“Systems don’t truly evolve until they break.”

⚡ The Breaking Point

Our Economic History series pushed our production pipeline to its absolute limits. The challenge wasn’t just scale - it was speed at scale. 144 minutes of animation in 3 months meant our HEIST model needed to evolve or break. It did both.

🎯 The Innovation

We expanded the HEIST model to handle teams of 30+ people while maintaining its core DNA of decentralized, high-ownership tasks. The key was building slack into both ends of the pipeline:

1. Flexible script revisions per scene
2. Asset proxies for animation testing
3. Style system decoupled from individual artists
4. Parallel production tracks with buffer zones

⚙️ The Machine at 120%

The new pipeline looked like this:

1. Scripts flow in waves, not blocks
2. Proxy assets enable rapid shot planning
3. Style guides replace individual oversight
4. Multiple animation teams run in parallel
5. Buffer zones absorb timing mismatches

🔥 Why It Works (Sort Of)

Traditional animation pipelines are built for perfection. We built for controlled chaos. The system could absorb script changes, artist swaps, and timing shifts - but at a cost. Some parts broke spectacularly:

• Storyboarding system collapsed under load
• Asset optimization fell behind animation needs
• Quality control became nearly impossible

But these failures taught us something crucial: our bottleneck had shifted from people to tools.

🚀 The Edge

• Scale without losing creative control
• Changes possible mid-production
• Decentralized team structure holds
• New speed records achieved
• First iteration pipeline emerged

🔥 The Cost

• Controlled chaos is still chaos
• System stability decreased
• Quality variance increased
• Tool limitations exposed
• Process documentation failed

✨ Impact

Economic History wasn’t just our biggest project - it was our chrysalis moment. We emerged with:

• Administrative systems for large teams
• Iteration pipelines (rough but working)
• Speed vs. quality balancing tools
• Clear view of software limitations
• Path toward custom tool development

Most importantly, it showed us what was next: we needed to build our own software. The commercial tools that served us well at smaller scales were now our biggest constraint.

🎨 The Team

Command & Strategy

• 🎬 Created & Executive Produced by: Ruwani Hettiarachchi & Geeshan Bandara
• 🎯 Director: Duval Weerakoon
• ✍️ Screenwriter & Research: Ruwani Hettiarachchi

Production Core

• ⚡ Unit Production Manager/1st AD: Liswith Obinamuni
• 🎯 Operations & Manpower/2nd AD: Maleeza Nicholas
• 🎙️ Narrator/Audio Editor: Delano Perera
• 🎨 Production Designer/Storyboard: Ashwitha De Mel
• 📊 Pipeline Manager: Kanishka Manoj

Research & Development

• 🔍 Assistant Researcher: Menasha Samaradiwakara
• 📈 Economic Research Team:
  • Arutha
  • Yolani Fernando
  • Umesh Moramudali
  • Rehana Thowfeek
  • Rojie Ekanayake

Visual Development

• 🖌️ Lead Illustrator: Piyumi Senaviratne
• ✨ Illustrator: Mitara Koliyabandara
• 🎨 Communications Illustrator: Ravindu Sachinda
• 💫 Brand Design: Dhyresh Mendis
• ✂️ Editor/Post FX: Sandaruwan Senewirathna

Localization & Partners

• 🌏 Agency Partner: Mullenlowe Sri Lanka
  • Nevinke Navaratne
  • Janidu Siriwardena
  • Brian Samuel
  • Punith Gunasekara
• 🔊 Localization: Impact Labs Pvt Ltd.
  • Srinath Ramamoorthy
• 📝 Sinhala: Prabhath Premarathne
• 📝 Tamil: Chandran Puvanesh

Animated by The Nescius

🔓 Unlocked Capabilities

• Large-scale production management
• Iteration at scale (with caveats)
• Proxy-based previsualization
• 120% speed potential (at a cost)
• Software development roadmap

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Built at The Nescius 🎨