For this film we decided to completely change our pipeline and create
something that would work for artists. We wanted to leave the artists to focus
solely on crafting the best artwork they could, and we would leave all the
complicated heavy lifting to our tools. We implemented an ‘always rendering’
ideology, which means that at any point in the pipeline, we would be able to
“build” a shot/asset and send it to the render farm and view what it will look
like at render time.
In order for our ideas to work, we needed a database. Autodesk’s Shotgrid is a
database with a front-end application that people can access anywhere
around the world and suited our needs very well – especially as we moved to
become a mostly remote studio
We are currently using Shotgrid as the core of our pipeline. Every shot has
assigned characters/props/sets that our tools read and build with. With this
mentality, production can add or remove assets, change shot lengths, and
shading variants that will automatically reflect in the artist’s scenes.
Our automatic rendering uploads the latest versions automatically to Shotgrid
allowing the directors to view increments and variations on the fly, or even
render versions to check how current versions are working within the scene.
Using this method does require every user to have a Shotgrid license, but the
time artists are saving on recaches/rerenders and shot fixes more than makes
up the shortfall of the cost to the business.
Looking back on this project, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs as we tried to
break new ground on our pipeline. We’ve had a lot of different iterations,
concepts and theories as we worked toward our goal. I personally am very
proud of what we’ve achieved in our new pipeline. Without Shotgrid and its
functionality I don’t think we would have been able to achieve it.