Version v0.97 Update, 17-Apr-2010

This is a release notice for v0.96/v0.97.

Announcements

• More big productions are using ShotRunner! — ShotRunner was used to track shots for "Alice in Wonderland" released in early March. It is also tracking a 1000+ shot feature being done by a major NYC production company, and is powering collaboration for a multi-national VFX studio with offices all around the world. Even though ShotRunner is handling some pretty big stuff, we will remain focused on helping small, independent and globally distributed productions collaborate, track and share.

• New Support Articles — If you haven't checked it out already, I really encourage everyone to visit the support articles. Start with the First Steps section, which includes the New User Orientation article. Please direct your new users to: What should I do first as a new user?

New Features

This release is mostly about our move to a new hosting provider, Engine Yard Cloud who are able to provide us with a professionally managed stack, better security, and the ability to scale up to any amount of capacity we need. They are based on the Amazon platform, and it doesn't get any more rock-solid than that.

It has taken us a while to make all the infrastructure changes needed for this move, and I appreciate your patience while we've been working behind the scenes. (And by "we" I mean myself, my awesome programmer, Jon Moses, and a great group of VFX artists who have been providing suggestions, and helping with testing.)

There have been a few new features that have crept in while all
this was happening:

• Thumbnails -- Its now a lot easier to add thumbnails to Shots and other objects. You can simply click the button next to the thumbnail, can click a button next to an existing image, or can add a thumbnail image when you are creating a new shot. The support article: How do I add thumbnails? provides all the details.

• File Security -- All files are now stored and served from secured cloud storage. The files can only be accessed by valid ShotRunner project members, are sent over SSL, and the links are only valid for a short period of time. We feel this is quite secure, but it means that you can no longer link directly to files stored in ShotRunner. If you need assistance migrating any thumbnails, just let me know.

• Python API -- User login information is now kept in a separate config file, see the README file. Most all of the examples have been given a once-over, and there are many new examples, including better error handling examples. As always, if you ever need help with the API, just let me know.

• Multi-Vendor Projects -- Some new guidance on multi-vendor projects was posted to the blog . This accompanied some UI changes we for project setup.