Originally developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks, the Flix platform is designed to facilitate collaboration among directors, producers, and editors with artists during the story development process. The platform provides a centralized repository for storyboards, whether scanned or created in other programs, primarily Photoshop and Storyboard Pro, with version control capabilities.
Flix processes and packages these images, adjusting them to the required size and aspect ratio for production, and exports them as automatically generated storyboards. For animation creation, Flix supports integration with Media Composer and Premiere Pro, as well as its own tools for synchronizing image sequences with audio tracks or voiceover recordings.
The software is divided into two separate applications: the central server hub, Flix Server, and the local client application, Flix Client, used by artists themselves. Flix 7.0 is a significant update, reintegrating Flix with Maya, which was removed in Flix 6.0 in 2018.
The Maya extension is designed to bridge the workflows of 2D storyboarding and 3D scene layout: artists can now transfer Flix panels into Maya to use them as references during layout. Then, 3D scene views can be sent back to Flix, either as static snapshots or as Playblasts for using Flix as animated panels, enabling the review of camera movements.
In its press release, Foundry describes Flix as a full-fledged pre-production software. The Photoshop plugin and the Premiere Pro extension have also been updated to improve workflows and enhance customization.
To simplify the process of creating integrations with other programs, including proprietary tools, Flix 7.0 introduces a new API called General Remote Client (GRC), and extension management has been separated from Flix Client, allowing updates to extensions independently of each other.
The release also includes a more detailed metadata system that can be used to manage external production tracking tools, such as ftrack and ShotGrid, using web hooks.
Flix 7.0 aligns with the specifications of the CY2023 VFX Reference Platform and is now supported on Rocky Linux as a potential replacement for CentOS.
Among other changes in Flix 7.0 are single sign-on (SSO) support for user authentication and the ability to disable automatic email updates when publishing or modifying a panel.
Flix 7.0 server is compatible with Rocky Linux 9 and CentOS 7. Flix 7.0 client is compatible with Windows 10 and above and macOS 12.0 and above. The software is available only through a subscription, and pricing is available upon request.