Silicon Graphics
ReBoot
[Movie Link]

INITIALIZE
OPENING
SEQUENCE
(4MB movie file)

Bob, Dot, Enzo

DOT, ENZO, BOB
Human-like
data sprites

Bob

BOB
His mission:
to defend
Mainframe

Bob in Car

AT THE TRACK
Enzo prepares
to race "The User"

Dot Matrix

DOT MATRIX
Mainframe's
entrepeneurial
wonder woman

Megabyte

MEGABYTE
Rotten to
the Core

Hexadecimal

HEXADECIMAL
Megabyte's evil sister

Dog

FRISKET
Enzo's faithful
companion

Enzo-Megabyte

STARE DOWN
Enzo looks
danger right
in the eye

Enzo Portal

DIGITAL PORTAL
Enzo prepares
to enter another
dimension

Imagination Meets Technology in an Innovative Animated Series

Ask an engineer how a computer works and you're likely to hear about central processing units, random access memory, bus speeds, and data storage. Ask a young child and the answer is much simpler; there are little people inside.

As someone who has actually seen the inside of a real computer, I regret to report that the engineer's explanation is probably a bit more accurate. But the child's point of view is definitely more intriguing. What if there were little people making things happen inside of our computers? What would they look like? How would they act? And what would they think of me, "The User"?

Thanks to a popular animated television series we no longer have to ponder these important questions. ReBoot--a half-hour series produced entirely on Silicon Graphics® systems--provides all the answers.

With production values and story lines that rival (and often surpass) some of the best work coming out of Hollywood these days, ReBoot is an anomaly on the often disappointing landscape of Saturday morning television.

Breaking New Ground

"We're breaking new ground with this show--both in television programming and computer technology," says Christopher Brough, the show's producer, who has watched the project, technology and characters develop and grow for four years.

"One of our greatest accomplishments is that we managed to combine cutting-edge technology and the age-old art of story telling," Brough adds.

A growing legion of fans--young and old alike--appreciate the effort. In the U.S., the show airs Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. (EST) on ABC where it has been one of the strongest performers on the ABC Saturday morning line-up. ReBoot has a huge following in Canada, where it airs three times a week on YTV, often garnering the highest rating points in its prime-time slot and also has a large and loyal audience in the United Kingdom. In total, the show has now been sold in over 50 countries.

In February, the series presented the prestigious Gemini Award for Best Animated Series by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. It also earned the 1995 Award of Excellence for Best Animated Program from the Alliance for Children and Television.

Anything is Possible

Attempting to explain the plot of the series in writing is somewhat like trying to explain a beautifully rendered 3D animation sequence with machine code; much is lost in the translation. Here's how the official ReBoot press kit explains it:

"[ReBoot] takes viewers inside the world of a personal computer to the multi-level city of Mainframe, populated by sprites, an eclectic mixture of digital information in the forms of robotic-looking binomes and human-like data sprites... When The User decides to play a computer game, an ominous cube descends upon Mainframe and engulfs a sector of the city... Anything is possible inside The Game. A sprite can find himself behind the controls of a screaming jet fighter, burning up the track in a Formula One car, or going one-on-one with the NBA All-Stars."
Add to this scenario a cast of interesting, humorous, and genuinely likeable characters, and you have a series that transcends your typical Saturday morning 'toon.

"We decided early on not to go with the straight formula typical in shows like Scooby-Do," explains Ian Pearson, ReBoot's co-creator and executive creative consultant. "We wanted to break the mold--to create a world where anything is possible."

"ReBoot delivers what you would expect from a computer--the astounding action sequences as seen from inside a computer game--with scenes of drama, humor and even a little tenderness, which you wouldn't generally associate with a product generated by a machine," Brough adds.

The Story Behind the Story

As fascinating as the series itself, is the story behind the production of the show and the growth of the studio that creates it. Like many high-tech start-ups, Mainframe Entertainment began with only a handful of talented individuals and a great idea. "Three years ago Ian and I were running this operation out of a hotel room," laughs Brough.

Today, Mainframe Entertainment's Vancouver, B.C. headquarters are a testament to the talent of the original team and the brilliance of their idea. It features a 60,000 square-foot production facility that houses a growing workforce of 110 employees.

