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Option to configure the Thumbnail field to be a query field of a linked Entity

Astrid Scholte

October 28, 2013 01:53

Completed

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In the past we've heard feedback from clients who want to display the latest thumbnail of a linked Entity from the Entity's thumbnail field. For example, for a Shot you might want to see the Latest Version linked to that Shot as opposed to manually updating the Thumbnail field for the Shot.

We're looking at supporting the ability to customize the Thumbnail field in the UI to be a Query of a linked Entity. Please add your support to this ticket if you'd like to see this feature released in the future.

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25 comments

• 0
  
  Frank Rueter October 28, 2013 23:30

  this has been long over due I think and, IMHO, is essential for an efficient workflow

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  Armando Ricalde October 29, 2013 15:28

  It would be nice, though we have a trigger to do this taking advantage of the share_thumbnail() method

  https://github.com/shotgunsoftware/python-api/wiki/Reference%3A-Methods#wiki-share_thumbnail

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  Frank Rueter October 29, 2013 18:44

  that's what I used to do as well but it unnecessarily inflates custom code and is not consistent IMHO

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  clinton downs November 04, 2013 07:10

  Would LOVE to see this feature.

  Additionally, it would be great if Query fields on Version Entities could return a scrub-able thumbnail (not just a link to a playable Version).

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  Alexey Borzykh February 14, 2014 17:39

  +1 for a filmstrip thumbnail on entity. Would be VERY handy and useful for quick look/checking shots on a sequence page rather than going to "versions" tab for it and then go back again

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  Alexey Borzykh February 19, 2014 18:49

  Hi there,

  Eventually we got this request solved using daemon plugin pretty easy.

  Daemon handles *.mov file(s) being uploaded to Media center page >> get linked to it's shot and task based on its name >> filmstrip thumbnail gets shared from currently (latest) uploaded version to Shot thumbnail.

  Feel free to check, modify and use script in attachment at your own risk :)

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  Ben Hadden February 21, 2014 01:14

  Very cool, Alexey!

  Question for the group: do you guys think we could make this a preference on your site that, if enabled, automatically updates the Shot with a Version's thumbnail every time a new Version is submitted? Or is it important that this be a Query field / setting on the field (and if so, why?).

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  Frank Rueter February 21, 2014 01:20

  I'd prefer a query field. Often I submit versions of grading mattes fo instance, so the whole shot is represented by a nondescript black and white clip. With a query field I can exclude certain versions from becoming the shot thumbnail (in my case versions of type  "matte").

  I used to have an ugly workaround years ago where I added a a custom checkbox to versions called "use as latest" and had the triggers update the shot thumbnail accordingly. New versions had this checkbox checked by default (and the triggers should take care of only one version being checked at a time).

  Ugly as hell but it kinda did the trick. This was before the existence of query fields though and it seems like this case is a perfect usage example for query fields, so let's roll with that please :)

   

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  Armando Ricalde February 21, 2014 01:33

  Same here, with Assets we publish Versions of the textures for instance, and as Frank said we'd like to exclude them from becoming the Asset thumbnail.

  Query field for the win.

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  Alexey Borzykh February 21, 2014 08:59

  It was a very quick solution and of course, we will be updating script code with more options (similar to query) in order to separate out other materials used in a shot, like matte paint. So, yes, definitely we need a query field field for this option.

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  clinton downs February 21, 2014 09:34

  Nice job Alexey.

   

  Ben, for sure it needs to be a mechanism within Query Fields. Eg, we use a TEXT field which is named by the department which created the Version eg light, comp, roto, fx etc. Other companies use List fields, some go with more complicated approaches by querying the Pipeline Step of the Linked Task (tricky to traverse in the Query Field context though).

  Anyway, having an animated thumbnail returned by a Query Field would be awesome (and also having 'Play in RV' right click functionality would be the icing on the cake).

