AYON from non-developer point of view, also some issues on addons

[adev]

Hello,

As a 3D Generalist working in the industry I’d like to thank you for finally making a
proper pipeline framework, available to studios and more so creatives.

I’m not an expert in any of this, but I was able to set up an AYON server on an AWS free-tier instance for initial testing and understanding before proper deployment for my fully remote studio setup (if only I can have a solid understanding of how everything works).

After the setup and my first login to the server, I selected the required addons, and after that, I could see them. According to this documentation: Testing AYON pipeline early access beta (Deprecated), I have to install addons manually to it’s directory (but the documentation is deprecated?) so I followed everything starting with step 4. yet I can’t see the AYON menu item in Maya 2022. I checked the application settings, executable path, re-downloaded the launcher, re-installed it without luck. Currently stuck on this and probably going to ask in a different thread if I can’t troubleshoot.

I’m also taking some notes about the setup and the general user experience of my own to post here so that it might be helpful for future documentation or at least make it easier to understand for non-developers as well. I’m currently having a hard time understanding the terminology. Bundles, overrides, addons, and packages, simply the pipeline. But the idea of having validators inside DCC’s and proper publishing and authoring combined with project tracking/management is something I cannot miss.

I’m pretty certain that everything is highly streamlined for a pipeline developer with prior studio work experience who knows what they’re doing. I’ve worked in a few VFX houses, with the largest having around 50 people and peak productions running for Netflix yet I haven’t encountered a single person who understands studio pipelines, production management, and scalability so getting help from experienced people is kind of rare in my case.

Also, I’ve recently been more involved in the game development industry, and considering its market share (which was three times that of film and music combined as of 2021), I’m guessing that there will be an increased demand for pipeline work. So, I hope AYON won’t be positioning towards VFX and post-production houses only.

I’ll be posting more and will likely be asking the most beginner questions in the foreseeable future (:
Have a fantastic day!

[BigRoy]

@adev

yet I can’t see the AYON menu item in Maya 2022. I checked the application settings, executable path, re-downloaded the launcher, re-installed it without luck. Currently stuck on this and probably going to ask in a different thread if I can’t troubleshoot.

It’s important to understand that just launching Maya regularly from your system’s OS will not launch with AYON. You’re required to launch the applications through AYON’s desktop launcher

Even though this guide was once intended for OpenPype the concept remains the same; you’ll need to make sure you are launching Maya like that in a task. It also describes the “I don’t see AYON/OpenPype within the application” situation.

I believe your Issue has been solved in the Ynput discord community in the Have you launched Maya from AYON discord thread here. - linking it here for those reading this forum topic and might need those extra screenshots that got shared there. To recap that discussion:

• You didn’t have any Folder + Task created which were required to launch an application using the Launcher. Once you had that created it became trivial to launch Maya with the pipeline functional.

@adev

Also, I’ve recently been more involved in the game development industry, and considering its market share (which was three times that of film and music combined as of 2021), I’m guessing that there will be an increased demand for pipeline work. So, I hope AYON won’t be positioning towards VFX and post-production houses only.

Generally the tools needed will differ quite a bit. Looking at the current community I assume it might not get a huge part of development focus - nonetheless I don’t see why it wont be possible to integrate AYON nicely within a game studio. (Especially with there already being an Unreal integration, etc.) I believe the biggest culprit is that studios tend to use Perforce or alike which might require a slightly different methodology - nonetheless, I have even seen focus on that within AYON/OpenPype’s development but it’s just not high up my own radar.

@adev

I’ll be posting more and will likely be asking the most beginner questions in the foreseeable future (:
Have a fantastic day!

Looking forward to it - and thanks for wording your issues clearly!

[mustafa_jafar]

Welcome to AYON!

I’m glad you made it here and I wish you a great journey learning about this amazing program!

@adev

I’m pretty certain that everything is highly streamlined for a pipeline developer with prior studio work experience who knows what they’re doing.

In my opinion, AYON is made to have a standardized pipeline where you don’t have to hire a pipeline developer to maintain/operate your studio’s pipeline.

People who deal with AYON are classified into 3 categories

1. Users (typically artists who are using DCCs)
2. Admins (who can be CG supervisors or experienced artists)
3. Developers (who can fix bugs, add new features, enhance existing features or maybe do some studio customization)

I love this inspiring talk, it tells a lot about the story of AYON.
I believe 14:37 time stamp might interests you

Ynput presents: AYON pipeline beta early access

@adev

I hope AYON won’t be positioning towards VFX and post-production houses only.

Game studios share a lot of similarities with VFX and animation studios
Also, some studios may use Unity or Unreal because their real time rendering capabilities
like that Big Hero 6 scene “Baymax Dreams”

I believe AYON can fit in.
However, its main purpose to manage VFX and animation pipeline (Deliver a visual image / sequence of images).
Maybe @milan can tell us more!

@adev

I’m currently having a hard time understanding the terminology. Bundles, overrides, addons, and packages, simply the pipeline.

Don’t worry, you will get there!
AYON is a big system so give yourself sometime to be familiar with its aspects.

Also, some guides are in progress and feel free to suggest new ideas for guides!
These are some new guides:

AYON 2023.8 - Production beta testing notes

[ayon_202380] Getting started with AYON server and AYON pipeline beta To get everything up and running you will need: AYON server - The heart of AYON that all other tools talk to. AYON pipeline bundle - Release bundle containing all you need for deployment of AYON pipeline 1. Deploy AYON Server The best way to deploy the server is using our provided ayon-docker repository with the official docker image. Simply follow the instructions in the repository readme 2. Prepare server for AYON…

AYON Beta Testing - Minimal step by step guide

This is a simplified guide that provides minimal straightforward basic setup. This guide is more for people who face difficulties and would like an easy step by step guide Feel free to do any steps in your own way Linux Virtual Machine Notes AYON will be deployed on that VM machine. I prefer using VMs because you can repeat the process without getting worried about cleaning old files because you’d only will delete the VM files and that’s it. My Setup: Minimum machine requirements: 1 …

[adev]

thanks for the feedback and your time
@BigRoy @mustafa_jafar

I’m starting to understand how AYON works and learning curve turns out to be faster than I expected.