Entity FX Accelerates Visual Effects Workflow With Isilon

Isilon Systems, Inc. announced that Entity FX is using Isilon scale-out storage to enhance and speed content management for its 2D and 3D post-production pipeline, producing visual effects (VFX) for television programs such as Breaking Bad, Entourage, The Vampire Diaries and Smallville, as well as motion pictures including This Is It, Law Abiding Citizen and The Final Destination: 3D, and upcoming films including Yogi Bear and Conviction.

Using Isilon, Entity FX has unified its data-intensive VFX applications onto a single file system, increasing data access and productivity for its range of projects. With Isilon scale-out storage, Entity FX can easily scale and manage storage resources and requirements in-line with application demands, while expanding bandwidth to accommodate new business.

"The ability to consistently meet, or beat, deadlines is critical in this business, so delays, downtime or interruptions are simply unacceptable," said Mat Beck, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and President, Entity FX. "Using Isilon, delays are a thing of the past, as are unnecessary costs on management or backups. The Isilon system has, on more than one occasion, shown its ability to survive a hard power-down crash without losing a byte of data. It handles increased load gracefully, and elegantly allows for increased capacity when necessary. "

With offices in Santa Monica, Calif. and Vancouver, British Columbia, Entity FX creates digital imagery for feature film, high-definition television and commercials. The company’s Isilon scale-out storage is providing a significant boost in performance, cost-effectiveness and scalability over the single controller architecture the studio previously used.

By deploying Isilon scale-out storage, featuring its OneFS operating system, Entity FX can use a single file system for all its file-based data, increasing application performance and artist collaboration. All VFX projects can be managed from a central, share storage resource, with Isilon’s N+4 data protection ensuring content is always immediately accessible.

"Entity FX continues to lead the innovation curve in VFX, with projects that have won acclaim from critics and audiences worldwide," said Sam Grocott, vice president of marketing, Isilon. "Now they’re setting the standard for best practices in IT by using Isilon to simplify their operations and get more done faster, at less cost."