Challenge

Manage Post-Production

At Creative Force, we know how difficult it is to manage and keep track of internal and external post-production. Luckily, we’re well-versed in the difficulties faced by busy eCommerce content studios during post-production. All post-production work is supported within a single system, making it easy for teams to track and ensure images reach their destination.

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Common Obstacles

What's the problem (and our solution)?

Post-production is not organized

In post-production, teams have the option of working with internal or external retouching teams (or a combination of both). No matter how it’s completed, there are opportunities for teams to lose control. Especially when those tasks are manually updated, error-prone, or nonexistent. Teams must also ensure that tasks are going to the correct next step.

Our Solution: Automated and custom workflows

Using automation and customization, users can set up a post-production workflow to take full advantage of the processes, vendors, and team structures that work for them. Creative Force allows teams to build internal, external, or hybrid post-production processes and then define them as repeatable workflows that can be associated with specific production types.

Working with multiple vendors is complicated

Maybe you use multiple vendors for your post-production to focus on specific product types or to prevent a single vendor from being overloaded. If this is the case, you must then decide for each piece of content where it goes and how it’s delivered, relying on teams to remember where to send each file.

Our Solution: Pre-defined routing

In Creative Force, you can predefine how files are routed: set up a default vendor, add multiple additional vendors, or load balance by assigning assets to the overflow vendors at the product level. Post-production workflows are triggered at the style guide level, meaning users can use different workflows and resources for different product types, production types, or clients, and automate file delivery (all with complete visibility in Creative Force).

Keeping track of external retouching that needs internal edits

Your team uses an external retouching service, but sometimes images come back and need a little bit of extra care before final delivery.

Our Solution: Blended post-production models

“Outsourcing with exception handling” in Creative Force allows users to maximize the ROI of an internal team by either approving images directly from an external vendor or redirecting the images to an internal team to make any final edits.

Communicating with remote freelancers is challenging

There are a lot of steps in post-production. When working with remote team members, ensuring all steps are completed can be difficult.

Our Solution: Remote retouching with native Photoshop integration

Creative Force has a powerful integration into Adobe Photoshop. It’s a dedicated environment, with a list of things to complete instead of searching, naming, and more, it’s all in one place and up-to-date.

Once your freelance retouchers are set up in the system, they can use the Creative Force retouching app for Photoshop from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

All information a retoucher needs, including style guides, retouching notes, reference images, and working files, is directly loaded in Photoshop from Creative Force.

Multiple programs slow down post-production

In many studios, the file transfer process is manual. Studios send images over email or FTP to external retouchers. They work on the files and then send them back. The studio then sends the files to an internal team for final touches. They send them for approval, only to find out it needs another edit. This manual process of handing off files slows down the entire post-production process and can result in files getting accidentally missed or lost.

Our Solution: Automated file handling

Files are automatically routed to the next step and transferred to vendors and task lists ensure that all projects are complete and no one ever has to touch the source files.

Unorganized reviewing and final approval

When there are multiple stages of review including final approval, it can be difficult to know precisely where files should go or where they are in the journey. On top of location, sharing exactly how they should be edited is sometimes complicated and specific.

Our Solution: Review and approval tools

Markups, comments, ratings, movement, and delivery are all completed in one place. By doing this, files are no longer required to be manually moved, emailed, or transferred and all editing notations are done directly in the app for retouchers to see automatically in their workflow.

A closer look

Streamlining Post-Production with Creative Force

Incorporating both external vendors and internal retouchers into your post-production workflow can significantly streamline your operations, and Creative Force has the solutions to make it happen.

This flexible system facilitates workflow customization for different product types, production processes, and clients, thus enabling you to utilize the best resources for every job.

Configuring Internal Retouching Team Structure

Internal retouchers form a vital part of your post-production process. Creative Force's post-production app integrates with Photoshop to expedite the retouching process.

Creative Force supports a variety of internal post team structures:

Internal Post: where all images are processed by your internal retouching team.
Overflow: where images can be sent to either external or internal teams based on capacity.
Outsourcing with Exception Handling: where images primarily handled by external services can be sent to an internal team for polishing before final delivery.
Hybrid: where external vendors handle repetitive retouching work and the internal team handles the detailed work.

