Studio pipeline

How to run an episode

One episode from the cut to the final render: set up the show folder, import the animatic, link the rigs, split it into shots, push a rig change to every shot, review, and render.

This page walks one episode, ep101, through each step in order. For what each feature does in full, see Shots, assets and review, Version control and Command line.

1. Lay out the show folder

Make one folder for the show, with the master files for the rigs and props at the top and a folder for each episode:

myshow/
  .gitattributes
  rigs/
    kid.fla            one master file per character or prop set
    dog.fla
    props.fla
  ep101/
    edit/              the cut from the editor, its board images and audio
    animatic/
      ep101.fla        the whole episode, before it is split
    shots/
      sh010.fla ...    one file per shot, made in step 6
    renders/

2. Put the show in version control

In the show folder, start a Git repository with Git LFS for the documents and media:

cd myshow
git init
git lfs install

Create .gitattributes from Git LFS for the media before you add any documents, then commit it. Everyone on the show runs git lfs install once on their own machine.

This walkthrough keeps the shots as .fla files: Phoenix batch in step 8 works on .fla and .phx files, not on XFL folders. The rigs can be XFL folders if you want their history symbol by symbol; link to the .xfl file inside the folder.

3. Build the master files

Each file in rigs/ holds finished rigs as symbols in its library, named the way the shots will use them, for example Kid, Kid Head, Dog. The symbols a rig uses inside it (heads, hands, mouth sets) and its bitmaps live in the same file; they travel with the rig when it is linked.

Commit the rigs. From here on, change a rig only in its master file.

4. Import the animatic

1. Export the cut from your storyboard or editing software as a CMX 3600 EDL or a Final Cut Pro 7 XML file, and put it in ep101/edit/ with its board images and audio. Name the clips the way you want the shots named (sh010, sh020…): each clip's name becomes its shot's label and file name.
2. In Phoenix, make a new document at the show's stage size and frame rate, and save it as ep101/animatic/ep101.fla.
3. Choose File › Import › Import Animatic... and pick the EDL or XML file.

Phoenix adds a Shots layer with a frame label where each shot starts, a Board layer with each shot's board image fitted to the stage, and an Audio layer for each audio track. A message then lists what was imported and anything it could not find, such as a board image that was neither at the path the cut gives nor beside the cut file. Fix what is missing and import again, or add it by hand.

Play the episode through and check that each label starts where the shot should. A label you move or rename here moves or renames the shot in step 6.

5. Lay out the episode and link the rigs

Place the characters and props on new layers above Board, as you would in any document. To bring a rig in, open its master file and drag the symbol from that file's Library onto the episode's stage, or use File › Import › Open External Library....

Then link each rig to its master, once, in the episode:

1. In the Library, right-click the symbol and choose Link to Master File....
2. Pick the master file in rigs/, then the symbol in it. The one with the same name is picked for you.
3. Click Yes when Phoenix asks whether to update it from the master now.

The Library's Type column now shows (linked) for the symbol. Save the episode. Because the links are made before the split, every shot gets them in the next step.

6. Split the episode into shots

1. Save the episode. The shots are cut from the saved file.
2. Choose File › Export › Export Shots....
3. Set Cut at to Frame labels and Save as to FLA files.
4. Set Folder to ep101/shots, not the folder Phoenix suggests (see step 1), and click OK.

Phoenix lists each shot with its frames and the file it wrote. Each shot starts at frame 1, plays exactly as it did in the episode, and keeps only the library items it uses. From the command line, the same split is:

Phoenix shots ep101/animatic/ep101.fla --by label --out ep101/shots

Check one shot's links, then commit the shots:

Phoenix links ep101/shots/sh010.fla
git add ep101
git commit -m "ep101: animatic and shots"

Each line of the links output names a linked symbol, the master path it resolves to, and the symbol it is linked to there. If the path is wrong, the shots are at a different depth from the animatic: fix it with Change Master File... in the Library, or export the shots again to the right folder.

7. Hand out shots and animate

Each animator takes a shot with a lock, so two people never edit the same file:

git pull
git lfs lock ep101/shots/sh030.fla
animate, save
git commit -am "sh030: blocking"
git push
git lfs unlock ep101/shots/sh030.fla

Animate in the shot file as in any document. Leave the linked rigs as they are: an update from the master replaces the symbol's contents, so any change made to it in a shot is lost at the next update. Instances of it on the stage, and the animation you key on them, are kept.

8. Push a rig change to every shot

When a rig changes, edit and save its master file in rigs/, then update the shots from a terminal at the show folder:

Phoenix batch ep101/shots --update-links --save
git commit -am "ep101: kid rig v2 in every shot"

Each shot's linked symbols are replaced by their masters' versions, with the symbols and bitmaps they use, and the shot is saved. At the end, Phoenix says how many shots had problems; a link that could not be updated (a missing master, a symbol renamed in it) is listed, and the exit code is 2. Add --recursive to update several episodes at once from myshow.

Shots locked by someone else are written too, so update them when no one is working, or ask whoever holds a shot to update it themselves: open it, right-click an empty part of the Library and choose Update All Linked Items, then save. An update cannot be undone; close the shot without saving to back out.

9. Review

The reviewer opens a shot and chooses Window › Review Notes, then for each note:

1. Go to the frame the note is about and click Add Note.... Type the note and click OK. It is signed with the reviewer's user name and shows in the corner of the stage until the next note.
2. To mark the art, click Draw and circle or sketch over it with any drawing tool. The marks go on the notes layer.

The reviewer saves and commits the shot. The notes live on a guide layer called Review Notes, so they never show in a render or an export.

The animator opens Review Notes, clicks a note to go to its frame, fixes it, and clicks Done to strike it through. To see what changed between two versions of a shot, frame by frame, use File > Compare With..., or from Git:

git difftool --tool=phoenix HEAD~1 -- ep101/shots/sh030.fla

(Phoenix as the diff tool shows the one-time setup.) When the shot is approved, delete the Review Notes layer.

10. Render

Before the final render, delete the Board layer in each shot, or right-click it and choose Guide so it stays for reference but never renders. Check the shots for damage, then render them all:

Phoenix batch ep101/shots --doctor
Phoenix batch ep101/shots --render --out ep101/renders

Each shot renders to a PNG sequence in a folder named after it. To render one shot as a video instead, or at another size:

Phoenix render ep101/shots/sh030.fla --out ep101/renders/sh030.mp4 --size 1920x1080

These run without a window, so they can run on a render machine. See Render frames for every option.