Corbel 3D and Pixel Light Effects’ Leap to Simple, Fast File Transfer

It’s the Waiting That Grinds You Down 

Sometimes, it’s not a single big moment that pushes customers toward Signiant — not a client crisis, corrupted files, or the need to reshoot an entire day’s work — but rather the accumulation of waiting from countless little delays. It’s the waiting that grinds you down.  

Sometimes, it’s not one disaster but lots of small, relentless, frustrating delays keeping you from your work that makes you realize a change is needed. That’s exactly where Corbel 3D found itself.  

Capturing the Future

Founded in 2014, Corbel 3D and Pixel Light Effects provide industry-leading 3D and 4D scanning hardware and services, specializing in the digital capture of people, objects, and environments. They utilize state-of-the-art photogrammetry scanning equipment, which they manufacture in-house.

Photogrammetry involves capturing an object from multiple angles using single or multiple cameras. Specialized software then reconstructs these images into a detailed 3D model with texture by triangulating the camera positions and creating a point cloud. While static objects can be scanned with a single camera and turntable, Corbel’s expertise lies in using multi-camera arrays to capture hundreds of images simultaneously — particularly for moving subjects — enabling the creation of intricate 3D or 4D models. 

Corbel’s services and equipment have been used by AAA game developers, major Hollywood studios, social networking platforms, and more. With offices in both Vancouver and Beijing, Corbel operates globally, capturing and processing data, with CEO Jingyi Zhang overseeing the entire process. 

Corbel 3D’s Challenge of Transferring Millions of Small Files  

Working with millions of small files presented significant challenges for Corbel 3D and Pixel Light, especially when transferring data across large distances. The specialized scanning hardware and software they developed could generate as much as 36 GB of data per second. For a typical 2 to 10-minute capture, this could mean between four and 21 GB of data for a single shot.  

“The Beijing office [does] all the capture. All the post-processing team is in Vancouver. The files aren’t large, but there are thousands or maybe millions of small files. Each JPEG file is only one megabyte, but there are tons of them,” explained Jingyi Zhang, Corbel 3D’s CEO. 

The sheer volume of small files made transferring data a lengthy and complex process. Corbel relied on various client-provided services, including Box, Dropbox, WeTransfer, Google Drive, and even physically mailing hard drives to get the files where they needed to go. However, these solutions were inefficient. The need to zip the large volumes of files before transfer and then unzip them on the other end could take up to 10 hours per step, significantly delaying access to the data and slowing down the post-processing work.  

As Corbel’s 4D scanning operations expanded in 2021, these inefficiencies became more pronounced. With larger file transfers and higher data demands, the delays grew longer, making it clear that their existing transfer methods could no longer keep up with the increasing scale of their work. This drove the need for a faster, more reliable file transfer solution to support their growing operations.

Corbel Fixes Delays with Signiant Media Shuttle 

The need for a faster, more efficient solution became clear, prompting Corbel to look at Signiant Media Shuttle to streamline its workflow. During a testing phase, they found that it significantly improved their file transfer process, particularly by eliminating the need to zip and unzip files. 

“Having point-to-point directly into our server, we don’t have to zip [the files]; we just stack the folder and then transfer,” Zhang said.  

Media Shuttle, part of the Signiant Platform, is designed to efficiently transfer both large files and data sets containing millions of small files. Unlike legacy tools like FTP, which slow down by pausing to send each file individually, Media Shuttle uses advanced techniques such as pipelining to minimize delays. This allows for faster transitions between files, significantly reducing overall transfer time. By eliminating the need for individual file acknowledgments, Media Shuttle ensures smooth, fast transfers, making it the ideal solution for companies like Corbel 3D, which regularly generate large volumes of small files. 

In addition to solving their daily transfer challenges, Zhang chose Signiant for its strong security reputation in the industry. Seeing other companies with highly valuable content trusted Signiant was all the assurance Zhang needed to know that Signiant would keep Corbel 3D’s data secure.

“Everyone knows it’s a very secure platform,” Zhang said. “We have no problem telling clients, ‘Can we deliver this to you with our Media Shuttle portal?’” 

Zhang said using an industry-recognized file transfer solution gives Corbel 3D and Pixel Light Effects credibility with clients and strengthens their reputation in the industry.  

Signiant Brings Peace of Mind  

Media Shuttle simply gives Corbel more time and efficiency, reducing project delays and improving its ability to meet client deadlines. Additionally, using an industry-trusted platform like Signiant enhances Corbel’s credibility with its clients, further improving its operations.