Just add your imagination: student harnesses ATI FireGL graphics with award-winning results.(SPONSORED EDITORIAL)

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In the award-winning animated film Mirage by Youngwoong Jang, a biomechanical character is consumed with finding water with which to fill his glass chest in order to survive. Whereas his character is on an endless search for what he needs, Jang possessed everything necessary to bring his imaginative, artistic vision to life, including a tool set replete with powerful hardware and software.

"It has always been my obsession in life to strive for more," Jang admits. "With Miroge, I was able to create dramatic visual communication using the best tools the 3D industry has to offer."

Jang relied on ATI FireGL workstation graphics from AMD, in both an HP mobile workstation and a Dell Precision workstation, to produce Mirage, his master's thesis project while a student of New York's School of Visual Arts. The eight-minute student film boasts awe-inspiring visuals, created using Avid SoftimagelXSI software for 3D work and Next Limit RealFIow for water simulation.

"The ATI FireGL card allowed me to work flawlessly in Softimage|XSI and RealFlow, enabling me to increase the level of creativity with this project," admits Jang. "The graphics processors have been certified to support most of the 3D industry's leading applications, ensuring hardware and software compatibility."

Jang selected a Hewlett-Packard mobile workstation powered by an ATI Mobility FireGL graphics processor from AMD as his principal modeling and animating tool. He then opted to render the breathtaking imagery on a Dell Precision powered by an ATI FireGL workstation graphics accelerator.

"The pairing of the small HP laptop and powerful ATI Mobility FireGL gave me great flexibility and offered me a comfortable and affordable working environment," Jang explains. "Managing the incredibly large datasets for the highly complex modeling, texturing, and geometry of Mirage, I had to totally trust that the ATI FireGL could handle the task seamlessly. I can't risk any downtime and software/card incompatibility when working on my project. The ATI FireGL card works perfectly with XSI's real-time OpenGL view port. The ATI FireGL cards surpassed my expectations in both 3D and 2D applications."