Objective
Attendees will get to learn how a real world movie making problem was solved using Python, the technologies behind it and the challenges we faced building it.
Description
Making an animated movie involves a lot of data. Moving this data between the 3 studios of DreamWorks (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Bangalore) requires a dedicated and robust pipeline.
Currently deployed on all movies that DreamWorks is making, Transfer Pipeline is a product of the Bangalore Studio and has revolutionized the way DreamWorks makes movies.
Audience
Developers interested in knowing how Python is solving a very real problem for movie making.
Detailed abstract
Movie making is a team game. It doesnt help when half of your team is on the other side of the world. Bridging the gap between creative people is an entirely technical challenge.
Why we need Transfer Pipeline
Movie making data can be roughly categorized into 2. Source data (like models, maps, curves) and output data (images, movies etc). At any moment of time, artists expect all of these to be available locally for interactive work or playback.
Moving these heavy data wasnt much of a problem when DreamWorks had just 2 studios (in Los Angeles and San Francisco) thanks to a low-latency network.
When DreamWorks started the Bangalore studio, the distance forced us to come up with a comprehensive solution that would layer on top of the existing pipeline but still allowing the artists and creative heads the expressiveness and interactivity they are used to between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Why Python?
The dynamic nature of python helped us rapidly prototype and deploy early versions of the tool while the movie was still getting made.
Batteries included nature of Python ensured that people who are developing the service, often having production responsibilities, spent time only on design and architecture and less on coding/programming.
Outline
- Why we need a file mover
- Design
- The code base
- Technologies used
- Future challenges
- Questions?
Duration:: 1 hour
Speaker bio
Jeffrey Jose (twitter) has been working with DreamWorks Animation for almost 6 years now. He was part of the original dev team and has contributed extensively to the project. He continues to contribute to it even now.
Utkarsh Sinha (twitter) has been working with DreamWorks Animation for almost 3 years now. He has been actively adding features and upgrading functinonality to meet challenges posed by upcoming movies.