Animation workflow, pipeline, asset management & production control.

These two sites have a similar objective to this. They both have some interesting links LinuxMovies.org Advancing Linux Motion Picture Technology The Internet Movie Project "Our dream is to create a movie with the POV-Ray raytracer, as a collaborative effort of many people from all over the world"

A way to use PC remotely, for instance to launch and control renders through internet: LogMeIn I am trying the free version, and it works quite well, althought it is windows only, by now. Also, be sure to check the "Labs" tab for nice gifts, specially Hamachi , a "a zero-configuration virtual private networking (VPN) application. In other words Hamachi is a program that allows you to arrange multiple computers into their own secure network just as if they were connected by a physical network cable. "

Achim suggests to try out tactic , he "had a quick look at the demo, and it seems very well done." "A simpler production pipeline workflow" (...) "provides three separate software modules" to manage Production, Workflow and Assets

I will use this thread to add short links that I find interesting but not worth for a whole single article. - Animation workflow basics, from Don Bluth's Animation Academy: " 5 major steps the animated film must go through after the script is approved and before the original score and final sound effects are added" - Blue Sky Studios ´" showcase our departments and explore our pipeline process" - 2004 CGTalk thread : " Project workflow / pipeline - how is it all managed? " with some detailed answers

I just found this interview with "Darin Grant, Head of Production Technology at PDI DreamWorks" about "the proprietary software and production pipeline in use at PDI DreamWorks." It was recorded at Siggraph 2006

Mind The Gap, Inc. is an "Animation Pipeline Development and Consulting" company "providing cost-effective, customized animation pipeline solutions to CG studios". The Resources section has a couple of interesting articles, and they also develop fps , a "project management software that allows teams to track film assets as they move through the production pipeline."

I just stumbled upon this new sourceforge project, which I am adding to my to-check list. "Shepherd is an asset and project manager specifically created for the visual effect/Animation industry. Currently still under first construction, tools have been made for Autodesk Maya for integration in to the project which will eventually be usable to keep a track on version of files and stages of production. Shepherd is being written in python using pyqt to make it cross platform, though the primary development platform is currently Linux." I asked the project admin, Ashley Retallak , and he gave kindly me an update on the status of the project: "Shepherd is currently in planning really, though some Maya scripts UI designs have been made/started. I am working on it with help from some people that also work in London, trying to develop it in to a project that can easily be customized for use with any software (off the shelf or proprietary), using a module based architecture. It...

Some time ago I wrote about a "meet the artist" forum with Diego Garcia. This is a (poorly) translated resume of the parts of this meeting that I found more interesting. Diego Garcia Huerta Pipeline & Tools developer at Blur Studios Los Angeles. CA www.sloft.com Several jobs he has had: Department of programming and control of quality, Software Engineer, Tools Team, Tools Programmer, Pipeline & Tools Developer He works as a “tools and workflow developer” “designing and developing tools for pipeline”, “doing tools to make artists´life a bit easier, save production time, or achieve visual effects that would otherwise be too expensive to acomplish.” How do you decide the tools you need: Before a production is started, the script and animatic is revised in order to determine wether tools are going to be needed. Other areas where the tools are used are day to day recurring problems and pipeline development, that is, the Studio´s methodology for all works, careful planning...