TECHNICAL PRODUCTION NOTES
To withstand the rigors of production, Ilion Animation Studios must have a well developed technical infrastructure, as such the initial ideas of using 'white box' workstations and assembling a render farm from computer parts, were quickly discarded. With the aid of over 200 Hewlett Packard workstations and HP network infrastructure, over 56,000 GB of BluArc storage space and over 2500 , Blade and 1U, render cores, Ilion's artists are now delivering a world class product.
Ilion Animation Studios knew that making a movie such as Planet 51 was going to be a huge challenge in and of itself, so from the start they planned to avoid the common technical pitfalls of computer graphics: global illumination, hair, cloth simulation and subsurface scattering. As production progressed, it was clear that the elements they had been avoiding would be necessary in order to deliver a film of the quality desired, "It was our need to excel, that drove us to take on the challenges and add those special details that make Planet 51 the film it is today." says Ilion Director of Technology Gonzalo Rueda.
Originally, the Astronaut, Chuck, didn't take off his helmet during the entire movie. "I remember the day that someone said that it was essential for us to see the astronaut's face and facial expressions in order to better connect with the character." says Rueda, "We all knew it was going to be a huge technological hurdle to insert hair into our aesthetic, especially considering global illumination, subsurface scattering and all the other details that now define the Planet 51 look. But we started on the problem immediately, eventually overcoming the challenges and finally achieving the amazing look we have today. "
Ilion Animation Studios has managed to produce a product on par with the world's top animation studios, at a significantly lower budget. "Our focus on having a strict and automated pipeline and the emphasis on controlling access to IT resources at a studio level, have been key in allowing us to produce a film of the quality of Planet 51 within our budget."
Ilion Animation Studios has had to overcome many barriers on the way to making it's first feature film, Planet 51. Rueda says, "Our insatiable desire as a studio to make the best movie we could possibly make, has meant that new ideas on how to improve the film were implemented  regardless of the plethora of technological challenges they may present. It has been through the talent, motivation and joint efforts of our artistic and technical teams that we have managed to make all the things we dreamed a reality, by getting them into our pipeline and ultimately on-screen. During the development of Planet 51 we managed to solve so many issues that we previously did not know how to, that I'm certain we can achieve anything we set our minds to. It's exciting to think that this is only our first film, and that over the past seven years we have gained the knowledge, and confidence, to take Ilion Animation Studio into the future.

About Internal Developments:
Creating Planet 51, required not only creativity and commitment but also innovation. Even when only considering the technological aspects of a movie such as Planet 51, the amount of innovation is astounding. Ilion Animation Studio's Tools department created over two-hundred developments for the production of Planet 51. These developments range from the 'four pillars' of Ilion technology: GLT, Asset Tracker, Asset Manager, Asset Loader to large scale developments such as the Lighting Layers Manager to comparatively small developments directed towards simplifying or optimizing specific work flows.
GLT is an in-house file format (Which stores cameras, geometry & animation of said geometry) that not only facilitates the transfer of information from one pipeline stage to another, but also allows for artists to work using referenced information; which ensures everyone is always working with the latest information (By exporting cameras in the GLT format, Ilion ensures that all artists always work with the latest camera updates) and keeps file size down (Large sets are composed entirely of references, which keeps scenes manageable and small in size.) Currently, Glt Export/Import is supported for both Autodesk 3dsMax & Autodesk Maya.
The Asset Tracker is an intranet application, and is the main production tool. Assets, such as locations, characters, props etc. are created, defined and their current status monitored and controlled, using the Asset Tracker; if it's not in the Asset Tracer, it doesn't exist. The Asset Tracker has built in automations which when assets are created in the Asset Tracker, automatically create pre-defined folder structures and template files for artists to work with.
The Asset Manager, is a program which, basically, allows for many users to work on the same set of files at the same time, in an organized and secure fashion. The Asset Manager allows artists to download files to their machine to work on; or upload their own files. When they are done working on a file they send the file back to the main storage unit, using the Asset Manager, which keeps a history of all changes. A series of automations have also been built in to the Asset Manager, allowing artists to automatically submit renders, or GLT exports, of their files simply by right-clicking on the file in question and selecting the relevant option.
The Asset Loader is a tool designed specifically for 3dstudio max which allows artists to manage their scenes more efficiently and in a less error prone fashion. By connecting with the Asset Tracker, the Asset Loader knows exactly which assets are associated to a given shot; and so can present an artist with a list of what should be in his/her scene and give them the option to add/remove any given asset, automatically following correct procedure.
The Lighting Layers Manager is a tool developed for the lighting department necessary for meeting the needs of lighting and compositing Planet 51. By allowing a lighting artist to generate all the lighting layers necessary for compositing from a single .max file, the Lighting Layers Manager saves Ilion Studios precious time, not only when setting up a scene for the first time, but also when dealing with changes; as only one scene needs updating.
Ilion Animation studios rendered all of Planet 51 using Animated Pixel's 'Cyclops' render engine. The Cyclops render engine made it possible to deliver the very specific aesthetic of Planet 51. By having Animated Pixel developers on-site the Cyclops render engine 'grew' with Planet 51 and integrated perfectly with Ilion Animation Studio's other tools.

