More and more business is being done remotely and moving to the cloud, and studio productions and animation are no exception. Bobby Beck, animator and entrepreneur, is at the forefront of this trend as a co-founder of Artella, The Virtual Studio Platform.

Artella is a complete virtual animation studio that brings together writers, visual designers, producers, animators, technical directors, game developers, and editors to collaborate on games, short films, animation, and VR projects.

On July 19th, Bobby Beck took us behind the scenes of Artella at the Filmologic meetup in San Francisco. Not only did we learn about how Artella works, but we also got to hear about Bobby’s story and his vision for founding Artella.

Bobby started in visual effects and feature animation as an animator at Tippett Studio, Walt Disney Feature Animation, and Pixar Animation Studios. In 2005, he left Pixar to co-found Animation Mentor, the first online animation school that connects students with working industry professionals.

His experience connecting animators at Animation Mentor led him to a bigger goal – connecting professionals and freelancers from all fields of production around the globe. With Artella, creative individuals can now create, collaborate, and learn from an entire global network.

Right now, this has been my passion… trying to help empower artists all over the world with the goal of giving everyone the opportunity to play at the same level and make content that competes with Disney and Pixar.

Bobby gave us an in-depth look at how Artella works and the features of the platform, including:

• -Individual profiles/portfolios
• -Project pages that allow individuals to apply for jobs
• -Search function to find talent to help in development
• -Ability to create projects directly in your web browser
• -All files in one location, with free storage
• -Pipeline tools and templated workflows
• -Communication and review tools
• -Integration with various production software, including Maya, Premiere, Photoshop, Nuke, and others

Together, these tools enable completely remote, but effective collaboration on projects both big and small with a worldwide pool of talent.

Artella is not just a trend – it is an inevitable piece of the future of animation. Development is not just for big studios anymore. Artella opens up production to a whole new generation, enabling anyone with an idea to bring that idea to life.

Bobby was able to fulfill his vision of collaboration and individual creative power with Artella, and the animation community is looking forward to seeing the projects that come out of the platform. Hearing about his story, his ideas, and how he brought these to fruition was inspiring to everyone at the event.

We would like to thank ThoughtWorks Inc. for hosting us at their incredible space as well as all of the Filmologic members and attendees who help make these events happen. And most of all, we would like to thank Bobby for sharing his story and answering our questions about moving animation to the cloud.

If you missed this event and want to make sure you hear about others like it, be sure to join the Filmologic Meetup community. You’ll be the first the know about our events and speakers.