Crew reference

1. Create a Tailscale account.
2. Download and install the Tailscale desktop app.
3. Log in to the app with the account you just created, this is the step people skip most. Installing alone does nothing: the app has to be signed in and show Connected.
4. Send Martin the email address you used for your Tailscale account.
5. Martin sends you a share link, open it and accept the invite while logged in with that same email.

That's the whole Tailscale part, the app just needs to be running from now on. Your Tailscale password is never used for anything else.

1. Open File Explorer, right-click This PC.
2. Select Map network drive.
3. Choose drive letter S (that's the one we use).
4. For the folder, type \\nis-server.tailb5a474.ts.net\ProjectName. The address alone won't map, it needs the name of the project share Martin gave you access to.
5. Tick "Connect using different credentials", otherwise Windows tries your own account first and fails.
6. Enter the server login you got from Martin (not your Tailscale password), and check "Remember my credentials" to avoid re-entering it every time.

1. Open Finder, then Go > Connect to Server.
2. Enter smb://nis-server.tailb5a474.ts.net.
3. Select the project folder (ask Martin if you're unsure which one).
4. Enter the server login you got from Martin (not your Tailscale password).

The login Martin gives you is a starter password. The first time you log in to the server, you'll be asked to replace it with one of your own. The server is strict about what it accepts:

• At least 6 characters.
• It can't contain your account name or parts of your full name (anything longer than 2 consecutive characters).
• It must use characters from at least 3 of these 4 categories:
  • Uppercase letters (A–Z)
  • Lowercase letters (a–z)
  • Numbers (0–9)
  • Special characters (!@#$%^&* etc.)

Store it in a password manager (or tick "Remember my credentials" when mapping the drive), and if you ever get locked out, ask Martin for a reset.

Run through these in order; together they cover pretty much every case we've seen:

• Is Tailscale actually connected? The app must be running and show "Connected", logged in with the same email the invite was sent to. Quick check: run tailscale status in a terminal, nis-server should be in that list. If it isn't, log out of the app, log back in with the right account, and open Martin's share link again.
• Name doesn't resolve? Use your personal IP instead: log in at login.tailscale.com → Machines → nis-server (marked "Shared in") and copy the 100.x.x.x address you see there. Careful: this IP is different for every person, so never copy a teammate's, look up your own.
• Exact share name? The part after the backslash must exactly match the project name Martin gave you. The address alone, or a guessed folder name, won't map.
• Wrong login? On Windows, "Connect using different credentials" must be ticked, and it's the server login from Martin, not your Tailscale password.
• Still stuck? Ask Martin, don't burn an hour on it.

It's a website (nothing to install) atportal.notimportant.studio. Everything about your projects lives there:

• Your dashboard shows all tasks assigned to you, across every project you're on.
• Each project has a task board (General / Pre-production / Production / Post-production) with deadlines, progress and who's on what.
• Comments & mentions: write @name in a task comment and that person gets a notification.
• Client review: client feedback on shots lands here, if a remark is assigned to you it shows up as a task with a "jump to remark" button straight to the exact frame.

You only see the projects you're a member of.

1. You'll receive a welcome email with a Set your password button, the link works once and is valid for 7 days.
2. Pick your own password (minimum 8 characters), you're logged in right away.
3. From then on: portal.notimportant.studio, tick "remember me" and you won't have to think about it again.

Forgot your password? Use "Forgot password?" on the login page. Link expired before you used it? Ask Martin to resend it.

• When someone assigns you a new task, you get a popup at your next login, hit Accept so we know it's on your radar.
• Keep the status (Not started / Started / On hold) and the progress % roughly up to date, that's what the whole planning view runs on.
• Done? Tick it off. Changed your mind? Finished tasks can be reopened.
• Blocked or waiting on something? Set the task to On hold and drop a comment saying why, mention @martin if you need a decision.

You never have to open the portal to update your tasks. Connect the Telegram bot once via the personal link in your welcome email, and from then on you just message it what you worked on, in plain language, English or Dutch:

• "Finished the lighting on shot 2"
• "Spent the afternoon on the rug textures, about 70% there"
• "Draft edit is done, starting compositing tomorrow"

The bot finds the matching tasks, updates the progress or ticks them off, and writes your work log, all of which shows up in the portal automatically. It can also list your open tasks if you ask.

