BeBop created a cloud environment for Cinematic Media to work on simultaneous VFX projects in-house that was more affordable and efficient than an on-prem hardware solution.
Team at ESTUDIOS | GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ © 2019
VFX Workflow
The Challenge
Cinematic Media is the only full-service post-production facility in México focused exclusively on episodic television and motion pictures. It provides services including dailies, color-grading and finishing, and also helps its customers create color pipelines, QC and deliverable services for streaming, broadcast and cinema applications.
Cinematic Media is partially owned by the production company Argos Comunicación, and is located within Estudios Gabriel García Márquez (GGM), one of the largest independent production studios in Latin America.
In the summer of 2019, Cinematic Media secured several simultaneous visual effects projects for upcoming TV series: three shows for a major global streaming service, and two for a multinational media conglomerate. The projects would primarily involve tracking, clean-up, and rotoscoping.
But a problem needed to be solved first. In order to meet the demand, Cinematic Media would need access to several powerful computers, and more machines than they currently had on premises. They also needed access to these machines quickly, since deadlines were already looming.
The company had the ability to increase operating expenses because the work orders had already come in. But they could not afford the significant capital expenditures to invest in new local equipment. Especially if it meant that the new computers would sit idle if/when the volume of VFX projects subsided.
This is where BeBop came in.
“BeBop provides us with the best of all worlds: very powerful machines and really great, streamlined VFX workflows that are easy to manage.”
Arturo Sedano
Managing Director, Cinematic Media
VFX Workflow
The Solution
- 5 powerful BeBop cloud workstations for VFX
- Adobe After Effects and Autodesk’s Maya installed on BeBop
- Average total BeBop workstation usage = 40hrs/day, 5 days a week
- 10TB of AWS cloud storage
- BeBop Rocket to optimize ingest of files averaging 100-200GB each
Once VFX is complete Estudios GGM downloads the final files to conform in Cinematic Media, color corrects, and then sends the files directly to the respective streaming service/broadcast networks.
Estudios GGM utilizes BeBop Over The Shoulder (OTS) to enable remote real-time review and approval from home by the VFX Supervisor.
A “BeBop Room” was created on-premises containing Zero Clients – far more affordable than the super-powerful on-prem computers Estudios GGM would have had to install without the BeBop Cloud Platform. This was done to control bandwidth and eliminate any perceptible latency.
Onboarding took approximately one week, during which BeBop sent implementation and support staff to México City to train the VFX artists, VFX supervisor, and IT on how best to set up and use BeBop for an ideal user experience.
“Without BeBop it would have been impossible for us to take on this significantly larger workload of simultaneous VFX projects and still use our in-house digital artists; we would have had to outsource. Because of BeBop we’re able to keep the revenue, expand our base of in-house artists, and successfully grow our business.”
Arturo Sedano
Managing Director, Cinematic Media
VFX Workflow
The Result
Team at ESTUDIOS | GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ © 2019
BeBop Platform – Remote VFX Workstation
Using the BeBop Cloud Platform now enables Argos, Cinematic Media, and Estudios GGM to simultaneously support numerous VFX projects in-house.
This is work that could not be done without BeBop without an approximate 5:1 ratio of CAPEX to OPEX – which was unaffordable – or outsourcing to another post-production company.
BeBop has not only made Argos, Cinematic Media, and Estudios GGM VFX capabilities more nimble and powerful, but now the companies are testing Avid on BeBop as a cloud editorial solution!
“Once we started using BeBop regularly, we discovered we had a lot of new options available to us that made our VFX workflows better. For example, our VFX Supervisor is able to use BeBop Over The Shoulder to review work from home – something that was never possible before!”
Arturo Sedano
Managing Director, Cinematic Media
Team at ESTUDIOS | GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ © 2019