Will Pixar ever use PowerMac's?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I guess even Steve himself admits that Apple's 'pro' hardware does really suck

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825723.html"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825723.html</a>;



    News is reporting that Pixar is moving from SGI workstations to IBM workstations running Linux. Whats up with that???? If S Jobs uses Mac forums to pump Pixar movies I think Pixar should be pumping Apple technology.



    Of course Apple needs some decent technology like G5,Snappier OSX, DDR, blade servers, High end 3D hardware.



    Alias also needs to release the latest version of Maya of Mac OSX.
  • Reply 2 of 16
    It probably has more to do with software issues than hardware. I believe Pixar has proprietary software. They do use Macs in early production development I believe.
  • Reply 3 of 16
    [quote]Originally posted by muchfresh:

    <strong><a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825723.html"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825723.html</a>;



    News is reporting that Pixar is moving from SGI workstations to IBM workstations running Linux. Whats up with that???? If S Jobs uses Mac forums to pump Pixar movies I think Pixar should be pumping Apple technology.



    Of course Apple needs some decent technology like G5,Snappier OSX, DDR, blade servers, High end 3D hardware.



    Alias also needs to release the latest version of Maya of Mac OSX.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    keep in mind that Steve isn't really a CTO kinda guy. if the real nerds at Pixar say "we NEED to go with ..." it'll probably happen. also, IBM is an ever increasingly important partner of Apple's. Don't forget that Apple may be relying on IBM for further G4/G5 production and/or development. Oh yeah, and who knows, maybe the IBM workstations use PowerPC's?
  • Reply 4 of 16
    [quote]Originally posted by muchfresh:





    News is reporting that Pixar is moving from SGI workstations to IBM workstations running Linux. Whats up with that???? If S Jobs uses Mac forums to pump Pixar movies I think Pixar should be pumping Apple technology.

    [/QB]<hr></blockquote>





    Believe me...this is just a step towards Mac adoption at Pixar. Look at the signs...moving towards Unix ( OSX ) moving toward Power PC ( IBM is a partner )...baby steps to the bank...baby steps to the bank....



    We all know Steve's goal for the home user is the Digital hub, but I think his goal for the professional is to corner the market on creativity...Watch and see....( I've felt this is where Steve has been going all along)



    If PCs keep the business market, but Apple becomes the standard in 3D animation, Video, Digital Audio, and Print Media....wow . That seems great to me.... N'est Pas ?





    -LKMusician
  • Reply 5 of 16
    [quote]Originally posted by muchfresh:

    <strong><a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825723.html"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825723.html</a>;



    News is reporting that Pixar is moving from SGI workstations to IBM workstations running Linux. Whats up with that???? If S Jobs uses Mac forums to pump Pixar movies I think Pixar should be pumping Apple technology.



    Of course Apple needs some decent technology like G5,Snappier OSX, DDR, blade servers, High end 3D hardware.



    Alias also needs to release the latest version of Maya of Mac OSX.</strong><hr></blockquote>





    as i said in a different thread:



    well thats not surprising SGI is dumping IRIX and moving on to Linux as a primary OS many Hollywood FX houses are moving on to cheaper pc based hardware running RH Linux and Maya. As it turns out they are a more cost affective solution.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    Yea macs are only starting to get on the pro 3d kick with OSX. In fact thats why i bought a pc as my last computer, to run Softimage 3D and Maya. Also all of Pixars programs are proprietary so they can switch them over themselves. Their needs to be pro 3d cards availible for mac, (Geforces are powerfull but not pro cards) like 3d labs and such, btw most pro 3d cards suck in games for the most part, thats for all you Geforce 4mx haters Also apple needs to have cheap multi proccessor comps for use as render farms, Pixar had made a deal with compaq for computers for that use awile back
  • Reply 7 of 16
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Moving to General Discussion, since this really isn't about future hardware (although future hardware is about the only way Apple machines will end up doing the heavy lifting in Pixar).
  • Reply 8 of 16
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    I guess the only way to explain it is that they use proprietary software. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
  • Reply 9 of 16
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]Originally posted by Fran441:

    <strong>I guess the only way to explain it is that they use proprietary software. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    if they were able to port it to UNIX a port to OS X wouldn't exactly entailed a whole lot more work.



    apple's hardware sucks in comparison.
  • Reply 10 of 16
    as I posted in another thread....



    <a href="http://www.sgi.com/workstations/fuel/"; target="_blank">They are?</a>





    I think people have a lot of confusion over how Pixar gets the work done. Pixar has a "render farm" that they use to render the frames of the movie. These comptuers need not even have a graphics card becuase Pixars Renderman is software rendering. You can run it on anything at all. Price performace is what's key here. A fast cheap Linux box would do very well in this setting.



    Now all the modeling and keyframing and all that stuff done by people using software tools is a different part of Pixar. They need a fast 3D workstation. That's where SGI holds the high ground.



    I'd be willing to bet that ZD net got it wrong. That IBM is moving into the Render farm and not on to animators' desktop.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    logan calelogan cale Posts: 1,281member
    I believe Scott H. is correct.
  • Reply 12 of 16
    [quote]Originally posted by Scott H.:

    <strong>as I posted in another thread....



    <a href="http://www.sgi.com/workstations/fuel/"; target="_blank">They are?</a>





    I think people have a lot of confusion over how Pixar gets the work done. Pixar has a "render farm" that they use to render the frames of the movie. These comptuers need not even have a graphics card becuase Pixars Renderman is software rendering. You can run it on anything at all. Price performace is what's key here. A fast cheap Linux box would do very well in this setting.



    Now all the modeling and keyframing and all that stuff done by people using software tools is a different part of Pixar. They need a fast 3D workstation. That's where SGI holds the high ground.



    I'd be willing to bet that ZD net got it wrong. That IBM is moving into the Render farm and not on to animators' desktop.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    yeah that makes sense i think they used a cheap render farm to make Final Fantasy but some FX places also use large multi-processor SGI Origin machines to do the grunt work. but otherwise i am pretty sure IRIX is on the way out.
  • Reply 13 of 16
    I always find it amusing whenever Jobs does a demo with photoshop or maya. When he could be showing the world how fast the newest pixar movie can be rendered. Uhmm, that is if they would port renderman to OS X.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    well in an effort to do so i urge everyone to go to architosh.com and sign the renderman for os x petition.



    <a href="http://www.architosh.com/news/2001-12/2001c-1221-renderman2.phtml"; target="_blank">petition renderman for os x</a>
  • Reply 15 of 16
    well in an effort to do so i urge everyone to go to architosh.com and sign the renderman for os x petition.



    <a href="http://www.architosh.com/news/2001-12/2001c-1221-renderman2.phtml"; target="_blank">petition renderman for os x</a>
  • Reply 16 of 16
    I assume that Pixar is not wholly-owned by Steve. If so, then it is good for the sake of appearances if Pixar does not do most of its work on Macs -- it might look as if Steve has a conflict of interest.



    That said, if/when OSX introduces easy-peasy clustering to the masses, the resident geeks at Pixar would have a pretty good motivation for porting their software, me thinks.
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