VFX Foundry releases 6.5 to provide more flexibility and customisation -

Foundry releases 6.5 to provide more flexibility and customisation

Foundry, the developer of creative software for the Media and Entertainment industries, announced the release of Flix 6.5. 

The latest chapter in the Flix 6 series enables greater levels of flexibility and customisation not previously possible within the story development tool, and headlines two brand new features – Permissions System and Contact Sheets, plus improvements to bolster data and asset management accuracy. Aligned with releases of Nuke, Katana and Mari in December 2022, Flix 6.5 also has updated support for the VFX Reference Platform 2022, while Flix client now natively supports Apple Silicon.

Foundry Flix product manager Mariagrazia Petito Di Leo commented, “Flix 6.5 continues the evolution of Flix toward greater flexibility and customisation for teams needing easier cross-departmental pipeline integration. In this latest release we’ve focused on building a framework that allows clients to script, or access sample scripts, to customise Flix and tailor it to their existing pipeline easily. We are excited to see artists achieve even more creativity in their story development with more time freed up from Flix’s latest feature set.”

Access and share work securely

Flix 6.5 introduces a new permission system based on groups and roles, giving teams greater control over how they tell their stories. Admin users can now access, share, and manage information with the most relevant members of the team securely, from anywhere in the world.

Seamless communication

Flix 6.5 allows users to streamline the review and feedback process between teams from story to editorial, production or external stakeholders; with the upgraded studio-wide contact sheets. Now more flexible and diverse, Contact Sheets give users access to multiple templates, allowing them to choose and customise the templates that best integrate into their pipeline. 

More time for creativity 

Users can also now adopt and implement Flix in their pipeline at any stage of story development with the new versioning system. Flix 6.5 can maintain tracking and versioning whether a panel is ingested in Flix for the first time manually or from editorial, allowing a smoother round-trip between departments and more freedom for artists to start a project while retaining the focus on creativity. 

Integration with any pipeline

With the new media relinking system, Flix 6.5 also smooths out inter-software processes within the story department as users can have their panels automatically relinked in Storyboard Pro and versioned when manually imported for the first time in Flix from apps other than Storyboard Pro. 

Additionally, Flix 6.5 makes data management and the review process even easier with the introduction of managed source file support for Storyboard Pro. This feature allows users to store their .sbpz projects in the server and use them as source files so there’s no need to remember their name or location elsewhere. 

Extensibility is also significantly improved as users have easier API access and more comprehensive documentation, along with the introduction of the Webhooks System, allowing users to eliminate repetitive work with the power of custom event-based triggers that automate standard processes, removing mundane and repetitive work, freeing up time for storytelling.