Getting Started With Kitsu

Introduction

Kitsu is a production tracking tool built for studios working across 2D and 3D production, VFX, video games, and related fields. It's flexible enough to handle everything from a single still-frame ad to a full 3-hour feature film.

This page walks you through everything you need to get a studio up and running in Kitsu, in order:

1. General Kitsu Settings: configure studio-wide settings like your logo, working hours, and chat integrations
2. Studio Workflows: set up the task types, statuses, and libraries that define how work moves through your studio
3. Preparing Your Team: invite users, assign them to departments, and grant permissions
4. Create a New Production: links to quickstart guides for different production types (TV shows, feature films, shorts, video games, and more) and how to add teammates to a production
5. Next Steps: role-specific handbooks to onboard your supervisors, producers, artists, clients, and developers

By the end, you'll have a configured studio, an onboarded team, and a clear path to launching your first production.

1. General Kitsu Settings

First, let's customize your Kitsu instance to match your studio culture.

Click on the Main Menu button in the top left corner:

Under the Admin section, click on the Settings page.

The page lists global settings that affect every production:

1. Click on the Set studio logo button and select an image to replace the Kitsu logo
2. Change the Studio Name to be used in your Kitsu instance
3. The number of working hours per day for scheduling and reporting

The Preferences section depend on your tastes:

1. You can opt to use original file names for downloads instead of automated names
2. Display images in HD quality by default if you have a very fast internet connection
3. You can also restrict artists from modifying timesheets older than one week
4. Display durations in hours instead of days if you have varying day lengths
5. Enable dark or light theme by default

Finally, you will also find a section covering various chat integrations. Please refer to the developer documentation's Chat Integration pages for more information on how to configure this.

WARNING

Remember to Save Settings at the end once you are finished.

2. Studio Workflows

Next, we need to define how work moves through your studio.

Understanding Studio Workflows

Definition

Workflow: the structured coordination of tasks constituting the operational processes within a production. For example, in a CGI production, an asset goes through a series of tasks like modeling, rigging, and shading.

The Workflow of your production is the sum of your Task Types and Task Statuses.

Definition

Task Type: a category of process, like modeling or shading

Definition

Entity: an individual object, e.g an asset or a shot

Definition

Task: a specific action or activity that needs to be done. Tasks are linked to entities and categorized by task type. Each task is then assigned to an artist.

Once the workflow for your tasks is defined, the next step is to establish an Approval Workflow: define all the task statuses used for communication in the team. Task statuses track the progress of your production.

Definition

Task Status: a specific stage or condition that a task must pass through as part of the review and approval workflow. Examples: Ready To Start, Work In Progress, Waiting For Approval, Retake, Done.

Just like you can define an asset workflow (for example: Modeling, Shading, Rigging), you can define a workflow for shots, sequences, etc.

A library is a collection of reusable production elements that make up workflows; things like departments, task types, task statuses, and asset types, that you set up once and then apply across your projects, rather than recreating from scratch every time.

Global Library VS Production Library

Kitsu has two types of libraries:

Library	Access	Purpose
Global Library	Studio manager only	Studio-wide source of departments, task types, task statuses, asset types, and status automations
Production Library	Per-production	Populated by selecting elements from the Global Library

This separation allows each production to have its own workflow if need be.

First, we set up the Global Library:

1. Department Setup

Open Full Page ↗

Defining your studio's Departments is typically the first step in setup, as multiple objects such as people and task types are linked to a department.

TIP

By default, Kitsu provides some example departments to help you get started.

If you need to create more departments, you can click on the Add a department button:

When adding a department, you need to define:

• The name of the department
• A color (it will be displayed as a small round circle next to a column task type or a custom column)

Click on Confirm to save your changes.

Once you finish creating the department, your page should look like this. Each department has a unique name and a corresponding color:

Open Full Page ↗

2. Task Type Setup

First, let's create all the Task Types needed to manage and track our production.

From the main menu, select the Task Types page under the Admin section:

TIP

By default, Kitsu provides some example task types that can be used for a CGI production. You can rename or remove any that are not relevant to your production.

You will notice that these Task Types are already linked to a department.

