New edition of compute management software leverages Amazon EC2 Spot Instances to reduce costs and improve flexibility of visual effects rendering.
Amazon-owned CG production tool developer Thinkbox Software has announced the availability of Deadline 10, the latest version of the compute management software that makes render farm workflows behind 3D modeling and graphics applications more flexible by enabling customers to access any combination of on-premises and cloud-based resources for hybrid workflows.
Deadline 10 is the first release to offer customers access to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Spot Instances that can significantly reduce the cost of running rendering applications, and help customers increase compute capacity on the same budget. Starting today, customers can also purchase by-the-minute render time in the AWS Cloud through Thinkbox’s Marketplace. Deadline for Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, Arnold, an Autodesk offering, and Chaos Group’s V-Ray can all be purchased in the marketplace. Deadline 10, including support, is offered at a lower price of $48.00 USD per year.
Deadline 10 integrates with the AWS Cloud to enable customers to expand their render farms – whether on-premises, cloud, or hybrid – simply and securely. To ensure that all the appropriate assets are available in the cloud, Deadline synchronizes with local servers and manages the data transfer before rendering begins, tagging accounts and instances for bill allocation. With flexible third-party licensing options, Deadline 10 customers can purchase software licenses from the Thinkbox Marketplace, bring their own licenses, or leverage a combination of the two to grow render farms elastically from the AWS Cloud.
“Thinkbox has a long history of streamlining rendering for media and entertainment companies, and Deadline 10 -- our most flexible and cost-efficient release yet – empowers customers to render without limits,” said Chris Bond, founder of Thinkbox Software and director of product management, Amazon EC2, at AWS. “Becoming part of the Amazon family has helped us scale out, and we look forward to continuing to enhance the product’s on-premises, cloud-based, and hybrid compute management capabilities.”
“Autodesk customers have benefited from Deadline and Thinkbox’s artist plug-ins,” said Chris Bradshaw, senior vice president, Media & Entertainment, Autodesk. “With the integration of our products into the Thinkbox Marketplace, our customers can tap into Deadline and the AWS Cloud for their rendering workflow.”
Deadline 10 is available today. Deadline 10, including support, is offered at $48.00 USD per year. Perpetual licenses are available upon request.
Source: Thinkbox Software
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
