Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

On Qube! Student Training at Vancouver Film School

16/12/2016

--

With over 5,000 international student awards to its name, Vancouver Film Schoolpacks some serious production firepower. The leading Canadian film schools render farm has more users than those of many commercial visual effects companies, and processes more individual projects than most feature animation studios. Yet rather than requiring its own team of dedicated render wranglers, VFSs farm runs efficiently enough to be overseen by students less than a year into their studies. The trick is teaching the kids the same render farm management solution used in the world's top productions studios, PipelineFX's Qube!.

One of the worlds leading VFX and animation schools

Founded in 1987 with just 12 students, Vancouver Film School has grown to become one of the leading international training bodies for the movie industry. On top of a course in film production, the school now offers 12 further one-year diploma programs, including 3D Animation and Visual Effects, claiming that in one year at VFS, students get more production hours than at any four-year school.

Although still based in Vancouver, VFS now runs eight international admissions offices, recently placing at number 2 in Animation Career Reviews list of the worlds top 100 animation schools. With graduates including Oscar-nominated director and VFX artist Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium), by 2014, VFS alumni earned credits on movies representing half the years total world box office revenue.

The year before, VFS had opened its new animation and visual effects campus in Vancouvers Gastown district, also home to Industrial Light & Magic. Renovated at a cost of $4.5 million, the 106,000-square-foot facility boasts a 32-node render farm, with each worker running Qube!.

Reliable render management in challenging conditions

We've used Qube! since day one of having a render farm, says Craig Shiells, Vancouver Film Schools Pipeline Supervisor and Lighting Instructor. We have 96 students plus instructors accessing our render farm on a daily basis [so one of] the greatest issues we faced was sharing this resource.

As well as having more farm users than many commercial production houses, a key challenge for VFS is that their usage pattern is far more concentrated. With rendering peaking before course deadlines, in the space of four months, a single class at VFS will average 2,500 to 3,000 jobs on the farm.

Our needs are different from what you'd get in a studio, points out Shiells, who previously worked as Technical Animation Supervisor at broadcast and feature animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment. [Rather than a couple of movies] we have 96 projects rendering on the farm at one time.

To ensure that everyone has access to their fair share of resources, Vancouver Film School initially limited the number of render instances that each student was allowed to use, but found that this resulted in the farm sitting idle at times. The solution came in the shape of Qube!s powerful per-user settings, which allocate instances dynamically to each user, up to a maximum set by an administrator.

It keeps our farm running at maximum capacity, says Shiells. This means that students get their renders faster, which results in higher-quality work.

Simple enough for even students to administer

With a client base that spans Electronic Arts, Marvel Studios and Oscar-nominated VFX house Image Engine, Qube! is flexible enough to tackle any professional project. Its production-proven Python API, combined with its ability to support custom job types, make it possible for users to tailor the software to even the most complex proprietary pipelines. Yet it also works flawlessly straight out of the box.

Qube! does what we require with the addition of custom tools, says Craig Shiells. A lot [of the advanced functionality], I havent given much thought to. I haven't needed to. Qube! just works.

But Qube! does more than just work. Its ease of use also makes it possible for students just months into their studies to manage a render farm. As well as submitting their own rendering jobs from within Maya and NUKE, the key software packages used on the course, Vancouver Film School allows its animation and visual effects students to handle most of their own day-to-day administration work.

Each class has two representatives that are given admin privileges on the render farm, says Shiells. We empower them to police and manage render farm usage.

Although farm usage varies with job type - Shiells notes that most render resources go towards modeling showreels rather than animations, as the texturing and shading is more complex - it can be managed through a simple user identification code.

Each class is designated two priorities to use, says Shiells. They use their class number for test renders of up to 10 frames, and their class number plus 1,000 for full-sequence renders.

Qube! - helping Vancouver Film School stay on top

Through its combination of power and ease of use, Qube! helps Vancouver Film School students to continue producing work of the quality on which the schools global reputation rests.

By removing the need for dedicated render wranglers or complex management systems, Qube! frees the schools staff to focus on teaching, and its students to focus on learning the craft of animation, ensuring that VFS continues to add to its tally of over 5,000 international student awards.

Qube! is exactly what you need in an application like this, says Craig Shiells. It's easy to use and hassle-free. It does everything we need, and then some.

# # #

About Qube! and Smart Farming

Qube! is an intelligent, mature and highly scalable render management solution that can be quickly integrated into any production workflow, and is backed by world-class technical support. Qube! delivers intelligence to production pipelines by pro
LINK: https://news.creativecow.net/story/883999...
See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines

04/09/2025

Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Dalet Win Prestigious 2025 NAB Show Project of the Year Award

Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...

19/04/2025

SDVI Earns Both Product and Project of the Year Awards at...

SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company earned multiple awards at the 2025 NAB Show, with two...

19/04/2025

Ateliere Announces CEO Transition

Ateliere Creative Technologies, a leading GenAI media software solutions company, today announced that Dan Goman has stepped down as CEO and David Bortis, Ateli...

19/04/2025

Marshall CV574 Miniature 4K UHD Camera Revolutionizes Off...