Good to know: it only handles work updates (it's not a general chatbot, it will politely refuse anything else), the connect link works once, and if you lost it,ask Martin for a fresh one.

The dashboard is your landing page after logging in. It shows your notifications (mentions, assignments, comments) and My project tasks: every task assigned to you, across all projects you're on, with priority, progress and status right there in the list.

⛶

×

Your dashboard: notifications on top, all your tasks from every project below.

When someone assigns you a new task, a popup appears at your next visit. Hit Accept so we know it's on your radar, that's all it does. Not ready to decide? Later keeps the popup for next time.

⛶

×

New tasks land as a popup: one click on Accept confirms you've seen them.

A project page is a stack of blocks: General tasks, Pre-production, Shot breakdowns, Production, Post-production, References, Members, Activity log and Description. Every block collapses and expands by clicking its header. By default General tasks and Pre-production start collapsed, with the yellow Shot breakdowns header in between, so film work is front and center.

⛶

×

A project page: collapsed blocks on top, Shot breakdowns (yellow) expanded.

Don't like the order? Grab the grip icon (⋮⋮) on the left of a block header and drag it wherever you want. The layout is personal and the portal remembers it for you.

⛶

×

The grip on the left of each header: drag to reorder, your order is saved.

Click a task to open its panel. Everything about the task lives here, and as crew you can change all of it:

• Tick it off when it's done (a popup offers to create a follow-up task). Finished tasks can be reopened.
• Status: Not started / Started / On hold. Blocked or waiting? Set it to On hold and drop a comment saying why.
• Progress %: updating it automatically sets the status to Started.
• Priority, due date and time (the estimate, like 8h or 2d).
• Assignee: you can hand a task to any other member of the project, the picker shows who's on it.
• Title and note: the note is written once and then read-only, additions go in the comments.
• Comments: write @name to notify someone directly (they get a portal notification and a Telegram push if they've connected the bot).

⛶

×

The task panel: everything from status to comments in one place. Save writes it all at once.

One badge to know: if an assigned task hasn't moved for a few days, it gets a quiet badge, like "quiet 5d". That's not a reprimand, it's the planning view asking for a quick status poke: update the progress or drop a comment.

⛶

×

No movement for a few days: the task quietly raises its hand.

At the bottom of a task panel you'll find Subtasks. Type a name, hit Add subtask, and the task gets its own mini-checklist. Each subtask has its own status, priority, progress, due date, time estimate, assignees and comments, and the parent task shows an "x/y subtasks done" counter.

⛶

×

Subtasks inside a task: own status, deadline and assignee per step.

Use them for anything you'd otherwise track in your head: material passes, revision rounds, a checklist from feedback. Subtasks are being rolled out per project, so don't worry if you don't see the block everywhere yet.

For film projects, the Shot breakdowns block lists every film (say, a main film and a cutdown) with its shots. Shots are numbered per 10 (010, 020, 030, ...), same as the folders on the S: drive, so an insert shot can slot in between as 015. The EDIT row at the top of each film is the full edit itself.

⛶

×

Shot 010 open: its own task list, an upload zone and the version strip below.

What you can do here:

• Open a shot by clicking its row (open shots get a lighter background). Each shot has its own small task cards, they work exactly like the ones above.
• Add task on a shot for extra work that isn't covered by the defaults.
• Watch the percentages: every shot, film and the page total update live as tasks are ticked off.
• Read the badges on a shot header: Internal review means it's up for team review, In review means it's on the client review page.

You can set up the shot structure yourself. + Add shot breakdown (top right of the project page) creates a new film: give it a name, pick the number of shots, and optionally name each shot right away. Every shot starts with the default tasks (Scene blocking, Lighting, Shading, Animation) plus the EDIT row.

⛶

×

One popup sets up the whole film: name, number of shots, optional shot names.

Need one more shot later? + Add shot on a film header adds it at the end or in between: between 030 and 040 it becomes 035, same numbering as the S: drive, and nothing is ever renumbered.

⛶

×

Add shot: pick the position, existing shots keep their numbers.

