Double Negative’s Dell-Powered Oscar

Visual effects company Double Negative used a 300-server cluster from Dell to create the special effects for Inception, and was awarded with an Academy Award.

John Rath

March 9, 2011

1 Min Read
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Special effects company Double Negative used Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade enclosures to generate the award-winning effectsfor the movie "Inception."

The 2011 Academy Award for Visual Effects went to Christopher Nolan's Inception.  London-based Double Negative produced the visual effects for the film, in addition to work done in other nominated films in the category Iron Man 2 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

Double Negative creates many of its stunning effects with server clusters from Dell, whose Inside Enterprise IT details the hefty compute power that Double Negative brings to bear. To produce the computer-generated imagery (CGI) - which includes geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information -  Double Negative built a cluster of more than 300 Dell PowerEdge 610 servers and 19 Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade enclosures. Creative software used by Double Negative staff is run on Dell Precision T7500 workstations.

Double Negative has produced visual effects for a number of film studios and is currently expanding its operations in London and Singapore.  The UK film industry also gave Double Negative's work in Inception the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award for Special Visual Effects.

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