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Visual Effects Studio Serving Tier-One Automotive Clients
Company Situation
The company operates within the post-production and visual effects sector, primarily servicing tier-one commercial work for a major automotive corporation. The team is geographically dispersed, with artists and operators working remotely across multiple U.S. regions. They are currently in a transitional phase due to corporate restructuring and consolidations, which creates uncertainty about their long-term operational setup. Their projects include high-profile campaigns involving international shoots and collaborations.
Existing Workflow
Their current workflow relies heavily on a hybrid infrastructure combining on-premises storage (Synology NAS) and cloud-based solutions. They use LucidLink Classic as their primary shared storage technology to enable remote access and streaming workflows, supplemented by AWS EC2 instances and local SSD caches for performance. Data replication occurs across multiple platforms, including Dropbox, which holds multi-petabyte storage capacity for medium-term archiving and file sharing. For distributed teams, Dropbox links are used for sending assets like roto work internationally. The company also employs on-prem workstations and cloud workstations, with users on OSX and Linux platforms.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The company reports that their reliance on LucidLink Classic, while historically effective, is now proving inadequate. The newer versions of LucidLink do not meet their performance expectations, leading to workflow inefficiencies. The system struggles with high-speed access demands for geographically dispersed teams working on large commercial projects. Managing multiple storage locations and the overhead of administering a complex hybrid environment adds to operational complexity. There is also a desire to avoid the administrative burden of building and maintaining a custom cloud solution. The company is seeking a solution that supports Linux and OSX companies natively, which is critical for their Flame artists and broader team.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a modern, cloud-native storage platform with native Linux and OSX company support, enabling seamless high-performance remote collaboration. By replacing the aging LucidLink infrastructure, Shade would streamline data access and reduce the need for complex replication across on-premises and cloud storage systems. Shade’s platform can unify the storage environment, providing a consistent, scalable, and performant experience for dispersed teams. This shift would lower administrative overhead by eliminating reliance on multiple storage platforms and simplify asset sharing and collaboration workflows for large-scale commercial post-production projects.
Benefits
- Native Linux and OSX company support tailored for post-production artists
- High-performance remote streaming and mounting of large media files
- Simplification of hybrid storage architecture by consolidating workflows
- Reduced administrative overhead and complexity in managing storage solutions
- Improved collaboration efficiency across geographically dispersed teams
- Scalable cloud storage that supports large project data volumes without reliance on multiple replication points
- Enhanced reliability and responsiveness to meet demanding commercial production schedules
Technologies Used
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