WORKING IN THE CLOUD
VFX
remote control
idea and the solution became scarce. “We built our own systems,”
says Matt Hooker R&D and pipeline department manager, Axis Studios. “An installer package set up all the software on a machine and file transfer protocols meant artists could take the files and animate exactly as they were in the studio with all of the packages that we’ve got, then the system would sync it back into the studio. We had another system that would in-gest it back into the pipeline, process it and get everything prepared for the next department to pick up the work. “I don’t think anyone in Axis
would have ever believed that we could turn the entire studio remote in one or two weeks, as we had to when the pandemic hit,” he adds. Axis was able to acquire a stock
of the Teradici PCoIP software client this year and is now rolling it out across the studio group. “That has made a huge impact on the artists, being able to view real-time, better quality pictures with less lag,” says Axis Studios managing director, Nerys Davies. “We’ve got 70% on Teradici, we’re rolling it out constantly. We had to upgrade our graphics cards to make sure that they’re compatible.” “They can control their work
session in the studio remotely and securely as well,” says Hooker. “Teradici can be tuned to give an animator really fast response times especially if they’re doing detailed facial work, while a VFX supervisor or compositing supervisor might be much more interested in the colour and the picture accuracy. So you can calibrate a preset amount for different disciplines, which gives you a lot of control.”
All around the world Since the beginning of lockdown, Axis has doubled in size, with over 450 artists working remotely across its VFX and animation studios, and has completed 23 projects in 2020. Remote working has levelled the playing field, geographically speaking. “If we’ve needed specific people or specialisms and to scale up we’ve looked across the board,” says Davies. “The scheduling systems have been updated. We can look at which specialism is currently under-utilised in Glasgow or in Bristol and where can we as a group benefit. It’s been really good for the resourcing of teams.” Milk VFX has also firmly embraced
the remote approach. “We are working within our hardware baseline capacity, remotely from home, currently with the ability to spin up virtual machines as required in the cloud,” says CEO and executive producer, Will Cohen. “The upsides are managing your own time, being able to spend more time
with family. There’s a greater level of flexibility and no commute time, as well as fewer distractions and inevitably more focus in most cases. “The pitfalls of remote working
include colour space issues and security, as well as loneliness and mental wellbeing,” he adds. “Milk is planning a hybrid return to the studio meaning remote work will be part of everyday life.” Jellyfish was already using a hybrid
approach when it comes to working remotely, but when hiring talent further afield had to look at other solutions “We moved all our on-premise
infrastructure to a data centre outside of London at the end of 2019, so there really wasn’t a change in how we worked when the pandemic hit,” says CTO Jeremy Smith.“We were looking to resource a specific project, which was only lasting a finite amount of time. We can pop up cloud hubs in the region our artists are working, which connects back to the ‘home hub’
Summer 2021
televisual.com 89 The Mill SMART ENERGY
‘ EINSTEIN KNOWS BEST’
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116
