CHALLENGE: Managing complex, distributed VFX workflows, Baked’s existing on-prem infrastructure provided instant connectivity to media—but that stopped at the front door. With many artists working remotely, coordinating projects between these various locations further complicated operations, as did ensuring consistent access to critical configuration files. Without Suite’s cloud storage, Baked lacked a unified storage solution for every employee, meaning that data management and synchronization became labor-intensive and prone to errors.

WHY SUITE? Baked Studios chooses Suite's cloud storage for its seamless integration into its existing infrastructure. Suite's ability to function like a shared storage drive, connected on-prem and in the cloud, provides the flexibility Baked needs to support remote work without sacrificing performance or accessibility. This gets Baked’s VFX professionals back into the comp quicker, while with robust features like Suite Connect and Time Machine, the team has the ability to upload or revert media quickly and efficiently. Suite's reliable support and compatibility, with industry-standard platforms like Autodesk Flow Production Tracking (previously ShotGrid) streamline complex processes & enable Baked Studios’ team of artists to work with less friction.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• 25+ Collaborators
• Offices in New York, Montana, Los Angeles & Atlanta

“Suite has been widely embraced, and that says a lot. For our team to see the benefits, see the efficiency… that’s music to a business owner’s ears.”

— George Loucas, Founder & VFX Supervisor, Baked Studios

Invisible Effects: How Baked found its niche

Visual effects workflows are some of the most complicated in the media industry. From the technically demanding nature of digital artistry to the ever-changing assortment of next-gen applications, plug-ins, and creative tools that VFX teams utilize to accomplish the job, there are more layers than meets the eye when examining how VFX teams produce their magic.

Sometimes the general public won’t even notice the final work—it’ll just blend into everything else on-screen. Purposefully. That’s the work on which Baked Studios has earned its stripes.

“Invisible effects are having their day right now,” explains Cameron Target, VFX pipeline manager at the boutique studio with offices in New York City, Montana, Los Angeles, and soon Atlanta. “That’s our bread-and-butter. We work on high-profile productions, but the actual scope of our work isn’t front and center like, say, character animation. We worked on Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire, but [our team] handled a lot of background stuff, things like set-extensions and blue-screen replacements. All the stuff in the background you don’t even notice… that's where we come in. That's where we've made a name for ourselves.”

For the most successful VFX artists, turning raw plates into masterpieces means paying attention to every detail, in every frame. “It’s a technical craft on an individual level,” notes Cameron. “When you zoom out on a big production, that complexity expands to 30, 40, 50 people—sometimes hundreds—depending on the project. Having a way to link all these different people & workflows, creating a shared sense of direction, a set of best practices, and being able to effectively distribute data and information… that's vitally important."

Flow Production Tracking & Suite: On the cloud

In the VFX environment, Flow Production Tracking is often the primary tracking platform for teams, noted for its reliability & stability in variable circumstances. Flow’s Pipeline Toolkit offers numerous features that help unify information within the database, allowing teams to easily pull shot names, descriptions, metadata & other notes, and easily integrate those details directly into a specific type of workflow. The initial challenge at Baked was to take its well-oiled on-prem workflow in Flow & connect it to the cloud for real-time remote collaboration.

“I’ve taken the lead on this part of the process,” says Cameron. “Flow just needs a central storage location; it asks you to point to a mounted drive, any disk location. We realized that we could point it directly at Suite, and Flow wouldn’t distinguish Suite as different from any other mounted drive. Now that we’ve figured that out, it’s mostly just file-pathing. Based on each shot, there’s a file path setup in a template, so everything is where it needs to be."

Baked’s clever deployment of Suite enables shared storage, not only between on-premise employees utilizing the company’s powerful infrastructure, but also to remote artists, providing that same, real-time connectivity to the cloud as if they were working in-office. “Suite allows us to have a central link—it’s provided an alternative shared storage location so we can continue using our familiar Flow Production Tracking Toolkit workflow, but through a cloud platform that can operate just the same.”

The Technical Details: How Baked makes it work

Taking things a step further, Cameron explains clearly how his team was able to set up a template within Flow that allows media to be easily distributed between the two storage locations without hassle.

“Flow uses tokens linked to existing information in the database. Rather than specifying the actual shot name, etc. you can put a placeholder in brackets in a template, which is what we were already doing,” says Cameron. “We just added an extra token called ‘Storage Location’ into our template, and now there are two options—[storing files] in Suite or on-prem—and every file in our system has a corresponding file path that dictates where the file is kept. It’s exciting to use Suite as mounted storage that fits into this industry-standard platform."

