Animation workflow, pipeline, asset management & production control.

Juan Carlos sent me this link: "Scott Squires, a heavy weight in VFX and cinema industry (programmer of the old "Commotion" among other things) has a blog on tricks and other things of the industry . He also has a podcast. He just added an entry on "Naming Conventions & Workflow" Thanks for the hint, JC!

FolderShare is a great help for group work, it keeps a selected folder synchronized among a group of computers (Windows and Mac) connected through internet. (From their web): "FolderShare TM allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. (...) FolderShare allows you to share and sync important information instantly with anyone you invite(...) Share files up to 2 GB in size Unlimited file transfers - no limits on quantity or size of files transferred Any file type - files are synced and transferred in their original format" Best of all, it is free, at least by now (it seems to have been aquired by Microsoft).

You might be interested in this site: (from their web) "With wikiCG , we are trying to build a Computer Graphics encyclopedia, where you will be able to find in one place anything related to the Computer Graphic community. You can see a list of all the pages that are inside wikiCG. " Of course I found the Production Management Software article specially interesting. P.S. It seems the website is off at this moment. Any one has any news?

Jim, from Temerity Software. wrote: "I bumped into your blog and thought I should tell you about Temerity Pipeline if you didn't already know about it. I think you'll find it interesting as it provides solutions for some of the most difficult issues faced by both VFX and game productions..." The software seems quite interesting, as for instance (from their web) "The tight integration of Temerity Pipeline's asset management, revision control and distributed execution queue overcomes the inherent limitations of ad hoc combinations of existing software from multiple vendors and provides new functionality unavailable in separate components." Thanks, Jim

I am currently doing an academic research on the subject of "Animation Workflow & Pipeline" along history, from the first Reynaud films. My interest is to research on how has the animation production process evolved, rather than focusing on the films. Specifically, my interest is: - How was production organized in the early years of the industry: How big were the teams, and what were the tasks, and how was production planned, controlled, etc. - How did the process evolve, and on what premises (supposedly trying to be more efficient) - A very relevant point for my investigation is to find out how "permeable" were the studios with their know-how, not so much in relation to the technical processes, but rather on the organizative and production ones. In other words: Did the studios consider that they had devised a unique form of work that they needed to keep secret to give them a competitive advantage? (This seems to be the case today in many aspects of ...

These are some interesting things I have found in the book Producing Animation . Producer´s Reference: Animation Industry Directory www.animag.com www.mpsc839.org www.hollyvision.com www.producers.masterguide.com Books that seem relevant for my research (with amazon link): 3D Lighting: History, Concepts & Technique Arnold Gallardo The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking--From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3- D Animation by Kit Laybourne and John Canemaker Animation Magic by Don Hahn Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by Russell Merritt , J. B. Kaufman Of Mice and Magic by Leonard Maltin Animated Cartoons by Edwin George Lutz * A Reader in Animation Studies by Jayne Pilling , Society of Animation Studies Before Mickey by Donald Crafton American Animated Films : The Silent Era, 1897-1929 by Denis Gifford The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Ollie Johnston , Frank Thomas British Animated Films, 1895-1985: A Fil...

This is a (83 minutes long) video of Team Orange conference talking about the making of Elephants Dream . (From their web): "In it we mention a few things, including our version of what the story is about, and also some of the easter eggs and tributes that we hid inside, so if you’re interested, go and check it out!" This is a very brief resume, as I go along it: 2:00 It was setup up with an unexperienced six persons team in some sleepless 7 months. They spent 1 week to set up a teaser, and then 2 or 3 months to set up everything. 15:30 Crappymatic - from the first script 17:00 2nd animatic, more organized 18:00 Remove 90% of the dialogs and 30% of the scenes and start final animatic: unfinished but very similar to the final movie 33:19 rendering in OpenEXR and jpg to avoid huge file transfers 34:40 Scene and render file transfer between Amsterdam animation studio and USA render farm was done using rsync , over a ADSL line! (rsync seems quite UNIX-centric, maybe unison is be...