The latest updates to ftrack Studio and ftrack Review are all about making your review sessions with clients as smooth and productive as possible. With support for tablet and stylus support on hardware like Wacom, giving feedback on projects feels precise and expressive, and we’ve also introduced numerous features to make it easier to manage client feedback. It’s all designed to make your creative process more connected and responsive to your clients’ needs.
At ftrack, we’re all about enhancing the way you collaborate and create with your clients. We believe that clear, open communication is key to building stronger relationships and delivering work that not only meets but exceeds client expectations.
Understanding the importance of client feedback, especially during review sessions where every piece of input can significantly influence your project’s direction, we’ve made it our goal to make the review process as smooth and effective as possible.
With our latest updates to ftrack Review and ftrack Studio, we’re pleased to bring you tools that make giving feedback, organizing ideas, and driving your projects to completion more intuitive and visually engaging:
- Stylus and Tablet Support: Unleash ideas with pressure-sensitive annotations, allowing you to provide feedback or illustrate concepts with the precision of pen on paper.
- Consolidate Feedback: Easily access and navigate through all feedback in a review in one neatly organized list, ensuring you don’t miss any valuable insights.
- View All Client Reviews as a List in ftrack Studio: Keep tabs on all client feedback for projects in ftrack Studio. This organized overview makes it simpler to track progress and feedback across all your client projects.
- Launch Actions from Inside Client Review: Easily launch automations right from within a client review session in ftrack Studio.
- Time-Based Feedback Filter: Zero in on the feedback that matters most with the option to filter comments by specific time frames, helping you prioritize and act on the most relevant comments.
- End of Session Settings: Choose between keeping your media accessible post-session or wrapping up securely, ensuring your content’s security according to your preference.
Please note that to enable tablet and stylus support and other features, you must be running the latest version of the review tools in ftrack. You can enable the New Client Review Player and the New Web Player in your System Settings.
Learn how to enable the latest review tools in ftrack Studio.
Give feedback with precision: Use stylus and tablets for accurate annotations
We understand just how vital it is to provide detailed and accurate feedback to polish your projects and meet your client’s needs. That’s why we’re pleased to introduce stylus and tablet support for media reviews in ftrack, giving you the kind of precise control that’s tough to get with just a mouse or touchscreen.
This enhancement lets you infuse your feedback with artistic expression, allowing you to sketch out your thoughts and ideas as naturally as if you were using pen and paper. Plus, with pressure sensitivity, your annotations can now reflect the exact level of detail and thickness you need, capturing your creative intent.
Our goal with integrating support for tablets such as Wacom is to invigorate your review sessions, making them more productive and creative. By minimizing misunderstandings and accurately capturing both your and your client’s vision, we hope to streamline your workflow and bring your projects to life exactly as your clients imagine.
Consolidate feedback: View all review notes in a single list
At the core of every productive media review is the ability to quickly understand and act on feedback. To make this easier, we’re introducing a feature that lets you pull together all feedback notes from a review into one tidy, easy-to-navigate list.
Simply select “View Notes For Review” to compile all the feedback into one organized overview. You’ll see every comment made on each asset in your playlist, ensuring you save time and don’t miss any critical feedback. Clicking on a note will take you straight to the exact frame or asset it pertains to, allowing you to easily grasp and respond to each piece of feedback within its proper context.
For those of you dealing with large-scale projects that generate a lot of feedback, this comprehensive and orderly list of notes will help you to quickly identify where your focus is needed most.
This feature complements existing options to view notes by frame or item.
View all client reviews as a list (ftrack Studio only)
We’ve streamlined project management by introducing a feature that organizes all your client reviews into one straightforward list on your Projects page in Studio.
- Go to your Projects view.
- On the left-hand side, click on “Client reviews”.
- You'll see an expanded list of all the folders containing your client reviews, organized for easy navigation.
This clear, spreadsheet-like overview lays out essential details of each review, such as names, folder locations, creators, and dates, right for easy viewing. It simplifies managing your client reviews, allowing you to edit names, add descriptions, adjust folder locations, or delete reviews as needed. Plus, with the smart search function, you can swiftly find reviews by name, creator, date, and more.
With just a click, you can open any review from the list, taking you straight to that session to explore the feedback in detail.
This feature ensures feedback is always just a few clicks away, getting you the information you need with less hassle.
Easily launch Actions you have set up in ftrack Studio inside your client review sessions
We’ve enhanced your ability to streamline workflows directly within client review sessions in ftrack Studio, thanks to the flexibility of Actions.
Actions are a powerful scripting interface in ftrack Studio, designed to let you create and execute custom tasks. These can range from automating repetitive tasks within ftrack, integrating with external applications, ans generating detailed reports. For example, you could set up an Action that compiles all discussion points from a review session into a PDF and automatically sends it to every participant.
We’ve now made it easier to launch these custom Actions from inside client review sessions. Simply click on the three-dots icon next to any item in your media playlists and choose “Launch actions.” Alternatively, you can access this feature through the Settings tab in the review panel.
This new capability makes it easier than ever to customize and optimize your project management processes, ensuring that your team can focus on creativity and collaboration. Learn more about launching Actions in client review sessions.
Zero in on urgent feedback with time filters
We get it – during project reviews, some feedback needs your quick action to stay on schedule and hit those deadlines. That’s why we’ve rolled out a new time-based feedback filter. It lets you spotlight feedback from as recently as 3 hours, 12 hours, or even a day ago.
This tool is all about helping you quickly spot and tackle the most pressing feedback, helping you prioritize tasks and make those final edits swiftly and effectively.
Dismiss review participants at the end of a session
Sometimes, when a review ends and the host leaves, the collaborative energy keeps the ideas flowing among the remaining guests. However, there are moments when it’s critical to close the session swiftly to safeguard your project’s privacy.
As the host, you now have the power to choose how your session wraps up. At the conclusion of each review, you’re presented with a choice: keep the door open for ongoing feedback and exploration or end the session for everyone, ensuring an immediate and secure closure. This new feature empowers you to maintain control over your project’s confidentiality while accommodating the flow of collaborative energy if others want to keep going.
At ftrack, we’re committed to deepening your understanding of client needs, ensuring your projects align more closely with their visions. Our core belief is that strong client relationships are the cornerstone of outstanding projects. So, we’re here to equip you with intuitive tools and features that make managing feedback simpler and your communications clearer and more precise. Our latest enhancements are designed with this goal in mind, aiming to empower you and your team to excel.
For any questions about these updates or if you need additional support, our team is ready to help. Reach out to us anytime at support@ftrack.com.