VFX
Every VFX shot, from plate to final.
VFX gets tracked in a spreadsheet on most productions, and the spreadsheet loses to reality by week three. Shot tracking here is attached to the scenes the plates came from, so a scene change is visible to VFX rather than discovered in the review.
What is VFX management software?
VFX management software tracks visual effects shots through production — from the plate shot on set, through vendor assignment and versioning, to final approval. It records the status of each shot, the notes given at each review, and which version is current, so producers and supervisors can see where the work actually stands.
What you get
The shot is the unit
Every VFX shot is its own record — shot number, description, vendor, delivery date, status. Shot numbers are unique within a project, so two people cannot quietly create two different SH0140s.
A pipeline that moves one stage at a time
Turnover, layout, animation, FX, lighting, compositing, review, delivery. A shot advances or goes back one stage; it cannot teleport from turnover to delivery because someone picked the wrong item in a dropdown.
Versions, numbered for you
Each submission is a version with its own number, media and label. 'Which one did we approve' becomes a lookup rather than an argument.
Notes pinned to the frame
Click the exact point on the frame the note is about and the comment stays pinned there, on the version and frame it was given on. Mark it resolved when it is. This is the part that replaces a paragraph of email describing where in the frame the wire is.
Shots know their scene
A shot carries the scene it came from, so a rescheduled or rewritten scene surfaces against the VFX work that depends on it.
The count producers ask for
How many shots sit at each stage, across the whole slate, in one view. It is the number that gets asked for every week and assembled by hand every week.
Why the spreadsheet fails
VFX tracking almost always starts as a spreadsheet, and for a small shot count that's genuinely fine. It stops being fine at the point where versions start accumulating.
A spreadsheet row holds one status. It doesn't hold the four versions, the notes given on each, and which note is still outstanding. So that information moves to email, and the spreadsheet becomes a summary of a conversation happening somewhere else — accurate on the day it was updated and misleading afterwards.
Plates are shot once
The most expensive VFX mistake happens on set, not in post: a plate shot without the reference, the markers, the clean pass or the correct frame rate.
The honest state of things: you can tag visual effects as an element during [script breakdown](/script-breakdown-software), and a [shot list](/shot-list-software) entry carries its own VFX notes — but neither of those raises a shot in the tracker for you. The tracker is where a shot gets a status, versions and notes, and shots are raised there directly. Wiring the breakdown into it is work we have not done yet.
What a shot record holds
Enough to answer the questions that come up in a review without opening anything else:
- The scene the plate came from
- Description of the work required
- Free-form notes on the work required
- Assigned vendor or artist
- Current status and due date
- Every submitted version, with notes attached per version
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does VFX management software do?
- It tracks visual effects shots from plate through vendor work to final approval — recording status, versions, review notes and due dates per shot, so producers and supervisors can see where the work stands without chasing email.
- How is this different from a spreadsheet?
- A spreadsheet row holds one status. It can't hold multiple versions with notes attached to each, which is where VFX tracking actually lives. Past a small shot count, the spreadsheet becomes a stale summary of a conversation happening in email.
- How do shots get flagged as VFX?
- You raise them in the VFX tracker, one at a time or in bulk. Tagging visual effects during script breakdown is useful for scheduling and budgeting, but it does not create tracker shots — the two are separate steps today. Each shot you raise then carries its own status, versions and review notes through to delivery.
- Can vendors access it?
- Not with per-vendor visibility, no. Access is granted at the project level, so anyone you let in sees the whole project rather than only their own shots. Vendor is recorded as a field on each shot for filtering and reporting, not as a permission. If you need an outside vendor scoped to their own work, this will not do it yet.
- Does it replace a full VFX pipeline tool?
- No. For large-scale feature VFX with hundreds of artists, dedicated pipeline software does far more. This is built for indie features, series and commercial work where the alternative is a spreadsheet.
- Is it free?
- Yes, on the free tier, alongside the rest of the production chain. Zero commission on crew hiring.
Terms explained
- Conform
- Conform is the process of rebuilding the locked edit at full quality, relinking the offline edit's decisions to the original camera media. The result is the sequence that goes to colour grading and final delivery.
- Dailies
- Dailies are the footage shot on a given day, processed and made available for review shortly afterwards — traditionally the following morning, which is where the name comes from. They are watched to confirm that what was shot is usable before the unit loses access to the location.
- Picture lock
- Picture lock is the point at which the edit is final and no further changes to shot selection or timing will be made. It is a formal gate rather than an opinion, because sound design, score, visual effects and colour all work to a fixed timeline that a later change invalidates.
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Shot-level tracking with versions and notes. Free to start.