Shotgun Software today announced the winners of the third annual Pipeline Awards at SIGGRAPH in Anaheim. The Pipeline Awards recognise tools and individuals who exhibit excellence in pipeline tool development and are pushing the industry forward by making tedious processes better and faster for studios of all sizes.
Mammal Studios, Pipeline technical director, Janice Collier was honoured with this year’s Hero Award for her outstanding contribution not only to Mammal where she has helped create a pipeline for the 15-person company on par with international facilities 10 times their size, but also for her contribution to the ongoing development of Shotgun’s Toolkit by providing valuable feedback over the years.
Shotty Awards were also given to the top pipeline tools of the year, and were awarded to: Allan Johns for the development of Rez, an open source environment and package management solution, Blur Studio for Blur Dev Tools, open source software providing tools for pipeline development, including Python integration for Autodesk 3ds Max which is used by studios around the world, Burrows Dropper Ganger Tool developed by Burrows CGI Studio which enables artists to drag assets from within Shotgun in the browser and open them within other applications including Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max and Rhino, and to Brown Bag Films for their Shotgun Task Triggering Workflow, which helps the studio track the steps required to move tasks along in their asset build pipeline, from artist to artist or project to project.
Brown Bag Films is known for its rich heritage in 3D animation and content, which includes producing four of the top ten pre-school TV shows in the US and entertaining 100 million kids across the globe. A subsidiary of Toronto based 9 Story Media Group, Brown Bag Films employ almost 200 creative and production staff in its headquarters in Dublin, a studio in Manchester and an office in Los Angeles, and is known for producing hit animated children’s series including Octonauts, Doc McStuffins, Bing and Henry Hugglemonster.
Brown Bag Films, VP of Technology and Innovation, Louise Nicholls said, “This is a great achievement for the entire Technology team at Brown Bag Films. We strive to merge the best in creative with the best in technology, and have created some of the most adaptive and innovative animation pipelines in the world. As part of our integration efforts with 9 Story Media Group, we are currently in the process of rolling out these best in class tools across our 2D studios in Manchester and Toronto as well.”
“Brown Bag Films identified a need to invest in our pipeline and software development team to enhance the studios’ capabilities to deliver high quality 3D and 2D productions in a competitive industry,” said Brown Bag Films, head of Pipeline R&D, Darren Hyland. “Due to the nature of Pipeline Engineering, a lot of the work done by the team occurs in the background of a production.”
Autodesk senior director and Shotgun co-founder, Don Parker said, “We’re in year three of the Pipeline Awards and we continue to be blown away by the ingenuity of the pipeline community. At events like SIGGRAPH, we often focus on the visual effects and animation seen on screen, so we love having the opportunity to shine a light on the technologists and tool builders behind the scenes, laying the foundation that allows creative teams to work collaboratively to make these incredible visuals.”