About Ilion Animation Studios Pipeline (Work Flow)
The first step towards creating a movie like Planet 51 is to develop the script. A good story is the beating heart of any movie, especially an animated feature. However the script is also an important part of the planning process, as it helps the production team breakdown exactly how many shots, characters, location etc. will be in the movie.
Once the script has reached an acceptable level of refinement, the next stage is known as storyboarding. This stage consists of making multiple drawings per shot of the movie in order to visualize the script, but also to experiment with changes in the storyline; at this point the script is still very much alive, and closely tied to the storyboard.
Once the storyboard has reached an acceptable level, it is followed by the first visualization of the script as 'a movie'; a mock-ups called an "animatic". Rough dialog and/or, on occasion, a rough sound track is added to the sequence of still storyboard images. This allows the director to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The animatic commonly undergoes many edits and changes and is only considered complete after much work, as editing the film at the animatic stage can avoid animation of scenes that would be edited out of the film; which is a very expensive process.
Once the 2D animatic has been approved, a 3D animatic, known as 'Layout' is created. This is the first visualization of the script in 3D. Proxy geometry and simplified characters are created in order to generate a rough version of the film in 3D. It is at this stage that camera positions and movements in 3D are defined. As this is the final stage before animation begins, there is again a rigorous pruning of shots and shot lengths in order to ensure that no unnecessary animation is generated.
Once the animatic has been approved, production know which assets have to be created for the movie; and the Modeling departments create the 3D characters and locations which will make up the movie's content. The Setup and Rigging Department transforms the static 3D character models and props, into 3D 'puppets' which can be manipulated to move as in real life.
Once Layout is complete, the location the characters will be acting is has been completed, and the 3D 'puppets' have been prepared, the animation stage can begin. In this stage artists manipulate  the puppets of the movie's characters to give them motion. Animation artists strive to convey a sense of personality and depth of emotion to the character, making the characters feel alive to the spectator.
Once a shot has been animated Scene Composing artists prepare the shot for the next stages in the pipeline: lighting, FX & Compositing, by removing any superfluous geometry from the scene and ensuring that an adequate level of detail has been applied to each object in the shot. Not only do Scene Composing save time and hassle later in the pipeline; they also serve as a control point for what reaches the 'back end' of the pipeline, helping to keep track of any changes.
Lighting artists add light to a shot, transforming an otherwise lifeless and monotonous looking scene into an aesthetically pleasing, believable representation of reality. Not only does the Lighting stage make a scene believable, it is also used, as in traditional film and theater, to convey specific moods. Lighting generate a series of 'Lighting Layers' to later be used by compositing, each of which represents a component of the scenes lighting.
The effects (FX) department is responsible for creating everything that other departments can't: from smoke to fire to explosions to dust etc. The FX department is also responsible for generated complex physical simulations such as shattering glass or buildings falling apart. As with the Lighting pipeline stage FX generate a series of  layers to later be used by compositing.
The final stage in the pipeline is known as compositing. Compositing artists bring together all the layers generated by the lighting and FX to create the final frames of the movie. As well as bringing together lighting and FX elements, compositing is also responsible for making any adjustments to each shots color in order to ensure lighting continuity thought the movie.

About Technological Partners
Avid:  AVID Media Composer editing software, and Avid Unity storage hardware, made it possible for Ilion Animation Studio's editors deal with the extremely tight deadlines and high standards expected of them.
HP: With an HP workstation at every desk, HP was a key technological partner of Ilion Animation Studios. By providing reliable, state of the art, equipment, HP made it possible for Ilion's artists, developers, production staff and management team to do their job. Ilion's state of the art render farm, the heart of the studio, would not ave been possible without HP's magnificent hardware and customer service.
BlueArc: BlueArc provided Ilion Animation Studio's with a high-performance, reliable, and scalable system, capable of dealing with the extremely intense requirements of an animation studio. BlueArc's over 55TB of storage made dealing with over 12 million files seem easy.
Bull: When an urgent increase in processing power was required, Bull provided Ilion with the extra high performance render cores needed to deal with a particularly intense processing time period.
Tangram: Tangram, a local reseller, were essential in providing Ilion Animation Studio's with the plethora of software licenses required to run an animation studio. By always keeping Ilion informed, and 'in the loop', Tangram allowed Ilion to keep up with relevant software updates.

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