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Ftrack

Ftrack is currently the main project management option for OpenPype. This documentation assumes that you are familiar with Ftrack and its basic principles. If you're new to Ftrack, we recommend having a thorough look at Ftrack Official Documentation.

Project management​

Setting project attributes is the key to properly working pipeline.

New Project​

The best practice for creating a new project ready for OpenPype.

  1. First of all you must create a project in Ftrack.
  2. All the required attributes need to be populated. The easiest way to do it is by using Prepare Project action.
tip

Do not forget to set up applications and tools, otherwise users won't be able to launch applications.

  1. Now you can create Project hierarchy with shots, assets, tasks and others, which has specific rules. Create Project Structure action may help you with this step.
  2. Last step is to synchronize project to Avalon database.
tip

Turn on auto-sync attribute on your project in ftrack. That way you'll only need to synchronise the project once and all further changes will be propagated automatically.

Synchronization to Avalon database​

This process describes how data from Ftrack will get into Avalon database.

How to synchronize​

You can trigger synchronization manually using Sync To Avalon action.

Synchronization can also be automated with OpenPype's event server and synchronization events. If your Ftrack is prepared for OpenPype, the project should have custom attribute Avalon auto-sync. Check the custom attribute to allow auto-updates with event server.

tip

Always use Sync To Avalon action before you enable Avalon auto-sync!

important

Synchronization actions and events can show you interface with information when something goes differently than expected. Just read carefully what happened messages should guide you.

Synchronization rules​

Required:

  • entity can only contain letters, numbers and underscore symbols. (In technical terms: all names must match regex: `^[a-zA-Z0-9_.]$)*

Not allowed:

  • duplicated entity names within project (there can be only one shot with name "sh0010" in whole project for example)
  • have any Tasks directly on the Project level

Managing Entities​

There are certain situations that are very hard, or even impossible to handle automatically and will have be resolved by your TD. These include

  • Deleting shots and assets after some data has already been published in them.
  • Re-structuring the project hierarchy when work is already being done.
  • Renaming the Project

If you need to move entity or change its name it is possible only in the acse when no-one has worked on it yet. Once work is in progreess, you must archive the old one and create new.

To archive entities you should use Archive Asset/Subset action. This will remove the selected entity from ftrack and avalon database in mostly non-destructive way, so it can be recovered later. To completely delete all traces of this such entity you'll need to go to OpenPype archive and delete them from there.