London-based Mainframe has integrated Qube!, the leading render farm management software from PipelineFX, to manage its render work and speed up projects.
Mainframe is a creative production studio specializing in motion graphics and animation for ads, promos and branded creative content. Mainframe's client list in the U.K. includes Nickelodeon, BBC, MTV, Five, VH1, Radio 1, Radio 2, CNBC, Channel 4, More 4, Discovery, Animal Planet and Sony SCEE.
"As a small studio with a big output and tight turnaround times, the time spent rendering can become precious time wasted without a good system in place," said Chris Hardcastle, head of production at Mainframe. "As more and more projects continue to demand an increasing amount of render time, we looked to a solution that would be capable of handling all the different applications we use on a day-to-day basis as well as those we'll undoubtedly use in the future. Having looked at the various render queue management solutions available, Qube! presented itself as the stable and scalable application capable of handling our in-house rendering demands.
"The important thing for us in the studio was not to complicate the process of submitting jobs for our designers. The ability to submit jobs via 3ds Max or After Effects has proved popular. Qube!'s user interface provides a simple overview of the queue and its workers for our designers, as well as providing detailed information for error checking and administrative purposes. Although we're in the early stages of fully utilizing our new set up here, it is evident to our team that Qube! is a robust solution with the stability and longevity needed to enable us to pursue and successfully deliver bigger and more complex projects in the future."
"We are seeing a lot of demand from high-end post houses and visual effects studios like Mainframe for integrated render farm management of their 3D applications and 2D applications like Adobe After Effects," added Richard Lewis, vp of sales for PipelineFX. "Being able to share render farm horsepower between all the major applications a studio uses speeds project turn-around and frees workstations to create content. We are excited to welcome Mainframe as our latest U.K. customer.
Qube! is a leading enterprise-class render farm management system for film and game production. Qube! is highly customizable, extensively scalable, can be integrated into any production workflow, and is backed by 24x7 technical support. Qube! has custom pipelines for creative applications such as Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, NUKE, SOFTIMAGE|XSI, Shake, Adobe After Effects and many more. Qube! is IBM Server proven, and operates in Linux, Windows XP, 2000 and 2003 and Mac OSX environments.
Qube! is used by world-class studios, including South Park Studios, Electronic Arts, Buena Vista Games, DKP, ReelFX, Guava Graphics and Radical Ent. Qube! is used by schools around the world, including the School of Visual Arts in N.Y., Carleton School of Architecture, Full Sail in Florida, the University of Advancing Technology, Pratt Institute and the University of Hawaii-Academy for Creative Media.
PipelineFX (www.pipelinefx.com), with headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii, and offices in San Francisco and Vancouver, was founded in 2002.
For more information on Mainframe, visit www.mainframe.co.uk.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
