11/15/2006 PDI/DreamWorks Animation 20061

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25 years of PDI – 1980 to 2005

Richard Chuang, PDI/DreamWorks

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Agenda

� History

� Some facts

� How we got here

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Brief History

� PDI’s 25th Anniversary � Founded in 1980 by Carl Rosendahl (1980-2000)

� Co-founder Richard Chuang (81) and Glenn Entis (82-94)

� 3D software started at end of 1981

� 3D production started in the fall of 1982

� “Entertainment using 3D computer animation”

� Over 1000 projects completed

� Staff size grew from 3 to over 400 during Shrek

� 1982-2002 Service business in Animation and EFX in film and television

� Became division of DreamWorks in 2000

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1982

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1980s

� 1980s

� First generation of home video games (Pac-Man 80 and Donkey-Kong 81)

� IBM pc (1981), MAC (1984)

� TCP/IP and Internet (1982)

� Compact disk (CD) (1980 proposed)

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Technology that started PDI

� First computer at PDI

� PDP 11/44 with 128 Kbytes of memory

� 20 Mbytes disk

� $65,000 512x512x32 framebuffer

� 64 Kbytes (16 bits) address space

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First 3D image rendered at PDI

� March 12, 1982

� Implicit rendering of spheres

� Fully anti-aliased

� 512x480x24

� On PDI-11/44

� Render time – 2 minutes

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Other images from 1982

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The business

� Initial $250,000 investment [about $600,000 in 2005 dollar adjusted for inflation]

� Started 1981 in Sunnyvale� Moved to our first building in 1985 (Sunnyvale), 1995 (Palo Alto)� Moved to current location in 2002 (Redwood City)

� Financed growth through profit� Open-book, monthly financial review with company� Monthly detailed financial analysis� Worked with a yearly 5 years long-term plan� Debt free when we made the deal with DWA� Did not take money out of the company� Maintained a 7% minimum investment in R&D� Low margin service business

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The Early (logo) Years 1982 to 1987

� First Client – Global TV from Brazil

� Business of TV motion graphics logo animation

� Concurrent work on: ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, Cinemax, VH1, MTV, TNT, Showtime

� Animated at 60 fields/sec

� First mass production of 3D animation. 2 major network’s graphics package over 400 stations.

� Planned and proposed a CG film production in 1985

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1987-1992 Transition

� Commercials and the beginning of 3D VFX

� Morph – a new era and business

� 3D and Hollywood

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Start of 3D character animation1987-1992

� A fun new direction

� Setting the goals

� Forming the character animation group

� Making the plan

� Building the tools and the pipeline

� Shorts

� Finding the project

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Getting the First Film

� First CG feature plan in 1985

� “Last Halloween” – Emmy Award winner for CG characters in a TV special

� Worked with Hanna-Barbara

� Built first 3D character production pipeline (1991)

� 3D Daffy Duck for Warner Brothers

� Simpson 3D Halloween Special

� Production Deal with DreamWorks 1995

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PDI/DWA feature animated films

� Antz (1995-1998)

� Shrek (2001)

� Shrek 4D (Universal)

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DWA Feature Animated Films

� Shrek 2 (2004)

� Madagascar (2005)

� Shrek 3 (in production)

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DWA CG feature films

� Over The Hedge (2006)

� Flushed Away (2006)

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Changes in the past 25 years

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CPU Speed 1980-2005

CPU Performance

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Year

Clock

Perform

ance

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Total Computational Power(studio wide)

Total Computation Power

1

10

100

1000

10000

100000

1000000

10000000

100000000

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

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25 years of Changes

� More things change

� 10 million times more computational power

� 20 million time more disk storage

� More things stay the same� 200 pixels per seconds

� About 3 hours per frame at film resolution

� About ½ hour per frame at video resolution

� Still no reliable viewing method

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Keys to success

� Hire good people that fits in with your team

� Train and support your team

� Make mistakes and learn from mistakes

� Backup your team

� Take risks

� Keep things simple

� Plan cash flow and delay spending

� Run an open and honest business

� Challenge your team

� Share the rewards and challenges

� Encourage innovations across the company

� Creative freedom – personal projects

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