of studios don't have time for dailies sessions with their crews; we've always viewed dailies as a vital part of the process," begins Ben Kalina, Titmouse Vice President and Supervising Producer. "When the team watches work-in-progress footage together, the overall quality of the show goes up."
Titmouse ensures these processes remain in place despite vast differences in geographical location via cineSync – a solution it adopted six years ago following the opening of its New York office.
"An average daily review for animation and composites at Titmouse might include anywhere from 26 to 40 scenes per project. We include artists, supervisors and directors from areas as diverse as Los Angeles, New York, Kentucky, Vancouver, New Zealand, Korea, and Japan – all at the same time!" says Kalina. “Using cineSync means we can handle all of that complexity with ease.”
Whether it's for television work, feature film, or the tons of other projects Titmouse keeps busy with, the studio relies on cineSync to ensure its separate teams continue to act as one.
"For TV animation, cineSync is a must," says Kalina. "It’s easy for studios to get stuck in the traditional process of waiting until animation is complete and review everything at once. With cineSync, we can work with remote teams and easily track the footage scene by scene, and collaborate throughout the process.
"Being able to do real-time scrubbing and draw-overs is really helpful in that process,” he continues. “Before digital pipelines, you'd get an animation scene folder, flip pages, make notes in pencil, and then hand them back to your animator. Now we can watch QuickTime files played at speed, then stop, scrub the footage, draw over the scene and have a guy on the other side of the world watching you in real-time. It’s crazy."
Outside of the box,
out of the box
cineSync has done more than just streamline reviews at Titmouse – it’s also enabled the team to tap into an international talent pool, essentially growing the team while simultaneously pulling the artists closer together.
For instance, while producing Niko and the Sword of Light, Titmouse brought several European artists onto the project, and communicated with them daily via cineSync.
"Working with a remote team of European artists extended beyond Niko and the Sword of Light," says Kalina. "Thanks to cineSync, workflow is more streamlined and we can easily review their shots for any project. That opens us up to the best talent around the world, as we can keep creative conversations going online.”
This functionality has helped strengthen other in-house processes too. Titmouse creative director Antonio Canobbio also uses cineSync to remotely train teams from Los Angeles, with a composite team in New York City and a background team in Vancouver receiving live instruction without the cost and hassle of travel.
And from the employees to the clients, Titmouse has found cineSync useful as a pitching tool, showcasing its ideas from screen-to-screen when in-person pitches just aren’t feasible.
“We tried screen sharing in the past, but the lag in displaying artwork always hurt the pitches and led to people
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