We recently completed a project for bluekiwi software.

BlueKiwi – Brand Animation from Urge Productions on Vimeo.

To keep the project on time, you can’t wait around for rendering. So with a dual core XEON Apple Mac, you have to ask “was it worth the extra cost for those 16 processors?”
Real world examples are always welcome to most folks in the design industry. Who has time to read benchmarks and tech specs?

The wonderful thing is that all processors were fully utilized during the render of this animation by After Effects CS4. It was run on a machine with 12GB of memory and a Dual Quad Core Nehalm Xeon processor. What would have taken 17 hours or more on a mac laptop (yes, this is a real value) was readily handled in about 1 hour. The target was a 720P HD quicktime rendered to uncompressed video, then transcoded to H.264 for delivery to our client.
For the geeky folks out there, here is a screen shot of all the memory and CPUs at full utilization.

Rendering still requires a small break, but we all need breaks (but not 17 hours of a break).

Resources in use on 8-core xeon Mac, click for full screen

Urge Productions is proud to team up with pariSoma to provide Digital Media Production services to their members. Jeff Steinmetz from Urge Productions will be providing free 30 minute sessions at pariSoma on Wednesday June 2 from 12 noon to 5:00 pm. Visit the pariSoma events page to learn how to reserve your spot.

The pariSoma Innovation Loft provides a place for coworkers to collaborate and learn from each other. The pariSoma Innovation Loft is also a hub for tech events in San Francisco. By bringing together some of the Bay Area’s finest entrepreneurs, startups, and freelancers we aim to encourage innovation through our events. Our events range from iPhone App Meetups to the SF Drupal User Group to Startup/VC events to TEDxSoMa, and more.

The Urge Productions team began shooting HD video with the Canon 5D Mark II when it was first released. Since then it seems like it is the new “gold rush” for the video & photography professional. Disruptive technologies always have an initial gold rush feel until folks realize it is just another technology, and it won’t save the world (or the financial system). It does however make being a creative professional much more affordable.  It seems video & graphics technology is now in step with Moore’s Law.

VFX Supervisor Marc Weigert reports on the first side-by-side ARRI ALEXA (prototype) and RED Mysterium-X camera test and comes to some game changing conclusions.  Screen shots and a full report are available at HD User Magazine.

In another Shootout, Zacuto presents a non biased, non sponsored shootout between a variety of DSLR, Film and HD Cameras.  To keep things fair, they decided to use Zeiss lenses on all the tests (even on the Canon bodies).  Correct, Canon’s highly regarded L series lenses were not used.

We are in the transition from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.

URGE Labs [this blog] will be tracking the convergence of the technology and creative professional.

Heading up the effort is URGE Productions founder Jeff Steinmetz.  After years of balancing a consulting job, working in high tech, launching start ups and maintaining a freelance design & audio production business, Jeff is now focusing on his Digital Media Production company URGE Productions.  There are no shortage of tech blogs, gadget tracking sites and rumor sites.  Here we will focus on high quality offerings and the technology trends that support our mission to help bridge the gap between technology and creative professionals. Shortly we will be announcing new partnerships & sponsorships of innovative companies and new creative approaches in these times of abundance.

There is a constant onslaught of new products, endless amounts of information being generated on the web, and the broadcast & print media is wondering what hit them.  Stay tuned as we join our partners on a journey to discover new ways for the right brain thinkers to work effectively with the technology industry.