Archive translation. Specifications, services and availability reflect the original publication date in 2022. Verify current compatibility before production use.
In brief: In October 2021, the Visual Effects Society Technology Committee and VFX Reference Platform Working Group surveyed the platforms and software used across VFX and animation production.
Survey scale: Nick Cannon, CTO at Walt Disney Animation Studios and co-lead of the VFX Reference Platform, said 88 studios participated, representing roughly 60,000 artists and workstations. The committee intended the results to support sustainable infrastructure, future innovation and artists’ work.
Key findings:
- Linux was the preferred operating system, and studios expected its workstation share to increase.
- Linux had become less important to some software vendors as growth occurred in other customer segments.
- CentOS held the largest share of Linux VFX workstations, but CentOS Linux was due to reach end of life.
- Many affected studios had not selected a replacement distribution and intended to decide before the end of 2022.
- Further Linux-distribution fragmentation was expected.
- Security remained important, especially in mixed-operating-system studios.
- Studios wanted better Adobe After Effects and Creative Cloud support on Linux, plus real-time support for NVIDIA and Unreal Engine.
- Future software-distribution models remained unsettled.
- The committee recommended CentOS Linux 7.9 as a transitional step while seeking a longer-term solution.
Full report: The complete material was available from the Visual Effects Society, with additional analysis from FXGuide. Platform decisions should be validated against current vendor support and security requirements.
