Star Wars: Episode 1 "The Phantom Menace" rendered on SGI

ILM used SGI systems throughout the production process - from rough animatics of digital characters to final rendering of complex effects shots. The technical teams at ILM spent over 18 months designing, modeling and animating digital characters, compositing multi-layered shots and putting the finishing touches on the 1,950+ effects shots for Star Wars: Episode 1 "The Phantom Menace."

ILM houses dozens of SGI Power Challenge and Origin 2000 servers with 500+ processors dedicated to storage and rendering. With the addition of Silicon Graphics® O2 ; workstations at night, more than 500 out of ILM's 1,000 SGI processors were used for rendering on Star Wars: Episode 1 "The Phantom Menace." Of the many complex shots in the film, computer graphics artists worked with hundreds of different "layers" or elements to achieve the finished product. CG artists required instant access to the shot files, a tracking system to match various versions of the shots and the ability to change a single element without altering the entire scene.

Powerful, flexible computing systems are the foundation of our digital artistry," said Jim Morris, president of Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC. "We need fast access to the files and plenty of storage capacity. In addition to traditional visual effects techniques such as the use of miniature models, matte paintings and pyrotechnics, we relied more than ever on SGI workstations and servers to deliver Star Wars: Episode 1 on time and within budget."

ILM made several visual effects breakthroughs with Star Wars: Episode 1 "The Phantom Menace." Since the film's U.S. debut on May 19, audiences have watched human actors interact seamlessly with four primary digital characters; Jar Jar Binks, Watto, Boss Nass and Sebulba. These synthetic "principals" had all the elements of "live" actors - full 3D presence, photorealism, musculature, unique dialects and distinct personalities. Film producers and ILM artists used numerous hardware and software solutions to create the amazing underwater Gungan city, fantastic ground and space battles with all-digital armies of droids and Gungans, and the fast-paced pod race.