Tools built because the off-the-shelf ones kept getting in the way.
Overview
Interfaces, realtime graphics, and internal tooling. Most of it starts as something we needed on a job and ends up general enough to hand to someone else.
Challenge
The pipeline was five tools none of which agreed on a file format, joined by a person whose job had quietly become conversion. Realtime work was failing in ways screenshots could not explain.
Our Approach
Every tool started as a fix for one real production problem with a date attached; generality was earned later, by a second job asking for the same thing. The debug surface was built as part of the product rather than bolted on.
Outcome
Tooling that survived two jobs, got documented, and went to the rest of the studio. The conversion job stopped existing, which was the actual deliverable.
- Naomi Blake
- (Engineering)
- Felix Hart
- (Graphics)
- Iris Coleman
- (Design)
“One person spent half their week converting files. That week is back and nobody misses the tool it replaced.”
Ada Okonkwo,Head of Production
Tools04
Loupe
macOS · WindowsReview tool for cuts in progress. Comments land on frames, not timestamps.
Ledger
WebProduction budgets that reconcile against the actual call sheet.
Grain
Plug-inFilm response curves measured from our own stock, not approximated.
Atlas
WebThe asset library, searchable by what is in the frame rather than the filename.