First the team measured the site, took photographs and got the dimensions of the various sets of machinery that had to fit into the factory. The preview function of Alienbrain proved valuable, as it allowed the viewing of very large CAD files without having to pull the entire files from the server. The team started to build the factory using CAD drawings of buildings and equipment, as well as the textures from the photographs they had taken of the sets of machinery. Some 10,000 assets, including 200 Discreet 3ds max models, were created and stored on the central Alienbrain server. Each of the models was developed in at least five versions, each of which had 10 to 15 additional files and photographs attached.

Michael Schumann, the team's lead programmer, decided that he needed an organizational tool that would be usable both by programmers and 3D artists — and be simple enough to use by all the members of the team. "While it is natural for programmers to retrieve files from a central database and to submit them after changes are completed, artists and designers need some time to adapt to these processes. Alienbrain's user-friendly design shortens the learning curve significantly," Schumann says. The team installed Alienbrain Studio within one day, and Schumann then spent about 30 minutes training the artists.

According to Schumann, the ability to use plug-ins to work within the main applications (3ds max or Photoshop) while at the same time staying within the secure environment of Alienbrain (that is, files could not be lost or destroyed) was especially valuable for new team members and for freelancers, as they were able to work within graphics interface environments they were familiar with. The ability to train workers on the system within minutes, and to annotate files with explanations and additional references such as photographs and previous file versions proved to be highly useful for a project that had new workers coming in quickly at various phases.

The project was a success, and the Siemens team now uses Studio to manage all digital assets throughout the complete development cycle of their projects. Every time a user enters changes, the system asks for commentary on those changes; every team member can now follow the evolution of a file with a glance at the Comments field: who changed what, why and when. The intuitive user interface allows the project manager to quickly integrate new freelancers into the workflow. The team has by now worked on a great number of projects, and is able to re-use many of its files, such as 3D models of computer monitors, desks or office spaces. The ability to efficiently manage people and to re-use assets with Studio has led to substantial savings of time, according to Siemens.

Beginning as the torchbearer in the digital asset management field helps Alienbrain keep its market footing because of familiarity. © Avid Technologies.

Summary: What Works for Successful Collaboration
This feedback from actual users underlines several key features that are critical to a collaborative tool such as Studio, and gives some insights on collaboration in general. One is the need for tight integration with applications the users are already familiar with, such as popular 2D and 3D toolsets. Here the fact that Alienbrain has been so prominent for so long is a good thing, because it means they've had time to form close alliances with — and have adapted to — the major players in the industry, such as Discreet, Maya, Softimage, Virtools, Kaydara and so on. An intuitive interface is necessary to bring new workers up to speed quickly, without disrupting the workflow. Elegant simplicity may be more important for a toolset than an infinite list of features — if it takes weeks to learn how to use the system it will be useless to a production environment that uses "nomads" — groups of workers that come and go as workflow demands (which is very typical of our industry these days). The ability to call up files visually — with thumbnails and previews instead of long strings of alphanumerics (and God help you if you miss one #@&#(>~| character) — is important for visually-oriented workers such as artists and designers. Working with previews instead of having to call up the full version of a file is handy, since bandwidth is always at a premium, especially for workers at remote sites (including their apartments). The system must be fault tolerant — all the past versions of a file must be kept, so work cannot be lost or accidentally erased. Security is increasingly important — the central server keeps track of who is working on what, and who had access to which files; there also needs to be a hierarchy of who can do what (view, edit, approve) with files.