New User Orientation

Welcome to ShotRunner!

What is the "big idea" behind ShotRunner? ShotRunner is an online application for Visual Effects and Animation projects. ShotRunner helps you organize, collaborate, manage and track media projects. Its main purpose is to let distributed project teams stay coordinated and productive. It is really several tools in one:

• A status board for sequences, shots, elements, assets and tasks.
• A discussion forum
• File sharing
• Task manager
• Shared/editable web pages

It borrows many ideas from sites such as Basecamp and Backpack but with features and organization specifically for VFX and animation.

Getting Help

For help with any aspect of ShotRunner, please visit our support site at http://help.shotrunner.com, or email us at support@shotrunner.com

A Few Features

• Security: Every account gets its own private MySQL database and web domain -- nothing is shared between accounts. User passwords are encrypted, even we can't see them.
• Safety: Offsite backups are made every night.
• Project Breakdowns: Projects are organized into sequences, shots, elements and assets.
• Task Manager: Tasks can be created at any level in the breakdown and assigned to users with due dates, notes and attachments.
• Forums: Threaded notes can be added at any level in the breakdown. Email notifications can be sent to any project member.
• Workflow: "Submit Work", and "Request Response" workflows permit supervisor notification of work to be reviewed.
• Flexible Teams: Users can be assigned to different teams with different roles on a per-project basis.
• Attachments: Files can be attached to shots, elements, assets, tasks and notes. Files can be attached to work submissions.
• Configurable: All status and object type codes can be modified by the account administrator. This includes labels used in select lists and colors used in reports.

Basic Concepts

A good way to think about ShotRunner is a website where every shot gets its own web page with information, tasks, file attachments and a discussion forum for that shot. Of course, its much more than that. Here are some of the basic ideas:

• Each production is a Project. You can run multiple projects at once.
• Each user has a unique profile with their own email address in order to receive email notifications.
• Your administrator will add you as a member to one or more projects. You will be a part of a team for each project.
• Projects contain Sequences. Sequences contain Shots.
• Shots are optionally broken down into Elements. Think of an Element as something for compositing, like a background plate, 3D render, matte, etc. 
• Assets are standalone production or pre-production elements (such as 3D models) that might be shared across several shots.

Here is a diagram that shows the relationships between the major object types:

The system is very flexible in terms of where you can add notes, tasks and files:

• Each Shot, Element, etc. has a discussion forum. Each discussion thread has a list of subscribers. When new notes are added to the thread, the subscribers to that thread get an email notification.
• You can attach any kind of file to your Shots, Elements, Tasks, etc. These could be reference photos, camera data sheets, or work-in-process (dailies).
• You can add Tasks to Sequences, Shots, Elements and Assets. Tasks can have attachments and notes.

Here is a diagram showing what you can attach to the various objects:

Helpful Tips

1. Please ask for help if anything is not clear. We want to hear from you! Just click the 'Support' link in the upper right corner.
   
2. Try to log all your conversations about the project in ShotRunner, and avoid side conversations in email, chat, etc. This will build up an invaluable searchable project history, and will encourage better collaboration.
   
3. Consider following the ShotRunner Twitter Feed for up-to-the-minute news and status.
   
4. Check out the following document: First Steps for New Users

Again, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. We are here to help!