Shotgun Software, developer of cloud-based production tracking, review & approval, and asset management tools for film, TV and games, delivered three major releases recently to help creative companies streamline processes and go faster. The company launched a mobile app that brings the power of Shotgun Review to the iPhone; Shotgun Desktop, a native app shelf that gives artists fast access to productivity tools; and integration with The Foundry’s MARI 3D paint software, which helps speed up the workflow for texture artists.
Shotgun Review for iPhone
With Shotgun’s first mobile app, supervisors can take their projects anywhere they go with a full set of tools to review and give their artists clear, visual feedback on work in progress. They’re able to stay connected without slowing down while they’re on set or on the run, and unblock artists for faster iteration. With the app supervisors can: Browse media and playlists in all projects, Play back movies, Annotate on one or more frames in the movie, Give feedback with notes and attach camera images or movies and See history on related versions and their notes.
VFX Supervisor Joshua Saeta, who recently worked on films that include Sin City 2 and Earth to Echo, has been beta testing Shotgun Review for iPhone. “Having Shotgun on my iPhone is a complete life saver,” he said. “I could be in the middle of a shoot in New Mexico and have the director take a quick look at a digital matte painting and get feedback right there on set, on the fly, and get it back to my artists. Having the flexibility to get basic feedback instantly on a device that everyone carries in their back pockets is invaluable.”
Shotgun Desktop
Shotgun Desktop is a simple, visual interface that gives artists fast access to key productivity tools directly from the menu bar. Artists can quickly launch tools like Maya, Nuke or Photoshop, pre-configured with integrated apps that help automate key tasks – like loading files created by other artists or publishing their work – without having to go back to a browser or remember naming conventions and directory structures. Any app that the studio chooses to make available can be accessed, whether it’s a third-party product, an in-house pipeline tool, or something from the growing list of apps that Shotgun is building and delivering.
Shotgun Desktop also makes developers’ jobs easier and more efficient, supplying a high-quality, productised app framework with a polished, artist-friendly UI that works across Linux, Mac and Windows. They can build Python apps quickly and deploy them right out to artists’ desktops.
Scott Ballard, Pipeline Supervisor at Encore Hollywood (which works on post and VFX for TV episodics including House of Cards, Under the Dome and Extant) has been working with an early version of Shotgun Desktop. He said, “This tool is going to save me a ton of time on the development side when we roll out pipelines for new shows; a lot of the initial setup and project configuration are nearly automatic. When our artists get their hands on it they’re going to love having an easy, consistent place to launch things. With the kind of timetables we face in TV work, anything that saves steps and gets us up and running faster is a huge help.”
MARI Integration
Shotgun has integrated The Foundry’s MARI 3D paint tool, including the full suite of Pipeline Toolkit apps. Now artists using MARI can work faster with the Shotgun loader, publisher and other apps, right inside the MARI interface, saving steps related to file management and connecting to other artists on the project. The integration also includes a Maya/MARI round-trip that connects modeling, textures, and lookdev.
Jack Greasley, MARI Product Manager at The Foundry said, “The Foundry and Shotgun share a strong commitment to improving the experience of all of our clients, and it’s great to be able to make processes more efficient for them by integrating the tools they use every day. With Shotgun’s native support for MARI we’re streamlining a process that’s very common for texture artists in film and commercial work by enabling them to snapshot and publish files directly from within MARI.”
Don Parker, Shotgun Co-Founder/Autodesk Sr. Director said, “We designed and built all three of these tools specifically to help artists and supervisors go faster. If we’re able to save each person another 10 to 20 minutes a day, they’re more focused and the combined impact across the studio can be massive.”