2020 has been a year of change, challenges, and hardship. But it’s also been a year of unprecedented collaboration and of finding new ways to connect and create. For all the difficulties of 2020, there’s been plenty to praise and admire, too.
In the spirit of focusing on the positives, here are a few highlights from ftrack’s past 12 months: a spotlight on the good things that happened as we faced the year’s challenges.
1
piece of software made free as we adapted to a changing world
Little could have prepared us all for what 2020 had in store. What we can say with confidence, however, is how impressively the industry reacted to lockdown on an unprecedented scale. Entire studios proved their durability and flexibility as they set up new pipelines and turned from brick and mortar operations to entirely remote setups.
As for ftrack, we did our small part for the newly remote industry by making our browser-based review tool, ftrack Review, completely free for use. We hope doing so helped in some small way to ease the rigours of 2020, as we all learned to adapt.
1
Grogu added to the ftrack toy collection
What office is complete in 2020 without a little Grogu? This is the way.
2.0
API released
We launched the ftrack API 2.0! This major new version of the ftrack API followed a year of rigorous internal testing and feedback from our beta users.
With ftrack API 2.0, our users could phase out the deprecated Python 2.X and focus pipelines around Python 3—soon to be the VFX community standard.
3
plugins commercially released
Our ftrack Studio integrations with Unity, Unreal Engine, and Perforce Helix Core went active and launched out into the wild! You can download them for use in your projects today (alongside a whole lot more).
4
ftrack babies born
Welcome to the world Arthur, Wilma, Malva, and Sam, all born in 2020! A big congratulations to all the happy parents in Sweden and the UK
4
employees celebrated over a decade at ftrack!
Fredrik Limsäter, Mattias Lagergren, Mattias Seebergs, and Björn Rydahl have been with us since the start. And we’ve grown from those initial four to 35 in 2020!
(Unfortunately, we had to let the bear go.)
5
studios told us all about the amazing work they’re doing with media review
Thanks to the teams from The Expanse, Raised by Wolves, LCC Arts, Bill & Ted Face the Music and LMCad for telling us about your work and how remote review technology has kept things running smoothly over 2020.
5
more of you told us how you’re using ftrack Studio to make beautiful art
Thanks to A Productions, ESMA, Bomper, Cubic Motion, and The University of Hertfordshire. We were super pleased to hear how ftrack supported you in the creation of some truly fantastic work.
8
women discussed their perspective on the industry
Samantha Pedregon, Kate Gabriel, Niki Kehoe, Jessica Lennox, Nancy St. John, Lucy Cooper, Di Giorgiutti, and Lauren McCallum discussed their journeys in visual effects and attitudes to diversity and gender balance in the industry.
9
creatives told us about their careers and offered some handy advice
10
webinars gave great insight into ftrack, cineSync, and the industry at large
We spoke about remote visual effects on shows like Raised By Wolves and Dark, about how to automate with Actions in ftrack Studio, about secrets and top tips with cineSync, and a whole lot more.
11
teeming gardens and parks showcased for Earth Day
We wanted to celebrate something wholesome during the lockdowns that kept many of the ftrack team confined to their homes. So, when Earth Day rolled around, we asked our colleagues all over the world to share images of their gardens. It was a blast of fresh air during a time when everyone most needed it.
11
years
…since the idea of ftrack was first born. Since then we’ve grown ftrack Studio extensively, launched ftrack Review, welcomed the cineSync crew to the ftrack team, and so much more. It’s been a wild ride!
12
virtual company meetings
All hands on deck! In 2020, it was more important than ever that everyone came together to connect, especially with 35 team members working from home!
We held 12 virtual company meetings over 2020, where everyone got to chat and see each other’s faces. Lovely!
71
features, updates, and improvements across our media review solutions
We made tons of updates to our review solutions over the months, including passphrase protection, a new overlay compare mode, updates to cineSync, a Satellite Review option to help on-prem customers navigate remote work, and, of course, the big one: synchronized media reviews. Gotta love the ftrack dev team! But they didn’t stop there…
95
features, updates, and improvements released across our project management solutions!
The ftrack development team also found the time to launch three new updates to ftrack Studio. Features included new task columns, multiple improvements for producers, a new on-premise installation package, and sync’d client reviews. Marvellous work!
641
respondents told us what they thought about going remote in our survey, “Is the creative industry ready to go remote?”
1000s
of reviewers connected via real-time review sync
We launched browser-based, synchronized reviews in June, and since then you’ve used the feature for countless hours over tons of projects. We’re thrilled to have played a small part in keeping you all in sync, even when you can’t be in the same room.
Bonus round!
22,861
coffees drunk, and counting
You can never have too much caffeine, right? Right!?!? 
169,281
Slack messages sent
The team likes to stay connected!
4.5 million
emails sent
From internal emails to support discussions to communicating with our customers: we’ve sent a lot of emails over 2020.
Thank you
2020 was a year truly unlike any other. Right across the globe, the creative industries worked together against significant difficulties and sought out new ways to continue making great work despite the setbacks they faced.
What I’d like to take away from 2020 is the latter part of that sentiment: the endless will to create. I’ve watched my peers and colleagues draw on seemingly illimitable reserves of inventiveness, creativity, and steadfast determination to surmount what, in March of 2020, may have seemed impossible. Whether it was a cool idea for an animation or a pipeline TD overhauling a studio pipeline, 2020 proved that imagination remains in no short supply.
In the last 12 months, films continued to explode onto our screens, animations bloomed with imagination, commercials found new and innovative ways to deliver their message, and video games continued to blaze a trail as one of the world’s most exciting cultural frontiers. It takes a lot to stem that tide of pure creativity, and 2020 didn’t have it in it.
I’m proud to have watched many of 2020’s creative projects come to fruition with help from ftrack Review, ftrack Studio, and cineSync. We can’t thank our users enough for their ongoing support for ftrack, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next as we move into a new year with new ideas.
Here’s to the endless creativity that emerged across the world in 2020, and here’s to continuing that journey into whatever 2021 has in store.
Fredrik and the ftrack team
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