Dennis Berardi is president/VFX supervisor and Aaron Weintraub is VFX supervisor/compositor at Mr. X, a Toronto-based studio that provides animation and visual effects for feature films and television.

It is the dawn of a new year and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re all too familiar with the continuing hype (and panic) surrounding the advent of high definition. Equipment manufacturers are still warning of the imminent new digital television standards. Federal broadcast regulators have also been busy, but it seems as though the industry is as confused as ever when it comes to HD.

Actually, one thing has changed – now it’s personal. Mr. X is busily preparing to deliver our first HD job and we need to make some very real purchasing decisions. New capital equipment investment is always a little nerve-racking. But before we get too stressed out, why don’t we look back into our company’s brief history for a few pointers.

Two years ago, when we were in the planning stages, ideas seemed to come relatively easily. The concept was to build a company that provided unique creative production, animation and post-production solutions to producers of feature films and TV shows. The business plan came together nicely, financing was readily available and there was even advance interest from filmmakers.

Then came the hard part. With a staggering array of technological choices, it seemed like there were infinite combinations and permutations of computer hardware and software, video equipment, networking equipment and storage solutions. Every manufacturer had a plan for ‘future-proofing’ our operation. All of the vendors had their own ideas about integration. Every brochure, spec sheet and website we consulted seemed to offer a completely different path. The consequences of making the wrong choices were made to seem catastrophic.

But we diligently researched every angle. We made mistakes and we learned from them. We got angry with suppliers as well as each other. Remember that it was as though our very lives were at stake! On Jan. 2, 2001, our equipment started arriving.

It was a parade of boxes from Sony, Silicon Graphics, Discreet, Alias|Wavefront, Leitch, Panasonic, Tektronix, Lexmark, Dell and Canon. It was a veritable smorgasbord of the latest and greatest technology. But would it all work? Would our studio actually function? We installed the equipment and then waited for the onslaught to begin.

Our first paying job was a music video for a Canadian band called Default, for the track Wasting My Time. The moment of truth had arrived.

We created an environment in 3D that simulated the inside of a watch. We shot the band entirely on green screen and composited them into our digital virtual world. It was a ton of work. The clients were demanding. Animators were stressed. Compositors were overwhelmed. Shot by shot, we overcame what seemed to be an impossible schedule. Creativity and sheer determination began to surface. It started to become clear that we were going to deliver that job regardless of what logos were stamped on the machines in the equipment room.

What was apparent to everyone as the project came to a successful close, was that our craft, our art, was ultimately about employing technology creatively. It does not employ us. We are defined not by our hardware but by our unique choices. With this realization came Mr. X’s true beginning.

I am reminded of when we put in our render farm to help us with Blizzard, a recently completed Christmas feature film from Knightscove Entertainment. The challenge was to create photorealistic 3D CGI reindeer for more than 300 shots. We installed racks of multiple processor machines filled with RAM and fast networking. On our first, slightly botched, test of the system, Mr. X software developer Colin Withers quipped, ‘The good news is the rendering farm is really fast. The bad news is that all of last night’s renders are black frames. We now have the ability to render crap really fast.’

Which brings us back to the present. ABC/Disney require an HD delivery for a TV series called Veritas, which is to air this month. We did the requisite research and decided on our ‘boxes.’ As with our very first job, it is a ton of work. The clients are demanding. Animators are stressed. Compositors are overwhelmed. And yet, in the back of our minds, the team knows that despite the fact that we’re essentially delivering film-quality work on a TV schedule, everything is somehow going to turn out all right.

And therein lies the key to surviving the HD conversion. Provided your technology choices correspond to industry standards, it is the performance of people, not the machines, that will determine success or failure. As Aldous Huxley said, ‘Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.’ Or, as may be the case, a means of rendering crap even faster!

-www.mrxfx.com