Quality Control from anywhere: A winning workflow

At any given time, there is a team of artists, coordinators and producers working directly off of Suite, depending on the project and workload. Alongside active working media, Baked stores all of its configuration templates on Suite, so that everyone remains connected to the most updated versions. “This taps into one of Suite’s cool ‘central source of truth’ ideas,” says Cameron. “Anyone in New York or Los Angeles is able to pull the same updated files.”

At the end of the work day, Baked renders all the various deliverables for active projects with a proprietary pipeline tool built by UK-based pipeline company, Nodes&Layers. The specifications for deliverables can range substantially, but being able to take a central source of truth configuration file, available on Suite, pull the relevant media from anywhere, and send it all to the farm is a game changer. “Let's say we have 20 shots for the day… 10 shots done in Montana & the other 10 in Los Angeles,” explains Cameron. “Our pipeline now pulls project files and media from Suite for the work in Montana, and pulls the rest directly from our on-prem storage in LA; then everything is rendered via our Render Farm, also on-premise in LA, where each node is also connected to Suite.”

For the team’s executives & other key players, this streamlines the review process with incredibly positive results. “We have an Executive Producer who travels a lot, and brings his Mac laptop,” says Cameron. “Basically [wherever he is located], he can open up his computer and can see those 20 shots, rendered, showing up on Suite pretty much as things get rendered, ready to go for full quality control. Better yet, he can actually use the same relative file pathing in Flow Production Tracking to review those shots in the same way someone who is on-premise would. The two systems remain interlinked.”

The Features: Maximizing Suite’s cloud storage

Suite’s cloud storage is designed to streamline the creative process for everyone involved, no matter their location. From every level, Suite is meant to feel intuitive, just as if you plugged a hard drive into your computer. For Cameron & the Baked team, a few features standout from their experience on Suite.

“The first thing is the ease-of-use," says Cameron. "Producers, coordinators and managers are not super technical roles. The easiest thing for them to do is to open up Finder & just browse files. It’s awesome to have the ability within Suite [to set everything up] so it’s easily accessible and friendly to our users."

The team at Baked has also found great results file sharing within Suite, which is as easy as copy & pasting a link to a team member (connected to Suite) that opens a specific file or folder directly in Finder. “Every individual user has different technical proficiencies, and time to spare,” comments Cameron. “Being able to open up Finder & send somebody a link… it's so accessible.”

Cameron also notes that, no matter how dialed your workflow can be, human error can still enter into the equation. That’s where Suite’s Time Machine feature, which can trace files back to the millisecond, enters the picture. "Time Machine is amazing. Our configuration files are really important, and I found myself using Time Machine to pull a Nuke script to compare our new one against the old one. From a troubleshooting & technical standpoint, that's really helpful. Even on the day-to-day, if someone accidentally deletes a file, I'll just go back one hour [via Time Machine]. The granularity and the speed at which it mounts is really amazing.”

Lastly, if anything seems off, the team at Baked knows that Suite’s lightning-fast customer support will be there to answer the call. “We owe it to you guys… keep up the good work with support,” says George Loucas, Founder & VFX supervisor at Baked. “After spending two-and-a-half hours yesterday being bounced around between call centers, the fact that we can get hold of your team, and you jump on stuff so quickly… it counts for so much."

The creative impact: Empowering VFX from anywhere

VFX workflows are some of the most complicated in the production industry. Whether strictly on-prem, or collaborating on the cloud, these editors & artists have to often work quickly to drive an unpolished video, episode, or movie over the finish line. As Founder & VFX Supervisor, George Loucas considers the bigger picture, always keeping his team & their ability to work smoothly top-of-mind.

“It's our number one objective (as it is with any business) to create efficiency, and maintain the ability to scale up or down. While things were complicated before, ‘work from home’ became an element that added a magnitude of added complexity. Baked now has this ability to take all those challenges and find the lowest common denominator,” says George. “A lot of the people we employ are set in their ways—you have a small window to convince them to try something new. Suite has been very widely embraced, and that says a lot. For our team to openly embrace something, see the benefits, see the efficiency… that’s music to a business owner’s ears."

Establishing consistency & accessibility not only drives business, but it lets the artists & editors shine. Of all things, that might be the most important part, remarks George. “As much as we can let our creatives be creative, the better we're going to be, the better the work will be.”

With a cloud-connected pipeline, Baked’s team can refocus on the media & bring new projects to completion faster. Establishing a central source of truth between on-premise servers & remote employees with the help of Suite’s cloud storage, Cameron, George, and the rest of the creative team at Baked remain connected to the files they need most.

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