Generative AI, 3D/VFX and the shot pipeline, finally in one workspace.
Shot//swarm keeps every prompt, plate, camera, version and approval attached to the shot it belongs to, so AI output becomes production work you can direct, review and hand off.
Show → Sequence → Shotone data modelOpenUSD · ACES/OCIO · Hydraproduction standardsMerging 3D · AI · 2D · Compin one shot contextLocal GPU firstany cloud GPU if you wantAny LLM / VLMlocal or remote
SH020The problem
AI can generate shots. Production still breaks.
Generative AI and traditional VFX grew up as two separate worlds. One is fast but hard to control. The other is precise but slow and expensive. Studios need both, and today nothing connects them.
World A
Generative AI
Fast, inventive, hard to control
+A look, a motion or a world in minutes
+Endless variations from a prompt or a frame
−Flat pixels: no camera, depth, layers or color space
−Hard to repeat, revise or match across shots
//lost in between
camera
depth
lighting
color space
versions
shot context
World B
Traditional VFX
Precise, directable, slow
+Solved cameras, USD scenes, EXR, ACES
+Every frame directable and repeatable
−Weeks of work and costly iterations per shot
−Pipelines can't use AI output without rebuilding it by hand
And in the gap between them, the work falls apart:
ERR · fragmented
Ten tools, no shot
Artists jump between AI generators, DCCs, review apps, folders, spreadsheets and chat. Nothing holds the shot together.
ERR · no memory
Outputs forget where they came from
Source frames, prompts, model settings and approvals get lost the moment a file is saved.
ERR · weak handoff
Pixels that go nowhere
Raw generations are hard to turn into VFX assets, review packages or an editorial cut.
ERR · not pipeline-aware
Built for prompts, not shots
Most AI tools ignore sequences, USD, ACES, DCC integration and studio versioning.
AI//VFX
Shot//swarm fuses the two worlds.
AI output becomes VFX data you can solve, light, comp and deliver. VFX data, like cameras, depth, sets and lighting, steers the AI. One shot, one context, both worlds.
SH030Built around the shot
Open a shot. Everything is already there.
In Shot//swarm the shot is the unit of work. References, takes, spatial data, notes and deliveries stay attached to it from the first look frame to the final EXR.
Shot//swarm works in both directions. It generates media from production context, and it reconstructs production context from media. Choose a step to see what runs there.
↺ media → spatial data → direction → FX → media
SH050Workspaces
One app, a workspace for every department.
Each workspace is a view on the same shot data, so creative, layout, comp and production never work from different versions of the truth.
SH060Pipeline
Speaks the language of your pipeline.
OpenUSDACES / OpenColorIOOpenEXROpenPBR / MaterialXOpenTimelineIOHydraReactorHoudiniMayaBlenderNukeUnreal EngineDaVinci ResolveComfyUILocal & cloud LLM / VLMLTX · WAN · FLUX · many moreftrackFlow Production Tracking (aka ShotGrid)Custom integrations on demand
SH070Control and provenance
AI you can account for.
Studios need to know what was generated, with what, at what cost and with whose consent. Shot//swarm records it per output, by default.
lineage.manifest
Full lineage per output
Every output keeps its source frames, prompt, model, provider, seed and settings. Re-render an approved shot with a newer model and compare old and new side by side.
c2pa · consent
Provenance and rights
C2PA credentials on delivered files, a likeness consent register per character, and a per-shot report of what was generated and what was shot.
cost.guard
Cost per shot, before you spend
Estimate time and cost per shot and sequence before generating, set GPU cloud spending caps, and bid with real numbers.
SH080Who it's for
VFX Supervisors
See every shot, version, reference and review state in one place.
CG Supervisors
Control assets, scene context, operators and production artifacts.
Technical Directors
An open, standards-based architecture that plugs into real pipelines.
Indie studios & AI filmmakers
Structure, review and AI workflows without enterprise overhead.
Directors & previs
Scout, block and shoot virtual coverage before the set exists.
Solo artists
A whole studio pipeline for one person. Generate, solve, light, comp and deliver on your own GPU, while versions, references and lineage are kept for you. Clients get professional review and delivery, not a folder of renders.
SH090For studios
Studio Pilot Program
Test Shot//swarm on a real sequence, with our team alongside yours. We agree the success criteria before we start and measure them together.
ScopePick the sequence, tools to connect and success criteria.
WEEK 2
Set upInstall, connect your DCCs and model providers, import the shots.
WEEKS 3–6
ProduceFrom storyboard or look frames to motion, review and handoff.
WEEKS 7–8
MeasureResults report, prioritized feedback, and a case study if you want one.
SH100Pricing
Start alone. Grow into a studio.
Plan prices will be announced at launch. Founding Members can lock in their price today.
$0in tokens
One subscription. No monthly token bills.
You pay for Shot//swarm and nothing else. Local models run on your own GPU at no extra cost. The only extra costs are optional and up to you: an external paid model, or cloud GPUs when you want more power than your own machine. Both are billed through your own accounts, at the provider’s price, with no markup from us.
Standard
TBAto be announced
Local-first AI/VFX workflow for individual professionals.
1 user
All workspaces except Virtual Cinema
Local models and your own API keys
Versions and A/B compare
Email support
Pro
TBAto be announced
For professionals shipping to clients and pipelines.
