NXN Software s alienbrain

NXN Software’s alienbrain (www.Alienbrain.com)

NXN Software’s alienbrain 5.0 is a digital production management software application for enhanced project management of gaming assets, studio management, and bug tracking. PMX, or Project Management Extension, allows the manager to plan the project, schedule it, and track it efficiently by allowing maintenance of multiple project plans per team, associated media assets on a task basis, and task distribution, with progress and completion monitored in real time.

BMX, or Bug Management Extension, enables development teams to log, store, assign, track, and resolve bugs, feature requests, and development tasks, as well as produce summary reports. SMX, or Studio Management Extension, provides current status reports and content reports for production and asset (artwork, audio files, and so on) management. Reports can be based on an individual user or team based on content and modifications.

NXN alienbrain Starter Pack is a configuration system for smaller teams ($9,990 for a team of up to ten users that contains one team productivity server, one PowerClient, five BaseClients, and four CodeClients with one year maintenance). Just like NXN alienbrain’s other applications, the Starter Pack includes version control for media assets and source code, project management, and workflow functionality. The Starter Pack integrates with Discreet’s 3D Studio Max, Alias|Wavefront’s Maya, and Softimage|XSI. The package is designed for ten users and can be extended to 20 users if needed.

NXN Software’s alienbrain VFX is an asset management solution specifically designed for the production of large-scale visual effects projects. NXN alienbrain VFX is based on the technology behind NXN alienbrain and has key features, such as asset management support for scanned and rendered film frames; handling of large, binary files such as 3D models and film frames; graphical clients for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows; scalability to tens of terabytes of production data and millions of objects; optimized high performance file transfers in NFS (Network File System) environments; and integration with common visual effects and animation tools, such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Softimage|XSI.

NXN Software’s alienbrain 6.0 offers over 50 new features and improvements, most of which focus on the product’s new software configuration management (SCM) capabilities for programming teams like full branching, branch merging, sharing, structural history, atomic get, and pinning features—and these new features apply to the asset management aspects of alienbrain as well.

Other features designed for programmers include command-line tools for automated processes and shell scripting, event scripting to allow teams to modify the behavior of existing functionality to suit specific development processes (e.g., create a script that aborts an import if a file does not conform to a certain pixel depth or size), the ability to change reporting tools, a customizable defect and request tracking module, and integration with Microsoft Visual Studio and Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior. A new dedicated alienbrain “Developer Client” complements the pre-existing “Designer Client” and “Manager Client” used by development teams. Developer, Designer, and Manager clients are available for $690, $990, and $1,990, respectively. A Japanese version is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2003.