A March 2013 report said DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods required more than 80 million render hours to generate its images from 3-D models. That is a reported production figure—not the film’s running time, a measure of artists’ labor, or a count of hours one computer ran. The report does not define exactly what work the total includes.
What does “80 million render hours” mean?
Rendering turns modeled and lit 3-D scenes into images. A render-hour is machine work accumulated over time: when many computers process jobs, their hours can add up in parallel. The total therefore does not mean that a single computer ran for 80 million continuous hours, nor does it describe how long the film takes to watch.
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DataCenterKnowledge’s March 2013 article says the film required “more than 80 million render hours” to generate visual images from 3-D models. It does not explain the accounting scope—such as whether the figure includes previews, repeated attempts, or only final frames—so the total cannot be interpreted more precisely from that report. Read the 2013 report.
What computing setup did the report describe?
The article described an HP and DreamWorks infrastructure arrangement, including HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8 server blades. It said the studio reached an average of 500,000 rendering jobs per day. That is a reported job rate, not a conversion of the 80-million-hour total: the article does not say how the jobs relate to that figure.
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Artist workstations and collaboration
For artists working on large, complex scenes, the report named HP Z820 workstations with dual Intel Xeon processors. It also said HP Remote Graphics Software supported collaboration among teams in Glendale, Redwood City, and Bangalore. These are details of a 2013 production environment, not current equipment recommendations.
The report quoted Derek Chan, then identified as head of Technology Global Operations at DreamWorks Animation: “Cutting-edge digital manufacturing requires a huge amount of compute power and orchestrated collaboration across our studios.” The quotation is attributed in the report; it is not presented as a separately verified transcript.
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What the figure cannot tell us
Without a published definition of the render-hour total, it should not be used as a direct measure of film length, artist labor, energy consumption, cost, server count, or the time required to finish rendering. Nor is it a sound benchmark for comparing films unless the compared figures use a clearly stated and similar scope.
A useful comparison would identify whether a source counts CPU or GPU hours, total render-farm hours, jobs, or elapsed calendar time; whether it includes test renders; and when the figure was reported. The 2013 article does not provide enough methodology for a robust film-to-film comparison.
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For readers who want to see the film, Universal Pictures at Home lists the 2013 title in 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD editions; DreamWorks also lists Blu-ray and DVD availability. Edition availability can vary by location. See Universal Pictures at Home’s listing or DreamWorks’ film page.
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