Solid Angle has signed a license deal with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), for its global illumination renderer, Arnold. The announcement was made by Mr. Marcos Fajardo, Founder, Solid Angle, and Mr. John Knoll, Chief Creative Officer, ILM.
After extensive testing, ILM chose Arnold as the primary renderer for its VFX work on the motion pictures “Pacific Rim” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
“It used to be that ‘ray tracing’ and ‘high speed’ were two things you never said in the same breath, but that’s no longer a valid concern,” explained John Knoll. “Arnold gives us outstanding image quality and the speed that today’s productions demand. I’m thrilled we are able to add it to the arsenal of tools at ILM. We employed Arnold on three of our high profile summer films, ‘The Lone Ranger, ‘Pacific Rim,’ and ‘Star Trek Into Darkness,’ and the results truly speak for themselves.”
Jonathan Barson, Chief Operating Officer at Solid Angle adds, “We’re delighted that ILM has joined the growing number of companies to adopt Arnold. The rendering of the Jaegers and their visual effects work on ‘Pacific Rim’ looks amazing.”
About INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC
Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., has become synonymous with groundbreaking visual effects work and the company continues to be a recognized leader in the field. ILM, headquartered in San Francisco, also has operations in Singapore – the two facilities work hand in hand to produce cutting-edge visual effects work for feature films. ILM has been awarded 15 Academy Awards® for Best Visual Effects and 24 Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. To learn more, visit ILM online at www.ilm.com.
Lucasfilm Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Industrial Light & Magic, the ILM logo, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2013 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.
About SOLID ANGLE
Solid Angle is the technology company behind the Arnold rendering software. With offices in Madrid and London, Solid Angle’s customers include ILM, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rodeo FX, Luma Pictures, Image Engine, The Moving Picture Company, Digic Pictures, The Mill and Psyop.
Arnold was designed to efficiently process the complex geometric datasets required for feature-length CGI animation and big-budget visual effects, while at the same time simplifying the pipeline. This unique renderer has been used to create the VFX seen in Marvel’s “The Avengers,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Thor,” “X-Men: First Class,” “Red Tails,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Hotel Transylvania,” and “The Smurfs,” to name just some.
Marcos Fajardo is the founder of Solid Angle and lead architect of Arnold. The software is now available as a standalone renderer, as a C++ API and as a set of plug-ins for leading 3D applications such as Maya, Softimage and Katana on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Please see: www.solidangle.com.
