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VFX Studio Streamlining Global Collaboration with AWS and LucidLink
Company Situation
The company operates within the visual effects (VFX) industry, managing a globally distributed team of artists and supervisors working across multiple geographic locations. Their workflow involves coordination between compositors, CG artists, and background artists spread across various international offices. The studio serves high-end post-production projects requiring seamless collaboration among remote teams and real-time access to large media assets.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the studio uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) extensively—primarily FSx for storage and EC2 workstations for artist environments. They maintain a backup on S3 to comply with company mandates. For geographically distributed teams, they have relied on a mountable cloud storage solution from a competitor, LucidLink, to provide a unified, remotely accessible storage mount. The studio also employs a custom-built pipeline integrated with Autodesk Flow (formerly Shotgun) for asset tracking, project management, and workflow coordination.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
While their existing AWS and LucidLink solution offers the necessary performance and functionality, it comes with significant cost challenges. Maintaining multiple mirrors of storage across regions to support artists in different locations increases complexity and expenses. The competitor’s mounting solution, though performant, has become financially unsustainable, prompting the company to seek more cost-effective alternatives without compromising accessibility or speed. Additionally, the company needs a storage solution that enables supervisors to mount drives directly on laptops or desktops on set, ensuring immediate access for creative reviews and company presentations.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade provides a unified, mountable cloud storage solution designed specifically for distributed creative teams. By replacing the competitor’s mountable storage with Shade, the company can maintain a single global storage mount accessible to all artists regardless of location. Shade’s cost-efficient architecture reduces the overhead of maintaining multiple data mirrors, while preserving the high-performance access required for VFX workflows. The solution supports mounting on a variety of devices and settings, allowing supervisors to present work on set seamlessly. Shade’s integration capabilities also complement existing asset tracking and project management pipelines, ensuring smooth data flow from raw assets to final delivery.
Benefits
- Significant cost savings compared to existing cloud storage mounts
- Simplified storage infrastructure with a single global mount for all remote users
- High-performance access suitable for demanding VFX workflows
- Seamless mounting on laptops and desktops, supporting on-set company reviews
- Compatibility with existing AWS infrastructure and custom pipeline tools
- Enhanced team collaboration across multiple geographic locations
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