Hi all, I'd like Blender to better integrate with studio pipelines, especially large/medium studios in the games, film, and television industries.

It would be appreciated if you can take this quick survey it asks which program you primarily use at each stage in the pipeline and which format is used.

If there is interest I can provide a summary of the data afterwards if I get enough responses.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pipeline_formats

Let me know of any important omissions, etc.

LetterRip

No .max format? .ma and .mb are there.

Max format is heavily undecodable binary blobbed. There won't be a max importer until the end of XBR supposedly when they make the format more open.

.max isn't an output format for a pipeline since the only tool that can read and write it is 3ds max. .ma and .mb both have parsers for external tools. I suppose I could add it though.

.dds for texture painting

.objs

.objs as far as the eye can see.

The best pipeline is where file formats and other unimportant nuances are transparent to the user.

Where I work now, on this particular engine and its tools, we don't Open or Save max files. We don't open or save Photoshop files. We open the 'asset' or 'assets' to work on, and the engine opens the corresponding Max or Photoshop files. From within those, we simply need to hit 'Save' to have Max or PS send the media back to the engine, in real time, for instant feedback.

It's the first time I've used such an pipeline and I have to say, as an artist, its the best I've used - including Unreal - for straight up 'ease of iteration'.

This question does not need response man.. do you earn money with surveys or what?

If you work developing Blender, just add file formats support. The more, the better.

anyways, i will give you my 2 cents: OBJ and ZTL.

The best pipeline is where file formats and other unimportant nuances are transparent to the user.

Where I work now, on this particular engine and its tools, we don't Open or Save max files. We don't open or save Photoshop files. We open the 'asset' or 'assets' to work on, and the engine opens the corresponding Max or Photoshop files. From within those, we simply need to hit 'Save' to have Max or PS send the media back to the engine, in real time, for instant feedback.

It's the first time I've used such an pipeline and I have to say, as an artist, its the best I've used - including Unreal - for straight up 'ease of iteration'.

That....sounds like a dream.

Blalzer,

This question does not need response man.. do you earn money with surveys or what?

If you work developing Blender, just add file formats support. The more, the better.

Since we have a limited number of developers, and an infinite number of possible things to work on, I'd like to see what formats we can reasonably prioritize to benefit artists the most.

We are trying to ensure that our Collada support becomes top notch this summer, I'm hoping at the end of summer we will add openimageio so that we can seamlessly support an ever increasing number of formats and do so in such a way that is compatible with 3D pipelines for many studios.

anyways, i will give you my 2 cents: OBJ and ZTL.

Like .MAX .ZTL isn't really a pipeline format. A pipeline format is one where either the format is documented for other tools to use, or there is a library that reads and writes the format so other programs can use it. The pipeline format is one that it needs to be in to go from one program to the next stage in the pipeline.

adam,

The best pipeline is where file formats and other unimportant nuances are transparent to the user.

And the TD that set up the pipeline to be seamless from the user perspective had to ensure that each tool either had an exporter to the format you need that worked flawlessly or that each tool exported to a format that you had a converter for.

We want to make the TDs life as easy as possible for integrating blender into existing pipelines.

Originally Posted by adam

The best pipeline is where file formats and other unimportant nuances are transparent to the user.

Where I work now, on this particular engine and its tools, we don't Open or Save max files. We don't open or save Photoshop files. We open the 'asset' or 'assets' to work on, and the engine opens the corresponding Max or Photoshop files. From within those, we simply need to hit 'Save' to have Max or PS send the media back to the engine, in real time, for instant feedback.

It's the first time I've used such an pipeline and I have to say, as an artist, its the best I've used - including Unreal - for straight up 'ease of iteration'.

In-House engine? I think Unity or some other engine had this, as well as the CE3.

Oh, also, I hate you now, grrrr!

Id focus on 2 or 3 major formats and forget about supporting the millions blender currently supports to differing degrees.

In my day to day its usually .obj or .fbx for 3d
.PNG for most images and .EXR or .HDR for high dynamic range stuff.

personally id put FBX above DAE. as its well supported in alot of apps, especially the Autodesk big 3 which allot of folks rely on.

whats with the lack of targa formate and xnormal.

Originally Posted by LetterRip

We want to make the TDs life as easy as possible for integrating blender into existing pipelines.

Not to sound rude towards your decisions or the Technical Director there: Why? The TD in some form or another is making sure your production staff's life is easy. That the tools work as they should and that he can champion any issue that may arise.

Integrating any tool in to any pipeline will never be 'easy', or a breeze, when there's no precedent for said tools or said pipelines.

Originally Posted by Ace-Angel

In-House engine? I think Unity or some other engine had this, as well as the CE3.

Oh, also, I hate you now, grrrr!

It's in-house, yes.