The studio pipeline on your machine
URSA (User Refined Studio Automation) is VFX pipeline software for independent artists and small studios. It is in beta, and the base application and the Launcher plugin are free. Shots arrive named, tracked and in the right color space, and they leave the same way. It is the pipeline a Toronto VFX studio ran on real productions, packaged for one artist or a small team.
- Studio pipeline in use
- 2017 to 2026
- Canadian Screen Award nominations
- 2
- Color standard
- ACES
- Shot
- SEQ010 / SH0040
- Source
- ARRI LogC3 / AWG3
- Working
- ACEScg
- Delivery
- Rec.709 / client spec
- File
- seq010_sh0040_comp_v012.exr
- Versions
- 12 tracked
Three jobs you stop doing by hand
URSA is built on three features. Each one replaces a task that is done by hand, and done differently, on every production.
Data and metadata
Every incoming asset is read, identified and tied to its shot: camera, lens, color science, frame range. You stop retyping production notes into spreadsheets, and nothing downstream has to guess what a file is.
Color management
Every shot gets an ACES pipeline built from the color science of its camera. Mixed cameras conform under one working space, and deliveries convert back to the client spec, so the image you approved is the image they receive.
File management
Folders, file names and version numbers are created for you, from conventions set once per project or per sequence. No more v01_final_final. Every file sits where the next tool expects it, and a handoff to a larger studio needs no rework.
Built inside a working studio
URSA started as the internal pipeline of Blue Rain Productions, a Toronto VFX studio that ran from 2017 to 2026 and earned two Canadian Screen Award nominations for Best Visual Effects.
It named files, conformed shots and packaged deliveries under real deadlines, and every rule in it exists because a production needed it. URSA is that pipeline rebuilt from the ground up as a product you can install, with the single-studio assumptions taken out.
One base app, installable plugins
URSA is a base application plus plugins you install as you need them. The Launcher comes first, and it is free.
Launcher
Starts your Nuke, Maya, Houdini and any other DCC executables with the project environment, working folder and launch arguments set.
Configurator
Builds projects and shots with the tasks each one requires and the deliverables each task must produce.
Ingester
Ingests client files automatically and captures the metadata for each asset as it arrives.
Deliverer
Packages final shots in the naming and color space the client specifies, then sends them.
Works with the tools you run
URSA hooks into what you already run: it launches your DCCs and links to the tracker a production already uses, so nothing is entered twice.
Nuke
Tools that run inside Nuke and do the routine work for you: shot file setup, checks before a render and publishes, all from your project rules.
Maya
Tools that run inside Maya and do the routine work for you: scene setup, checks and publishes for assets, caches and renders, all from your project rules.
ShotGrid (Flow Production Tracking)
A ShotGrid plugin is planned to link the shots assigned to you and let a freelancer inherit a studio's configuration.
Frame.io
Upload shots for review from URSA or from inside the DCC, with the shot's metadata attached.
Create your URSA account
One account for the site and the desktop app. The Windows 11 app and the free Launcher plugin arrive at launch, and your account is ready for them. During the closed beta, sign-up is by approval: not on the list yet? Sign up anyway and we will send the Beta Tester Agreement.
- First plugin
- Launcher
- Launcher price
- Free
- Platform
- Windows 11