Not every animation company can say that its work directly helps humanity. But not every animation company is Nucleus Medical Media. The largest employer of graduate medical artists and writers in the world, Nucleus provides animations to clients ranging from hospitals needing to show patients how to care for themselves after surgery to attorneys hoping to clarify the details of court cases. While lives may not literally hang in the balance from its work, justice and patient well-being certainly do.

And to ensure that its animations are delivered on time, on budget – and most of all, without having to compromise accuracy or detail in order to do so – Nucleus Medical Media relies on Qube!, PipelineFX's flexible, intelligent render farm management software.

A rigorous choice of render manager

Nucleus’ choice of Qube! was completely impartial: before implementing it at Nucleus Medical Media, Small had literally never heard of the software, or of PipelineFX itself. “Prior to Qube!, we were using the built-in network rendering in Cinema 4D, our primary 3D application,” he says. “It was a simple Google search for '3D render managers for Cinema 4D' that informed me of its existence.”

But while the discovery may have been fortuitous, Small and Nucleus’ IT Director, Lutrell Alford, did their research carefully before proceeding any further, rejecting two of Qube!'s competitors on the grounds of price or customer support, and contacting several studios listed in PipelineFX's website in order to get an opinion from previous users.

According to Small, what finally swung the decision in Qube!'s favor was PipelineFX's customer care. “As this was our first time using any third-party render management, there were lots of questions while we were getting set up,” he says. “I’m sure it felt like hand-holding to the Qube! developers, but they were very patient and helpful.”