Flame on the Cloud: new workflows for VFX challenges.

FERNANDO NOVO PAZ: Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. And thank you very much for attending this class at Autodesk University. My name is Fernando Novo Paz, Designated Support Specialist for [INAUDIBLE] at Autodesk. And I will conduct you through this Flame on the Cloud technology preview class.

During the following minutes, we will learn the challenges that have appeared with the cloud and VFX collaboration workflows for the media and entertainment industry. How the Flame on the Cloud technology preview approaches to these new workflows and how it will help to the cost control. And we'll see how we are working to develop a Flame on the Cloud graphic instance in partnership with AWS.

When I was working on this presentation, I have several conversations with Flame users and system engineers from different studios. As you know, COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions worldwide made the studios and artists to work from home. To continue with the business, the studios have needed to allow remote connections to the on-premesis systems to their artists and freelancers.

They have been even needed to invest in remote desktop solutions, tools, and increase their internet connectivity. Sometimes, the performance was not enough to continue working. And they finally have needed to move the physical VFX workstation to the artist home. During the last month, they have to face new challenges related to data management, data duplication, and data security.

In all this conversation I have, cloud computing and even virtualization was floating around. As an alternative to the remote connection implemented by the unexpected situation, in one of these conversations Jorge Febrero, the Senior Flame Freelancer Artist from Spain, told me the following sentence, "In the near future, my next Flame Linux Workstation will be a Cloud instance. I'm sure I will choose a virtual machine, not a physical workstation."

This sentence reflects clearly that cloud computing is a new alternative to the traditional physical hardware configurations. During the following minutes, we will talk about why cloud now for M and E. The challenges of VFX collaboration on the cloud and the business model behind it, the Flame Cloud proof of concept development, and tech preview implementation made in partnership with AWS. And finally, we will see some testimonials from our technology review testers.

Why cloud now for the media and entertainment industry? The cloud is an ideal platform for hosting collaborative workflows. [INAUDIBLE] can be on any continent or in any time zone and have a consistent view of the project. This was unthinkable prior to the cloud evolution.

Studios and artists can collaborate on separate projects across the globe from London to New York to LA to India without the friction of on-premises environments. Cloud provides cost on-demand. Studios can pay only for what they use and don't have to cover the fixed cost of infrastructure when it is not in use.

Additionally, studios bid on projects before they have to invest in the infrastructure or execute the project. If they don't win the contract, they are not out of the pocket expenses for equipment that, at the end, will not get use. The cloud provides near limitless escape in compute and storage infrastructure on demand based on a consumption model. You pay only for the resources to use.

Let's talk about the challenges. Cloud technology has evolved rapidly, and it's ready for the M and E and VFX market. Data location centralized cloud storage provides one single place for the media, allowing upstream from anywhere global access to the source material is soft in cloud storage solutions.

Bringing the tools close to the data, like cloud instances of Flame or render farms, helps to avoid data duplication. Cloud storage is now the central point of truth for the source material and the final renders. Data security is also warrantied by the cloud providers with the right technology to assure data integrity and the requested secure access to it.

Cloud also allows the studios access to talent anywhere. No matter where the artists are located, with cloud instances, the workforce can collaborate even if they are working from home in different cities or countries all around the world.

Remote connections to the office are based in local internet access with limited bandwidth and higher latency for higher distance to the studio. Latency working office to home is limited. Cloud providers solve this challenge with the regional data centers allowing working from anywhere smoothly.

Cloud technology allows to the studios simplify the engineering cost and maintenance, reducing the on-premises hardware, over-consumption, and avoiding the configuration and maintenance cost of several site services other than the pure VFX tools, like networking infrastructure, internet access, security systems, and so on.

There is a new business model for the VFX on the cloud. Some business advantages of VFX cloud collaborations are cloud allow remote artists or new hires to work immediately without procuring hardware or finding office space. The cloud provides scalability. This is valid to studios of all sizes.

