Ftrack <3 Pyblish = Webinars

Ben asked if we could push it to the 24th, does that work for you @tokejepsen and @mkolar?

Yep thatā€™s fine. Even better

25th?

25th works for me, @mkolar? Ben will be joining us soon shortly as well, Ben does that work for you?

The 25th is good with us

Works for me.

@marcus when did you want to do a run through?

Iā€™ll begin working out a structure this weekend, Iā€™ll try and ping you guys as well if you should happen to be around. Maybe we could even have a first draft out by the end of this week, and then perhaps do a run through by the following week, the 13th?

Could you guys let me know more about the scenes/footage youā€™ve got, when you might have it, and what we can do with it? Iā€™d imagine final footage to be a good opener, before diving into the software side of things. What do you think?

Sure, sounds good.

Got footage from Casualty, which can be shown now. Its straight forward compositing, no other elements like CG.

@benminall do you have any preference on graphics used during the webinar, or template slides and such? Such as the one in the API video?

Hereā€™s a rough cut of how to fill 30 minutes of content, expecting things to take longer than we think and some room for questions.

Have a glance, and let me know what you think.

  • What is this webinar about? (1 min)
  • Who am I? (2 mins)
  • What is ā€œpublishingā€? (3 mins)
  • What is (and isnā€™t) Pyblish? (3 mins)
  • Production examples with ftrack (10 mins)
    • Toke and Nuke
    • Milan and Maya
  • Q&A (5 mins)

Timeline

  ____________________________________________________________
 |      |             |          |                      |     |
 | Who? | Publishing? | Pyblish? | Production Examples  | Q&A |
 |______|_____________|__________|______________________|_____|
  
  0 min                                                30 mins



Who am I? (01:00)

Answering the question of the viewers ā€œWhy am I here and why should I stay?ā€

  • Animator at Meindbender in 2006
  • Creature FX TD at Framestore in 2011
  • Started Abstract Factory, a pipeline development company, in 2012
  • Developed Pyblish, the test-driven content creation framework for film and games.

What is publishing? (04:00)

Publishing answers the pipeline TDā€™s questionsā€¦

  • How do I get my artists to save in the proper place?
  • How do I get my artists to format their deliverables in a proper way?

Publishing answers an artistā€™s questionsā€¦

  • How do I format my files?
  • Where do I save my files?

Publishing originates from test-driven software development, an agile development practice designed to increase productivity, quality and enhance collaborative efforts.

   _________________________              _______________________________
  /                         \      |     /                               \
 | - Where do I save it?     |     |    | How do I get artists to..       |
 | - How do I format it?     |     |    |   - save in the proper place?   | 
  \___________________________\    |    /_  - format appropriately?       |
                                o  |  o   \______________________________/
                                /| | |\
                               / | | | \
            Artist                                      TD
          

Assembly Line Analogy

Talk about ā€œcontractsā€; the gate between you and downstream. I.e. validation.


    modeler      ____        rigger
                |\   \
       o        | \   \        o
      / \       ||\\   \      / \
 ____/___\_____ ||_\\   \ ___/___\_____
o\_____________\ \__|\___\\____________\
\o______________oo__||   | o___________o
                    ||   |
                    ||   |
                    \|___|

                  contract

Example A

A Simple Department-Level Workflow for Modeling

1  Receive art from production design
2  While not approved:
3      Create 3d geometry
4      Lay out UVs
5      Validate model
6      Mark model as ready for review
7      Show in review
8  Mark the art as "modeled" in the tracking database
9  Contact downstream deptarment(s) and deliver model

Example B

A Simple Departmental-Level Workflow for Rigging

1  Receive art from production design
2  Receive model from modeling department
3  While not approved:
4      Rig model
5      Produce workouts covering the range of motions
6      Validate rig
7      Mark the rig as ready for review
8      Show in review
9  Mark model as "rigged" in the tracking database
10 Contact downstream department(s) and deliver rig

What is Pyblish? (06:00)

Pyblish is a test-driven content creation framework for the production of film and games.

The process generally looks like this.

  1. Gather requirements
  2. Implement each requirement as a Python script

Pyblish caters to two primary audiences; you, the developer, and the artists. Developers are provided with a coherent, modular framework for developing shareable, loosely coupled Python snippets usable across departments, productions and studios.

Artists are provided with an intuitive graphical user interface with context and task sensitive information about the work they do and how to resolve potential issues.

         ______________
        |              |
        |    Artist    |------------> GUI
        |______________|
       _________^_________
      |                   |
      |        TD         |---------> Snippets (Python)
      |___________________|
     ___________^___________
    |                       |
    |        Pyblish        |-------> Framework
    |_______________________|
# Tree of Configuration

                  o
                 /
                /
           o---o---o
          /         \
         o---o       \   o
------o               \ /
         o---o     o---o
          \       /     \
           \     /       o
            o---o
             \   \
              \   o
               o  

Close with where to find examples, tutorials and community etc.


Production Examples (09:00)

Here is where you guys take over @mkolar and @tokejepsen.

Could you have a think what to include and how to lay it out? About ~5 mins each.

5 min will go fast:) Iā€™m still thinking of showing what I previously outlined;

  • Launching of tasks from Ftrack.
  • Hiero publishing/workflow.
  • How things get updated in Ftrack with Pyblish.
  • Nuke publishing/workflow.
  • How things get updated in Ftrack with Pyblish.

Think showing this should just be ā€œThis is what you could potentially end up with.ā€. The pipeline is under constant development, and Iā€™d imagine @mkolar and I pipeline will look quite different. So no technical explanations, just a run through of what the artists everyday looks like. We could save the tech for the Q&A, or another webinar:)

Yes would like to use the same stye as the API webinar, I will provide on Monday.

Excellent.

Iā€™ve had a look at gotomeeting (the service you suggested we use), but I havenā€™t been able to figure out whether they provide a mechanism for the slides, or whether we simply go with desktop recording where the desktop has the slides up.

Could you go through the workflow briefly?

We have always used screen recording and inserted still images. I have shared a google doc with copy of the slides we used for a previous webinar.

Perfect, thanks Ben!

Do you have a title and a couple of lines? So we can push on social media

Before you post anything official, Iā€™d like to hear opinions on the below.

Introduction to Pyblish

Weā€™ll talk about the idea of ā€œpublishingā€ from scratch - what it means and how to use it effectively. Weā€™ll introduce Pyblish, a framework for rapid integration of publishing into production pipelines and give you a few examples of how it is being used today.

More information about Pyblish can be found here.

Wont post anything until we have consensus, would like to work ftrack in there somehow

Iā€™m open to suggestions, feel free to edit and post!