You can click on the Add Task Type button to create new Task Type:

Next, you will need to supply some information about your task type, including:

• The name of the task type
• If team members need to time log their work for tasks with this task type
• For which entity it will be used
• To which department it should be linked
• The color (this will be reflect in the background color on the main spreadsheet page)

You'll notice that the Departments we created previously are available as an option to link task types to. Connecting a department to a specific task type can help your team stay organized.

Click on Confirm to save your changes.

WARNING

Newly created task types will appear at the bottom of the list

To adjust the order, simply click on the Task Type and drag it to its appropriate position in the list.

Congratulations, your task type has now be created in your Global Library.

WARNING

Once you have created your production, you need to add the Sequence, Episode, and Edit task types to your Production Library.

TIP

At any point during production, you can revisit this section to create additional Task Types as necessary and add them into your workflow.

3. Task Status Setup

Let's create the statuses we intend to use during our Approval Workflow.

For example:

Status	Icon	Description
Ready		Indicates that the artists have everything they need to start working and should not begin their tasks without reaching this status.
WIP		Used by artists to inform their team that they are actively working on the task, indicating that there is no need to assign it to someone else.
WFA		Used by artists to notify their supervisors that they have completed their work and are awaiting review. Supervisors can also use a similar status to inform directors that work is ready for review.
Done		Indicates that all work has been completed & approved. This indicates that the current task is complete and the next step in the process can commence.
Retake		Indicates that a comment has been made, prompting the artists to continue working on their task and publish a new version until validation is achieved.

These statuses are just examples of what is achievable in Kitsu! You are free to create your own as needed.

To do this, from the main page, click on the Add a task status button:

You'll then need to define some details about you Task Status, including:

• NAME, the explicit name of the status that will be displayed when you hover your mouse over it in the.
• SHORT NAME, what will be displayed in Kitsu.
• IS DEFAULT, the first status that Kitsu will display by default on all tasks. You can only have ONE default status in Kitsu.
• IS DONE, if this status is utilized to validate a task (which is beneficial for quota management, organizing the to-do list, and updating episode statistics).
• HAS RETAKE VALUE, if this status is used for commenting on a task (helpful for tracking the back-and-forth discussions on the task type page and for the episode stats page).
• IS ARTIST ALLOWED, are artists allowed to set tasks to this status? If No, the artist won't see this status in their list of available statuses. However, they can still post comments on it.
• IS CLIENT ALLOWED, Can the client use this Status? If No, the client won't see this status in their list of available statuses.
• IS FEEDBACK REQUEST, if this status is used to request a review (helpful for quota tracking if you don't use a timesheet, it will appear in the Pending tab of the to-do list, and all these statuses will be grouped on the My Check page. Kitsu will prompt you to publish a preview each time you use this status).
• Finally, choose a background color you prefer for this status.

Click on Confirm to save your changes.

Your Status is now created in your Global Library and will be available to use in your production.

TIP

At any point during the production, you can return here and create more Task Status if needed, and then add them to your production.

WARNING

You'll notice a few tasks statuses listed under the category of Concept Status. These are used by the system and while you can modify them here, you cannot create new ones.

4. Asset Type Setup

Much like how shots can be organized by a sequence, an asset can be organised by it's Asset Type. Think of it as using folders to organize all your assets by category.

On the main menu select the Asset Type page under the Admin section.

TIP

By default, Kitsu provides some example asset types that can be used for a CGI production.

To create new Asset Type, click on the button.

Next, you will need to supply some information about your Asset Type, including:

• The name of the asset type
• A workflow for the specific asset type

Different Asset Types will have distinct workflows. For instance, you might have fewer tasks for an Environment compared to a Character, as Environment assets typically don't require Rigging tasks.

When you create or edit an Asset Type, you can add a specific task type; if you don't select a specific workflow for this asset type, your production asset workflow will be applied.

However, if you choose specific Task types for this Asset type, only these will be applied to production.

Click on Confirm to save your changes.

Your new Asset Type is now created in your Global Library. It will be available to use when you create your production.

TIP

At any point during production, you can revisit this section to create additional Asset Types as necessary and add them into your workflow.

5. Status Automation Setup

A Status Automation defines rules or conditions that automatically trigger changes in the status of tasks based on predefined criteria. You can set up Status Automation for both asset and shot tasks.

