Unless you are a chipmaker, you probably don’t know ASML. Building on extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, they make compact chips that seem to defy physics, or at least, this layman’s understanding of what is possible.
“Yet in 2017, after an investment of $6.5 billion in R&D over 17 years, ASML’s bet began to pay off. That year, the company shipped 10 of its EUV machines, which cost over $100 million each, and announced that dozens more were on backorder.” (MIT Technology Review)
Now, they have gone beyond that, shipping a $380 million next-generation EUV device, a high-NA machine, to Intel. This latest innovation is motivated by the explosion of AI’s demand for intense computing capacity.
They have produced a brand film, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, using AI and computer-generated imagery (CGI) that is a full-speed cyclone compared to the gentle breeze of Powers of Ten™ from Charles and Ray Eames (1977). A continuously moving POV drives us into and out of chipworld to the real world and backwards and forwards in time. The digital video uses the technology the company makes possible and in a style that smacks of future-facing fantasy versus mimicking reality.
Hats off to Thomas Marzano, Head of Brand and Digital at ASML, a 24-year veteran of Philips, and his team. Here's how they describe the creation of the film:
“The company created the film by using a combination of leading generative AIs throughout the production process, such as Midjourney, Runway, and Stable Diffusion…The film was made with 1,963 natural language prompts that yielded 7,852 images, which were edited and then rendered by more than 900 computers. These renders were then processed with various generative AI techniques with the total film covering 25,957 frames at 1,000 MB per frame. The trickiest scene was Isaac Newton and his apple among the planets. It took the team more than 20 attempts to get Newton’s scene right, producing more than 9,800 frames.”
Creativity-meets-technology. Pushing the envelope of what is next. I am a sucker for a good brand film.
Enjoy.