As Director of Media and Aerial Production at Terrible Herbst Motorsports, Bryan Moore is setting new standards in off-road racing media coverage thanks to his ...

19/04/2025

Lightware Launches Dual Screen Extended Desktop Taurus

A next-generation collaboration device that redefines connectivity for meeting environments Lightware, an industry-leading manufacturer of signal management so...

19/04/2025

Calrec Wins 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Award for N...

Calrec is today announcing that its True Control 2.0 is a Remote Production winner in the 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards. This official awards program...

19/04/2025

Appear and NBCUniversal Win Project of the Year at NAB Sh...

Appear, a global leader in live production technology, proudly announces it has been recognised alongside NBCUniversal with the prestigious NAB Show Delivery Pr...

19/04/2025

Deity Microphones Announces The Deity THEOS DIFB at NAB 2...

Deity Microphones, a leader in innovative audio equipment, is proud to announce the expected release of our Ultra-Wide Band IFB to the market. The THEOS DIFB wi...

19/04/2025

LiveU IQ Technology Delivers Breakthrough Network Perform...

A world renowned broadcaster and long-standing LiveU customer has successfully completed a series of live connectivity tests using LiveU's revolutionary, aw...

19/04/2025

BitFire Wins 2025 NAB Show Project of the Year and Produc...

BitFire (bitfire.tv), a longtime leader in live video transport, today announced dual NAB Show award wins at the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The company's M...

19/04/2025

BitFire Wins Three Top Awards at 2025 NAB Show

BitFire (bitfire.tv), a longtime leader in live video transport, today announced three major award wins at the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, in Las Vegas. The compa...

19/04/2025

Moments Lab and Satisfaction Group Form Unique Strategic...

AI video discovery company Moments Lab and Satisfaction Group, a leading independent unscripted television production company, are proud to announce a unique st...

19/04/2025

The Infrastructure of Creative Flow DigitalGlues creative...

As the media industry navigates the triple challenge of AI-driven production, distributed teams, and skyrocketing content demand, DigitalGlue s creative.space h...

19/04/2025

Miri Technologies Wins Two Prestigious Awards for X510 Bo...

Network technology startup Miri Technologies Inc. capped off its tremendously successful NAB Show debut by winning two prestigious industry awards for its cutti...

19/04/2025

Tablo Adds 45 New FAST Channels From Warner Bros. Discovery

CINCINNATI Scripp's Nuvyyo USA has concluded a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to bring 45 FAST channels to Nuvyyo's Tablo TV device....

19/04/2025

Court Overrules FCC's $57 Million Fine Against AT&T

In a ruling that could have broader implications on the legality of regulatory agencies levying fines through administrative proceedings, the 5th U.S. Circuit C...

19/04/2025

FCC Chair Carr Blasts Comcast Over MSNBC Coverage

WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has blasted Comcast over MSNBC's coverage of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a so...

19/04/2025

Berklee NYC and NYC Media Launch Season 3 of Inside Power Station @BerkleeNYC

Berklee NYC and NYC Media Launch Season 3 of Inside Power Station @BerkleeNYC This season features faculty member Arun Pandian as the new host and interviews ...

18/04/2025

Everyone Is Cordially Invited to Celebrate Queer Joy in The Wedding Banquet

Director Andrew Ahn, alongside actors Youn Yuh-jung and Joan Chen, takes a photo of the audience after the premiere of his film The Wedding Banquet at Eccles ...

18/04/2025

U.S. Judge Rules Google Illegally Monopolized Ad Technologies

In a ruling that could have a major impact on the digital advertising market, a federal judge has ruled that Google has monopolized some types of advertising te...

18/04/2025

TV News Outlets See March Spike in Social Media Usage

Broadcast and cable TV news outlets saw strong social media growth in March, according to new data from the social video analytics company Tubular Labs ....

18/04/2025

Berklee Student Yukai Yang Named 2025 Yamaha Young Performing Artist

Berklee Student Yukai Yang Named 2025 Yamaha Young Performing Artist The drummer secured a spot among the elite winners in this years competition. By Maddie...

18/04/2025

Boston Conservatory Alums Bring Real Women Have Curves to Broadway

Boston Conservatory Alums Bring Real Women Have Curves to Broadway The Latin American immigrant community takes center stage in a new musical featuring Tatian...

18/04/2025

UPDATED: Broadcasters Urge FCC to Hit the Delete Button on Antiquated Regs

WASHINGTON The FCC's call for public comments and suggestions on outdated regulations that it should be eliminated, has prompted a slew of fillings from bro...

18/04/2025

Federal Judge Rules Google Illegally Monopolized Ad Technologies

In a ruling that could have a major impact on the digital advertising market, a federal judge has ruled that Google has monopolized some types of advertising te...

18/04/2025

AMS, VideoAmp Collaborate on Cross-Channel Targeting and Measurement

PEARL RIVER, N.Y. Global media solutions company Active Media Services (AMS) has formed a new relationship with VideoAmp, a measurement company for linear TV, c...

18/04/2025

Netflix Reports Strong Q1 Revenue, Operating Income

Netflix reported generally positive results for first-quarter 2025, with revenue up 13% year-over-year to $10.543 billion and operating income growing by 27% to...

