Bluegfx: One stop for The CharacterShop
The CharacterShop are an award-winning, character-mad team of artists who specialise in animation, content creation and digital effects production for TV series, commercials, and a whole lot more.
With our longstanding partnership of over 10 years, we take pride in contributing to their success by providing them with the cutting-edge 3D production technology necessary to bring their captivating characters to life. Additionally, we offer crucial IT infrastructure support to ensure seamless operations for their creative endeavours.
Going for gold
The CharacterShop has a Gold Service Level Agreement with Bluegfx, which grants them exclusive benefits and support. As part of this agreement, our experienced tech team conducted a comprehensive site audit, ensuring a deep understanding of the unique workflow of a 3D production studio like theirs. Subsequently, we set up their IT infrastructure, specifically tailored to their animation pipeline requirements.
This encompassed the configuration of internal equipment such as switches, networking components, rendering systems, and Synology storage solutions. Our goal was to empower them to efficiently manage their data, enabling swift and seamless operations throughout their creative process.
We also supply The CharacterShop with 3D modelling and animation software 3DS Max, CPU and GPU workstations and graphic cards, render nodes and Hair: Farm plug-in.
The switch to Redshift
Redshift rendering has gained significant popularity and The CharacterShop has recently embraced this GPU renderer to enhance their rendering efficiency. During our discussions with them, we explored Redshift as a viable alternative GPU-renderer specifically for use with Hair: Farm.
To ensure its suitability, The CharacterShop underwent a thorough testing and evaluation phase in collaboration with fellow character animators at Blue Zoo. The results were impressive, surpassing their expectations, and consequently, they made the decision to fully transition to Redshift, recognising its potential to significantly improve their rendering times.
We had heard and read a lot about Redshift and decided to get in touch with Bluegfx for some advice, particularly as we had a new project in the pipeline requiring fur that was proving problematic with our previous rendering set-up. To help us make an informed decision Bluegfx put us in touch with Blue Zoo who had already made the switch to Redshift. It was really helpful and reassuring to discuss the move with fellow character animators and after a few initial tests we decided to take the plunge.
The results have been amazing, we estimate that render times have decreased by 4 to 5 times, but in addition to that the rendering is more consistent. Excessive rendering times for tasks such as ray tracing, sub surface scattering and of course fur lead to us avoiding those features historically, where as they can now be confidently tackled due to the improved rendering times allowing for improved creativity and its enabling us to really push the software’s capabilities.
The support offered by Redshift has also been great, they are very supportive, friendly and helpful, making the whole process of switching our rendering software over very straightforward and we are now solely using Redshift for all our rendering.
The only consideration is the initial software and hardware investment but with the increase in rendering capability and the fact that one Redshift license can also support more than one graphics card on each computer, we know the change over will quickly pay for itself
Mark Vale, MD & Producer, The CharacterShop.
Furry friends
Thanks to their streamlined and highly efficient workflow, The CharacterShop has been diligently working on the exciting new Bush Baby World series. This captivating series features the adorable and incredibly furry Bush Babies alongside their enchanting magical companions, all brought to life through stunning photo-realistic CGI. Fans can eagerly anticipate the release of the first webisodes, scheduled for the upcoming summer season.
Why not check out some of their other work on The Character Shop’s portfolio at thecharactershop.com.
Contact us
If you are seeking a comprehensive overhaul of your IT infrastructure or simply need expert advice and guidance, don’t hesitate to reach out to our highly knowledgeable sales team 01483 410370 or email sales@bluegfx.com.