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At SIGGRAPH 2023, NIM Labs announced a major update for NIM, their studio management platform. NIM can handle shot tracking, version management, calendars, bidding, scheduling, contact management, payroll calculations, client margins, and more.
We sat down with NIM Labs co-founder Andrew Sinagra, who is also Creative Director & Film Director at Ntropic, a company specialized, among other things, in VFX and postproduction.
NIM was created to answer Ntropic’s own needs. In a nutshell, this tool has a very wide scope, hence the “studio management” tagline: NIM goes much beyond project management. It can even be used by studios with branches in several countries.
We asked Andrew Sinagra about NIM 6.0, but also about NIM as a whole. We also discussed a few topics such as carboon footprint assessment.
NIM 6.0: what’s new?
This major upgrade brings several improbements, such as a bidding process overhaul. As NIM Labs explains: “NIM 6.0 brings order to the bidding process, reducing most tasks to a couple of clicks. Now, producers can easily gauge margins, automate line items and segment their drafts in the fastest way possible, even when they’re pitching a 1,000+ shot production”. Furthermore, scale won’t be an issue anymore. NIM Lab shoud work “just as fast on 100 line items as it does on 10,000”. We appreciate the fact that margin information, is clearly visible for each section: a key information that will help studios whether they can adjust their bid to make it more appealing if needed. Studios will also know at once whether a specific project is in line with their overall margin goals.
NIM 6.0 also provides improved contacts management, a better notification system with more control, UI updates.
API, cloud, localization
We also asked Andrew Sinagra a few questions about the product as a whole.
First of all, NIM is not a cloud-based solution. Instead, it is delivered as a virtual machine managed by the studio. Thanks to this technical choice, NIM Labs managed to grab customers from the defense sector. Of course, a studio could still host this virtual machine in the cloud if needed.
An API is provided. It allows users to import/export data.
We also asked about localization, since 3DVF is based in France and many of our readers love to get software solutions in their own language. Unfortunately, the tool is not really developped with this feature in mind. Some items can be translated, but don’t expect a fully localized software.
Carbon footprint calculator?
We also asked Andrew Sinagra whether NIM could help studios calculate their carbon footprint : this is a feature we’d love to see in this kind of tool, given the effect of the climate change, the fact that more and more companies are trying to reduce their carbon foortprint in the industry (as a reminder, French studios published a guide for a greener animation industry has been unveiled during the Annecy festival, and some studios are releasing their goals when it comes to carbon footprint reduction. It should also be noted that in France, subsidies from the CNC will soon require companies to provide carbon footprint assessments.
Furthermore, we’ve seen a couple of software solutions aimed at financial assessment that now also provide carbon footprint assessment tools.
Andrew Sinagra explained us that at the moment, NIM doesn’t provide this kind of tool, but that NIM already has internal functions that could help create it.
He also highlighted that they would love to work on this with customers needing this kind of tool.
NIM 6.0: availability and pricing
NIM 6.0 is available now. Annual licenses are $30/month per user and monthly licenses are $40/month per user. NIM Labs states that annual and monthly licensing can be mixed if needed?
For more information, head over to the official website. You’ll find details abour the features, as well as dedicated presentations for creatives, producers, executives, admins. Video tutorials are also available.
