The hero of Kung Fu Panda , destined to be a hit movie this summer, may have the voice of actor Jack Black. But the appearance of Po the panda and his co-stars is the work of 2,200 computer systems.

DreamWorks Animation SKG's compute farm handles most of the heavy lifting involved in creating an animated movie. The computers become the studio lot, the sets, the sound stages and the lighting cameras, and even the preview screens used by the director to decide on the final cut.