Navigate the global navigation menu

Navigate the global navigation menu

The global navigation bar is the menu at the very top of Flow Production Tracking. The global menu allows easy access to a user's Homepage, Inbox, Projects, and more.

Flow Production Tracking is highly customizable and the global navigation menu may have been customized to suit your studio's needs. We will cover all the options that appear in the global navigation menu by default but be mindful that the options available on your own site may look different and may have been configured by a site administrator.

Your access may also be restricted, in that you may not see some of the available menu options, or the menu options may not display any data when selected, because the permission level assigned to you restricts your access. If you’re following along this training from a trial site that you created, you will have Admin permissions by default, giving you full access.

The menu items available on this bar can be configured by a Flow Production Tracking administrator.  

Home Page

The very first button on the top left of the menu is the Flow Production Tracking logo. When selected, the logo acts as a shortcut to your Home Page.

If no "Home Page" is set for your user, then the Flow Production Tracking icon will default to the Projects Page, which is a page showing all of the Projects in your Flow Production Tracking site (at least the ones that you have permission to see), unless you change it.

Your Home Page can be set from either your Account Settings or from your user profile, by typing the name of the page into the Home Page field.

You can verify if your shortcut is working by clicking over the Flow Production Tracking icon in the global navigation menu.

Inbox

To the right of the Flow Production Tracking icon is the Inbox. The Inbox allows users to see activity on all the things that are important to users and their work. Through the concept of following, users can receive notifications when new Notes, Versions, Publishes, or other important changes are made on things that are related to their work.

From the Inbox, users can quickly set the kind of notifications they will receive by selecting the gear in the top right-hand corner and choosing "Following Settings". From the "My Follow Settings" tab of a user's Account Settings, users can set up which information they will be subscribed to receive notifications about directly into their Flow Production Tracking Inbox.

When there are notifications waiting in your Inbox, a red icon will appear over top of the Inbox. This is the Inbox notification badge. The badge will display the number of new notifications that are waiting for you.

My Tasks

The next menu item is My Tasks. This page is intended to help Artists keep track of what they’re working on. The page displays all the Tasks assigned to you. Clicking on a Task on the left-hand side will load up the Task's linked entity in the detail pane on the right. If I’m assigned to a task on a shot, I can click on the task on the left, and the shot will open on the right. I can quickly get an overview of that shot, see any other tasks that are being worked on, see any versions that have been submitted, and any notes that I need to read so that I know what to do and can move forward with my work.

From My Tasks, Artists can launch directly into their creative apps, making it easy to jump from assignment to action.

Media

When you upload a movie or image file into the Media App, Flow Production Tracking will transcode the file into the proper format so that it can play back in our supported browsers. Transcoding is done to make files compatible with different devices and to compress files to a smaller sizes while maintaining their quality. By converting high-resolution video and audio files to smaller, lower-resolution proxy files, Flow Production Tracking can provide faster and smoother playback on web-based interfaces, even with limited bandwidth or processing power.

When media is below 2K, then its current resolution is maintained. If one or all of the dimensions of a media file is above 2K, the larger dimension is snapped to 2048, and the other dimension is adjusted according to the ratio of the original media. For example, a 3648x2736 JPG is transcoded into a 2048x1536.

Using the menu options in the left pane, we can:

• Browse through Projects and their specific entities, like Assets or Shots, to find any Media that has been uploaded to Flow Production Tracking related to those entities.
• Find media based on Playlists they have been placed in.
• Find media based on the Cut sequences that media belongs to.

Once users have found the Media they are looking for, they can use the detail pane to: 

• Play the media in the overlay player.
• Send the media to the app of their choice.
  • For example:
    • A Supervisor who needs to see media in a resolution higher than 2K can send media to RV, from which high resolution media such as 4K plates and image sequences can be reviewed.
    • A lead who needs to be provide detailed annotated notes on media may choose to send media to Flow Production Tracking Create, from where they can overlay media on top of a past version and do a more through comparison.
    • A coordinator who will be taking feedback notes may choose to send media to the Review Notes App, from where they can take notes on media, and update tasking due dates and assignments simultaneously.

Media from all projects that users have permission to see can be accessed from the Media tab of the global navigation menu.

Projects 

The next tab is Projects. The Projects page shows users all the projects they are assigned to, or allowed to see, that exist on a Flow Production Tracking site.

From the drop-down menu, users can quickly search through any Projects they've opened recently, and quickly jump into looking at any entities they want to access on those Projects, like Assets or Shots.

To view all the Projects you have permission to see, select View all Projects to go to the main Projects page for your site.

Otherwise, users can access each Project from the Project link.

All Pages

The All Pages tab shows users all of the pages on a site. Global and project pages can be accessed from the All Pages tab, as well as any personal pages users have created for themselves.

Users can quickly create a New Page from this menu by selecting the gear on the bottom of the drop-down menu and choosing New Page.

Depending on a user's permission level, they may also be able to Manage Pages. This menu option shows users the full list of available pages on a Flow Production Tracking site. Users can select which pages should be shared and available to all users, rename pages, add page details, and delete pages that are no longer needed.

People

The People page displays all users in Flow Production Tracking. See information about a user's status, email, assigned Permission Group, assigned Projects, assigned Groups, and more.

Clicking into a user's name will open up their details page.

Apps 

The Apps tab gives users quick access to project planning tools, review apps, and artist tools, like Flow Production Tracking Create, RV, Review Notes, Crew Planning, and more.

The apps users have access to can be customized by a site Administrator. Users can hide the apps they don't plan on using and enable the apps that they do. Some apps are listed in the Apps drop-down menu by default, while others, like Project Timeline, need to be enabled.

Resource Planning

Resource Planning is a tool designed to effectively visualize and optimize the utilization of people on a team, so teams can confidently complete creative work on time and on budget. The tool will only be visible if users have permission to see it.

Global search

The global search bar allows users to search all of Flow Production Tracking. Use the dropdown arrows to filter searches to a specific entity, to speed up the time it takes Flow Production Tracking to provide results.

What's New

If a Flow Production Tracking site is hosted on the cloud, the gift icon will be visible, and will link users to Flow Production Tracking's What’s New page.

From here, you can quickly learn about any newly released Flow Production Tracking features.

A blue notification badge will appear over the gift box icon to notify users whenever a new feature is released.

Create entity

The plus sign is used to create a new entity record. Entity records are usually created from within Projects, but you can choose to create them globally using this icon. Simply choose the type of entity record you want to create, then fill in the form to create it.

Some entities may not be listed in this menu. The visibility of entities in the global menu can be controlled by Admins via Site Preferences.

Dark theme toggle

Use the sun and moon icons to change the theme of the Flow Production Tracking interface between dark and light themes.

 

User account settings and Admin options 

Selecting the user thumbnail on the top right corner allows users to navigate to their account settings.

Administrator can use this menu to access site wide settings, as well as access the Trash, from where deleted information can be revived.