Tuesday, July 30th, 2024 Posted by Jim Thacker

Autodesk launches Flow Generative Scheduling


Autodesk has launched Flow Generative Scheduling for Flow Production Tracking, its cloud-based production management system, formerly known as ShotGrid.

The AI-based system lets VFX and animation studios create alternative schedules for projects semi-automatically, to assess the impact of deadline or staffing changes.

A long-awaited AI system to generate production schedules for VFX and animation
Autodesk first announced generative scheduling two changes of product branding ago, back in 2020, when ShotGrid was still known as Shotgun.

Since then, it has been incorporated into Flow, Autodesk’s suite of cloud-based services for media and entertainment, and renamed Flow Production Tracking.

Generate variant schedules based on time and resource constraints
Flow Generative Scheduling is intended to help teams “make critical decisions faster”, by comparing the trade-offs of alternative scheduling scenarios.

The video at the top of the story shows the basic workflow, with a user entering high-level constraints for a project: essentially, the permitted start and finish dates.

The system then automatically generates a matching schedule, respecting the dependencies, priorities and resources available for the project.

It is broken down by department: roto, layout, animation, FX, compositing, and so on.

The user can then make changes on a per-department basis – in the example shown in the video, to plan for compositing having to start later – and generate a variant schedule to assess the impact of those changes.

Imports and publishes schedule data to Flow Production Tracking
The system is separate to Flow Production Tracking itself, making it possible to compare alternative scenarios without affecting the live project.

Users can import schedule data or publish a new schedule back to Flow Production Tracking in the JSON-based Open Schedule Format (OSF).

You can find more details in the online documentation, which includes a video showing the workflow in more detail.

Price and system requirements
Flow Generative Scheduling is available as part of Flow Production Tracking subscriptions, which now cost $45/month or $365/year.

It will become available with Flow Production Tracking release 8.65, due in “July 2024”.

Flow Production Tracking is a browser-based service, and is compatible with browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge.

Read more about Flow Generative Scheduling in the online documentation

Visit the Flow Production Tracking product website


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