Hows the pipline in general HK studio?

[HammerChugoh]

very interesting. basically I cannot tell and make comment without knowing at least the rough description of their pipeline(but seems so many people here are so familar with them already). I wish someone can share which part or which step of their production are done by script and what type of in house tools they are runnning rite now. just some rough ideas will be cool enough.

[Wolf]

Wolf 兄, 可唔可以講下你嘅心得呢? 等我地知多Ｄ都好丫

噢，我唔敢話有乜心得，仲努力研究/學習/試驗緊。之前做過啲job我嘗試過起一啲mini pipeline，將shot asset拆散嚟處理，叫同事每人只take care其中某一忽。呢一忽可以系好細嘅野，比如只model一只飛船零件，每個人都唔知最後個shot會系點嘅樣，要靠shell script整合啲asset先有shot睇 (animator從來冇見個final shot)。呢個其實系響ObjectOrientedProgramming裡面已經有咗多時嘅encapsulation概念，的確能夠大大提高生產力同shot質素。我系覺得香港多數啲公司制作流程好散，啲制作環節參雜太多個別animator同supervisor甚至老板嘅個人decision。大家都知CG同實拍電影唔同，creatives只能夠局限於preproduction階段，一到production就要好機械化咁去執行，個過程環節encapsulate得越細，就對大家（由制片人至到細蚊animator）越好。

I wish someone can share which part or which step of their production are done by script and what type of in house tools they are runnning rite now

As far as I know. Shell scripts are very rarely used, and never in any big way here. Local companies also rarely write inhouse tools. And there's a terrible shortage of technically savvy artists ie. TDs. The dumb insistence on "Art" to the total exclusion of technical training in HK schools is not helping the situation. So, there's a huge near-virgin market here (including greater China) for this kind of service Learn Mandarin, man, you'll need it later. Trust me.

[stantang]

I can't totally agree with Wolf's statment on "Object Oriented Programming". I believe it does raise the productivity, but it might actually hurt the quaility of the outcome. I had worked for a company which based in another city but they have a branch in where I lived. It's not a monster studio but with around 100 people all working on the same project. Pretty much all the artist/TDs had the script of the project, all the breakdowns of elements and naming convention, etc. All the concept arts, character design, references and animatics were available on the server as well. There's also a revise section on the server so that artist can upload the stuff they did by the end of the day so that each department head can oversee the process.

To me, it's a big plus so that everyone can be on the same page and can visualize a boarder picture than just the tiny piece one is working on. Let say, a modeler was told to model "CS_Scene13_HZ_E11", at least he knows what the director is looking for and what this piece of model will do in the shot. It's always better to get it right at the 1st time (at least try to).

[Wolf]

關於naming convention，仲有一個“清道夫”嘅概念，遲啲講，依家要返工。

[HapZungLam]

我個人就不大喜歡pipeline呢個term... pipeline系一種好rigid既野。正如Wolf兄所講，"此渠非彼渠"。每間公司既結構，人數，發展方向都不同，要去比較誰pipeline最完善實在有點不合理。可況同一個pipeline亦不可能應付不同既project。所以我自己就會用workflow呢個字。我諗香港有d公司就系欠缺workflow planning，所以無法善用時間同人才。

唔知大家意見如何?

But basically working as a part of company is rigit. you are not an artist anymore (unless you are the designer), you are part of the production technician. Good pipeline will result a better workflow. Sometimes I do feel that because of the pipeline, some of the workflow will be delay. But that's how it works on most of the company. Last project that i was working on. Some of my work has been locked up and can't go further because part of the process wasn't ready. I've to wait for weeks for a person or a team to confirm inorder to continue. It sucks, but that's the way it is.

Noone (as a small potato) will dare to make their own decision because if something screwed up, you'll take it.