VFX work is in high demand these days. It’s also often subject to extremely tight schedules and limited budgets while artists must work with full-resolution video files that weigh a ton.
MASV’s cloud-based large file transfer can help VFX shops meet these — and other — challenges by injecting greater efficiencies into VFX workflows.
MASV can:
- Quickly and reliably deliver virtually any size of media file…
- Is fast and easy to use…
- And includes time-saving automations that help VFX houses better meet their deadlines.
What else can MASV do for VFX pipelines?
Here are six reasons why you need MASV in your VFX workflow:
- Share Limitless Media
- Improve Turnaround Time
- Get Up and Running Quickly
- Easily Collect Files From Clients
- Automate Your Roundtrip Workflow
- Pass Compliance With Security Certification
1. Share Limitless Media
A VFX artist such as yourself is no stranger to insanely large file sizes.
You’re likely working with:
- Full-resolution frame sequences in full color space plus alpha channel.
- High-resolution VFX plates (often OpenEXR file format at full 4K).
- And equally large reference imagery.
That means VFX shops almost always work with truly massive files during the VFX push/pull process.
Image sequences present a similar problem in that they can potentially contain hundreds of thousands of image files (or more) in a single upload or download.
MASV has no limit on the number of files allowed in a transfer and supports up to 15 TB per individual file. We also recently implemented performance upgrades that allow VFX houses and other users to transfer image sequences 35x faster.
But file transfer for VFX is about more than handling huge files (or huge batches of files). VFX houses also need a fast file transfer solution to speed up their turnaround time.
2. Improve Turnaround Time
Time is money in every industry. But VFX houses are under unrelenting pressure from studios, most of whom depend on vendor-side VFX work to get projects over the finish line under very tight deadlines.
Fixed-cost contracts from major studios are another pressure point for VFX houses who must often work faster (and smarter) to avoid projects turning into money-losing ventures.
MASV can help VFX houses alleviate these pressures and improve turnaround times through fast, reliable file uploads and downloads. MASV was purpose-built to send and receive lossless media files quickly, reliably, and securely without compression.
That’s because MASV’s accelerated global network was built on AWS infrastructure and allows our users to bypass the public internet. The speed chart below shows how our upload and download speeds compare to other transfer platforms when operating on a 1Gbps line.
This speed is built into our platform and available to everyone. We also offer a handful of other speed-related features including:
- Advanced Speed optimizations for facilities with a 5-10Gbps pipe.
- Bandwidth Saturation to make the most of your connection, with controls in place to limit how much bandwidth to use throughout the day on a shared network (i.e. an office, etc.).
- Channel Bonding to combine multiple sources of internet for faster transfers (such as Ethernet bonded with 5G cellular data).
3. Get Up and Running Quickly
Does your client want you to use a complicated Signiant portal to push files? Or install an Aspera desktop client to receive files? Or worse…use an FTP server?
It’s not the most elegant experience, is it?
Moving large files quickly without installing a client or having to sit through long tutorials creates greater efficiencies for VFX shops. MASV works directly in your browser with no installs, plugins, or servers for IT worry about. It’s also user-friendly thanks to an intuitive drag-and-drop UI.
You can sign-up today and start sharing files within minutes.
That kind of simplicity can be a huge help for VFX artists who need to collect files from clients on a deadline.
4. Easily Collect Files From Clients
Considering that many VFX houses work on a project or shot basis, efficiently gathering files from clients and dailies labs is crucial.
A MASV Portal is the best file collection tool available today. Not only is it very easy to create and use, it has some pretty powerful automation and security features in place.
- Simplicity: Simply share a link to a Portal or embed it as an order form. Recipients just need to drag-and-drop their media into the upload window — and they don’t need a MASV account to do so.
- Security: Portals can be set to private to control who has access. Additionally, all Portal uploads are encrypted and be password-protected.
- Customization: Portals can be fully customized to match company branding. Need specific information when pulling assets? The upload form can be modified with custom fields.
- Automation: Connect a preferred cloud storage or MAM to any Portal and MASV will automatically ingest all uploads to the connected storage.
And best of all, a Portal is the secret ingredient to automate the VFX roundtrip workflow and speed up the tedious and manual push/pull process.
5. Automate the VFX Roundtrip Workflow
Imagine if a VFX pull would auto-download to your workstation from a dailies lab when requested?
MASV can make that happen.
By combining MASV Automated Watch Folders with Portals for file requests and a few simple configurations, MASV can automate the entire file transfer element of the VFX roundtrip workflow with zero development or IT support on your end.
VFX pushes and pulls between VFX vendors and editorial teams can be completely automated with MASV, helping editorial, finish, and VFX teams trade files back and forth without spending hours on data transfer.
Read MASV’s full guide on automated VFX roundtripping.
6. Security
Fast and reliable file transfer is nothing if it’s not secure and compliant.
That’s why MASV is a Trusted Partner Network (TPN) vendor and is compliant with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II standards.
TPN is an initiative of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and ensures vendors follow content security best practices.
MASV also operates on hardened AWS infrastructure with premium security protocols that include in-flight TLS 1.2 and at-rest AES-256 encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
MASV’s layered security posture also includes:
- Employee safeguards and security awareness training.
- Customer data protections, including regular code scans and security reviews.
- Strong password enforcement.
- Compliance with GDPR, PIPEDA, and other data protection laws.
Other MASV security features include password protection on uploads and downloads, download limits on files, file delivery tracking, and automatic malware scanning.
Accelerate Your VFX Workflow With MASV
If you need the tl;dr summary of this post, here it is:
MASV can drastically speed up VFX workflows through its fast, reliable, and automated file transfer platform.
VFX artists are able to share lossless media at breakneck speeds and take advantage of simple yet powerful file collection and automated tooling to introduce new efficiencies.
And unlike other file transfer platforms which may require lengthy conversations and a high upfront cost to get started, MASV is available right now.
Just sign-up here for free and we’ll throw in a 20 GB credit so you can test out our platform.
Brought to you by MASV:
This article is part of the befores & afters VFX Insight series. If you’d like to promote your VFX/animation/CG tech or service, you can find out more about the VFX Insight series here.
