Designed with small studios and freelancers in mind, Companion, from Conductor Technologies,  is a desktop application that helps artists harness the power of cloud rendering.

The new Companion app released by Conductor Technologies introduces advancements to help small studios and individuals harness cloud rendering and also adds initial support for Blender creative software. Tailored for boutique studios and freelance artists, Companion further streamlines the Conductor on-ramp and rendering experience, allowing users to easily manage and download files, write commands, and handle custom submissions or plug-ins from their laptops or workstations.

“Conductor was originally designed to meet the needs of larger VFX studios, focusing our efforts on maximizing efficiency and scalability when many artists simultaneously leverage the platform and optimizing how Conductor hooks into those pipelines. As Conductor’s user base has grown, we’ve been blown away by the number of freelance artists and small studios that have come to us for help, each of which have their own unique needs. Conductor Companion is a nod to that community, bringing all the functionality and massive render resource scale of Conductor into a user-friendly app, so that artists can focus on content creation versus pipeline management. And given that focus, it was a no-brainer to add Blender support, and we are eager to serve the passionate users of that product.” said Mac Moore, Conductor CEO.

He added, “Additionally, this app will be the foundation of our Intelligence Hub in the near future, acting as a gateway to more advanced functionality like Shot Analytics and Intelligent Bid Assist. These features will leverage AI and Conductor’s expansive cloud knowledge to help owners and freelancers make more informed business decisions as it pertains to project-to-project rendering financials.”

Companion is in public beta

Ryan Bellgardt, Creative Director at Boiling Point Media in Oklahoma City, OK deployed Conductor for creature heavy CG on feature films. “One of the ways Conductor really stands out is for the human component,” said Bellgardt. “Conductor Companion is an extension of that above and beyond service; they recognized the unique needs of smaller studios like us and evolved Conductor in way that gives us the best of both worlds.” Added Dan Moyer, Senior VFX Artist, “You don’t see many successful VFX houses smack dab in the Midwest, and I’m not sure we’d be able to create the work we do within our current budgets and timelines without cloud rendering. Conductor has been great for us and I’m really looking forward to the additional ease-of-use features of Conductor Companion.”

Conductor is a secure cloud-based platform that enables VFX, VR/AR and animation studios to seamlessly offload rendering and simulation workloads to the public cloud. As the only rendering service that is dynamically scalable to meet the exact needs of even the largest studios, Conductor easily integrates into existing workflows, features an open architecture for customization, provides data insights and can implement controls over usage to ensure budgets and timelines stay on track.

In addition to Blender, applications currently supported by Conductor include Autodesk Maya and Arnold; Foundry’s NUKE, Cara VR, KATANA, MODO and Ocula; Chaos Group’s V-Ray; Pixar’s Renderman; Isotropix’s Clarisse; Golaem; Ephere’s Ornatrix; Yeti; and Miarmy. For more information on Conductor features and pricing, visit the company’s website or contact [email protected].

The newest addition to the company’s platform, Conductor Companion, is now in public beta. Get to know the companion app that brings enhanced functionality and efficiency straight to your desktop by downloading the app from the company’s website. A series of tutorials and documentation are available so users can get the most out of Conductor Companion. The application is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.