Equipped with 85 Silicon Graphics Indigo2(TM) workstations, Mainframe is capable of creating an incredible 3,000 to 12,000 frames of animation each day. Using Silicon Graphics Onyx® systems, they can render up to 36,000 frames of animation in one day.

"We are, in essence, the most prolific computer graphics company in the world," Brough says, pointing out that the company produced more than 500 minutes of fully rendered animation last year. "This represents more than the combined total of the rest of the industry." And that number is expected to rise significantly as new projects and opportunities create even greater demand. (Brough predicts that Mainframe will churn out 800 minutes this year.)

Noted among these projects is Beast Wars, an entirely new animated series which melds Jurassic Park-like creatures with the popular robotic Transformer characters. The show recently debuted as a two-part pilot that attracted huge audience response. With a lucrative syndication deal--the first of its kind for a computer-generated television program--Mainframe Entertainment is understandably optimistic about the show's future.

Also in the works is a ReBoot-based large-screen theater "experience," employing stereoscopic special effects and 3D animation rendered at 48 frames per second (compared to the live action video standard of 30 frames per second). The resulting attraction is, "guaranteed to make your kids very happy," chuckles Pearson.

Of course, a ReBoot video game is another natural. So it's no surprise that Electronic Arts, one of the world's premiere video game makers, will soon release a 32-bit CD-ROM adventure game. And what would a popular televison series be without it's own set of trading cards?

A Back Lot in a Suitcase

For a conventional animation studio these spin-off projects would be difficult to manage. But the fact that every frame of animation created at the studio is saved to a huge database makes it easy for Mainframe to fully leverage its digital assets.

"We're essentially building a back lot in a suitcase," says Brough about the company's digital archive. "This is the wave of the future for our industry. It makes it possible for us to aggressively move into new areas of growth."

Case in point--Mainframe transfers the digital files created for the television series directly to Irwin Toy Limited, which manufactures ReBoot action figures. In addition to bringing the toys to market faster, Irwin is able to create toys that are 100 percent true to the characters in the television show.

With all of this activity, staffing Mainframe Entertainment with qualified animators has become a huge challenge. To this end the company is building a 24-seat training school which will allow new animators to learn the "tricks of the trade" while producing actual projects.

Meeting the aggressive deadline demands of a weekly television series is perhaps Mainframe's biggest challenge. By combining computer technology with an advanced production process that draws on the vast experience of its animators, the studio is tackling the problem head-on. A single episode of ReBoot, which took as long as 18 months to create in the show's formative years, now takes only three weeks to produce.

Hideously Efficient

"ReBoot is hideously efficient," Pearson enthuses. "We don't use paper-based storyboards. Everything is done within the computer."

According to Brough, Silicon Graphics technology deserves a great deal of credit for the group's ability to turn out a high quality product in a short amount of time. "Without a doubt, Silicon Graphics has proven to be the ultimate solution for high-end animation," Brough says.

David Bagshaw, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Silicon Graphics, is just as quick to point to Mainframe as a leading-edge customer that uses Silicon Graphics technology to its fullest.

"The creative team at Mainframe Entertainment has not only created a fun and exciting television series, but they are also breaking new ground in terms of 3D animation and fast story development," says Bagshaw, who has enjoyed watching the show with his elementary school-aged daughters. "We're proud that our systems could be the paintbrushes and color palettes for this incredibly creative team."

Hitting Stride

After two seasons of developing ReBoot's characters and working out the production kinks, Pearson believes the show will really hit its stride this upcoming season.

From a production standpoint, ReBoot fans can expect an even greater level of 3D realism with improved texture mapping and the widespread introduction of shadows as Mainframe Entertainment switches its animation system over to Alias|Wavefront's next-generation Maya software. "It [Maya] will allow us to take ReBoot to the next level of animation," Pearson says. "We are tremendously excited about the possibilities."

As for the storylines and plot twists for the upcoming season, the makers of ReBoot are reluctant to divulge specifics, but they do hint that some startling developments are in store.

"Stay tuned," Pearson advises. "There will be some shocking developments in season three."

Jumping Off Points

For more information on this story,
check out the links below

Silicon Graphics Related Links:

Alliance Communications / Mainframe Entertainment: Reboot Related Home pages: ReBoot Related Merchandise: