Building a New Zealand VFX Studio for Global Scale

At Cause and FX, building our New Zealand VFX studio and capability has always been done with a global focus. Our work spans international productions, high-resolution workflows, and multiple teams collaborating across time zones to deliver work at the highest level.

What you don’t see is the technical backbone that makes this possible. The infrastructure, storage, and networks quietly working behind the scenes to enable visual effects delivery on a global scale.

The hidden infrastructure behind modern visual effects

So how much data does that actually take?

In practical terms, our combined onsite and offsite storage totals nearly 2 petabytes – the kind of capacity now required to support modern VFX pipelines working at global scale. To put that into perspective, it’s the equivalent of holding more than 19,000 4K films.

Or, as Reuben Hamill, Technology and Infrastructure Manager, explained it to our team, “That’s enough to binge-watch Netflix continuously for over four years without repeating a single film.”

Still hard to picture? A single petabyte can store roughly 210 million MP3 songs. As Hamill puts it, “Our total capacity could hold around 365 million songs – that’s like running Spotify-level music 24/7 for more than 800 years without repeating a track.”

Yes, that’s a lot of data. And it doesn’t sit still.

Each year, nearly 30 petabytes of data move across our internal network as artists read, write, render, and refine shots throughout the VFX pipeline.

These numbers aren’t about bragging rights. They tell a much more important story – how modern VFX studios are built, why infrastructure matters just as much as talent, and how New Zealand teams like ours collaborate seamlessly with productions around the world.

Let’s break it down.

How data moves through a modern VFX pipeline

Of course, every VFX shot must travel through multiple stages before it reaches the screen. From project launch through build, layout, animation, simulation, lighting, rendering, and compositing, data volumes grow quickly.

Across each of these stages, our artists need fast, reliable access to large files to test ideas, iterate, and refine their work. Delays at any point don’t just slow delivery, they can interrupt creative flow – and we don’t want that!

To put that scale into real-world terms, a single hero shot in Houdini can generate hundreds of gigabytes across simulation caches, render outputs, and the multiple data passes required for final compositing. All of that data needs to move seamlessly between artists and departments to keep work progressing.

Multiply that across a sequence or an entire show, and it becomes clear why fast, reliable infrastructure isn’t optional.

This speed is just as important for our clients, as it is our team. It translates into smoother review cycles, faster revisions, and confidence that creative decisions aren’t being constrained by technical bottlenecks.

Inside the internal network powering our VFX studio

Handling this volume of work depends on more than storage alone. We’ve invested heavily in an internal network capable of moving data of moving data continuously between artists, departments, and render systems

Alongside this internal network, sits our external connectivity layer. This enables secure, high-speed collaboration with our clients and partners.

Our dedicated fibre infrastructure enables us to push and pull data to clients anywhere in the world using tools like Aspera and Signiant Media Shuttle – without slowdowns, even during peak transfer windows. Where appropriate, we also integrate with modern cloud-based platforms to support secure, scalable collaboration.

Combined with redundant internet connections and offsite backup systems, this gives productions the reliability tight deadlines demand.

With over 30 petabytes of read and write activity each year, our internal systems support our teams working in parallel across multiple projects. We have assets moving quickly between stages, allowing collaboration and work progresses without those frustrating pauses.

The benefit for our production partners is simple. Fewer delays, quicker responses to feedback, and a workflow that keeps momentum high from first review to final delivery.

How a New Zealand VFX studio collaborates globally

While we may look far away on the map, distance is no longer a barrier for visual effects. With the right connectivity in place, our New Zealand VFX studio collaborates seamlessly with productions anywhere in the world – and does so every day.

As data demands continue to increase, higher resolutions, more complex shots, and tighter turnarounds have become standard across the industry. That reality demands infrastructure that can keep up, consistently and reliably.

While cloud-based solutions play an important role across the industry, we’ve made a deliberate investment in robust on-site core infrastructure, complemented by offsite and cloud services where they add the most value.

Our owned infrastructure gives us consistent performance, strong data security, and cost predictability for productions. We’ve built it to scale because deadlines don’t wait for network congestion or cloud availability. From right here in New Zealand, our focus remains the same, enabling world-class collaboration and giving our clients confidence that their work is in safe hands.

Want to know more? Drop us an email, we’d love to hear from you.

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