Crowdsource your indie CG shorts with Artella
Originally posted on 13 May 2016. Scroll down for updates.
Most people know that they can go to sites like Kickstarter if they want to crowdfund an animated short or indie game. But where do you go if you want to crowdsource one?
Enter Artella, an interesting new digital ‘collaboration platform’ intended to make it easier to crew up, manage and take part in community CG projects.
Describing itself as “like GitHub, but for creatives”, the service is being created by the team behind online animation school Animation Mentor.
Crew up and manage collaborative animation, games and VR projects
Anyone hoping to recruit staff to work on a project can fill out a standard project profile, including a brief description, work in progress stills, a list of available positions, and the software beind used.
Other artists can apply to join the project through the site, or simply to follow it to check on progress.
Once work is underway, Artella provides a number of systems designed to make collaborative workflow easier, including a basic shot review system with notes and paintover options.
There is also a files area with a standard production directory structure for hosting shared assets. Artella will manage “all the connections and dependencies between files” automatically.
According to the demo video, the platform is intended for both unpaid and paid projects, although you’ll have to handle contracts and payments directly, outside of Artella.
At the minute, most of projects on the site are animated shorts, but it’s designed for games and VR work too: the files area links to Unreal Engine 4, automatically populating a real-time scene with the assets.
Promote your work, or follow other artists
For anyone hoping to find a project to work on, the site works like a conventional online gallery, with the option to create a public profile and post work.
Other site users can follow you via the site, or share or comment on your work.
Pricing and availability
Artella is currently in beta, with a full launch expected later this year. The site is free to join, with a “low monthly subscription fee” planned for anyone wanting to post or work on a project.
Updated 22 August 2016: Artella has announced that the service will remain free to use until 2017, and that it hopes to make it free perpetually for “small projects”.
Updated 29 September 2020: Artella has now discontinued its indie service. The platform has now been refocused as a file managment and video review service for larger studios.
The indie site will be closed on 1 October 2020, and all project data permanently removed.
Artella says that it now plans to support indie animators by sponsoring eight indie shorts per year. The next round of projects will be selected in April 2021 and announced on Artella’s blog.