Machina Mirae
Client Discovery · Confidential
Discovery Brief · Confidential

Before we build,
we need to understand.

This brief takes around eight minutes. It covers your studio's technology environment, pipeline maturity, and the outcomes you're looking for. Your answers shape everything — the engagement structure, the scope, and the conversation we have on the call.

6 sections ~8 minutes Strictly confidential No sales pressure
Studio Profile  ·  Technology Stack  ·  Pipeline State
AI & Emerging Tech  ·  Team & Capacity  ·  What You Need
Section 01
◈

Studio Profile

Your organisation at a glance — who you are and what you make.

01
Studio or company name *
02
What best describes your studio?
VFX Studio
Animation Studio
Games Studio
Robotics / Simulation
Spatial AI / Research
Hybrid / Multi-discipline
03
Team size
1–10
11–30
31–75
76–150
151–300
300+
04
Primary region of operation
India (domestic)
APAC
UK / Europe
North America
Multi-region
05
What do you primarily deliver? (select all that apply)
Feature Film
Episodic / Streaming
Commercial / Advertising
Games / Real-time
Simulation / Training Data
R&D / Internal
All responses are confidential
Section 02
◉

Technology Stack

Your current DCC environment, infrastructure, and tooling.

06
DCC applications in active use (select all that apply)
Maya
Houdini
Nuke
Katana
Blender
Cinema 4D
Unreal Engine
Unity
NVIDIA Omniverse
Substance / Mari
+ Other
07
Render technologies in use (select all)
Arnold
RenderMan
Karma / Solaris
V-Ray
Redshift
Cycles
In-house renderer
Cloud render farm
+ Other
08
Production tracking / project management tool
ShotGrid / Flow Production Tracking
ftrack
Kitsu
NIM
Spreadsheets / Manual tracking
Custom in-house system
None in place
09
OpenUSD adoption status
Fully USD-native pipeline
Actively migrating to USD
Evaluating / prototyping
Aware but not started
Not relevant to our workflow
10
Infrastructure model
On-premise only
Cloud (AWS / GCP / Azure)
Hybrid cloud + on-prem
Managed farm / burst cloud
Not formally established
Section 03
◎

Pipeline State

The honest picture of where your pipeline is today.

11
How would you describe your pipeline maturity today?
Ad-hoc — artist-driven, minimal automation
Developing — some tools, inconsistent across departments
Established — documented, partially automated
Mature — robust, automated, well-documented
Industry-leading — continuous innovation
12
Which departments have dedicated pipeline tooling? (select all)
Asset Ingest
Rigging / Character
Lookdev / Shading
Lighting
FX / Simulation
Compositing
Render Management
Review / Approval
Delivery / DCP
None yet
13
Pipeline documentation state
Fully documented with onboarding guides
Partially documented — gaps exist
Tribal knowledge — lives in people's heads
Not documented at all
14
Biggest recurring pipeline bottleneck — in your own words optional
15
If you could fix one thing in your pipeline tomorrow, what would it be? optional
Section 04
✦

AI & Emerging Tech

Where you are — and where you want to go — with AI in production.

16
Current state of AI / ML in your pipeline
None — not yet explored
Internal experiments only — nothing in production
One or two AI tools in production
AI integrated across multiple departments
AI-first pipeline design
17
AI use cases you are actively exploring or running (select all)
AI rotoscoping / matting
Generative texture / concept
NeRF / 3DGS capture
Diffusion pipelines (ComfyUI)
AI motion retargeting
Render denoising (DLSS / OptiX)
LLM pipeline agents
Simulation ML acceleration
None currently
+ Other
18
GPU infrastructure for AI workloads
Dedicated on-prem GPU nodes
Cloud GPU (Lambda, RunPod, AWS, GCP)
Artist workstation GPUs only
No GPU infrastructure in place
19
Which AI capability, if available in your pipeline tomorrow, would create the most business impact? optional
Section 05
◇

Team & Capacity

Understanding your current engineering resources and gaps.

20
Dedicated pipeline / TD headcount
None — no dedicated pipeline engineers
1 person (often a generalist)
2–3 people
4–8 people
9–15 people
15+ — established team
21
Skills currently present in-house (select all)
Python pipeline dev
C++ / DCC plugins
USD / Hydra dev
CUDA / GPU programming
DevOps / Cloud infra
ML / AI integration
Render pipeline eng
Production tech leadership
None of the above
22
The biggest challenge your pipeline team faces right now
Finding qualified pipeline talent
Retaining talent once trained
Bandwidth — not enough hands
Seniority gap — juniors with no seniors
Knowledge silos / no documentation
Budget constraints on headcount
23
Current approach to contract / freelance engineering
We never use contractors
Occasional ad-hoc contracts
Regular rotating contractors
Contractor-heavy model
Fully outsourced pipeline
Section 06
◆

What You Need

The last section — what you're looking for, and how to reach you.

24
Services you're most interested in exploring (select all)
Pipeline audit & review
Active pipeline development
OpenUSD architecture
AI / generative integration
Spatial AI / 3DGS pipeline
Embedded pipeline engineer
Technical leadership / advisory
Talent sourcing & staffing
25
Preferred engagement model
Hourly / as-needed
Monthly retainer
Fixed-scope project (SOW)
Embedded long-term engagement
Not sure — I'd like a recommendation
26
Timeline urgency
Immediate — problem is active right now
Within 4–6 weeks
Next quarter
Planning ahead — next fiscal year
27
Approximate monthly budget for pipeline consultancy
Under ₹1L / $1,200
₹1–2.5L / $1,200–3,000
₹2.5–5L / $3,000–6,000
₹5–10L / $6,000–12,000
₹10L+ / $12,000+
Prefer to discuss after scoping
28
What does success look like for this engagement — in your own words optional but powerful
Your contact details
29
Your name & role *
30
Best email to reach you *
◈
Submission Received

Thank you for
your time.

Your discovery responses have been received. We will review your pipeline context and reach out within 48 business hours to schedule your consultation.

What happens next
01  —  We review your pipeline context in full
02  —  We prepare a scoped recommendation
03  —  45-minute discovery call, no sales pressure
04  —  Tailored proposal with clear deliverables
Machina Mirae · Pipeline · Spatial Intelligence · VFX Engineering