Production Pipeline

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Production Pipeline
The Production Pipeline is the way of organizing
the CG workflow so that at each stage during
production proceeds smoothly and passes data down
the pipeline efficiently. Technical directors
design the pipeline so that all of the
departments can work together without
bottlenecking at any one stage.
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Departments
Modeling sculpture, anatomy, figure
drawing Layout cinematography, language of
film, photography, videography Character Setup /
Rigging Sculpture, anatomy, animation, figure
drawing UV Mapping Materials / Texturing
drawing, painting, physics, computer
science Animation acting, drama, anatomy,
physics, figure drawing Effects physics,
engineering, computer science, math Lighting
Rendering computer science, photography,
physics, math Matte Painting traditional art,
painting, drawing, photography Compositing
painting, photography, color science, math,
drawing
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Pipeline
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Post Production

• Editorial
• Fixes Revisions
• Final Color Grading
• Audio
• Final Output

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Editorial

• As sequences become approved in animation and
  lighting, in progress shots are dropped into the
  final edit to act as place holders for the final
  renders. As this happens editors and the
  director can make editorial changes which could
  possible require doing retakes, deleting shots,
  or even adding completely new shots to the final
  edit.

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Fixes Revisions

• Final renders can reveal problems or situations
  that the director might not have intended to
  happen. Fixing the problems creates new tasks
  which get pushed back through the pipeline.
  Sometimes revisions can involve changes to
  particular assets which are present in many
  different shot throughout the timeline. This is
  when asset management assists the production
  pipeline in order to apply all the modifications
  to the relevant shots.

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Final Color Grading

• Once all of the shots have been composited and
  final renders are complete. The entire timeline
  can be color graded to correct subtle color
  inconsistencies that can occur during production.
  This process is generally done in a specialized
  color grading suite that makes use of high-end
  color correction software.