🎨 3D Rendering & VFX · C4 Architecture · Pro
VFX Studio Pipeline Platform
The studio systems that tie a VFX pipeline together: production tracking, asset management, render farm, storage and client review.
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Drawing diagram…
What this diagram shows
- Production tracking is the source of truth for tasks and versions
- Pipeline tools publish from DCC apps with consistent naming
- Render farm and storage are shared by all departments
Prompt used
VFX studio pipeline platform: artists work in DCC applications (Maya, Houdini, Nuke) with pipeline plugins that publish versions to the asset management service and register them in production tracking (ShotGrid). The render farm manager (Deadline) runs on-premise nodes and bursts to cloud; a high-performance file server holds working files; the review service creates dailies and a client review portal; producers see schedules and bids in production tracking.
Mermaid code
C4Container
title VFX Studio Pipeline
Person(artist, "Artist", "Models, animates, composites")
Person(producer, "Producer", "Tracks schedule and budget")
Person(client, "Client", "Reviews shots")
System_Boundary(studio, "Studio Pipeline") {
Container(dcc, "DCC Apps with Pipeline Plugins", "Maya, Houdini, Nuke", "Create and publish")
Container(pt, "Production Tracking", "ShotGrid", "Tasks, versions, schedules")
Container(am, "Asset Management", "Python", "Published files and dependencies")
Container(farm, "Render Farm Manager", "Deadline", "Queue and nodes")
ContainerDb(fs, "File Server", "High-performance NAS", "Working and published files")
Container(review, "Review Service", "Web", "Dailies and client review")
}
System_Ext(cloud, "Cloud Render Burst", "Extra GPU nodes")
Rel(artist, dcc, "Uses")
Rel(dcc, am, "Publishes")
Rel(am, pt, "Registers versions")
Rel(dcc, farm, "Submits renders")
Rel(farm, cloud, "Bursts")
Rel(farm, fs, "Reads and writes")
Rel(am, fs, "Stores")
Rel(pt, review, "Sends versions")
Rel(client, review, "Reviews")
Rel(producer, pt, "Uses")Related templates
Cloud Render Farm Deployment
Where each part of a cloud render farm runs: artists' workstations, the render queue manager, autoscaling GPU render nodes and shared storage.
3D Production Pipeline Data Flow
How assets move through a 3D animation or VFX pipeline: modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering and compositing, with review in between.
3D Digital Asset Management Schema
A schema for managing 3D assets in a studio: projects, assets, versions, dependencies (textures, rigs), shots and reviews.
Render Job Lifecycle
The states of a render job on a render farm: submitted, queued, rendering frame by frame, failures and retries, and completion.
VFX Shot Review and Approval
How a VFX shot is reviewed: the artist submits a version, the supervisor reviews in dailies, the client approves, and notes flow back.
VFX Shot Production Workflow
The steps a VFX shot goes through from plates to final delivery: matchmove, modelling, animation, FX, lighting and comp.