|  By
Larry Kasanoff,
CEO, Threshold Animation Studios
and Producer/Director/Co-creator/Writer,
Foodfight!
Moderated
by Irving
Wladawsky-Berger, Visiting
Professor of Engineering Systems
and VP, Technical Strategy and
Innovation, IBM
Click
here
to view lecture poster (.pdf)
About
the Series:
Today’s
increasingly complex world requires
engineers to innovate as never
before. To have real impact,
whether within a firm or society
as a whole, engineers must not
only develop technologically
superior solutions, but also
know how to think systemically
and lead strategically.
In the 21st century, mastery
of a wide range of interdisciplinary
skills is needed to create effective,
resilient solutions to complex
problems. Today’s engineers
must understand how to work
individually and on teams. They
must recognize critical factors
that emerge along technical,
organizational, and societal
boundaries that can enable or
preclude technological success.
Moreover, they must apply careful
analysis not only at the product
level, but also within the technical
and managerial context in which
engineering and design challenges
occur.
Engineering Systems Solutions
to Real World Challenges
is a seminar series co-sponsored
by IBM and MIT’s Engineering
Systems Division. Each seminar
will show how today’s
leaders and practitioners are
using engineering systems and
services sciences approaches
to address complex problems.
Drawing from real-life examples,
the series will explain how
these approaches were applied
at IBM and other organizations,
and demonstrate how to achieve
breakthrough solutions that
deliver sustained value to enterprises
and society as a whole.
About
the Lecture
Threshold: A quantum leap in
animation:
The short history of modern
digitally animated films has
so far been huge budgets, animation
staffs in the hundreds and long,
long production cycles. This
“blockbuster model”
reflects the labor intensity
of the traditional process,
where an artist at a workstation
meticulously creates a series
of separate frames to illustrate
action. This method, a 21⁄2
minute sequence involves 3,600
frames and can take up to six
months. The back-end process,
in which animation code is translated
or rendered into viewable frames
also requires extremely large
amounts of processing power.
Today
changes are taking place. Audiences
have developed high expectations
for animation quality. Major
digital animation studios realize
to reduce risk and time-to-market
requires making movies faster,
cheaper and more flexibly, while
improving quality. Digital animation
has had a long record of innovation.
But today one surprise is a
driver of innovation–Threshold
Animation Studios–has
emerged not from the industry’s
center stage but from the wings.
Innovation
plays a small role in most studio
strategies but Threshold’s
entire business model is built
upon it. Employing fewer than
200, this upstart studio broke
into the animation business
by overcoming one of its most
potent barriers to entry–the
need to invest in a costly infrastructure
to handle the massive processing
requirements of rendering–through
an agreement with IBM to deliver
computing capacity on demand.
Rendering resources are especially
critical for Threshold because
of the groundbreaking and complex
nature of its first full-length
film, Foodfight!, a
film set in a supermarket after
closing time. The set, a complex
digital "marketropolis"
with over 300 buildings intricately
designed in 3D, thousands of
“extras” and more
than 100 speaking characters,
posed an unprecedented rendering
challenge.
This
lecture will discuss how Threshold
achieved an order-of-magnitude
increase in animation complexity–on
time and within budget–as
well as a fundamental change
in the animation process. Their
e-studio uses an animation technique
known as motion capture, where
the movements of live actors
are captured via fiber optic
sensors and converted directly
and in real time to 3D digital
files. Threshold's innovation
took this mocap technology that
plays a peripheral role in the
business, customized and enhanced
it and made it the foundation
of a first-of-its-kind real-time
animation system.
About
the Speakers:
Larry
Kasanoff
is a film producer who is CEO
of Threshold Animation Studios
(TAS), one of the world’s
leading digital animation and
visual effects production studios.
TAS is backed by a unique alliance
with IBM.
To
date, all of the films and film
deals made under Mr. Kasanoff’s
leadership are profitable.
Currently,
Kasanoff is producing and directing
FOODFIGHT!, a full-length
digitally animated feature film.
Kasanoff
is the Producer of all Mortal
Kombat non-video game media
including two highly successful
films, a television series,
an animated series, platinum
selling soundtracks, home video,
CD-Roms and a live tour.
Kasanoff
was Executive Producer of the
film “True Lies,”
which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger
and was directed by James Cameron.
As President and Co-Founder
of Lightstorm Entertainment,
he assembled a consortium of
worldwide film and ancillary
rights distributors who agreed
to provide $500 million in financing
for the company’s films.
This unique structure gave the
company complete creative control
and 100% ownership of its films.
Also in that capacity, Kasanoff
supervised production, marketing,
publicity and merchandising
for the four-time Academy Award
winning film “Terminator
2: Judgment Day.” This
property has generated over
a billion dollars in revenues,
several hundred million of which
came from non-film rights.
Previously,
Kasanoff was head of production
and acquisitions for Vestron,
Inc. He executive produced over
25 films and created “prebuy”
financing and acquisition deals
for over 200 additional films,
including the 1986 Academy Award
Best Picture “Platoon.”
Mr. Kasanoff also co-founded
Vestron’s original and
music video programming divisions.
In
the music world, Mr. Kasanoff
has packaged or produced video
projects with several of the
world’s biggest talents,
including Michael Jackson, The
Rolling Stones and Dick Clark.
He founded Lightstorm Records
and Music Publishing (a partnership
with Sony Music). For T2, he
produced MTV’s 1991 top
video “You Could Be Mine”
with Gun’s ‘N Roses.
Kasanoff
holds an MBA from the The Wharton
School and a BA from Cornell
University.
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