VFX shots are everywhere in modern video production, with more than 90 percent of all films in release using visual effects at least once; effects-heavy films like Avengers: Endgame and Top Gun: Maverick feature more than 2,400 VFX shots apiece.
This all adds up to a ton of work for VFX artists – often, too much work in too little time. Most VFX professionals work on a per-project basis with heavy, full-resolution files on extremely tight schedules that require lightning-fast turnaround times, and usually don’t get paid extra if projects require additional time.
VFX Houses Need More Efficient Tools
VFX houses need cloud-based tools that help their talented staff meet these challenges (and improve their work/life balance) by improving the efficiency of the VFX roundtrip workflow and VFX pipeline, from pre-production to storyboarding and animatics, previz, production, and post-production.
A MASV Portal fits this bill perfectly.
A MASV Portal is a powerful, flexible, universal web uploader that simplifies, accelerates, and secures large file exchange with clients, dailies labs, and other collaborators. We’re confident in saying it’s the most robust file collection tool you can add to any VFX workflow.
Portals are super easy to spin up, use, and integrate with cloud systems without any coding or IT support necessary. And every MASV Portal comes packed with a series of enterprise-grade automation, security, and productivity tools out of the box that make file ingestion and transfer the easiest part of your day.
Here are just a few reasons why every VFX workflow needs MASV Portals.
Advantages of MASV Portals for VFX Houses
VFX houses can sign up for MASV Portals for free and immediately gain a slew of productivity advantages, including no restrictions on file package sizes and the ability to pause and resume upload progress at any time.
Simplicity
Just share a link to your Portal, or embed it as an order form, and MASV does the rest with no firewall configurations or complex software installations. Collaborators don’t even need a MASV account to drag-and-drop media into your Portal’s upload window, so there’s no user training or per-seat fees to worry about when onboarding new staff or partners. MASV is so easy to use that most users can start sending and receiving large files within just minutes of signing up.
Integrations and automations
Combine no-code integrations with the most popular cloud storage and media asset management systems alongside MASV’s file transfer automation technology for game-changing productivity gains. MASV file transfer automations can be configured with just a couple of clicks to automatically send, receive, or store large media files to connected storage.
VFX houses can even use Portals to establish an automated handoff process between themselves and source facilities or other post teams during the push-pull process.
Control
MASV Portals can accommodate VFX workflows requiring file upload forms or custom upload parameters around naming conventions, file sizes, file types, and other variables. VFX houses can use MASV Portals to automatically regulate file uploads for projects with specific file type and size requirements, or ensure those uploading meet your terms of service or sign consent forms.
Consent forms can be especially handy when working with large amounts of user-generated content or content from several different contributors.
And blocking any file that doesn’t follow your preconfigured rules helps keep things organized, ensures internal system resources don’t get overloaded, and improves security (Portals can be configured to reject .exe files, for example).
Organizations can also create a temporary MASV Portal that automatically expires after a set date (the Portal doesn’t get deleted from your account, but isn’t accessible to users after the deadline passes) – ideal for short-term projects. Or choose to make your Portal private when uploading confidential information such as contracts or unreleased intellectual property (IP).
Speed
MASV bypasses the regular, slow public internet and rides on Amazon’s global Content Delivery Network, which accelerates file transfers by always using the data center that’s closest to you.
Portal owners can also configure MASV Multiconnect to bond multiple internet connections – such as 5G and ethernet, or LTE and WiFi – into one to accelerate uploads as much as 3X. And if your post house has a fiber line, MASV is the only file transfer platform optimized to meet file transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps.
Reliability
Every file package sent through a MASV Portal is chunked and sent separately, which improves performance and reliability. Each file package is then reassembled at the data center using automatic checksum verification, which ensures files and folders arrive with the same structure in which they were sent.
Automatic, relentless retries in case of network interruptions ensure guaranteed file delivery when using MASV Portals.
Security
Portal owners can restrict who has access to their Portal, implement multi-factor authentication, or set a date to auto-disable Portal access for specific users or groups (or all three). All Portal uploads are encrypted with TLS 1.2 and AES-256, and can be password protected for additional security.
MASV Portals are ISO 270001- and SOC 2-compliant and MASV has successfully completed the Motion Picture Association (MPA)’s Trusted Partner Network (TPN) Gold Shield assessment, a must-have security assessment when doing business with major Hollywood studios.
Customization
Portals can be fully customized to match company branding with your choice of logo, background image, and color scheme. Portals can also be configured with customizable file upload forms and automatically enforceable upload rules (more on this below).
Centralized administration
Every MASV Portal includes a centralized admin dashboard for 360-degree situational awareness of all your file transfer activities, allowing owners to monitor account and billing activity in real time.
Supercharge Your VFX Workflows With MASV
MASV Portals can dramatically improve the efficiency of VFX workflows through their unique combination of simplicity, speed, reliability, and no-code integrations and automations.
And since MASV Portals are so simple to set up and use – and don’t require long sales cycles or high upfront costs – anyone can get started using MASV Portals right away with no training, tutorials, or seemingly endless sales calls.
But maybe the best part of using MASV Portals for file transfer and uploads? You can set up as many as you want for free.
That’s right: MASV Portals are free to set up and upload content, and MASV clients are only charged upon egress. Sign up for MASV for free today and you’ll get 20GB of free data to try things out with zero commitment.
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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.
