'How to Train Your Dragon 2': fantastic animation with 700 million digital files and 400 terabytes of data

Dreamworks once again relies on HP technology for this digital production with more than 700 million digital files and 400 terabytes of data.

The close collaboration between HP and Dreamworks Animation has materialized again in the new film How to train your dragon 2. This is the latest animated feature film that has used HP technology and has made cutting-edge digital production possible.

According to Marco Viejo, head of Workstations at HP Spain, "for more than a decade, our solutions have supported all areas involved in the creation of Dreamworks Animation animated films, from production processes, digital infrastructure, to business areas. With our help, digital animation reaches a new era, providing the public with an unprecedented experience."

HP-Dreamworks collaboration

HP and Dreamworks work together to create a “living laboratory” in which the latest and most advanced technologies are continually implemented, as demanded by the demanding film industry. In this way, it is not only possible to improve the current processes of creating animated films, but pioneering solutions can also be developed that help other industries with similar needs.

For example, when the computer industry replaced CRT monitors with flat screen displays, it caused some notable problems, as LCD monitors at the time did not have the quality levels of CRTs. The visual richness of a film depends on the consistency and depth of color that a Workstation provides.

In this sense, HP and DreamWorks Animation jointly developed the first DreamColor monitor that offered up to one billion colors with a minimal margin of error, imperceptible to the human eye. DreamWorks Animation currently has the new HP DreamColor Z27X for the most demanding workflows. With greater color accuracy and excellent value for money, DreamColor monitors have become the allies of digital artists, designers, video editors and even gamers.

700 million digital files have been used in this production, using more than 400 terabytes of data. This is the highest figure used in a DreamWorks production to date. In its post-production, more than 130,000 computer-generated frames and 270,000 million pixels have been developed.

In total, this enormous work has involved 90 million hours of rendering, with servers working in the process an average of 500,000 render jobs per day.

Additionally, HP has provided next-generation Covergent Infrastructure technology to support all aspects of film production, as well as high-performance HP Z800 and Z820 workstations, and HP DreamColor professional monitors; HP BladeSystem c7000, a mix of HP ProLiant server blades and scalable converged storage featuring the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage platform; HP Networking, offering the studio continuous levels of availability and performance, while reducing network complexity; and utility services that respond to peak demand for resources, while adjusting to budgets and data center capacity.