Crafty Apes Transitions to Remote Work With Support From RFX and Teradici

Minimal disruption to workflows as more than 150 artists spread across five office locations shifted home with remote desktop access in less than one week

LOS ANGELES & BURNABY, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#PCoIP—Crafty Apes, a visual effects and production studio with a list of impressive credits that includes Jumanji: The Next Level, Watchmen, Hustlers, and Dolemite is My Name, has announced it has shifted all of its artists to working from home, with the support of RFX Inc., a leading hardware and software solution provider for the visual effects industry, and Teradici®, the creator of industry-leading PCoIP® technology and Cloud Access Software.

The transition of approximately 150 artists took approximately one week, with 60 artists transitioned in a single day. Crafty Apes was able to keep its artists online and production schedules have been maintained at a time when many enterprises across a wide range of industries have struggled to support a mass migration of employees from the office to the home.

“We had to go from an office full of people to everyone working from home, and we had to do it very quickly,” said Tim LeDoux, founder and VFX supervisor for Crafty Apes. “Thankfully, we had help from RFX and Teradici and their technology solutions to help us get it done. Our artists are all now working from home, editing shots, doing their jobs, and all with a high degree of security, since we’re just streaming the data and not sending any files home.”

Crafty Apes, a Teradici customer for several years, expanded an existing installation of PCoIP Remote Workstation Cards, which were used to support artists in branch offices and other remote locations from centralized data centers. Teradici Cloud Access Software now makes it possible for organizations to get the same benefits by deploying PCoIP technology through software installation only, without any additional hardware required.

Crafty Apes artists have full access and functionality of their office workstations from their home offices using 10ZiG zero clients and can work within their regular software applications, including Nuke, Houdini, Autodesk Maya, and Adobe Photoshop. PCoIP technology encrypts and sends only pixels to the remote endpoint with high-fidelity color and graphics performance and virtually no latency, while keeping files securely stored in the office location and compliant with Trusted Partner Network (TPN) security requirements.

“There are a number of reasons for VFX studios to implement PCoIP technology, including long term security, efficiency, and cost savings in centralizing workstations either in the cloud, in private data centers, or a combination of both,” said Ian Main, technical marketing principal for Teradici. “Crafty Apes and RFX have demonstrated that one of the key advantages is in the agility and resiliency PCoIP solutions can bring to studio workflows, and we believe this can be applied across not only the media and entertainment industry, but more widely across other organizations as well.”

RFX, which specializes in software and professional services for visual effects studios, has seen increased demand for remote work solutions over the last few weeks as production centers like California, New York, Vancouver, and India have been closing offices and shifting employees home to comply with public health recommendations.

“Each company has different permutations and combinations of hardware, software, projects, and locations to support,” said Cliff Edson, general manager for RFX. “Teradici PCoIP technology is tried and tested across the industry and delivers in terms of fidelity, performance, and security requirements, but the specific implementation of it can vary according to each company’s needs. Working closely with Teradici, we have the expertise and experience to run proofs-of-concept exceptionally quickly and help minimize downtime during a studio’s transition.”

Teradici has helped many organizations shift their desktops and workstations to the cloud to support remote work. For more information, including step-by-step technical guides and related resources for IT teams, visit www.teradici.com/remote-work.

About Crafty Apes

Crafty Apes is a full-service visual effects company started in Los Angeles, with studios in Atlanta, New York, Baton Rouge, Albuquerque and Vancouver. Beginning as a VFX studio for film and TV, Crafty Apes has grown to include a talented roster of creative and production supervisors that offer set supervision, VFX consultation and high-end CG and previsualization services. Crafty Apes’ work can be seen on such projects as Birds of Prey, La La Land, Hobbs & Shaw, Star Trek: Picard, The Orville, Doctor Strange, Men in Black: International, Deadpool 2, and many more. For more information, visit craftyapes.com.

Instagram: @craftyapesvfx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/craftyapesvfx/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crafty-apes-llc/

Twitter: @craftyapesvfx

About RFX

RFX is the leading hardware and software solution provider for the visual effects industry. Located in the heart of Hollywood and serving clients all over the world, we are your best source for visual effects hardware, software, advice, service, and support in the film, TV, video, web, gaming, and interactive industries. RFX serves thousands of clients ranging from individual freelancers to some of the largest companies in the industry.

About Teradici

Teradici is the creator of the PCoIP® remoting protocol technology and Cloud Access Software. The company’s core mission is seamless and secure delivery of workstations and applications for end users. Teradici PCoIP technology and Cloud Access Software offer the most secure remoting solutions for public, private, and multicloud environments, enabling visualization of even the most graphics-intensive applications. The company’s solutions are deployed by Fortune 500 enterprises, government agencies, and service providers around the world.

Twitter: @Teradici

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teradici/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TeradiciLabs

Teradici and PCoIP are trademarks of Teradici Corporation and are registered in the United States and/or other countries. Any other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

Contacts

Media Contact:
Carmen Mantalas

Mantalas Communications for Teradici

carmen@mantalascomms.com