Lenovo ThinkStations Transform Special Effects in Transformers 3
Kerry Troester is a marketing manager for Lenovo’s ThinkStation workstations. With a passion for both art and technology, Kerry enjoys seeing the two blend together in animated film. Both my parents are artists, so I grew up surrounding by creativity and color. That’s why I enjoy seeing how Lenovo ThinkStation customers push the limits of our computers - creating cutting-edge animation and games. I have been lucky enough to work with Allen Bolden, founder of Bit Theory, to learn how they used Lenovo ThinkStations to create many of the great effects shown in this summer’s blockbuster, Transformers 3. Bit Theory is a Lenovo ThinkStation customer that uses our C20 and D20 workstations. As background, Bit Theory is a leading visual effects company based in southern California. Bit Theory creates high-end computer generated (CG) images and animations using a proprietary CG animation software engine known as “Athena” to develop animation used in video and film productions. Allen developed Athena to automate key parts of the animation and rendering process that are labor, hardware, software, and capital intensive. Bit Theory was one of the companies that worked on the production of Transformers 3 primarily around the conversion of the 2D movie to a 3D format. It seems like nearly every movie has a 3D version these...
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Think - Innovate - Evolve. What better evocative words than these to epitomize the history of the ThinkPad and other Lenovo Think-branded products? If you have experienced many of the memorable ThinkPads like the 701c "butterfly" with it's unique expanding keyboard, the X41t, our first convertible tablet, or the massive W701ds dual screen laptop, you know about Think innovation. But, the world is a big place, and while many people know our story, there are still many who don't know about the heritage and evolution of Think. This week, we launchedThinkingNeverStops to share the history of Think innovation and evolution, and to engage customers via polls and open-ended discussion to hear their ideas and opinions on the kind of innovation they want to see in future generations. What do you think will be the next big area for innovation? Please take a few mins to stop in and share your thoughts ... I hope to see you there!
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In this quick video, Ming Xie, worldwide product manager for the ThinkStation C20/C20x workstations reveals some of the engineering work we did to shrink the size of the workstation while retaining the high performance of larger workstations. The workstations were just recently announced.
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Ever since the introduction of our new ThinkStation line of workstations I've seen lots of commentary about handles on computer towers. Just to set the record straight we have had handles on towers from day one. The first tower ever designed by IBM (PS/2 Model 80) had a folding handle to make moving it around easier. The PS/1 tower designed by Richard Sapper in the early 90's had a clever handle that was integral to the front bezel. The new handle on the ThinkStation products is very similar in appearance and utility to the PS/1 version. For rack mounting the ThinkStation handles are easily removed. PS/1 Sapper design model circa 1992 The comments about us copying the handle created by the "fruit" company are just plain wrong. But enough about that. What I'm interested in is the true value that a handle provides. I think it is very useful, I would love to get your thoughts on this topic. David Hill
We just added high performance workstations to the Lenovo Think branded stable. The ThinkStation S10 and D10 workstations are designed to offer Lenovo's highest performance and reliability for professionals in the most demanding data and graphics intensive environments. Here are some of the feeds and speeds: The workstations are built on the upcoming Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series and Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors, the first processors based on new 45-nanometer technology that nearly doubles the density of transistors on the chips for new levels of energy-efficient performance. The dual processor ThinkStation D10 workstation will offer the fastest Quad-Core Inte®l Xeon® processor 5400 series, while the single processor ThinkStation S10 workstation will offer the latest Intel® Core 2 processors including the Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor QX9650 along with the latest graphics solutions from NVIDIA. They also come equipped with dual Gigabit Ethernet and multiple slots, bays and USB ports for expandability. From a design perspective we wanted to make a statement of pure power. Forget fake power bulges, blue under-carriage lights, "aerodynamic" wings, flame paint jobs and other such design gimmicks. These computers were designed to look like the perfect companion to your Humvee. The front surface is highly perforated...