These workflows can be tailored based on various factors, providing your studio with immense flexibility within the platform.

External Vendors

Setting up external vendors in Creative Force is easy. All you need is to ensure your chosen vendor can accept images via FTP or API integrations. Creative Force allows you to configure multiple vendors based on your preferences and project requirements, making it a versatile tool for a diverse range of operations.

You can select from different post-production workflows depending on the involvement of external vendors:

Outsourcing Workflow: where external vendors handle 100% of image retouching.
Outsourcing with Exception Handling: where images can be approved directly from the vendor or sent to an internal team for adjustments.
Hybrid Workflow: where base retouching is done by an external vendor while the detailed work is done by your internal team.
Overflow Workflow: where images are routed to an external vendor when internal teams reach their capacity.

With Creative Force, you can direct workflows to alternate vendors and toggle quality reviews according to your needs, maintaining quality standards while ensuring maximum flexibility.

Faster retouching with native Photoshop integration

The Creative Force HUE app is designed to significantly improve retouching turnaround times by simplifying Photoshop work processes. It streamlines the navigation of files, provides instant access to style guides, and offers a convenient checklist of technical file information.

With HUE, retouchers can easily track and navigate open files without the need to click through numerous tabs to locate an image. Users can simply click the thumbnail on the panel to find the desired image. This greatly enhances productivity by reducing the time and effort spent on file navigation.

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Maximizing Quality Control

Creative Force does more than just streamline post-production workflows; it also helps ensure that the end result meets the highest standards of quality. Creative Force empowers key stakeholders and retouch teams to add quality control steps to their workflows to maintain stringent standards.

Through the platform, teams can configure the review process to suit specific needs, enabling different stakeholders to approve images at various stages of production. This not only maximizes the quality of the output but also ensures that everyone involved in the process has a say in the final product.

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Navigating High-Volume Workflows

Creative Force is well-equipped to handle high-volume eCommerce studios. The Hybrid workflow, in particular, is a common choice for such operations. In this model, an external vendor handles most of the repetitive retouching work, while your internal team fine-tunes the images with more subjective detail work. This way, you can manage high volumes of work without compromising the quality of the output.

Conclusion

Whether you're working with an internal team, a remote freelancer, or an external service provider, Creative Force provides versatile workflows that adapt to your team’s unique needs. By integrating with the tools and resources you already use and love, Creative Force simplifies post-production, giving you the flexibility and control you need to meet your post-production goals.

Feature Focus

Post-production for High-Volume Photo Studios

Creative Force understands the in-house and external post-production challenges and has created a workflow to cover those needs. Optimizing your assets and creating clear instructions or what needs to be done next is just the start.

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Questions? Let's ... expand.

How does Creative Force work?

To simplify things a bit, Creative Force enables and elevates what we call flow production – a collaborative and continuous way of producing content at scale, where assets are moved individually through the many stages of production, as soon as they're ready.

This is in contrast to traditional batch production, where a single production stage is completed for all assets before they advance to the next step. Flow production eliminates bottlenecks and hold-ups, and Creative Force supercharges that concept with automation, metadata enrichment, integrated review tools, and so much more.

How is Creative Force different?

Let's first differentiate between studio software and studio management software. Creative Force is studio management software that optimizes the processes around specific areas of studio operations, like sample management or post-production management – in some cases by integrating directly with studio software your team uses daily, such as Capture One or Photoshop.

Other studio software solutions do a fine job of solving problems within particular, well-defined areas of operation. But only Creative Force takes a holistic approach to studio operations and provides the tools to effectively increase productivity and visibility across the entire content creation process.

Who can use Creative Force?

Creative Force is built to meet the needs of brands, retailers, and commercial studios engaged in high-volume content creation for eCommerce or editorial projects. If you work professionally with any of the above, chances are you'd see remarkable improvements to your workflows with Creative Force.

Every team from studio intake to styling to capture to post-production and beyond will benefit from the extensive workflow automation, increased production visibility, and many collaboration tools.

Read some of the many great Creative Force reviews here →