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DreamWorks Animation’s 2013 film Turbo was made with a broad HP production stack, from artist workstations and networking to render servers, storage, displays, and print services. A July 2013 production announcement reported 75 million render hours and said HP’s ProLiant Gen8 servers increased render throughput by about 40%—figures attributed to the announcement, not independent benchmarks.

What HP technology did DreamWorks use on Turbo?

In a July 24, 2013 report, Computer Graphics World described HP technology across several parts of DreamWorks Animation’s production workflow. The setup combined computing for artists, systems for moving and rendering work, infrastructure for storing production data, and tools supporting review and output.

Production role HP systems reported for Turbo
Artist workstations Z800 and Z820 workstations with Intel Sandy Bridge Xeon E5 processors; HP Remote Graphics Software supported remote access.
Networking and collaboration FlexNetwork supported collaboration among DreamWorks locations in Glendale, Redwood City, and Bangalore.
Rendering HP Enterprise Cloud Services and ProLiant Gen8 servers supplied rendering capacity.
Production storage and archiving 3PAR StoreServ storage supported production tools; StoreAll 9730 was used for archiving.
Other workflow infrastructure BladeSystem c7000, DreamColor displays, and HP Managed Print Services were also part of the reported stack.

These are historical systems and services described in 2013, not a present-day recommendation or a claim that the same configuration is suitable for current animation production.

What production figures did the 2013 announcement report?

The figures below come from the HP production announcement as reported by Computer Graphics World in 2013. They describe the production as presented by the companies; they are not independent measurements or benchmarks.

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  • 75 million render hours for the film.
  • 32 Indy 500 race cars depicted.
  • 32 million crowd-character instances used in the film.
  • 230 terabytes of files associated with production.
  • An average of 500,000 rendering jobs per day, according to the announcement.

The announcement also said ProLiant Gen8 servers delivered approximately 40% greater render throughput and approximately 42% higher performance per watt. Those are HP-reported comparisons; the published account does not establish them as independently validated results. Computer Graphics World’s report and HP’s distributed announcement are the sources for these claims.

How did DreamWorks describe HP’s role?

Derek Chan, identified at the time as DreamWorks Animation’s head of Technology Global Operations, framed the alliance as infrastructure that enabled the film’s production goals: “DreamWorks Animation’s strategic alliance with HP ensured that we had the high-performance computing, continuous availability and streamlined management capabilities needed to accurately depict Turbo’s dream of becoming the world’s fastest racer.” The statement appeared in Computer Graphics World’s 2013 coverage.

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Turbo - Blu-ray + DVD
  • Factory sealed DVD

That framing is broader than raw rendering speed: the reported stack also covered workstation access, collaboration between locations, storage, archiving, and workflow support. The announcement presents HP’s technology as production infrastructure; it does not suggest the hardware alone created the film’s animation or artistic choices.

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What is Turbo?

Turbo is a PG-rated animated comedy directed by David Soren and released July 17, 2013. 20th Century Studios’ official film page lists its runtime as 1 hour 35 minutes. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment lists 1 hour 36 minutes, so the official pages differ by one minute.

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Turbo [Blu-ray]
  • Factory sealed DVD

Universal’s home-entertainment page lists the film in digital, Blu-ray, and DVD formats. Availability can vary by retailer and region.

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