18/04/2025

NHL Playoffs 2025: TNT Sports Hits the Road for Onsite Productions With Mobile Units from NEP Group, Game Creek Video

NHL Playoffs 2025: TNT Sports Hits the Road for Onsite Productions With Mobile U...

18/04/2025

EVS's Sbastien Verlaine on U.S. Expansion, Next-Generation Products

EVSs S bastien Verlaine on U.S. Expansion, Next-Generation Products Beyond replay, offerings also target asset management and media infrastructure By Ken Kersc...

18/04/2025

ESPN Unleashes 4DREPLAY as NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships Hit ABC

ESPN Unleashes 4DREPLAY as NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships Hit ABC Men's championships to follow Saturday night on ESPN2 By Brandon Costa, Direct...

18/04/2025

Visualizing Victory: The Latest in AR, XR, and Virtual Production in Live Sports

Visualizing Victory: The Latest in AR, XR, and Virtual Production in Live Sports This panel discussion featured leaders from ESPN, CBS Sports, Warner Bros. Disc...

18/04/2025

NHL Playoffs 2025: With 16 Games in First Six Days, ESPN Deploys Variety of Remote-Production Models in U.S., Canada

NHL Playoffs 2025: With 16 Games in First Six Days, ESPN Deploys Variety of Remo...

17/04/2025

The Ugly Stepsister: A Cinderella Body Horror Story That Will Leave a Crowd in Shambles

Emilie Blichfeldt attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of The Ugly ...

17/04/2025

Why Resilient GPS (R-GPS) Matters for US Military Superiority: We Must Address GPS Vulnerabilities

R-GPS gives warfighters a decisive battlefield advantage by punching through adv...

17/04/2025

What NAB told us about the future of media tech

This year's NAB Show in Las Vegas marked a noticeable shift in the priorities of media and broadcast organisations. Gone are the days of chasing flashy, or ...

17/04/2025

Changing Sustainable Production in Wales and Beyond

class=attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail f-align-center alt= decoding=async data-lazy-srcset=https://www.antonbauer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Amy-Daniel-1...

17/04/2025

Roku to Collaborate with Adobe on Real-Time Customer Data

SAN JOSE, Calif. Roku and Adobe have announced that they are collaborating on a real time data platform made possible by a a new integration of the Roku Data C...

17/04/2025

IAB: Digital Ad Revenue Surges 14.9% YoY to $259 Billion in 2024

NEW YORK Internet advertising revenues demonstrated strong growth in 2024, increasing 14.9% year-over-year to $258.6 billion, according to the IAB Internet Adv...

17/04/2025

SDVI Earns Both Product and Project of the Year Awards at 2025 NAB Show

SDVI Earns Both Product and Project of the Year Awards at 2025 NAB Show Brie Clayton April 17, 2025 0 Comments Left to right, Geoff Stedman, CMO, SDVI...

17/04/2025

Singapore Polytechnic Readies Aspiring AV Professionals for Live IP Productions with AJA

Singapore Polytechnic Readies Aspiring AV Professionals for Live IP Productions ...

17/04/2025

Calrec Wins 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Award for True Control 2.0

Calrec Wins 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Award for True Control 2.0 Brie Clayton April 17, 2025 0 Comments Image: The Calrec True Control 2.o on ...

17/04/2025

In Return to Berklee, Lucius Looks Back and Moves Forward

In Return to Berklee, Lucius Looks Back and Moves Forward From mood boards to live demos, the alumni band gave students an exclusive look at the process behin...

17/04/2025

MyFree DirecTV Adds 8 NBCU Channels

DirecTV's free streaming service MyFree DirecTV has just added another eight channels from NBCUniversal....

17/04/2025

GameChanger Launches in the U.S.

LOS ANGELES The virtual production company GameChanger has announced that it is expanding its global footprint by bringing its virtual production technology to ...

17/04/2025

IBCAP Launches Automated VOD Monitoring and Takedown System

DENVER The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) has announced that it has developed a proprietary, automated software-based system to iden...

17/04/2025

Pixalate: Roku Continues to Dominate U.S. CTV Device Market

Pixalate's new CTV Device Market Share report for Q1 2025 shows that Roku has the highest open programmatic CTV device market share in the United States, wi...

17/04/2025

Edward J. Lewis III Named Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement

Edward J. Lewis III Named Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Lewis has more than 20 years of industry experience, leading fundraising initiati...

17/04/2025

The Curling Group Puts On Inaugural Curling All-Star Game in Nashville

The Curling Group Puts On Inaugural Curling All-Star Game in Nashville The location in Music City is intended to broaden the sport's appeal By Dan Daley, ...

17/04/2025

Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces TV and NOW Lineup

April 17th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces TV & NOW Lineup World Premieres and Exclusive Cast Panels with Apple TV '...

17/04/2025

SVG Sit-Down: Cisco's Bryan Bedford on Providing End-to-End Support for Clients, How Industry Trends Impact Workflows

SVG Sit-Down: Cisco's Bryan Bedford on Providing End-to-End Support for Clie...