Monday, July 9th, 2018 Posted by Jim Thacker

Foundry ships Flix 5.4


Foundry has released Flix 5.4, the latest update to its next-generation ‘collaborative story development tool’, originally developed in-house at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

The update makes it possible to create a thumbnail pass directly in Photoshop, rather than starting with scanned sketches; and automatically creates a contact sheet when publishing to Premiere Pro.

A hybrid of storyboarding tool, layout, asset management and shot review
Bridging the gap between storyboarding, asset management and 3D layout, Flix is intended to enable directors, producers and editors to work collaboratively with artists during story development.

The platform provides a central repository for storyboard images scanned in or created in other software, including Photoshop and Maya, complete with version management and shot review capabilities.

Uploaded images are converted to the size and aspect ratio required for the production, and may be exported as playlists or automatically generated storyboards in PDF format.

For animatics, Flix provides two-way links to Media Composer, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. It can also be linked up to Shotgun to integrate with a studio’s existing asset-management systems.

New in Flix 5.4: improved Photoshop tools
Flix 5.4 updates Flix’s Photoshop tools, making it possible to start a thumbnail pass directly in the software, with Flix automatically generating a new document with nine thumbnails at a range of common aspect ratios.

Flix also now automatically exports a master image to its Panel Libraries when other common export actions are triggered, to make it easier to generate multiple boards from a single Photoshop document.

In addition, there are a range of new Replace actions for updating storyboard panels, including options to replace them with frames from the timeline, animations from the video timeline, or layer comps.

Changes to publishing workflow, notes and Shotgun integration
When publishing to Premiere Pro, Flix now automatically creates a PDF contact sheet, highlighting any new clips to be delivered to editorial.

The clips themselves can be exported automatically as AAFs, along with the ALE and audio files.

The tools for hand-drawn notes have also been updated, with notes also now being burned into PDF contact sheets automatically, and appearing as an extra layer when opening panels in Photoshop.

There are also a number of UI improvements, particularly to the Dialogue Workspace, and new options when working with Shotgun, including support for episodic shows and default use of Shotgun’s versioning sytem.

You can find a full list of changes via the links below.

Pricing and availability
Flix 5.4 is available for Windows 8+, RHEL/CentOS Linux 6+ and Mac OS X 10.11+. The software is only available as an annual subscription, and is priced on enquiry.


Read an overview of the new features in Flix 5.4 on Foundry’s website

Read a full list of new features in Flix 5.4 in the online release notes