CHALLENGE: Wolverine VFX, spread across California, Texas, Utah, and Indiana, faced major issues with traditional cloud-based tools. Unreliable access on these platforms pigeonholed the team, isolating its artists, and complicating freelancer onboarding. Managing permissions across various tools for multiple projects was also a logistical nightmare for a team that strives to be nimble.

WHY SUITE? Wolverine chose Suite for its reliable, centralized cloud-native system that ensures consistent media access and file integrity for the entire team. Suite's seamless integration accelerates editing and review times, while robust security and easy onboarding enable Wolverine to scale quickly and maintain agility in a competitive market.

“Every day we're learning something new about the industry. Suite allows us to be nimble, so we can constantly add to our client base.”

– Chuck Dulin, Founder & VFX Producer, Wolverine VFX

In modern cinema & television, it’s difficult to find a project untouched by visual effects. Countless movies, TV shows, and advertisements optimize their storyline & messaging with additional layers of VFX, enhancing raw video from the set with artistry ranging from unnoticeable touchups to entirely fabricated visuals & CGI. Often where video falls short, VFX teams take the reins in post production to make a vision come completely to life.

Wolverine VFX knows the hustle better than most. Focused on network dramas, commercials, limited series, and feature films streaming on your favorite global platforms, this team puts the finishing touch on projects of every size. With its HQ in Los Angeles, team members are distributed across numerous states; yet Wolverine aims to capitalize on every job, no matter the focus, scale, or demands of the project.

“It's hard to forecast the future,” says Founder & VFX Supervisor Chuck Dulin. “Every day we're learning something new about the industry. Suite allows us to be nimble, so we can constantly add to our client base.”

Always at-the-ready to take on another project, Wolverine’s hunger for more work often necessitates growing the team in a moment’s notice, sharing media between remote collaborators, and trying to keep track of numerous moving parts simultaneously. In the past, the team relied upon traditional cloud storage platforms, shipping drives, and even a cloud-native Suite competitor. Nothing worked… until Suite entered the picture.

Back then: Wolverine VFX before Suite

Wolverine’s story should be familiar to many teams in the post production industry. Featuring a mix of in-house employees & remote freelancers trying to achieve top-shelf creative on tight deadlines, Wolverine was tasked with handling complicated VFX files & heavy media without a centralized source of truth connecting everyone on the team. Simply put, Lead VFX Artist Nick Pitts, VFX Artist Ben Johnson, and Founder Chuck Dulin too often reverted to shipping drives, which created isolation between key players & versions during the process.

“With other file-transfer services, we would send the shot & it would have to be downloaded on the other end; the editor would work the shot, render it, and then re-upload it. Every artist became their own vendor, instead of keeping it in one place & everyone on the same team,” reflects Chuck.

“Historically, it has been such a hassle to transfer large files over the internet,” adds Johnson. “I'm in Indiana & [my editor] is in California; he would ship physical hard drives just to avoid all the headaches.”

While this process is tried-and-true, it doesn’t match Wolverine’s go-getter focus, the fast pace of the modern media industry, and the need to drive business with new work. Even when collaborating via other cloud-based services, Wolverine wasn’t witnessing tangible results; there were still too many slowdowns, unanswered questions, and a general lack of trust from everyone involved. “There's stuff that goes wrong,” remarks Chuck. “Box drops files; Google Drive doesn’t let you download for some reason; sometimes you try to upload media & it fails.”

Adopting Suite & Streamlining Remote VFX

Wolverine’s dispersed team of VFX artists found immediate success working on Suite’s cloud storage, in part because it provides a familiar way of working—it’s like plugging in a hard drive to your computer, but it’s connected to everyone on your team in real-time. Streaming media directly from Suite’s cloud-native filesystem establishes a centralized source of truth across everyone on Wolverine’s team, regardless of their location or the size of the project.

“It's clear that when we work with Suite, the files are there & they work. There's just a convenience factor to it,” says Chuck. “Working with this dispersed team, we upload media directly into Suite, and that's the way we like to operate."

Immediate access to the most up-to-date media eliminates the sense of isolation previously felt by the team & provides opportunity to move content over the line faster. “I love the ability to access any file quickly,” comments Pitts. “Let's say there’s a shot I need to jump into; instead of needing to have every dependency downloaded locally, it’s so easy to open a project & pull the frames I need instantly. I can easily see what's going on.”

“It’s like magic," says Johnson. Seeing files on Suite feels like presents being delivered.”

For the supervisors on Wolverine’s team, utilizing Suite’s cloud storage adds a sense of confidence at every step. It also eliminates unnecessary hassle from the workflow. “With all of our projects, Suite has just made things faster,” says Pitts. “We’re not rendering, selecting, then uploading files twice. It simplified the back-and-forth."

Efficient Collaboration From Anywhere

Operating at the speed of the media & entertainment industry requires Wolverine to work efficiently, without losing connectivity to the team. To achieve the desired results in the allotted time, Wolverine frequently supplements in-house talent with freelance creatives. Choosing Suite allows Chuck to make otherwise difficult decisions with ease—adding storage capacity & connecting additional workers to the team’s Suite Drive takes just a few clicks.

“We're a small team, and we'll bring on freelancers to scale pretty quickly… then scale back,” Chuck explains. “That's a big factor, and it comes without any huge overhead. It's been great to have a [set of instructions] we can send freelancers. Suite is quick to download, install, and set up. That can be a barrier—with Suite it’s super simple.”

Chuck calculates that he’s spending significantly less time prepping freelancers to work, which means his team is focused back on the edit instead of bobbling with file transfers & mailing addresses. “I can get to the next freelancer that much faster—a half hour, 45-minutes faster,” he says. “Once Suite is installed, I apply permissions & they're ready to go. It's all centralized. When they're done, we turn off those permissions. It’s so streamlined."

Suite also provides inherent security & reliability benefits for Wolverine. “Having a team there to help means everything,” says Chuck. If anything arises, Chuck trusts that Suite’s customer service team will be there to answer the call—in just a few minutes. Now, with the technicalities & heavy-lifting associated with cloud storage covered by Suite’s dedicated staff, Chuck operates his business, and works collaboratively, with renewed confidence.

Knowing there had to be a better way of working, Wolverine discovered Suite with wide-eyes. Since then, its VFX workflow is more streamlined than ever. “We don't run into issues anymore,” says Chuck. “That's a big time-saver—we don't have to worry about what went wrong. Once media is uploaded into Suite, it's workable and ready to go."

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