vfxdailies 0.3.0

Tool for vfx/animation/film dailies production.

Dailies Tool

The Dailies Tool is designed for VFX, animation, and film production to help create video files and image sequences from input image sequences, typically in EXR format. This tool supports operations like:

• Creating videos from image sequences (e.g., EXR to QT or other formats).
• Converting between image sequence formats (e.g., EXR to JPG).
• Downscaling image resolutions for easier review or delivery.

Users can also input project and artist information, select render settings, and leverage various external video engines like FFmpeg, Nuke, and RV to perform the processing.

This tool is primarily intended for creating dailies and submitting into a tracking software (Shotgun, Ftrack, and Kitsu), but can be adapted to other use cases where image sequences or videos need to be processed and media files need to be generated. It is essentially a wrapper around FFmpeg, Nuke, and RV.

Features

• Video Creation: Generate video files from image sequences (e.g., EXR, PNG, JPG).
• Image Sequence Creation: Generate image sequences from video files (e.g., MOV to JPG, etc.).
• Image Sequence Conversion: Convert between different image sequence formats (e.g., EXR to JPG, etc.).
• Resolution Adjustment: Downscale or upscale the resolution of image sequences or videos.
• Slate Generation: Optionally add a slate frame at the beginning of videos or image sequences, displaying customizable info like project name, artist, version, etc.
• Tracking Software Integration: Automatically integrate with tracking software like Shotgun, Ftrack, and Kitsu for version management.

Installation Instructions

1. Install Python Dependencies:

To install the required Python packages for the application, run the following command:

pip install .

2. Install External Software:

The following external software must be installed separately. Ensure that these executables are accessible from your system's PATH.

• FFmpeg: Download and install FFmpeg from the official website: FFmpeg Downloads

  • Once installed, ensure that the ffmpeg.exe file is in your system's PATH.

• Nuke: Nuke is a proprietary software. Please download and install it from the official website: Nuke Downloads

  • Ensure that the nuke executable and Python bindings are available and accessible from your environment.

• RV: RV is also proprietary software. Install it from RV Downloads

  • Ensure the rv executable is added to your system's PATH.

3. Ensure Executables Are in Your System PATH:

Make sure the executables for FFmpeg, Nuke, and RV are accessible from your system’s PATH. This allows the tool to invoke them from anywhere.

4. Modify Tracking Constant Module:

The dailies.constant.tracking.py file contains essential configuration information for the tracking software. You must update the following fields accordingly:

• Tracking Software Configuration: Specify the tracking engine you wish to use (e.g., Shotgun, Ftrack, Kitsu) by setting the TRACKING_ENGINE variable.
• API URLs: Update the API URLs for the tracking systems in the API_URLS dictionary.
• API Token: Ensure the TRACKING_API_TOKEN is set with the correct values to authenticate with your chosen tracking software.
• API User: Ensure the TRACKING_LOGIN_USER set with the correct values to authenticate with your chosen tracking software.

5. Ensure Correct PYTHON_PATH Configuration:

To ensure that the tool can access necessary modules and resources, you need to set the correct path for your project directory in the PYTHON_PATH environment variable.

You can add the project directory to your PYTHON_PATH by running the following command:

On Linux/macOS:

export PYTHONPATH=$(pwd):$PYTHONPATH

On Windows:

set PYTHONPATH=%cd%;%PYTHONPATH%

Alternatively, you can add this line to your shell configuration file (e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc, or .bash_profile on macOS/Linux) or system environment variables on Windows for persistent access.

Build the docs locally

pip install mkdocs mkdocs-material
mkdocs serve