Case study
Delivering 10K VFX Shots at Warp Speed
Studio: Encore
Projects: The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, SEAL Team
Digital Effects Supervisor: Andranik Taranyan
Director of Pipeline: Chris Reid
VFX shots: 10,000
Assets: 1,000+
Timeline: 2017-2018 TV season
daily users
turnaround time
The talented artists at Encore in Burbank, California create VFX for episodic projects that range from subtle touches for heightened realism to otherworldly supervillains. Part of the Deluxe family, the studio has steadily grown its roster of shows and currently handles VFX for The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and SEAL Team among others. Over the last three years, Encore’s Burbank studio has doubled its VFX shot output and was set to deliver up to 10,000 VFX shots across shows for the 2017-2018 TV season, a feat facilitated by automation and pipeline efficiencies with ShotGrid.
The challenge
With a short timeline and multiple television shows to juggle during the season, the visual effects team at Encore needed to find a way to boost its shot capacity and overall volume of work. The team also wanted to eliminate the data errors that could be introduced when artists would manually have to enter file names.
Encore’s Digital Effects Supervisor Andranik Taranyan approached the pipeline process from an artist’s perspective and continues to shape the studio’s workflow. He explained, “I know first hand which tasks are taking too long and where we can improve our efficiencies. How things come together with ShotGrid definitely plays a big role in how fast shots are reviewed and how many shots come in and out of this facility. But we didn’t get to this point overnight and that gave us time to really think about how we were going to accomplish everything. With ShotGrid, you can track anywhere from 20 shots or, as we’re tracking now, thousands of shots.”
“Anytime a human inputs data, it introduces a level of error or uncertainty,” added Encore’s Director of Pipeline Chris Reid. “A simple typo like a hyphen instead of an underscore, or a misspelling is far too easy. If you can automate data input and eliminate discrepancies by standardizing different types of data to one convention, your pipeline will quickly become more efficient. Once a facility implements these concepts not just to their artists, but to IO, producers, coordinators and developers to improve every vein of their workflow, their pipeline will reach its optimal efficiency from start to finish.”
“Anytime a human inputs data, it introduces a level of error or uncertainty,” added Encore’s Director of Pipeline Chris Reid. “A simple typo like a hyphen instead of an underscore, or a misspelling is far too easy. If you can automate data input and eliminate discrepancies by standardizing different types of data to one convention, your pipeline will quickly become more efficient. Once a facility implements these concepts not just to their artists, but to IO, producers, coordinators and developers to improve every vein of their workflow, their pipeline will reach its optimal efficiency from start to finish.”
The solution
The main content creation tools in Encore’s workflow include Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya, and Foundry’s Nuke. Everything from assets to shots are tracked through ShotGrid. Artists also rely heavily on Encomp, a proprietary tool built into Nuke to tie into ShotGrid to allow for reduced file system interaction from a compositing standpoint, and better manage assets for shots. When artists have Nuke open using Encomp, any relevant data such as the latest references, plates, 3D elements, or camera track, appears in front of them pulled from ShotGrid directly into Nuke.
Rather than assign artists to specific shows, Encore taps all its artists for work across shows, allowing them to work on a range of projects. “Artists float according to specialty,” said Taranyan. “We like everyone to have a general understanding of all shows so that we can shift talent around based on need. From a pipeline perspective, ShotGrid helps us stay organized and lets us work in this manner. Before we had our current system in place, it was like the Wild West where every show producer/coordinator would organize things their own way.”
In addition to sharing artists, Encore uses assets across certain shows. Approximately 1,000 different assets, including characters, vehicles, and props are being tracked in ShotGrid. They can be tracked to a specific show, but artists often use them for multiple shows, making adjustments as the creative requires. Any time an asset adjustment is made, it’s tracked in ShotGrid. Having assets organized and centralized is particularly helpful for crossover episodes, which regularly pop up each season.
“Any information, whether internal or from the client, gets ingested into the pipeline, because at any point a tool we've written around ShotGrid is using that information. Our dev team takes care of the backend so artists can focus on staying on task instead of on the technical issues that come with managing a high volume of shots.”
The features
With Encore’s efficiencies, shots are sometimes turned around within an hour—a process that includes clients receiving an EDL, IO pulling down files, the artists doing what’s needed, and publishing to ShotGrid. Some shots require weeks of development, but having ShotGrid with all that information readily available gives artists an advanced starting point.
Taranyan concluded:
With ShotGrid, our production team can track and present all relevant information without having to really understand what goes on in the backend. An efficient pipeline lets artists be artists!
“Most studios share a very common workflow defined by standardized needs and timelines of production,” said Reid. “80-90% of the workflows are driven by the nature of the industry, it is that magic 10%-20% that defines your pipeline and your effectiveness. Tools like ShotGrid seamlessly blend those standards while also allowing you the freedom to work your magic, thus giving you ‘your’ edge.”