Couchbase, Inc. (NASDAQ: BASE), the cloud database platform company, today announced that Cinesite, an award-winning digital entertainment studio behind blockbusters like Wakanda Forever and No Time to Die, has selected Couchbase decided to direct production. With Couchbase Server, Cinesite will enable artists at its studios around the world to collaborate on large-scale visual effects (VFX) and animation projects. The result will be a truly global production pipeline capable of completing projects quickly, efficiently and with the highest quality.
Cinesite’s artists work on a variety of project types – from high-end TV series to blockbuster feature films to full-length animated films. These are true collaborative art forms, where hundreds of artists work across disciplines, producing thousands of iterations and hundreds of terabytes of data to work closely together. Each individual artist needs to be able to quickly make changes to a shot, character or animation, and then review and update them as needed – while ensuring that every change is fully tracked across locations and that full version control is maintained is in place to ensure a consistent end product. In the modern VFX and animation industry, where projects can range from thousands of elements to tens or hundreds of thousands of frames, and changes can occur by the release date, the ability to coordinate people across locations to deliver work on time and with high quality is essential.
“The nature of modern VFX and animation means we need to be able to work efficiently and at scale,” said Michele Sciolette, CTO of Cinesite. “Coordinating hundreds of artists across multiple studios on every project, spreading workloads to ensure projects are completed on time and with the highest quality requires tight version control of every element of every frame we work on. Our previous solution, originally developed a few years ago when we were all working under one roof, was no longer up to the task. We needed a replacement that could support the data requirements of modern VFX and animation and could replicate data across our studios to ensure we had a consistent view of the data each of our artists are creating. It also had to guarantee the scalability, performance and reliability we need, all without extensive and expensive retraining. We considered several offers, but Couchbase was the only one that fully met our needs. ”
In its 30-year history, Cinesite has worked on several award-winning productions, from the first digital effects in a James Bond film in Goldeneye to Oscar and BAFTA nominations and wins for The Revenant and The Witcher “. season two. It has also grown rapidly: since 2012 it has acquired seven new studios and now operates in the UK, Canada, Germany, Serbia, FYR Macedonia and India.
Couchbase’s Cross-Data Center Replication (XDCR) capabilities enable Cinesite to synchronize activity across projects regardless of size. Rather than confining production to a single studio, Cinesite will be able to collaborate effectively, whether it’s a large-scale collaboration between two Cinesite studios or a small one where an artist spends a few hours contributing to a project that’s in one other headed location. Studios working on different elements of a single shot – like character animations, background effects or lighting – can be sure that all their hard work will be perfectly combined in the final image.
“We’re excited to help Cinesite bring filmmakers’ creations to life while enabling the team to work more efficiently,” said Ravi Mayuram, CTO of Couchbase. “Modern applications require constant availability of data in near real-time around the world to provide customers with a responsive and reliable experience. Couchbase is a geographically distributed NoSQL database that meets these modern requirements while still providing our developers with the familiar SQL programming language. We look forward to seeing Couchbase perform in an environment where it can meet the expectations of a fast-growing, highly creative industry.”