For assets, you can establish Status Automations between tasks. For example, when the concept task status is set to done, the downstream modelling task status is automatically changed to ready.

Additionally, you can create Status Automations that update the Asset Status based on task statuses. For example, when the concept task is set to done , then the linked asset status is set to layout.

TIP

You can also ask Kitsu to copy the latest preview with the Automation.

Go to the main menu and select Automations:

From this page, you can create Status Automations by clicking the + Add status automation button:

You have the option to create Status Automation for either the asset or the shot.

Next, you can select the task type and the status that will trigger the Automation.

You can specify which Task Type will respond to the Automation and select the Status that will be changed.

You need to change the trigger from "Status" to Ready For in order to initiate the change in Ready For status.

You will notice the Applied Task Type will now display Shot task type.

To create a Status Automation for shots, you must change the Entity Type to shots.

Your new Status Automation is now created in your Global Library.

WARNING

You must add status automations to your Production Library once you have created your production.

TIP

At any point during the production, you can return here and create more Status Automations if needed, and then add them to your production.

When you'll later create your first production, you'll fill out the Production Library with the elements from the Global Library.

3. Preparing Your Team

Now that you have defined your studio workflows, it's time to organize your team so you have people to assign tasks to.

We will learn how to invite users to Kitsu, link them to departments, and grant them permissions:

Adding & Inviting Users

To assign tasks to people, you first need to create an account for them in Kitsu.

Go to the Main Navigation Menu and choose the People page under the STUDIO section.

Then, click on the Add a new user button to open the creation modal:

You will then be prompted to enter the following information: (please note from of the fields are required in order to create the user)

• 1. First Name (MANDATORY)
• 2. Last Name
• 3. Email (MANDATORY)
• 4. Phone Number

Important!

An email address is mandatory and must be unique in order to create an account.

• 5. You can specify one or multiple Departments to link a user to.

Being assigned to a Departments will also affect what shows up on the My Checks page, displaying only tasks related to your department.

Finally, the timesheet page will be filtered to only tasks within your department as well.

Once a user is linked to a department, various options will become available to them. For example, they will have direct access to their department's view on the global homepage.

The department supervisor will be able to comment on all tasks within their department and assign tasks only to people from the same department(s).

• 6. Role: This is where you will define the permission role of the user (this will be explained below).
• 7. Active

This section lets you choose whether to activate users immediately. If the user needs immediate access to Kitsu, set this to yes. However, there might be instances where you want to create a user but are not ready to give them access to Kitsu (for example, if you want to schedule tasks for an artist who is due to start work in two weeks). In this case, you can create and schedule the user, then simply enable them once they start.

Important!

Each user requires an individual account to log in to Kitsu.

Later when creating our first production, we'll learn how to add teammates to a production team so that they can begin working on tasks.

4. Create a New Production

Now that you have designed your global workflow and invited more people, it's time to create your production:

• Quickstart for TV Shows
• Quickstart for Feature Films
• Quickstart for Shorts
• Quickstart for Video Games
• Quickstart for Shots-Only Productions
• Quickstart for Assets-Only Productions

The last setup step is to add studio teammates to the production:

Adding Users to a Production Team

Once you have created your production, you need to add users to the production's team to allow them access.

Being part of a team also allows tasks to be assigned to you.

TIP

You don't need to add the Studio Manager role to a team to give them read permission (since this role will have access to it anyways). However, if you want to assign them tasks, they will need to be added to the team.

To add users to a team, within your project, use the navigation dropdown menu at the top of the page and select the TEAM page.

On the Team page, you can see all the users who have been assigned to this project. If you've just created a brand new project, this page will be empty. You can also quickly switch to the team page for a different project by selecting the project name in the drop down menu at the top of the page.

WARNING

Permissions and departments are set at the Studio Level. You can't adjust these at the production level.

5. Next Steps

• About Team Roles - An overview of the different team roles and corresponding permissions available in Kitsu.
• Kitsu for Supervisors - A list of the main workflows for supervisors.
• Kitsu for Producers - A list of the main workflows for producers.
• Kitsu for Artists - A list of the main workflows for artists.
• Kitsu for Clients - A list of the main workflows for clients.
• Kitsu for Developers - A list of resources for developers.