Why has DreamWorks been so successful?

Created by: Brad Kahl Why has DreamWorks been so successful?

Outline: • DreamWorks - who started it - when it was created - certain films • Maya - about the software - how to use it • DreamWorks and Maya • Conclusion

DreamWorks • DreamWorks was created in 1994. • It was created by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Gaffen. • In 1996 DreamWorks partnership with Pacific Delta Images, the Northern California-based animation and visual effects production studio (PDI), which helped them produce their first animation called “Antz”. • In 2004, DreamWorks became the 1st company ever to create and produce two animated movies in one year.

DreamWorks Continued.. • In 1998, DreamWorks 1st production came out, called “Antz”. • It took two years to create and produce this movie. • They used tools such as Final Cut Pro and Flash to created some of the special effects for this movie.

Maya • Was created in 1998 • Is a very powerful and very expensive 3D imaging software program that is used mainly for special effects in movies and modeling objects and characters in video games. • 1st version ranged in between the price of $15,000 - $30,000, and it was only available for (SGI) Silicon Graphics Inc. Workstations.

What is Maya used for? Maya is used to create: - cartoons - movies - computer games - advertisements - promos - architectural animations - forensic animations - industrial designs -industrial forensic animations

Programs similar to Maya • Final Cut Pro • iMovie • Frame Thief • Windows Movie Maker • Lightwave • SoftImage XSI • Flash • 3DS Max

Requirements for being able to install Maya • For Pc’s - Window’s XP/2000 or higher • For Mac’s - Mac OS X or higher • For Linux - Red Hat Linux 7.3 or higer

DreamWorks and Maya With the help of Maya, in 2004 DreamWorks became the first company to create and produce two animated films in one year. Shrek 2 and Shark Tale. Shrek 2 also was the 3 highest money making movie of all time, with making close to $450 billon, 2 behind “Titanic”, which brought in close to $845 billion dollars in 1997.

Hardest part about learning Maya • Is learning the shortcuts • If one knows the simple shortcuts to make simple projects in Maya, it will make their job much easier • Such as knowing the simple hand positioning for the 3 button mouse. • But the only way one would get familiar with this is if they worked with it everyday. • This is why Maya is better than other special effect software, because it has created techniques, which allow the developer to create projects faster than any other software.

Before Maya • It took nearly 2 years to create an animation. • The first animation ever created was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, it was created by Disney in 1937. • They created it by using film strips. • It took them 12 years to create. • Animation (Morphing).mov

In Closing • Since Maya has came out it has defiantly helped DreamWorks in creating movies at a faster pace, one more a year than what they used to be able to do. • Therefore, if they are making close to $300 billion per movie, then they are bringing that much more in a year than what they would have if it hadn’t been for Maya.

Questions?

Why has DreamWorks been so successful?