[Tig] where.. neutral review RED?

[throb - Robert Nederhorst]

... below...

throb | vfx | speedshape | la | http://throb.net


On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Bob Friesenhahn
<bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote:
> Windows is sort of multi-user, but it seems that if someone is logged in at
> the console then there are severe limitations with using the network.  I
> learned the hard way, that if I was logged in at the console, that if I
> logged in a second time over the network, it was not possible for that
> second login to see any SMB shares, even if it was the same user ID.  If no

very strange.  we routinely run as multiple users on a machine for
rendering.  this is not an issue.
we're running windows xp sp2 64 bit

> When I visited Rhythm and Hues, I was impressed that most of their computing
> platform was based on single-slot Linux blades with two ethernets and two
> fiber channel links each.  Each compute blade was perhaps 3/4" wide and 12"
> tall and plugged into a backplane chassis for power and cooling.  The

yeah these are great.  we have similar setups from time to time when
we rent additional render nodes.

> storage was in entirely different chassis. The compute frames and storage
> frames were extremely compact and efficient.  A typical "PC" solution would
> have taken 10X or 20X the space and be much more expensive to maintain.  The
> OS and application load for the hardware was entirely remotely administered
> and could easily be rolled back if there was any problem.  This sort of
> configuration is not really feasable with Windows, and definitely not with

we have had setups with these blades.  we of course need to set one up
and then clone the disks.  normal procedures there.  we've had very
few instances (maybe 5 in a year) of a machine going so bonkers we
need to re-image it.  in that case we clone the drive from a working
machine.  not a real hardship.

windows isn't the be-all end-all.  don't think i am a zealot.  i could
almost give up using it in favor of a mac except for one piece of
software (3dsmax)

however, we're basically an all windows shop and are able to deal with
multiple types of formats with no real problem.

there have been weeks where we're doing thousands of frames per day on
our all windows network.

to bring this back into topic...
while i want all tools to be available on all platforms for dealing
with RED data, i don't see the current "exclusion" of linux to be a
major issue for the camera and its integration into the marketplace.
the other two OS's are pretty prevalent so we can do the "telecine"
process on any machine in the facility, and that's something that
totally changes the state of play.

In fact, I think the advent of the lower cost cameras (SI2k and RED)
are game changers unto themselves.  It gives the ability to create
quality to many more people who had not had it before.  I was party to
this recently when we shot a short (15 min) on the RED.  While we ran
into workflow problems (which we overcame), we got results that for
the price would have been impossible with film.  Plus the day after we
wrapped we were watching all the clips / takes in a box while doing
simple color work to them non destructively.  Once again, this would
have been very costly with a film based production.  It simply would
have not been possible on the budget we had.  The footage looks
incredible due to a good DP and crew that worked very hard to create.
People, as always, are the the key.

Anyway, my quick review of the RED is that it's a very notable
introduction by a company driven to create a product that breaks
established ideas of how things should be.  Like Mike Most says, it's
not been without significant delays and beta cycles, but ultimately
they have delivered on what they wanted to deliver on.  People
adopting the camera and its workflow are beta testers (and go in
knowingly) and well, we're all in for playing with new toys right?

Happy 4th everyone!

rob