[? Medium ?] to a small size studios can gain elasticity and work in larger projects. Freelancers can now tap into a vast number of [INAUDIBLE] CPUs, GPUs, RAM. Cloud provides on-demand usage of compute resources.

Costs are now proportional to the projects versus a long term investment in on-premises equipment made by the big facilities. Clouds allow also mobility for an entire studio. All these advantages help to a better studio management, workforce management, and it helps to control cost of the business.

Cloud is now a mature technology for media and entertainment and for VFX [INAUDIBLE]. With the cloud storage, studios work with a single source of data. Storage requirements is growing exponentially by the development of 4k and 8k video resolutions.

Storage challenge is to increase the storage capacity without increasing the cost per terabyte. Studios pay only for the resources they need when they need. On-premises solutions might take weeks to add more storage, costing time and money.

Good morning. Data security is critical for the M&E industry. Cloud based storage, like the AWS solution or other third party storage cloud providers, protects against unforeseen disasters. Cloud can also be used to innovate. Cloud allows to test new ideas, workflows, and infrastructure configurations, without assuming the initial cost in the new hardware.

Let's talk about Flame now. Cloud will allow to break the old mindset of a Flame cost. From the '90s, Flame was seen as a high-end system, using the most expensive hardware, as the old Silicon Graphics RISC workstation we can see in the picture. Flame is seen, also, as a highly demanding system in terms of hardware, or CPU, GPU storage. This is almost true, but the cost of these components has been reduced since we introduced Flame back in the '90s.

Another incorrect assumption is that cloud instances are far from these highly demanding requirements for Flame. Since 2015, Flame is a software only product. This means that's no longer linked it to a specific workstation provided by Autodesk. Customers can select the Flame workstations from the multiple options provided in the Flame system requirement pages.

Flame licensing model also has changed from the '90s. Nowadays, Flame uses the same licensing model as any other Autodesk product. Named-user subscriptions provide flexibility in the way to subscribe Flame from a monthly option, to an annual one, or 3-annual subscription. With the recent introduction of the Flex subscription option, Flame has gained even more flexibility. Flame on the cloud instances and the Flex subscription with daily rates approach Flame close to a pay-per-use model. This allows even more cost control.

Let's move to the Flame on the Cloud deck preview experience. The Autodesk Flame team is working in partnership with Amazon Web Services-- AWS-- in the Flame cloud technology preview. Flame on the cloud is currently in development, and it is available upon request as a technology preview program. Flame on the cloud is an additional way to deploy Flame to our users. Flame cloud instances are, as we say, an alternative to the current 35 Linux workstation, or the different self-qualified by vendor Linux workstations that we listed in the Flame system requirement pages.

AWS E2 g4dn instances are the recommended ones to run Flame tech preview, providing the expected Flame experience to the test artist. Flame cloud instances allow also to the studio or freelancers use a high-end Linux workstation on demand at a reasonable cost. Flame development is working to provide cloud instances, fully capable, and with all the background services required by the product.

We have successfully managed to integrate Flame in our AWS workflow. An artist simply presses a button, to create a fully configured Flame machine for them to work on with a framestore on shared real-time storage. This feedback was provided by a charter test site in London, that this one of our current Flame in the cloud technology preview testers.

Let's do an overview of the process how to set up and use a Flame instance in the AWS cloud. Here we have a high level version of the Flame technology preview configuration. With AWS Studios configure a cloud storage from any of the options provided by AWS storage, or from any other third party cloud storage solution provider they select. AWS Flame tech preview setup is based on E2 g4dn graphic instance. These instances can be created in specific AWS regions, close to the artist location, to get less latency and better Flame performance.

Before creating your Flame instance, you should create your AWS account. As part of the process to set up an AWS account, you should create your security key pair to connect with the instances. It is also required to install the AWS command line interface tool. This CLI is available for Windows or Mac systems.

Next step is to get access to the Flame AMI tech preview in your AWS account. Our Flame AMI tech preview image installation contains: Linux CentOS 7.6 operating system, the DKU 16.1 version, the required nVidia driver for the instance GPU, Teradici software that allow remote graphic connection to the Flame instance, and the Flame 2022.1 release.

