Las Vegas, NV-NAB 2009, Booth #SL4430 -Frantic Films Software, the R&D division of award-winning visual effects company Frantic Films VFX and a division of Prime Focus Group, today announced the launch of Deadline 3.1, the company’s hassle-free administration and rendering toolkit for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX-based render farms. The latest version provides support for MetaRender, the render package from IRIDAS that automates complex transcoding tasks in production pipelines and post facilities. MetaRender works across platforms and greatly simplifies the task of managing file conversions, including burning-in grading or LUTs and adding file information for viewing with digital dailies.
"Deadline has a reputation and history for being an ultra-reliable render farm management system," said Patrick J. Palmer, COO, IRIDAS. "It’s great to have a front-end product like Deadline, which is so user-friendly, to act as the interface for MetaRender, and we are extremely pleased that Deadline 3.1 now provides integration with MetaRender’s automated transcoding capabilities."
Prior to its release, Deadline 3.1 underwent thorough beta testing by several longtime Deadline customers, including lead technical artist Mike Owen at the UK’s Burrows nVisage. Owen has been a Deadline customer since 2007.
"The design visualization and VFX industry moves at a breakneck speed, and it’s refreshing to find a software developer that’s always one step ahead," said Owen. "Deadline’s installation design makes it very easy to deploy silently. New versions only have to be updated on the server, which then automatically updates your entire farm! The system can then be configured through one common interface, allowing as much customization as you want."
"Deadline is highly stable, expandable, manageable, dependable, and every other -able you can think of," Owen continued. "For over two years now, Deadline has never failed, not even once. Now that’s a statistic I wish I could say about some of the other software we’ve used. Deadline was born from a production studio’s needs and as a result, caters to artists and studios like mine perfectly. Deadline brings our mixture of software and bespoke tools all together into one manageable pipeline."
Deadline 3.1‘s new features include:
* Mac OSX support: The Monitor, Job Monitor, Slave, Pulse, Launcher and command line applications have all been ported to Mac OSX.
* Improved Linux support: The Monitor and Job Monitor have been ported to Linux with improved functionality and performance.
* Statistics Gathering has been re-implemented.
* New render packages supported: fryrender, MetaRender, Vue 7 and REDAlert.
For a complete list of Deadline 3.1 features, visit:
http://www.franticfilms.com/software…e/feature_set/
Deadline 3.1 Pricing and Availability
Deadline 3.1 is available now directly through the Frantic Films Software Division. Please visit http://software.franticfilms.com or contact deadline-sales@franticfilms.com with sales inquiries. Deadline is available for a list price starting at US$140 per render node for the first 25 licenses; prices drop per unit with increased volume.
About IRIDAS
IRIDAS pioneered desktop film-resolution playback in 2001. Its FrameCycler products are the industry standard for frame-based image review. In 2003 IRIDAS introduced SpeedGrade, the first desktop grading application to provide full 2K performance on a regular PC workstation. In 2007, IRIDAS presented the first real time render quality RAW playback technology. Today SpeedGrade, FrameCycler and MetaRender, provide the critical links in an end-to-end pipeline for digital image content and color metadata. IRIDAS’ applications are used by filmmakers around the world and major animation and postproduction houses. IRIDAS is an independent, privately held company, headquartered in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.iridas.com.
About Frantic Films Software
Frantic Films Software, a division of Prime Focus Group, has developed a reputation for creating innovative custom-built R&D solutions and quality software products. From the Deadline(tm) Render Farm Management System, to the Awake stereoscopic plug-ins for eyeon Fusion, to the Krakatoa high volume particle renderer, Frantic Films Software is pushing the envelope of conventional thought and applying real science to create tools and technology that truly open a whole new world of possibilities for VFX professionals. For more information, visit Frantic Films Software at http://software.franticfilms.com.
About Frantic Films VFX
Located in the three different locations across North America with offices in Winnipeg, Canada, Vancouver, and Los Angeles, Calif., Frantic Films VFX has been operating divisions that provide visual effects for film and television, and VFX software development since 1997. Frantic Films’ VFX award-winning visual effects teams have worked on films including Watchmen, Dragonball Evolution, Red Cliff, W., Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Grindhouse, Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Poseidon and many others. The company’s software tools were developed to solve complex production challenges on in-house feature effects projects, and are also in use at many leading 3D animation and effects facilities worldwide. In November of 2007 Frantic Films VFX became a division of international post and VFX leader Prime Focus Group. For more information, visit http://www.franticfilms.com.
