Moscow, CG EVENT, December 4, 2011 — Main Road|Post, RSC Group and Intel Corporation announced completion of filming and continuation of post-production works on August 8th, one of the most VFX-intensive and technically advanced movies in the Russian motion-picture industry during last five years. Dzhanik Faiziyev, the director and producer of the large-scale movie, the plot of which unfolds on the background of the conflict in South Ossetia in August 2008, attended a joint press conference at CG EVENT, a leading computer generated imaging conference in CIS countries.
“We want to make a modern movie for family viewing that could interest everyone including small children (and that’s the reason for such a vast number of computer generated visual effects), and for action-movie and shooter fans, and even for women, as they can see the whole spectrum of human emotions there. We used our best efforts to make August 8th a real world-class movie”, said Dzhanik Faiziyev, director and producer of the movie. “Some people may be surprised that such serious subject includes elements of fantasy, but that’s the case. Our project involves an unprecedented number of computer-generated images”, he added.
Main Road|Post studio specialists developed creative solutions and implemented visual effects for this movie with the help of the most advanced CGI technology using servers based on Intel® Xeon® 5680 processors (RSC Group completed supply, installation and configuration of the equipment). Currently the movie is on the post production stage with final version slated for release into Russian movie distribution for February 21, 2012.
"When creating visual effects for this movie we were not constrained with technical limitations. We needed to make effects of ultimate complexity and authenticity. So calculation and implementation tasks were laid upon our technical department that had to find entirely new technical solutions to achieve this goal”, said Arman Yahih, CEO and VFX supervisor, Main Road|Post.
The number of high quality of the visual effects during this project is impressive. August 8th includes more than 650 shots with computer graphics with about 150 shots entirely computer-generated. The duration of each shot is 2 to 3 seconds, i.e. 50 to 75 frames. Five computer-generated characters were created for the movie. Also, high-quality simulation of fire, water and explosion and a lot of other visual effects were calculated.
“We faced an tremendously difficult technical task. The complexity level of visual effects and computer-generated characters was so high that computing resources we had at that time were not able to solve the task properly. Thanks to cooperation with Intel and RSC we built an effective computing environment for CGI calculation on a new server system based on Intel Xeon processors so we could get all the required results on time and without any limitations as to the highest quality of visual effects, - explains Mikhail Lyossin, CTO, Main Road|Post.
Here are some figures and facts that demonstrate the high complexity and scope of CGI works that have already been completed and are ongoing at the post-production stage. These facts also substantiate the necessity to use a powerful server platform on the basis of Intel® Xeon® processors:
· one computer-generated character is involved in scenes from 2 to 100 shots;
· the studio artists spent about 4 months to develop each computer-generated character;
· various VFX specialists worked on development of each character, such as artists, modelers, riggers, animators, shading specialists, texture professionals, composers etc.;
· calculation of one frame took 10 to 30 minutes; this was done more than ones and each frame wasn’t considered a working or a final at once.
· calculation of each frame containing smoke took about 1 hour;
· a scene with participation of each character contains environment (various objects) that had to be considered and masterfully embedded into working and final shots in order to create a totally realistic feeling of the scene.
· separate works and calculations are ongoing to create and adjust natural shadows for each object and character in a frame;
· the studio employees participated in real-life filming in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Moscow;
· About 50 highly proficient CGI specialists were involved in creation of visual effects. Some of these specialists continue working on the final version of the movie at the post-production stage.
“Intel processors hold strong positions in CGI and VFX for movies and cartoon projects in Western countries. It is enough to mention Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, DreamWorks Animation and other companies well know to millions of viewers. The more important for us is the fact that such a large-scale Russian movie project as August 8th was implemented with the use of high-end Intel Xeon processors", said Nikolay Mester, corporate project development manager in Russia/CIS, Intel Corporation.
“We are happy that vast experience of our specialists in the areas of system integration and building high-performance server solutions based on Intel Xeon processors helped implement this large-scale and technically complex Russian movie project, which will be shown to millions of Russian viewers”, said Alexey Shmelev, chief executive officer, RCS Group.
Main Road|Post further plans to use its server system on the basis of Intel® Xeon® 5680 Processors to create visual effects in new movie projects. Currently, the studio specialists began development of the Stalingrad movie by Fedor Bondarchuk.
