A conceptual framework for pipeline

In this talk I'll present a \"theory of pipeline\" in which a pipeline is thought of as large and complex version management system. The interesting behaviors come about because the \"versions\" of things come in three distinct types: • Revision---Describes the evolution of things. First checkin, second checkin, etc. • Variation---Describes the artistic intent of objects: red vs blue, tall vs short, etc. • Representation---Describes the different encodings of things, for a given artistic intent: maya vs alembic vs USD vs FBX vs VBO vs OBJ vs ... These essentially form a basis space for understanding pipeline. Using these ideas, I'll define and discuss a number of concepts related to Assets and Asset Management. At the end I will use these axes to categorize a number of pipelines from leading animation, games, and VFX studios.