  :)

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  clinton downs February 21, 2014 09:36

  Edit above: Actually, traversing the Pipeline Step of the Linked Task is not that hard in a Query Field so ignore that comment :)

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  Alexey Borzykh February 21, 2014 09:56

  Hey, Clinton, thanks for reminding this tiny (but must have) option of having 'Play in RV' right click functionality on a shot/version/sequence/episode entity thumbnail. I would add the option for it, to be on a right click or on the left click (play icon). The reason is - if you work mostly in a studio than it's more useful to fast open local files in RV, rather than in web viewer as it is now by default.

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  Frank Rueter February 21, 2014 21:40

  Amen to that, Alexey. I couldn't agree more.
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  Dení C. Gloria April 29, 2014 00:20

  I'm really excited this is planned, any idea of the estimate release date for this??

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  Nick Kononelos July 29, 2014 01:16

  Just adding our support for this as well!

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  Dave Lajoie August 01, 2014 22:19

  Hello Guys, Just wondering if there is an ETA for this feature. I could really use it now :)

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  Rangi Sutton September 16, 2014 03:04

  Bumping this... still an issue to us.

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  Johnny Duguid October 07, 2014 23:29

  Hey all - a long overdue update on this feature...

  First - we probably flipped "Planned" far too early on this one. This feature is pretty large when it comes to the areas of Shotgun it touches. As a result, the work has taken longer than anticipated. A fair amount of the "fix one thing, break two" thing going on here. One example - enabling a query-based thumbnail field means that we had to update how summaries are handled on the server side. This was not a trivial amount of work, but did lay the foundation for the potential of some other highly requested features.

  On the upside, the feature is getting close to dev completion and preparing to go into QA. We're being cautious with this one in that it's increasing the number of queries being generated from a site. For that reason, we're going to roll out the feature as an option in the Configure Field dialog of thumbnail fields. You'll be able to use the current, manual upload behavior or switch over to query-based thumbnails based on Versions. For scope and performance reasons, we had to have a firm split on the two styles.

  At this point, I can't give an exact release date as - again - the feature touches a lot of areas and we want to make sure it doesn't break anything when rolled out.

  I'll update the thread with more info when available. If you don't hear from me, feel free to call me out on it here. :)

  J

   

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  ivarrystad November 07, 2014 13:11

  Yeah, still waiting in excitement for this one :)

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  Johnny Duguid December 04, 2014 00:04

  Hey guys - a quick update, this feature will finally be going out with 5.4 - releasing to hosted sites this weekend. Thanks for your patience with this one. Turned out to be a beast to get in place, but I'm hoping you're all happy with it. Once you've had a chance to play around with it, drop me a line with feedback at support@shotgunsoftware.com.

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  Alexey Borzykh December 04, 2014 15:09

  Hi, Johnny!

  I hope you can fix this feature for Playlists, as it is NOT working for that entity.
  
  Here's one more thing about thumbnails: we have a great looking "split" thumbnail for the playlists on the Media page, as well as Play button which tells web player to play versions in a sequence, which is totally awesome! Now, the idea (feature request actually) is to add option into Thumbnail field by query - Split thumbnail & Play as sequence. Then it will be great to use that option for entities like Episode or a Sequence, which are contains a number of shots. Than we could play parts of our movie (or a complete small TV commercial clip) directly from shotgun web player.
  
  

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  Alexey Borzykh December 05, 2014 11:58

  Just to make it more clear about the "Split screen thumbnail" option for Thumbnail field in a query mode settings - here are a couple of pictures. Hope this option won't take a lot of time to implement as it is already working for Play Lists in Media page.

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  Alexey Borzykh December 08, 2014 11:09

  There is a minor UI bug that I have found while setting up the 'Thumbnail as query'. Check attached proof pic.

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  Brandon Foster December 08, 2014 13:53

  Thanks for digging into the new query thumbnail feature Alexey! Could you submit your found bug to support@shotgunsoftware.com so we can formally investigate? Please include your OS and browser info.

  Since the core of this feature request has been addressed (creating query based thumbnail fields), I would recommend starting a new thread for your new "Split Screen Thumbnail" idea so it can be voted for/discussed separate from this thread.