Customer
From Git to Perforce: Why the Avatar Previs Creators at Halon Went All-In
Introducing Halon Entertainment
Halon is a full-service company specializing in Storyboarding, VAD, Pitchvis, Previs, Postvis, Techvis, VFX, and Game Cinematics. Their talented team delivers award-winning content while ensuring creative continuity throughout the production process. Under the leadership of CEO Chris Ferriter, Halon has achieved notable acclaim, overseeing Oscar award-winning film projects like Life of Pi and Birdman. Throughout their work, Halon consistently sets industry standards for excellence.
As Halon expanded into new areas of visualization, they became more encumbered by Git's limitations. Juggling two different version controls, Git and Perforce, created disparate and inefficient workflows, and the Halon artists simply couldn’t focus on their craft.
Rogerio Gasi, Halon’s Director of Engineering, recognized the need for a technology overhaul.
From the get-go, his goal was clear: replace Git with a version control system that not only streamlined collaboration but also hid unnecessary complexity from his art teams without the need of a dev-ops team. Rogerio wanted to free up his artists’ time instead of bogging them down in unfamiliar tools and inefficient processes.
“We used to have a single on-prem server per project, so you can imagine how much work was involved in spinning everything up. Now that we have the latest Perforce Helix Core on the cloud, we cut our project startup time from two days to twenty minutes.”
- Rogerio Gasi, Director of Engineering, Halon Entertainment
Challenges
- Disparate and inconsistent workflows.
- No central source of truth for plugin management.
- Limited and inefficient branching and merging workflows with Git.
- Art teams unfamiliar with version control.
Before switching to Perforce Helix Core, Halon faced challenges while working with Git. One issue was the absence of a source of truth for their plugin management. Rogerio mentioned, “We were aware of the limitations of Git when it came to art and binary assets. For work in Unreal Engine, we were simply using Git for plugins that were a part of our pipeline - teams would pull from Git for plugins and then push those plugins onto Perforce - but even that was difficult when you have to manage multiple projects.” This decentralized approach made it tough to keep track of the latest versions across Halon’s teams. One team might update a plugin in Perforce, while another team was using an older version stored in Git, resulting in duplicate efforts and overall chaos.
Halon stored all of their core Python libraries in a single Git repository, using one branch per show. This setup meant whenever they needed to add to the development branch and push it to the main branch, they’d find multiple conflicts across each show branch.
For a non-software developer, the steep learning curve with Git was also a challenge. While engineers are familiar with the Git and version control concepts, many artists are brand new to it. Getting them up to speed involved extra training, which pulled them away from their creative tasks. As Rogerio pointed out, "It's frustrating for artists since it’s hard to find good guides they can relate to using Git. This prevents artists from contributing with new scripts and tools for all projects.”
It was clear that Halon needed a more streamlined and efficient way of doing things to keep everyone focused on what they do best.
Solution
- Centralized Perforce Helix Core server with a depot-per-project model.
- Perforce Streams architecture to manage master materials and plugins.
- Python APIs to automate project setup and workspace creation.
- AYON and Perforce integration to minimize human error and automate manual processes.
- Helix Swarm for streamlined code reviews.
“We used to rely on shared folders and Git for everything from scripts to assets. When we looked at rebuilding our pipeline, and transitioning to Python and Unreal Engine, we knew Perforce Helix Core had to be the foundation.”
- Rogerio Gasi, Director of Engineering, Halon Entertainment
To solve these challenges, Halon started with a central Perforce server with multiple depots. This created a single source of truth and reduced confusion. They streamlined the management of master materials and plugins, helping artists access the tools they need quickly.
By using view mappings, developers can build new projects while referencing existing essential master materials or plugins, cutting down clutter and versioning errors. David Miller, Senior Technical Artist, explained, “This strategy improves dependency tracking, simplified updates, and enhanced project scalability. It lets Halon’s teams leverage their extensive material library while benefiting from Perforce’s versioning capabilities.” Rogerio added, “I needed to hide complexity from our artists, so all they have to do is focus on their art. Perforce allowed us to do that.” Artists used to have to find which templates would be needed for each type of project. Once the plugins and master materials were set up on the Helix Core server, everyone was on the same page and projects got smoother.
Halon enhanced its workflow by developing a new backend to store project-specific information, which lets their tools access data directly from their servers. Then they adopted AYON, an open-source pipeline framework that automates manual tasks like workspace configuration, naming conventions, and more. Chad Provencher, Principal Pipeline Engineer adds, "The Perforce and AYON integration removes the burden of creating and managing workspaces for our artists. This gives the artist a consistent workflow as they move from project to project. Now they focus on the art, not the process.” The AYON and Perforce integration minimizes human error and removes manual processes, establishing a consistent studio-wide structure for managing files.
Halon also implemented an AWS cloud-based Perforce server, which they access through a custom domain. This simplifies user access by removing the need to remember IP addresses, reducing reliance on in-house network drives, and relieving pressure on departments like IT.
Now, Halon uses Perforce for all Unreal Engine plugins and plans to migrate their Maya files and tools as well. A key reason for this transition is that setting up a new Perforce proxy for cloud collaboration is easier than syncing large filesystems across different locations.
By optimizing their version control and plugin management, Halon liberates its teams from tedious tasks. Halon also incorporates Helix Swarm for code reviews of non-binary assets. “Using Helix Swarm with Helix Core lets us keep everything on a single server. The flexibility of Helix Core to integrate with the technology we use and build, is really where it shines,” notes Rogerio Gasi.
At the scale Halon operates, the results of allowing artists to focus on creating stunning VFX, really speaks for itself.
Related Reading ----> Git vs. Perforce
Impact
Why Halon moved their pipeline to Perforce from Git for all their VFX projects:
- Slashed project startup time from two days to twenty minutes.
- Liberated art teams from tedious setup tasks, giving them more time to focus on their craft.
- Enhanced collaboration and reduced bottlenecks across their VAD, Previs, Techvis, VFX, and Game Cinematic workflows.
Rogerio shared, “We used to have a single on-prem server per project, so you can imagine how much work was involved in spinning everything up. Now that we have the latest Perforce Helix Core on the cloud, we cut our project startup time from two days to twenty minutes.”
As a full-service visualization studio, Halon specializes in everything from storyboarding to VFX and consistently sets the bar high. By migrating Git workflows to Perforce, they improved efficiency across all their roles and workflows—cutting project startup times, freeing up art teams, boosting collaboration, and minimizing bottlenecks. Will Ballard, Software Engineer, adds, “Our philosophy is that artists should focus on creativity, not technical details. Perforce Helix Core lets us do that.”
What’s next for Halon? Harnessing the efficiency and power of their new pipeline to innovate and elevate visual storytelling for their future projects, positioning them to stay ahead of the curve and keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Switch to Perforce
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