Redshift: Rendering Cameron Crowes Aloha

Production-quality, GPU-accelerated renderer Redshift was recently used to power 2015s major Hollywood production

, directed by Cameron Crowe.

To help bring the directors vision to life, VFX vendor Hammerhead was asked to create a satellite orbiting the Earth. To achieve this task, the team needed a renderer that could match quality with speed. Thankfully, Redshift enabled the studio to turn out gorgeous frames at a fraction of the time of traditional renders.

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Download the Hammerhead/Aloha images

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A Quick Hello - Hammerhead's Aloha rendering

To serve the demands of major Hollywood production Aloha, Hammerhead needed to deliver quality with speed. Redshift Render allowed the team to do just that.

Founded in 1994, Hammerhead Productions is no stranger to the demands of crafting digital content.

Indeed, the legacy of the California-headquartered studio stretches back to the disciplines formative years, its founding quartet all formerly having served as senior management of Pacific Data Images, which opened in 1980.

Yet despite this formidable heritage, Hammerhead isnt a studio that dwells on the past. Far from it, the team has thrived for so long because they excel at the cutting edge. So it should come as little surprise to learn that Redshifts rendering prowess today sits at the core of this future-facing production powerhouse.

The headcount within Hammerheads various operations may not be vast, but regardless, the team shines when it comes to producing high-quality content for an impressive number and variety of projects. Take a glance at the top of Hammerheads showreel and youll see a wealth of renowned IPs, including 42, Fury, The Hangover, Godzilla and Prometheus.

Making space for quality

Presently the outfits artists are busy building fully-animated television pilots using Redshift. However, the most recent feature film work that harnessed the power of the GPU-accelerated, biased renderer was Hammerhead's contribution to Cameron Crowes 2015 comedy-drama Aloha.

Set-predominantly in Hawaii, the film tells a story surrounding the construction of a space centre on the island nation. Hammerhead's shots involved - among other things - the creation of a satellite orbiting high above the peaceful, blue planet Earth below.

Given that the film needed to be as visually sumptuous as its setting, Hammerhead had to meet the high standards of the movies production from the off. And that meant that, for a team pursuing quality without an army of artists, expedience was a pivotal factor across the Aloha project. Ultimately, it was Redshift that provided what was needed.

Redshift lets us turn out gorgeous frames at a fraction of the time of traditional renders, begins Hammerheads CG supervisor Ken Pellegrino. As a small company, we cannot afford a 400-CPU farm to push as many frames as a project would require.

But empowered with Redshift, that wasnt a problem for Pellegrino and his colleagues, as they turned their hands to making Aloha shine.

Thanks to Redshift, we were able to finish our shots, but on a fraction of the machine power normally needed, and with no loss of visual quality, Pellegrino enthuses. It was absolutely invaluable!

Director ready

For the Aloha project, that rendering speed afforded Hammerhead much more than simply trumping deadlines. In fact, it defined the workflow of the production team, and the creative relationship with the projects director.

My supervisor would sit next to me when I was final lighting a scene, and we could make changes on the fly instead of having to wait until the 4pm review time for other shots being worked on, say Pellegrino, considering Redshifts impact on Aloha. We also did our pre-vis using Redshift, and I would say it was almost 70 per cent final quality from the off. That better gave the director an idea of what the shot was going to look like. It was really useful to have elements like dynamic lighting and textures in that early. We could lay out a scene in such a way that we werent getting hammered with notes on updates to the look later in production.

Few universal rules apply to the reality of digital production, but delivering quality early to avoid friction later on is a gold standard for many. And its a standard to which Redshift can serve as a robust foundation.

Rendering with bias

Meanwhile, for a team like Hammerhead - which embraces projects that demand a striking diversity of aesthetic styles and technical approaches - Redshifts biased rendering approach is ideally suited for work that straddles various degrees of realism.

When doing VFX - and especially fully-animated pieces - 100 per cent physically accurate is not necessarily what the client wants, Pellegrino reveals, as talk turns to the biased rendering approach. They want what looks right. On top of that we need to be able to quickly turn around shots, so being able to optimise render times saves us down the line

However, it's Redshift's speed, combined with its power, that makes Redshift stand out at Hammerhead. With Redshift we can get the highest quality images in a fraction of the time, says Pellegrino. Im able to iterate at a much higher rate when lighting a scene, because I can get near instant feedback when a frame is only five minutes, compared to 50-minutes plus on traditional renderers.

It doesnt take a digital production expert to know a 10-fold time saving can engender a powerful impact in the creative industries. But for those with years in the sector, the impact that can have on workflows, quality and output is wildly exciting. Yet it would be i

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