Good flow chart skills is a necessity for VFX artists out there who design pipelines like myself. Usually people just think of us using high-end 3D or compositing software. But that’s just not the case.

Excel, Word, etc. All of these programs are indispensable when you work at a studio. They help everyone stay on the same page of a project at any given moment. But there has always been a gap when it comes to flow charts. I’ve never  come across any software out there for this task that’s both easy to use and cheap when it comes to making charts. That is until this online flow chart software Lovely Charts debuted!

It’s a great example of a new online trend called server side software. An offshoot of cloud computing. And I really think we’re going to be seeing more and more of this type of software in the future. The benefits of having access to tools like these anywhere in the world, and on any medium is just too powerful to ignore. Another favorite software of mine is a online Photoshop alternative called Pixlr. It’s not nearly as versatile as Adobe’s software, but just give it some more development time and I think everyone will be surprised with the capabilities of this free online sister tool.

Now that’s all well and good but back to the main question at hand. “How are flow charts useful to a VFX artist?” Well quite simply, it allows an artist to map out the whole CG pipeline from previs to finaled shot. While at the same time brainstorming solutions to problems that will likely come up along the way. And simultaneously organize all the sub-tasks that get you from A to B. You can then spread this pipeline diagram out to the whole studio and allow everyone to adopt this new approved process. However, this isn’t a end all be all solution by any means. And Murphy’s Law will always rear it’s ugly head. So you need to keep your pipeline flexible. But it saves a ton of time rather than going to each and every person and explaining the who, what, why, and how.

Wanna see an example? Well here’s a flow chart I made this morning in honor of the new Ghostbusters video game coming out on June 19th.

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So if you want to speed up your pipeline, flow chart that sucker out! And that’s my little VFX insider tip of the day. If you have any questions about my ramblings, leave me a comment below!