interview and copy written for Sohonet
article here
Mathematic, a leading independent VFX and 3D animation
studio, is revolutionizing the creative industry through sustainable workflows
and a commitment to environmental responsibility. The multi award-winning
French facility has embarked on an ambitious rewiring of its global
infrastructure connecting 350 artists across studios in Paris, Montreal and Los
Angeles on Sohonet and its world class remote collaboration file transfer. The
project has taken on renewed relevance post-Covid delivering workflow resilience,
productivity gains and substantial energy efficiencies.
“We have positioned the environmental impact of Mathematic
at the heart of all our projects,” says Clement Germain, VFX Supervisor at
Mathematic. “Thanks to Sohonet, cutting-edge file transfer tools and Qarnot’s
revolutionary cooling technologies we are able to increase creative output and
dramatically reduce our carbon emissions in all our facilities.”
The Backbone of Global Creativity: Mathematic’s Sohonet
Strategy
Nothing if not foresighted, Mathematic began transitioning
out of the legacy IT in its offices in 2015. At the time, Mathematic faced
issues caused by a siloed, distributed infrastructure and disconnected
production teams. This resulted in delays, additional CAPEX and OPEX costs, and
significant complexity as copies of project data had to be continually shuttled
back and forth between sites. More importantly, the friction this added to
production workflows was limiting the facility’s ability to grow its business
and react to rapidly changing demand.
“The rationale was to streamline operational efficiencies
using leading-edge technologies running on Sohonet optical fibre,” Germain
explains. “Instead of working from existing storage at each site what we wanted
to do was to assimilate file metadata in the cloud and tie all our sites
together.”
To accomplish this, the facility began by interconnecting
its Paris studio with its U.S and Canadian counterparts over Sohonet. By
deploying Hammerspace software, Mathematic seamlessly bridged all
sites into a multi-site global namespace. In this way, artists spanning Paris,
Montreal and LA are able to collaborate on the same files in a live file
system, eliminating the problem of wrangling file copies between sites.
“The new infrastructure means all our artists can
collaborate on global projects by sharing assets without friction – as if they
were sitting in the same office,” says Germain. “It also allows us to deploy a
new studio anywhere, rapidly, and then recruit talent, regardless of their
geographical location.”
Gateway to the Global Creative Network with Multiport
At the same time, Sohonet’s Multiport service provided
access to the (Sohonet) Media Network, the largest private network for film,
TV, and advertising industries. This allows Mathematic to directly connect with
thousands of companies including industry giants Disney, Warner Bros. and
Netflix, and hundreds of thousands of storytellers worldwide, facilitating
smoother collaboration and data transfer.
Moreover, Multiport offered Mathematic the flexibility to
scale bandwidth capacity as needed. This agility allowed them to adapt to
varying workloads, such as upgrading to higher bandwidth during intensive
projects and scaling back down afterwards, ensuring a seamless workflow
management process.
Closing the Gap for Remote Teams ClearView Flex
The company first started working with real-time
collaboration platform, ClearView Flex during the pandemic. “We developed a
close relationship with Sohonet to keep our productions running by solving the
last mile of remote collaboration,” Germain explains. “Previously, our remote
teams were isolated from each other, limiting their ability to work
effectively.”
Mathematic has since doubled down on using ClearView Flex.
“We have boxes in Paris, Montreal and LA and we use them every day to stream
sessions. It is fast, robust and the very best experience for clients and
artists.”
Aligned with ‘France 2030’ Objectives
Mathematic’s strategy aligned with France Project 2030, a
multi-billion Euro French government- funded initiative to develop the
country’s industrial competitiveness. Centered around next-gen technologies,
the France Project 2030 is also intended to drive down carbon footprints.
To meet these sustainability goals Mathematic embarked on a
scheme to decarbonize all its VFX renders. “We decided to decarbonize our
historic render farms by placing our old render nodes into Qarnot’s
infrastructure. This innovative technology repurposes the heat generated by
computing to feed district heating networks, swimming pools, and industrial
facilities.” says Germain.
There’s more to come too. Mathematic is installing new
render nodes directly into Qarnot computing cluster, a technology that directly
valorizes rendering heat to warm a swimming pool spa complex in the Paris
region. This will not only deliver further energy savings but ties Mathematic’s
global creative VFX into the circular economy.
Sixty servers were installed in Qarnot clusters at the end
of 2024 and another 60 will be added this year. The facility next plans to
double that amount to 240 servers and predicts that this will decarbonize 15
tonnes of Co2 per month across its network by 2027.
“Our journey is still evolving but we can already see
tangible returns from our philosophy,” says Germain. “We can have artists
working on a project in our LA or Montreal studio using the power of the render
farm in Paris to decarbonize.”
For example, for the IMAX spectacle T.Rex (2024),
the photoreal VFX was designed in Paris and animated in Montreal with rendering
in France.
Mathematic has doubled production capacity alongside an 80%
reduction in carbon output as a result of repatriating renders to Paris.
“Plus, if we were to open a new office in New York we would
just plug it into Sohonet and our global file system and be able to scale up on
projects within hours.”
Mathematic’s leadership in sustainability and fostering
global collaboration was recognized with a prestigious nomination for a César
et Techniques 2025 award.
Mathematic creative excellence
Having art direction central to its core, Mathematic’s work
spans commercial, music video, feature films and series, video game trailers,
and entertainment creative content production.
With an average of 200 projects a year, Mathematic has
collaborated with notable artists including Ed Sheeran, Lil Nas X, Harry
Styles, Coldplay and The Weekend. The studio’s work includes commercials with
brands such as Apple, Sprite, Adidas and Tag Heuer; television series such
as Parallels from Disney+, and feature films including Vesper,
The Whale, Asteroid City, and Les 5 Diables.
Mathematic also creates special effects for shows and
concerts, including those by Drake and The Blaze. For its participation in the
cyberpunk rock opera Starmania, Mathematic was awarded the
prestigious Molière award for Best Visual Creation in 2023.
The studio’s work has been recognized with numerous awards,
including the UK Music Video Awards (UKMVA), the Moliere awards, the GENIE
Awards, CLIO Awards, Ciclope Awards, D&AD, EPICA Awards, London
International Awards (LIA), MTV Awards, Cannes Lions and The César Award
(nominee).
No comments:
Post a Comment