Animation workflow, pipeline, asset management & production control.

Make sure you don´t miss Diego´s comment under this old article about foldershare , he points to this multiplatform substitute which offers a richer number of features.

On November 2007, Eskil kindly answered my generic request for information on the subject of this blog, but then I simply forgot until today, when I found the emails I exchanged with him. I can only recommend you to have a look at it. I think the implications are immense. He mentioned Verse , "a network protocol for 3d graphics". This might sound a bit abstract, but if you dig a little deeper, you get to the fascinating part, for instance, this introduction comes from his own site, Quelsolaar : "Verse is a network standard that a allows graphics applications to share data in real-time . It means that two or more independent applications can share the same data. If you make a change in one you immediately see the change in the other . It is a free and open source system that can be integrated in to any graphics application to allow them to share data. You can collaborate with other users over the Internet , use it for content pipe-lining, games, VR, simulation and much m...

I was checking this interesting Research on visual effects production databases by Jan Heinze, commenting on Showrunner, shotrunner, Missing Link & Mathilda, and stumbled upon another software in the comments section: Cinesoft´s Cerebro ("a complete visual project management solution") and Duma ("a sophisticated render farm management system"). Later, Konstantin, from cinesoft, left a comment with a link to his even more complete listing . In his site you can also see two other lists: - Remote review and approval tools - Multiplatform Render Management Software Thanks Konstantin!

Next Monday, December 8, 2008, at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern you can attend a a free webinar (by StudioDaily.com and sponsored by Autodesk): Learn how to build and use a hyper-efficient animation pipeline with the team from Reel FX Creative Studios. They'll talk about working on Open Season 2 and other projects using their proprietary people and pipeline management tool, Insight, with an emphasis on the use of Autodesk products. This webinar will cover: • Creating character animation, movement and style using modular rigging systems • Moving back and forth between 2D and 3D environments • Render layer configuration and other challenges of VFX planning and execution • Smart media-management on Hollywood studio-sized projects • Executing feature length projects in a short time frame You can register in this link .

Jim Callahan kindly sent me an invitation to attend their "Birds of Feather" session at SIGGRAH 2008 next Tuesday. I won´t be attending SIGGRAPH this year, but I thought it´d be interesting for the people who visit this blog. Temerity Pipeline User Group Tuesday 12 August Los Angeles Convention Center Room 307 2 - 5pm "This year we will start by giving a brief overview of the core ideas behind Temerity Pipeline and its major features for those who have not been exposed to the software before. Then we'll talk in more detail about some of the more interesting new features introduced since last year's SIGGRAPH. Finally, we'll wrap up by talking about some important new features we plan to introduce in the next 6-12 months. These BOF tend to be pretty informal and we encourage both questions and general discussion from the audience throughout the meeting. Attendees will likely be a mixture long time Pipeline users, people from studios interested in Pipeline a...

I just found out about this LinkedIn Group: (From their web:) "This group was created mainly as an attempt to keep and promote the contact between spanish tools and pipeline developers ( CG productions ). There are a lot of us scattered all over the world, but unfortunately there is no easy way to connect. If your goal is to make artist's life easier, or you are always the one keeping order between departments, or simply are involved in the creation of tools for a CG production, join us at LinkedIn , you are more than welcome."

As announced in Highend3D , a new version of openPipeline "an open source framework for managing animation production data and workflow" implemented as a "MEL-based plug-in for Autodesk Maya" has been released. OpenPipeline "handles specific aspects of production: automatic directory structures, file naming conventions, revision control, and modularity that makes multi-artist workflows possible."