STEP 01
Open the project
Open The Keeper's Light from the Projects page. It is a six-week AI short whose bid has just been published: the schedule is made and the crew is booked, but nobody has any work yet.
Tutorials/Plan and run a production
Run an AI production
After the bid, the schedule exists but nobody is on it yet. This tutorial is the production manager's side of an AI short: assign the storyboard, layout, video, compositing and lookdev work from the tracking grid, check the schedule by artist, then come back three weeks later and measure the show: what is approved against the plan, what is late, what is waiting for review, and what to do about it.
Follow along
Step by step
STEP 02
Open Status
In the sidebar's Produce group, click Status. This is the production manager's home for the rest of the show.
STEP 03
Read the grid
Each row is a shot, grouped by sequence, with its storyboard as the thumbnail. Each column is a step of the pipeline: Storyboard, Layout, Video and Compositing. A cell is one task: its status, who has it, and its dates from the schedule. All 39 tasks are unassigned.
STEP 04
Select the storyboards
Click the Storyboard column header. Every storyboard task is selected, and a bar appears at the bottom for changing them all at once.
STEP 05
Open Assign
Click Assign. The people booked on this project come first, with what they already have on over the next two weeks, so you can see who has room before you give them work.
STEP 06
Assign Mei
Choose Mei Tanaka, the storyboard artist. All nine storyboards are hers.
STEP 07
Select a range
Layout is split by sequence. Click SH010's layout cell, then shift-click SH050's: the five layouts of sequence SQ010 are selected.
STEP 08
Assign Owen
Click Assign and choose Owen Byrne.
STEP 09
Ask the Assistant for the rest
The rest can be said in one sentence. Open the Assistant and ask it to assign SQ020's layout, the video for each sequence, the compositing and the lookdev.
STEP 10
Send it
Send it. The Assistant makes the changes and the grid updates: Zoe Park on SQ010's video, Hugo Lefevre on SQ020's, Felix Hart on compositing.
STEP 11
Check the schedule by artist
In the sidebar, click Schedule, then group by Artist. Each person's tasks line up on one row, so an overlap means someone is double-booked. Here everyone's work runs one task after another.
STEP 12
Three weeks later
Now jump three weeks ahead. The artists have been moving their tasks along in My Tasks, and supervisors have approved work. Back on Status, the show is 70% done against 81% planned, and its health is At risk.
STEP 13
Open Progress
Click the Progress tab. The burn-up compares the bid days the schedule planned to have finished with the days actually approved. The gap between the lines is how far behind the show is: about eight days of work.
STEP 14
Find where it slips
By step shows where: storyboards and lookdev are done, while layout, video and compositing each have a late task. By artist shows who each one belongs to.
STEP 15
Open the late layout
Under Late, click SH090's layout. It is three days late, and it is holding up SH090's video and compositing. The panel shows Sofia's note and the task's history.
STEP 16
Hand it to Owen
Owen finished sequence SQ010's layouts and has room. Click the assignee and choose Owen Byrne.
STEP 17
Move the due date
Set Due to tomorrow. SH090's video and compositing move out with it, so the schedule stays honest.
STEP 18
Open the review
Close the panel. Under Waiting for review, click SH070's video. Hugo's two takes are in the panel.
STEP 19
Approve it
Click the status and choose Approved. The task is done, and the burn-up's approved line moves up.
STEP 20
Ask what's at risk
Close the panel and ask the Assistant what's at risk this week.
STEP 21
Read the answer
Send it. The Assistant reads the same numbers: what is late, what is waiting, and what is due next.
Up next in Plan and run a production
AI generation is spent in tokens, and like labour it needs a budget. This tutorial budgets an AI short's tokens from its bid, gives an artist an allowance with a hard limit, then comes back three weeks later to see the spend against the work approved, a forecast at completion, an allowance doing its job, and the tokens in the project's P/L.
In the playlists Plan and run a production.