1 user
Everything in Standard
Virtual Cinema Workspace
Advanced AI and FX nodes and tools
Advanced review and lineage
Batch workflows
DCC and pipeline export
Priority email support
Studio / Team
Custom
Shared projects, roles and compute for production teams.
Reserve founding pricing, for as long as you stay.
Reserve a Founding Pro license today and pay nothing until launch. You get beta builds before release, a direct line to the development team, and your founding price locked for as long as your subscription stays active.
$29 / month
or $290 / year · 300 founding seats · up to 3 per customer
Prices in USD, excluding VAT. No payment is taken when you reserve: you are charged at launch, and you can cancel at any time before then. Plans and features may change before general release.
Questions about pricing
What exactly do I pay for?
Only the Shot//swarm subscription. There are no Shot//swarm credits or tokens to buy. Models that run on your own GPU cost nothing extra.
When would I pay anything else?
Only if you choose to. If you use an external paid model (for example a cloud video or image model) or rent cloud GPUs, you pay that provider directly through your own account and API keys, at their price, with no markup from us.
Do I need a powerful GPU?
Local models and real-time rendering run best on a recent NVIDIA RTX GPU. Without one you can still work with cloud models and cloud GPUs through your own accounts.
Which AI models can I use?
Shot//swarm is model-agnostic. It works with local open models and with cloud providers, including LTX, WAN and FLUX, image and video models through ComfyUI, and local or remote LLMs and VLMs. New models are added as operators, so your workflows don't depend on a single vendor.
Is my work private?
Shot//swarm is local-first: shows, assets and outputs stay on your machines or your studio server. Nothing is sent to a cloud service unless you choose a cloud model or GPU for a task.
Who is responsible for model licenses and training data?
Each model has its own license. Shot//swarm records which model, provider and settings produced every output, so you can check usage rights shot by shot and share a clear report with clients.
How does the Founding reservation work?
You reserve up to 3 seats at $29/month or $290/year with no payment today. We email you before launch and you are charged only then. You can cancel at any time before launch, and your price stays locked for as long as your subscription stays active.
Can studios run Shot//swarm on-premise?
Yes. Studio / Team plans include a production server, and Enterprise adds fully on-premise deployment with advanced permissions and audit.
SH110Who builds it
Made by people who have shipped the shots.
AC
Alessandro Cangelosi
Founder · CEO / CTO · product and pipeline
25+ years as lighting and FX technical director on feature films, game cinematics and commercials. Gnomon Workshop instructor and long-time Autodesk beta tester.
2012Independence Day: ResurgenceThe FlashFoundationNyadMoonfallShark 2Ghostbusters: The Video GameWolfenstein: The New Order
FD
Francesco Adolfo Danza
Co-founder · strategy and business development
Co-founder of Digital Video, maker of Toonz, the 2D animation software used on Studio Ghibli films and Futurama, with 4,000+ licenses in 66 countries. Three decades building and selling professional media software.
ToonzDigital Media TechnologiesMantrics
SH120Investors and partners
The next production layer will understand the shot.
Models change every month. Production context compounds. We are building the vendor-neutral layer that makes AI usable inside professional pipelines, and we are talking with investors and strategic partners who want to build it with us.
Phase 1Vertical product for VFX professionals
Phase 2Modular platform of operators and agents
Phase 3Orchestration layer for AI-native production
Shot//swarm is in active development, with new builds every few days. This is what landed in the private alpha recently.
NVIDIA RTX and Hydra rendering
Render the shot camera with NVIDIA RTX, real-time or fully path traced, with Beauty, HDR, Albedo, Normals and Depth passes. Renders become shot versions you can A/B against the plate, next to a stable interactive Hydra viewport.
MaterialX materials, all the way to Unreal
A MaterialX Standard Surface editor with presets and a show-wide library. Materials edited in the Shot Workspace now travel with props to Virtual Cinema and Unreal Engine.
New Shot Workspace with a USD shot scene
A rebuilt Shot Workspace where plates, cameras, models, lights and AI layers form one USD shot scene. Import USD, glTF, FBX, OBJ, point clouds and HDRIs, then send the whole scene to Virtual Cinema in one step.
Lens Physical Simulator: real lens prescriptions
Bokeh traced through a real lens, surface by surface: spherical aberration, coma, true cat's-eye, per-wavelength color fringing and lens vignetting. Tilt-shift with Scheimpflug focus, diffraction, GPU tracing, a lens library and Zemax import.
Lens character, ghosts and dirt
Character controls change the lens itself, not the image. Traced internal ghosts with real coatings, matte box and hood, custom aperture shapes, and dust and scratches that show inside the bokeh.
Traced anamorphic and per-pixel scatter
A traced anamorphic adapter with cylindrical surfaces, anamorphic flare and lobed bokeh, and per-pixel scatter rendering with no tile seams.
Live camera tracking and comp
Track CineCameras, VCam and Live Link subjects from Unreal at up to 120 Hz, see a live comp, and save the current pose as a shot preset.
Location scouting, phase 1
A location brief built from script and panels, real-world search on OpenStreetMap and Mapillary, and sun position for your shoot dates.
QC for generated video
Automatic checks on generated clips before they reach review.
Lens-true finishing
Lens distortion with ST maps, animated lenses and a real-time lens view in the viewer.
Production upscalers
Real-ESRGAN and SeedVR2 upscaling, plus RIFE frame interpolation on the GPU.
DMP Studio
A linear compositor with plate integration, layered PSD export and local AI generation up to 8K.