New cloud-based animation platform will change the way you work

Any artist – especially those creating 3D art, animation and visual effects – will know that creativity can often be hindered by resource constraints. Time and money are the main culprits, but for those in the VFX and animation industries, production infrastructure can also be a huge hurdle. Having a creative mind and the software to act on it is one thing, but developing an effective pipeline to integrate all your digital tools can be a huge hurdle to overcome.

But that all looks set to change with the launch of Artella – a new cloud-based animation, graphics, and VR production collaboration platform that empowers creatives to make animated content together.

Artists can plug their existing 3D software applications into Artella, which then integrates all the necessary components to manage a project wherever in the world team members reside. The platform and tools are accessed through a web browser, and artists can work both on and offline.

A new form of collaboration

Artella is the brainchild of animation veterans: Bobby Beck, Carlos Baena and Shawn Kelly. Between them, the trio has worked on a number of high-profile films during their respective times at Pixar, Paramount, and ILM, including Rango, Transformers, Toy Story 2 and the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.

"The world is full of talented creative people who have the tools in their home to make great content, but lack the professional network," Beck comments in a press release. "We simply wanted to find a way to bring them together from anywhere in the world and to give way to a new form of collaborative production studio. By taking care of the technical production pipeline and communication challenges, Artella allows artists to focus on being their full creative selves so they can make incredible content."

A subscription model, Artella has a 90 day fee-free period, after which creatives pay between $10-$30 a month per 'seat' on their project. So now anybody has the capability to launch their own virtual studio at scale, without the huge cost.