In a major announcement set to coincide with the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, Amazon has unveiled a groundbreaking new service called Deadline Cloud. This revolutionary platform allows users to quickly and efficiently set up, deploy, and scale graphics and visual effects rendering pipelines utilizing AWS cloud infrastructure.
According to AWS GM of creative tools Antony Passemard, Deadline Cloud will be a game changer for customers in the media and entertainment industries, as well as those in architecture and engineering. “By harnessing the power of AWS compute, our customers can now render high-quality content for a variety of projects including TV shows, movies, advertisements, video games, and even digital blueprints,” Passemard explained in a recent blog post.
The increasing demand for exceptional visual effects and the growing utilization of generative AI has put a significant strain on customers’ compute capacity, creating a need for a scalable and efficient solution. “We’re at a critical tipping point in the industry, and Deadline Cloud addresses this need by providing a scalable render farm without the added burden of managing complex infrastructure,” Passemard added.
The process of setting up a render farm on Deadline Cloud is made simple with the help of a startup wizard, which guides customers through all the necessary steps. This includes inputting project details such as size and duration to determine the appropriate instance type and configuring permissions. Once this is completed, Deadline Cloud takes care of the rest by provisioning Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances and managing all network and compute infrastructure. Additionally, for customers with on-premises compute, Deadline Cloud seamlessly integrates with their existing hardware to execute rendering jobs.
The user-friendly dashboard on Deadline Cloud allows for easy monitoring of logs, previewing of in-progress rendering jobs, and cost analysis and control. The platform also offers the flexibility of linking third-party software licenses or using usage-based licensing with popular tools like Autodesk Maya, Foundry Nuke, and SideFX Houdini.
Passemard emphasized the impact of Deadline Cloud on creative teams, stating, “[With Deadline Cloud,] teams can embrace the fast pace of content pipelines and respond quickly to new opportunities, while still meeting tight deadlines and delivering top-notch quality content.”
As of today, Deadline Cloud is available for use in the US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Europe (Frankfurt), and Europe (Ireland) AWS server regions.
While cloud-based rendering is not a new concept, it has gained significant traction in recent years. In 2015, Google made headlines by acquiring Zync and utilizing their technology to launch a Google Cloud-powered visual effects platform in partnership with Sony Pictures Imageworks. Other platforms like Arch and Chaos Cloud have been providing on-demand cloud-based VFX infrastructure for several years.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards cloud-based rendering for VFX workloads. The rising costs of maintaining hardware and limited physical workspace have made cloud solutions more appealing. Additionally, the pandemic has also increased the demand for rendering hardware due to the rise of generative AI, leading to the emergence of new cloud-based providers offering GPU-accelerated solutions.
