With the advent of digitalization, the world has experienced a stark rise in collaboration and contribution, especially across geographical and cultural borders. Animated film making is one such arena that has seen itself shaped immensely by online collaboration allowing artists to contribute remotely, ensuring creativity is the winner, and is not hindered by geographical barriers.

Although, the concept of online collaboration is largely fruitful, it’s not entirely rid of its banes. This article will, consequently, be discussing the most routine challenges faced by contributors, especially those who use MacBooks, while collaborating on animated films remotely, and how they can work around these hurdles for a more rewarding film making experience.

Technical Limitations and Performance Concerns

Perhaps, the most common side effect of working on a technical project, remotely is that you are at the mercy of your own technology. Even though, MacBook users are generally satisfied with the performance, and robustness of their machines, occasional hiccups are still inevitable.
The frequency of these hiccups is heightened, especially by the high-performance requirements of the entire animation process, and it could be incredibly frustrating if your mac keeps crashing. It is, therefore, crucial to understand why your Mac crashes, and what troubleshooting measures to take if animators find themselves in this situation, frequently.
The most common underlying causes behind poor MacBook performance are discussed below, and addressing them can alleviate the problem:

  • Outdated Software resulting in poor compatibility, and stability.
  • Unmonitored use of resource intensive 3D animation software that strains the CPU and RAM of your MacBook.
  • Insufficient and cluttered system storage due to local storage of large animation project files.

Communication and Collaboration Hindrances

Considering the fact that remote collaboration is tasked with the responsibility of overcoming geographical barriers, constructive communication, and seamless collaboration are essential pillars needed to shoulder that responsibility. The following problems, especially for MacBook users, can interrupt proper communication, and need to be addressed timely to not tarnish the filmmaking experience:

  1. Disparity of time zones since animators contribute from all across the world. This needs proper management, especially while conducting meetings, so no animator is forced to be present outside the work hours in their respective time zones.
  2. Absence of face-to-face interaction also hinders effective communication as video meetings are not as effective, and they too are limited to team meetings and briefings resulting in little to no one on one interaction.
  3. Feedback can often be misinterpreted as it is often conveyed by written means compared to visual conveyance in a normal office setting.

Version Control during the Transfer of Large Files

As touched upon before, working on animated films is usually very storage intensive, which then becomes a challenge when the stage comes to transfer these large files, and control project versions to minimize confusion between in hopes of achieving a seamless work flow. It is therefore essential to address the following:

  1. Choose an appropriate file transfer service that best suits the workings of the project, and the requirements of your MacBook. This is necessary because with large files, it becomes increasingly difficult, and ineffective to send them as email attachments. Therefore, a dedicated file sharing service can minimize data loss, and offer additional features for synchronization to allow for seamless collaboration.
  2. Choose an appropriate version control software because it’s essential to track versions when there are multiple contributors involved working on the same code space to follow contributions made by each member.

Security and Confidentiality Concerns

Owing to the high degree of competition in the animation industry, security and confidentiality of creative assets becomes an integral consideration of any creative project. This becomes all the more challenging when contributors are scattered all across globe with access to sensitive information about the project but not really accountable to the same degree as they are really administered by the law of country, the project is based in. It is therefore essential to address this by arranging proper non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to protect confidential information. These NDAs now place legal obligations on the contributors to protect the project’s creative and intellectual property, not fulfilling which can subject them to legal action, inspiring more accountability from them.
Additionally, it must be ensured that the online platforms used for file sharing are secure and reliable.
It’s safe to say that online collaboration on animated films paves for exciting opportunities for artists and animators around the globe, and allows for a better team building as the entire world now, essentially, becomes the talent pool. Even though, the advantages are undeniable, there, as discussed, are a few challenges that unmask themselves when a project opts for online collaboration. Exploring workarounds these challenges can enable creative teams to leverage online collaboration to create remarkable animated pieces.