Utilizing technology to give your studio cutting edge in globally competitive environment

Anand Gurnani, Co Founder, CEO & Managing Editor, AnimationXpress.com, Prashant Buyyala Managing Director & Head of International OperationsR&H Los Angeles, Sten Selander, Business Development Director Nordic Game Program, Mike Blum Owner Pipsqueak Films and Matt Dewees, Application Engineer, M&E, Autodesk

The technology Panel at Kre8tif 2010 offered different perspectives on the ever so dynamic and evolving requirements of the CGI space. Moderated by AnimationXpress' Anand Gurnani, the session was paneled by Prashant Buyyala, Managing Director, Rhythm & Hues Malaysia, Sten Selander, Nordic Games Program Malmo, Mike Blum from Pipsqueak Films and Matt Dewees, Application Engineer, M&E, Autodesk.

R&H's Prashant Buyyala shared the technology practices that R&H has adopted to achieve seamless multi-locational workflow. Earlier when it came to Data Transfer after R&H's first international office was established in Mumbai, the network was point to point network but with the coming up of Hyderabad office and then KL it didn't make sense to have LA as the center, they felt every office should be able to access all the other setups.

R&H's geographically agnostic approach which allows all the facilities to work on the same shot in different capacities has led to the overall development of all setups. Distribution of work across four facilities equally makes sure that all facilities are doing equal level of work and none of them are being treated as backend offices.

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Talking about the challenges one faces in maintaining such a robust pipeline Prashant shares that the biggest task is evolving the production pipeline with every project. "There is no such thing as a correct pipeline, one should keep refining and making it more and more robust with every project." He adds.

With fours offices in three different time zones, R&H has developed specialized tools for Video conferencing, production tracking and synchronized playback to make the most of it. He adds, "Lot of it is not about spending money but coming up with solutions that make sense for your studio. We even today use graphic cards that cost us USD 60 because they are enough for our requirements."

Sten Selander, Nordic Games Program, Malmo gave technology insights from Game Production perspective. He shares that game making today is quite a different thing as one has to keep a tab on the new elements of the gaming space like Pad/ Touch, 3D screen, 5 screen in a cloud, Emergent AI, P2P distribution Network and so on. And with all this, you end up with pretty complex model for production of games. Games today are digitally distributed, updatable service, socialware, on the web or in the phone, Says Sten.

He shares, today there are many tools available in the market from which one can pick and choose the one's that suit your requirement and resources

For Eg

Brews to make good sauce like i- Unity, ShiVa 3D,

Management tools like Hansoft, Perforce

Optimizing Tools like Simplygon 3 Autodesk beast

Distribution Platforms like Overactive media, Localize Direct, SugarCRM (Commercial Open Source)

"As a small studio, you want to be disruptive, and make technology combinations that work best for you. And one needs to be in sync with the latest technology available. Because you are only as good as your network," Concluded Sten

Mike Blum from Pipsqueak Films touched on the Buy vs Build debate. Being an Ex Disney Technical Supervisor he shared that for Disney the objective is to be in the visual forefront with its legacy of 2D animation/ animators but for smaller studios it is about what gives them their market advantage. It is important to have 3rd party product awareness and know what others are using before buying/ upgrading. One need to be in loop with the ever increasing market maturity and understand that many a times more can be done with less

Buying third party software off the shelf is a better option than developing one from scratch most of the times. But when it comes to things that are being done for the first time, buying is not an option. Taking example of Disney's recent release Tangled Mike says, "The film asked for 70 feet long shiny hair, now nobody is going to have that technology developed for you. We at Disney worked for nearly eight years to build this technology."

He stressed that managing data flow through departments, one needs to Maximize iterations, prevent breaking elements/shots, be able to track data and the system shouldn't be simply push vs Pull. Data flow is highly idiosyncratic and every studio needs its own rules/software for their needs.

On a last note he added that its all about your team, "People make great films, technology just supports them."

Matt Dewees, Application Engineer, M&E, Autodesk shared the dynamic technology needs of the rapidly evolving CGI space where things start from being Impossible and go to being Impractical -possible- expected and then ultimately being required.

He shares that Autodesk as a market leader in the CG Software space strives to better the feature film pipeline and attain Pipeline efficiency with file formats and tools that talk to each other. New pipeline would make use of all the new technologies and get more work in lesser clicks.

"It begins with knowledge before technology, when you are going out as a small studio, you want to get the best that suits your needs and budgets."