The Problem

Over the years Ivolve has amassed a large number of items in our 3d library. We have collected everything from old and new car models, just about every type of furniture you can imagine along with thousands of embellishments.  All of these models are used in our scenes to create our final renderings.

When the library was first created it was organised in a file structure that quickly grew to large to manage which resulted in artists spending far to much time searching through many hundreds of files looking for that perfect seat, couch, bed, car, lamp etc. To make there scene pop.

The Solution

During the last 4 months or so of 2009 we have been working hard on a new asset and library management system.  The system has gone through a number revisions over the months each revision leading to a noticeable increase in production speed, while reducing errors.  The first version just provided a simple interface for artists to navigate our existing library  in a more efficient way. While this solution helped it was not the answer to our problems.

This was the first version of our library management software. This version helped but still had a clunky interface.

Moving forward while the version 1 (see above)  system was in use we decided to begin work on a new system.

This new system is driven by a centralised database which handles the all of the delicate file manipulation removing human error. With the back end now being driven by a data base we could now implement new advance features. New features such keyword search have had a significant impact on how our artists work. We also took the time to implement a new interface which cleared up the clutter from the old version while ensuring it is intuitive to use.

In this version we hid all of the technical aspects and what remained was a clean and intuitive artist friendly interface.

We have also added support for new types of assets such as finishes. All of common finishes have now been centralised in the system.

Moving forward we are planning to implement a web interface to add further flexibility for our artists and clients.  Empowering our clients with the our full library which will be available to them. We will keep you updated on the progress of this next step right here on our blog.

The result of all this work has enabled Ivolve to continue to provide the best possible service to our clients while speeding up our artists and freeing them from sifting through Windows Explorer. This is just another way Ivolve takes advantage of the latest technology to optimise how we work, in this case we created the technology we needed for our innovative animation pipeline.

So far the response has been fantastic. We would love to hear your thoughts so feel free to leave comments.

Cheers,

Dave