The toolset has a client-server structure, with three client modules, oriented toward typical roles in a creative team:

• The Designer Client supports the creation of content. The system securely hosts all file versions, and allows retrieval with thumbnails and previews (these "quick views" save time because whole files do not have to be downloaded). Because Studio has plug-ins for most 2D and 3D toolsets, the artist can use the tool within the standard application. A user working in 3ds max, for instance, can stay in that toolset instead of having to switch back and forth between max and Studio.
• The Manager Client helps the team leader oversee and track the progress of each project, by letting him/her assign due dates, review files and annotate them or sign off on them, run automated activity reports and export file lists for meetings (actual or virtual) with the team. The preview function lets the manager see the file even if the content creation tool is not locally installed.
• The Developer Client supports software programmers and engineers. Alienbrain Studio claims the honor of being the only system to support programmers and artists on one platform. This is important because many modern productions such as videogames have programming tightly woven together with content, interface controls and other game aspects — gone are the days when artists, codeheads and designers could all sit in their own corners doing their own thing. The Developer Client has a complete set of configuration management and version control features for software, and includes popular tools such as Araxis Merge and Metrowerks CodeWarrior.

So how does Studio actually perform? It's hard to decipher what a software product really does these days — if you wandered the booths at the recent SIGGRAPH show you were probably beset by near-identical descriptions of "solutions" that purportedly did everything under the sun. Asking actual users presents a much clearer picture. Fortunately, in the case of Studio, there are a lot of these to draw from.

Case Study One: Pixelspell Animation Studios
Pixelspell (www.pixelspell.de) is a small studio where more than 50 artists from five countries contribute content, often from their home offices. According to Ralf Zender, the Pixelspell producer, Studio enabled the distributed team to collaborate on the La Cucaracha project, to track progress regardless of the location of the contributor, to make reference and storyboards available to all of the team members and to keep "who's doing what" straight — no easy task, since several artists were working on the main character (a cockroach) simultaneously. The team used a mix of Windows and Mac machines, and Maxon Cinema 4D, Photoshop and other toolsets (with Studio plug-ins). According to Zender, typical daily questions ran thusly: "Where is the model of the toaster? Is the texture for the bathtub ready? And what am I supposed to do next?"

Ralf Zender, Pixelspell producer, and a shot from their La Cucaracha project. © Pixelspell.

Questions such as these are common in any studio, but become even more challenging when the people on the project do not see each other face to face on a regular basis. Studio kept storyboards, models and other digital assets secure in a (non-erasable) central database. Depending on their responsibilities, team members could access, view and/or edit the data — Studio allows for different levels of authority, so that only people that are supposed to make changes can actually enter these into the system.

Pixelspell did not consider what a lot of studios are still using — proprietary software developed in-house, an extremely problematic solution. "We knew that other solutions, for example a custom file maker implementation, would require programming resources we didn't have," says Zender. "With Alienbrain Studio we were able to start right away. Studio… enabled our virtual team to work together smoothly."

Case Study Two: Siemens Corporate Technology
The Industrial Visualization department at Siemens develops virtual reality (VR) applications to support industrial design and building projects throughout the huge (35,000 employees) organization. The department provides visualization of new factories, power plants and other industrial sites in the planning phase, before actual construction begins.

In a typical project, the team built a VR version of a new factory that would allow planners, managers and workers to envisage what the factory would look like when finished — and check out what parts of the design didn't work before the first brick was laid. The team used the Studio Designer and Manager Clients, 3ds max and Adobe Photoshop (each with Alienbrain plug-ins) and the Shark 3D Engine, along with large stereo 3D displays that allowed groups of people to "travel through" the virtual factory as it was being generated.