's scalable 10G WAN/LAN
    infrastructure, 100 percent of the networking equipment used in the
    United States production of the film was HP network gear.
--  HP BladeSystem servers with ProLiant BL460c server blades, enabling
    the studio to render more efficiently and effectively. HP G8 blades
    achieved more than 40 percent higher render throughput compared to
    previous blades and delivered more than 42 percent better performance
    per watt.
--  HP Storage: 3 petabytes of HP storage were used to facilitate data
    protection and archiving, and the storing of reference data. The
    studio collaborated with HP to create a dynamic storage infrastructure
    that can scale storage and performance across geographies to meet the
    studio's needs and future growth.
--  HP Managed Print Services and multifunction printers help DreamWorks
    Animation convert electronic workflows and digital images into living,
    color-rich documents used in previsualization, storyboarding and other
    animation processes.

"Rise of the Guardians" fun facts:

 
--  The DreamWorks Animation render farm, spanning across three geographic
    sites, is the most powerful ever used for a studio production.
--  250+ terabytes of disk storage were used in the making of "Rise of the
    Guardians."
--  The 97-minute "Rise of the Guardians" is composed of more than 130,000
    individual computer-generated frames.
--  The production of "Rise of the Guardians" required more than 65
    million render hours.
--  One of the more complicated and amazing special effects is sand. The
    sand is created by generating lots of points inside the computer
    called particles. As many as a billion particles may be needed to
    create the sand shapes for one scene.

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Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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