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Technical Director: Project Creation Guide

This guide outlines the standard operating procedure for a Technical Director (TD) to create and bootstrap a new production project using the OpenStudioHub.

1. Project Initialization

The project creation process is initiated directly from the TD Dashboard. As a TD, you must provide:

  • Project Name: A unique identifier for the production.
  • Blender Version: The target Blender executable version for the project (e.g., 4.2.0, 5.2.0).
  • Project Template: The base template for folder structures and tasks (e.g., standard-3d-production).
  • Splash Image (Optional): A hero image for the project's dashboard.

2. Kitsu Database Integration

Once initialized, the OpenStudioHub automatically interfaces with the Kitsu API to:

  • Forge the root project entity in the database using the selected template.
  • Establish the base taxonomy (Departments, Task Types, and Asset Types) required for the pipeline.
  • Extract the project_id to bind local NAS files to the Kitsu tracker permanently.

3. Storage and Semantic Topography Generation

The Hub builds the physical directory structure on your centralized NAS (Network Attached Storage):

  • VFS Folders: Creates isolated structural environments including vfs_local (sandboxing), vfs_shared (symlinks), and vfs_pipeline (metadata).
  • Production Tree: Scaffolds standard working directories such as pro/assets, pro/shots, pro/edit, and tools.
  • Metadata Injection: Writes the project_init.json payload into the pipeline folder, acting as the blueprint for artists when they install the workspace.

4. Version Control (SVN) Setup

To ensure data integrity and enable Vendor Sparse Checkout (Jailing), the Hub configures Subversion (SVN) under the hood:

  • Server Repository: Creates the remote repository on the SVN server (often using Dockerized SVN for local setups).
  • Access Control: Configures svnserve.conf and injects baseline credentials to secure the repository.
  • Ignore Rules: Sets svn:ignore patterns to exclude volatile local caches (vfs_local, *.blend1, etc.) from version control.
  • VFS Monkey Patching: Injects the 00_openstudio_vfs_patch.py script to route Blender's Virtual File System correctly upon launch.
  • Initial Commit: Pushes the baseline blueprint to the server, making the project ready for artists to clone.