Reddit mentions of Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games

Typically "pipeline" is more like the "glue" that holds all the disparate software packages together, so writing software that does things "off the shelf" software (like Houdini, Maya, Nuke, etc) doesn't really solve by itself. For example:

- allow artists to hand files off to people outside their dept and track which files to use when (so like when a modeler is done and needs to give a model to rigging and then animation needs to pick up the rigged model and then lighting needs to know which version of anim to use) . Some studios use things like Shotgun toolkit for this, others write in house tools, some people use a combination of both. Usually this involves providing import and export ("publish") functionality for off the shelf DCCs.

- facilitate reviews and dailies to allow artists to more easily get feedback on their work

- ingesting plates and dealing with client grades, client side editorial repos, keeping internal cuts up to date with client editorial cuts, delivering finished media back to clients

- at a multi site studio, they may also write the software that deals with keeping files in sync at each facility

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Studios do also have people who write discipline specific tools or plugins for specific DCCs (e.g. a "2D Pipeline TD" might primarily write tools for compositors to use in Nuke), but the split up of who does what is different by studio (more advanced plugins might be done by a dedicated R&D dept while one-off scripts could be written by any artist, with a discipline specific pipeline TD being somewhere inbetween those two extremes.)

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I actually did remember that there's a book about pipelines, https://www.amazon.ca/Production-Pipeline-Fundamentals-Film-Games/dp/0415812291 I haven't read the whole thing but it might be an interesting place to start if you're super interested in this topic. :)

Here you go:

• Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games
  
• In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing
  
• Art of the Cut
  
• Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video
  
• Grammar of the Edit
  
• The Video Editing Handbook
  
• Modern Post: Workflows and Techniques for Digital Filmmakers