Y-Film combines flexible Asset Management with a modular Workflow Pipeline, Color Management System, Artist Production Tools, and massively scalable Task Scheduler. Together, the components in Y-Film provide everything necessary to automate and track computer graphic image production.

Asset Management
The conerstone of Y-Film is asset management. Each element involved in shot production can be identified as an asset and given an asset ID (AsID) number. This includes plate photography, 3D renders, output composites, etc. An AsID number is comprised of a 4 character code, unique to a given production, followed by a unique 4-digit integer, separated by a dash. AsID numbers are nestable, meaning they can refer to an output composite and act as a key for identifying all processing associated with a specific job.

Y-Film provides tools to manage the flow of data to and from the SQL database. For example, Prop Files' variables are pre-wired with connections to corresponding fields in the database. This results in an increase in artist efficiency, obviating the need to enter and re-enter tedious data with each job launch. All parameters an artist sets are automatically captured for return to the database. Special attention is paid to ensure remote artists may maintain productivity even without live connections to the database. When necessary, all database I/O is cached for deferred transactions.


Workflow Pipeline Shot control is managed via a shot properties (Prop) file. More than a simple collection of token-pair variables, it is a fully programmable Python script that controls all aspects of a shot's execution. Start and end frames, resolutions, file output names, etc. are specified. The Prop File manages distribution of AsID numbers, assigning unique numbers and keys to each newly created element as needed. The elements created typically include 3D renders, output composites, slate frames, and proxy Quicktime and OGG Theora formatted movies. Each is created automatically from a single launch.


Color Management System
The Y-Film Color Management System contains modules that perform color transforms on images with various encodings. For example, log-encoded pixel values (as stored in Cineon or DPX files) are transformed to gamma 2.2 values for monitor display, and vice-versa. The Y-Film Color transforms may be used to add or remove film-look, the characteristic look and feel of emulsion-based film.


Artist Production Tools
A large number of common shot production tasks have been automated in a collection of artist production tools: iterative looping, sequence concatenation, color consistency proofing, archiving, directory navigation, etc. In addition, Y-Film provides modules that specify a language for frame range expressions, curve data types, and photographic calculations.


Task Scheduler
Based upon the original PBS, TORQUE is an open source, community resource manager providing control over batch jobs and distributed compute nodes.

Moab Workload Manager is a policy-based job scheduler and event engine that enables utility-based computing for clusters. It simplifies management across one or multiple hardware, operating system, storage, network, license and resource manager environments to increase the ROI of clustered resources, improve system utilization to run between 90-99 percent, and allow for expansion.