Renaming or deleting shots and breakdowns is Martin's department, so if something needs to go, ask him instead of working around it.

Inside every open shot sits an upload zone: "Drag and drop a file here, or click to browse". Drop your render or playblast there and it becomes the next version on the strip, v001, v002, and so on, with the upload progress following your cursor. No renaming, no folders, the portal handles the numbering.

⛶

×

The version strip: newest first. WIPs are team-only until someone publishes them.

The play icon on a version chip opens the quickplay popup: the image or video full size, right there, without leaving the page. Handy for quickly comparing versions before you upload a new one.

⛶

×

Quickplay: click the play icon on any version chip to view it instantly.

Good to know: WIP versions are internal. Nothing reaches a client until Martin explicitly publishes a version to the review page.

The Review button on a project page takes you to the review page. It has two tabs: NIS internal is team-only review (the client never sees anything on that tab), For client is what the client review link shows. As crew you can see both, so you always know what the client is looking at.

⛶

×

Two tabs on the review page: NIS internal for the team, For client for the outside world.

On the internal tab you can join the review yourself: write team-only comments, comment on a specific frame of a video (the timestamp is captured automatically), Draw on image to sketch directly on a still, or attach a file to your comment. Tick handled when feedback is dealt with.

⛶

×

Internal comments: timestamped, drawable, and invisible to the client.

When client feedback comes in and Martin assigns a remark to you, it shows up as a task on your dashboard with a ▶ remark button that jumps you to the exact frame the client was talking about.

Everything above also works the lazy way: message the Telegram bot what you did ("shading on shot 20 is at 70%") and it updates the right task for you. It only touches your own tasks, asks which project or task you mean when your message could match more than one, and always shows you a summary to confirm before it writes anything. See the Telegram bot under the portal basics for how to connect it.

Everything lives on the S: drive, split into two top-level folders:

• 01 Dream: internal, self-initiated projects
• 02 Clients: client work

Each project gets its own folder named {date}-{clientName}-{projectName}, for example 260512-Kipling-KFLY.

If you don't see the full S: drive but only a single folder like 260512-ClientName-ProjectName, that's normal, it just means you only have access to that specific project.

We'd recommend not working directly off the network drive, depending on your machine and connection it can feel slow. This varies a lot per person, so try it out for yourself. If it feels sluggish, work on a local copy instead and move your files back into the right project folder when you're done.

Every project follows the same structure:

• 01 Blends: 01 Scenes, 02 R&D
• 02 Assets: 01 3D, 02 Graphical, 03 Textures
• 03 Renders: 01 Scenes, 02 R&D
• 04 Composite
• 05 Output: 01 Intermittent, 02 Final, 03 Images, 04 Client Pack

We use a dash (-) where a space would normally go, e.g. B-Renderon. Windows supports 260 characters in a filepath, which is plenty normally, but a space gets encoded under the hood as %20 (3 characters for a single space). Since our filepaths are already long, that adds up fast and can break things.

Before starting a project, check with the team:

• Which Blender version is used for this project.
• Install that version on your own machine (and on the server, on both user profiles, if you work there).
• Don't change keybinds on the server without discussing it with the team first.
• Load the default studio startup file on first launch (see below).

There's a default NIS Blender startup file at the root of every project folder. Use this as your starting file, it saves a lot of render-setting headaches later on.

These are set by default in the startup file, but may be changed if a client requests it. Otherwise, use these defaults.

Output resolution: 2560×2560 @ 24 FPS

Rendering on our local network is possible, but remote rendering isn't set up yet: freelancers can't kick one off directly from outside. If you'd like us to render a scene, let Martin know and he'll start it here on the studio network.

Before you ask: make sure the .blend file is saved in the correct project folder, and pack all external data into it first (File > External Data > Pack Resources) so nothing's missing when we open it here.

Once it's running, you can follow along on the NIS Discord server: the render bot posts an update when a job starts and finishes, and in the #renderstatus channel you can run /renderstatus any time to see live progress (frames, % done, time remaining).

• Always save inside the root of the project folder.
• Set the output path to /03 Render/01 Scenes/, in the folder of the shot you're working on.
• Make sure the render saves with a file extension.
• Overwrite is off by default, change it at your own risk.