Let me point out that Flame AMI is not available in the Amazon Marketplace. Please contact us to gain access to the tech preview program. Teradici license is not included. You should contact Teradici to get your own license. Once you get the Flame AMI in your account, after contact us, you only need to select it, press the launch button to configure your new Flame cloud instance.

As we already mentioned, the graphic instance recommended for Flame is a E2 g4dn 8xlarge type. So in this step, select this type of graphic instance and continue with the configuration process.

Next step in the process is the instance creation, and a launch process will guide you to configure different options, like the storage model for the instance, if you want an AWS storage, or other options to configure as the security rules to get access to your instance. Once completed all the previous options, the last step is review the instance settings. Once you confirm it, just launch it. Once you click Launch, the instance is created in a few minutes. AWS console informs you when the instance has finished the creation process and when it is ready to be used.

With the instance up and running, you then will use an SSH connection to set up the Teradici license. Once you have the Teradici license enabled in your instance, then you use the Teradici PC or IP client application on Windows or Mac to connect with the instance IP. You will provide the user login credentials and connect to the instance.

The connection starts like in any other physical work station. It's the same like when you login in a physical Linux machine and select a user. When you login to a Linux users, the Linux system is showing the initialization process. Once the XSystem initialization finish, you have access to the standard Linux user Flame [INAUDIBLE].

At this point, you will perform your required custom configuration. Like [INAUDIBLE] your cloud storage solution, or if it's the first time you launch the instance, set up the Flame frame store. Then just double click on the Flame icon, and you can use Flame program as in any other physical workstation. Flame cloud instance is run in tech preview mode, and it provides the expected Flame experience.

Before finish, we have an additional and important step. This important step is decide what to do when you finish your session with the Flame program. This step is critical to avoid additional and unforeseen costs. Once you finish your Flame session you can stop the instance. If you plan to continue to work with the Flame later, this option will preserve all your Flame work and data in your instance.

The other option is terminate the instance, if you do not plan continue to work with it. In this case, make sure you have already archived your Flame project, or you have saved all your data in your cloud storage or in another place. Because, when you terminate an instance, the instance is destroyed and all this data is deleted. So important, in this step, make sure before terminating an instance, you save your work.

To conclude, we want to share with you additional testimonials from our Flame on the cloud deck preview users. Like this feedback provided by Angus Kneale at Preymaker, another of our Flame on the cloud tech preview visitors.

Hello, Flame team. Angus Kneale here. Will asked me if I'd say a few words about Flame the cloud, and I said I'd be absolutely happy to. So we are so excited that you guys are working on Flame the cloud. It is really allowing us to build our business in the way we want it to be built. Preymaker is a 100% cloud native company, and we firmly believe that cloud native workflows are the future of visual effects, media, and entertainment.

Flame has always been a very, very powerful tool, and it's always been a tool that I've really enjoyed. Having now worked in the cloud-- and I know it's been hard-- but it's just phenomenal. It's allowing our artists to collaborate remotely. It's allowing people to work from home during COVID.

But outside of COVID and past COVID, I think that it is probably one of the most exciting things to happen to Flame in recent years. And I can't convey my thanks enough-- to just say thank you so much, really appreciate the hard work. And I know there's still more to do, but it's really very much appreciated

Thank you, Angus, for this feedback. And other testimonials on Flame on the cloud demos can be watched on YouTube. They are from VGI, an Autodesk partner in Japan. These demos are AWS Flame with CloudCache Version 3, or the VGI detailed Flame on AWS setup video. This video is in Japanese, but showed the process.

If you're interested to participate and test in the Flame on the cloud tech review development, or if you want to get access to the Flame family beta program, you can contact us by sending an email to me, Fernando Novo, or to Will Harris. Or you can contact with the Autodesk Flame support team that can forward your request to the Flame team to add you in the program.

Finally, feel free to share your comments about this class in the page, and please click Recommend if you like it. Thank you very much for attending this Flame on the cloud class at Autodesk University.