Pixar’s Renderman prototype is the best realization of the cloud computing vision yet

ROSARoy21

cloud, demo, design, istartedsomething, management, microsoft, renderman, slideshow, windows, Windows 7, windows-phone

To be honest, Microsoft “cloud” demos usually put me to sleep, but not this one. At the PDC2010 keynote yesterday , Pixar Animation Studio ‘s Chris Ford demoed a cloud-hosted prototype of their Academy Award-winning Renderman solution that in my opinion makes the best case for cloud computing I’ve seen yet. The Windows Azure-powered prototype website, albeit extremely polished, is an example of how the company could easily transform its industry-leading product limited in reach by its hunger for resources into a service that would allow anyone from small studios to even indie filmmakers could then take advantage of the powers of Renderman, even if they don’t have the resources to establish and support a rendering farm.