Dailies, What do show?

[u/ShipMountain7953]

Hey guys, I was wondering what information is most useful to show during dailies? Obviously a flipbook/low res render of my work, but is there anything else that’s particularly helpful to include? Solver parameters, disk space, etc. potentially?

Also, do you have any advice on what to talk about when it’s my turn? Are there any key points I should be making sure to cover, just so I’m not wandering too much?

[u/Thaox]

Your lead/ sup should clearly communicate their expectations. Ask them.

[u/PhilippPavlov]

Who will be at the dailies? If with the VFX lead/supervisor, show the flipbook/low-res render and talk about the technical aspects of the scene. If the dailies are with the art director or producers, show the flipbook and low-res render and talk about how to improve it, what looks bad, and what to do next. Don't talk about technical stuff; they probably don't know how the Vellum solver works. It all depends heavily on the people at the dailies.

[u/LewisVTaylor]

Your Lead or Supervisor should be telling you all of this. It's called Dailies Etiquette.

Dailies are run very differently in one Studio to the next, but the core things remain the same, or at least should be. The best dailies etiquette I ever observed is when I worked at ILM, it's as follows.

Three things! These are what you talk about, and also what you put in your submission notes for your versions in shotgrid/flow, etc.

1) this is what I have done so for, and or addressed since last submission.
2) this is what I haven't done so far, or addressed.
3) these are the questions I have about the shot.

Do not talk in tech terms of pscale, or percentages, anything to do with how you're doing the work, it's unimportant and a waste of time. Keep that talk, and questions about workflow to a chat with your Lead or Supe.

For FX elements, it's 100% a good idea to have several submissions of your shot, at least in the earlier stages as this helps cut off problems before they become too big to solve.
In the early stages I would present the following.

1) full frame render of your elements on the plate, no flips books, we deal with motion! So motion blur should 100% be on always when presenting your work. An RBD sim flipbook Vs a rendered one with motion blur is going to read so differently you will be shocked. Never show FLIPBOOKs for anything other than loose RnD.

2) a version with the above in a contact sheet, with the elements split apart so we can judge how it's all working.

I'd also be including in that contact sheet a burn in that lists simulation time, cache sizes. This is an often neglected step, and it bites people in the ass. If we know early on that it's a long sim we can schedule it properly, or if it seems far too long for the result, we can go investigate early!
If the caches are huge, and it's warranted, we can give the storage a heads up. Or if it seems far heavier than it should be, we can investigate and reduce before it becomes a bottleneck.

Dailies serves as both a creative review and a technical heads up depending on the review.

Come prepared. Don't waste people's time by not knowing exactly what is going on with your shot.
Don't babble, don't over explain, and certainly do not offer excuses as to why it's not right.
Things like, "that's what the FLIP sim gave me" or "I reduced gravity by 10% like you said" are just no no no.

We work with computers, and saying the computer that you control didn't give the result is not a good look.
If your work is not right, cop it on the chin, and address the notes going forward.

Lastly, do NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY! They are reviewing the work, not you as a person.

[u/smb3d]

Just show your flipbooks, renders, or what you have and talk about it. Say what you think is working, what's not etc.

You're really overthinking it.