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Gridman rests on a single chain: project → sequence → shot → version → comment. A project is a film, a commercial or a series. A sequence is a scene inside it. A shot is a single plate somebody owns and that has a due date. A version is the actual file brought in for review. A comment is a note pinned to a frame of that version.

Sequences are optional: a small project lives without them and keeps its shots directly in the project. Everything else — statuses, stages, artists, links, watermarks — are not separate modules but properties of those five entities. Which is why it reads best top-down: first Projects and sequences, then Shots, then Versions and stages.

Every project has a short code — 2 to 8 latin letters or digits, say HLS. Everything else is built from it:

• HLS_010 — a sequence;
• HLS_010_020 — a shot inside it;
• HLS_010_020_comp_v003 — the third comp version of that shot.

Numbers step by 10, so there is always room to slip 015 between 010 and 020 without renaming half the project. The app fills in the next free number for you, and you can override it.

Version numbers count per stage: comp has its own run, anim has another. The first comp version of a shot is comp_v001 even if three animation versions came before it.

A project starts with a name, a code and its dates. From then on it lives across six tabs: Project information, Sequences, Shots, Team, Board, Files.

Sequences are scenes. They earn their keep once you pass a couple of dozen shots: lists filter by them and Gridman Tools lays out folders from them. A shot can move to another sequence at any point.

A finished project goes to the Archive — it leaves the list but stays reachable and is not deleted. The project-wide chat is switched on and off in the project settings.

A shot carries a due date, one or more artists, a status and a brief. All of it shows on the card in the list, together with a preview of the latest version.

The brief lives on the Spec tab next to the comments: that is where you write down what has to be done and attach references. The artist reads it in the same place they watch the version — no hunting through email.

If a plate is dropped, the shot is omitted: it stays in the project with a mark, but no longer skews the statistics or waits for versions.

A version is an uploaded video or still. The upload asks for a stage: comp, anim, cleanup, ref — the list belongs to your account, and both codes and titles are edited under “Management”.

Once uploaded, the video is processed: a proxy is built for smooth playback and a thumbnail is grabbed. The version is marked while that runs and opens in the player as soon as it is ready. The original is kept if your plan allows it and the project asks for it.

A version also carries a verdict — approved, changes requested or pending. A verdict can move the shot status on its own, see Statuses, verdicts and auto-statuses.

Under the frame sit the timecode and the frame number — the thing notes are actually argued about. Left and right arrows (or J / L) move exactly one frame, space pauses, F goes full screen.

• + and − zoom into the frame, 0 or a double click return to 100%;
• markers on the timeline show where comments sit — click one to jump there;
• the snapshot button copies the current frame with the drawings on top.

A comment belongs to one frame: it remembers the timecode and the frame number. You can draw over that frame — an arrow, a box, a line or freehand. The drawing shows on its own frame only, so it never covers the rest of the shot.

• You can reply to a comment — that makes a thread instead of a second entry in the feed;
• an @mention hands the note to a person: they get a notification, see Notifications;
• resolved notes get a tick and drop to the bottom;
• there is also a general comment — on the version as a whole rather than a frame.

Files can be attached to a comment — a reference, a screenshot, a crop from another package. When the notes pile up, take them out as a list or have them summarised: Exporting notes.

Shot statuses are set up for your studio: name, colour and icon. Each one can be given a stage meaning — “in progress”, “ready to start” or “done”. That meaning decides whether an artist’s stages count as closed, and whether they keep getting notifications.

Separately from the shot status, every version carries a verdict: approved, changes requested or pending. Whoever watches sets it — the owner, a reviewer or a client on a review.

Auto-statuses tie the two together: “version approved — move the shot to Approved”, “client asked for changes — send it back to In progress”. Configured under “Management”, separately for the team and for clients.

Comparison opens from a button on the shot page: one version on the left, another on the right, playback shared. Scrubbing moves both, so the frames never drift apart.

A comment written in comparison remembers which mode it came from: open it later and you land on the same pair of versions.

Sync playback is the live one. A host drives the player and everyone else sees the same frame in their own browser: scrubbing, pausing and switching versions are repeated for all.

A review session is the opposite — not live. You put a list of versions together in advance, and the reviewer walks it one by one leaving a verdict: approve, request changes, or omit the shot. A summary builds up at the bottom and can be copied out in one piece.

A session is either internal or client-facing. A client session is assigned to the client’s mini-account: they see only the versions you put in it and nothing else in the project. A separate switch decides whether they also see the team’s earlier comments.

Notes on a version come out two ways: as a table (frame, timecode, author, text, resolved) that Excel or Google Sheets opens, and as EDL markers that DaVinci Resolve and Premiere understand — the comments land straight on the timeline.

The export takes the notes of the version you have open: each version keeps its own list, so old remarks never bleed into the new ones.

The player has a colour panel: exposure, gamma and LUTs. Presets for common camera gammas are generated on the spot and can be switched on by any account.

Your own .cube files upload on the Pro and Studio plans. Each LUT separately decides whether a guest on a Links for the client sees it — a client usually needs one working look, not your whole shelf.

Artists are a list of names you hang on shots. An artist can be just a name in the list or a live Mini-accounts and permissions — in which case the person sees their own shots and gets notified about them.

An artist can be given stages they own — say comp only. “My shots” and “my stages are done” are then counted against those, not against the whole project.

A mini-account is a lightweight login inside your own account: a name like person@your-login and a password. The person needs no registration and no email address.

They come in two kinds:

• Internal — for the team. Permissions are fine-grained: comment, give verdicts, create shots and versions, manage sequences, links, reviews, the board, the dictionaries.
• Client — for the customer. Sees only the versions assigned to them in a review session and nothing else — see Watching together: sync playback and review sessions.

There are quick roles — viewer, reviewer, artist, manager, full access — and, separately, which projects the account is allowed into at all. An account can be disabled or given an expiry date, after which the login stops working.

The “Share” button on a shot page makes a link. It opens a player with comments — the guest can go to the frame in question and write, signing with a name.

Each link has its own settings: lifetime, whether the team’s comments are visible, whether the watermark is on. A link is either pinned to a version or always shows the latest ready one.

While watching, the mark is drawn over the video in the browser and carries the viewer’s identity and the time. The file itself is served untouched and nothing is re-encoded. Three independent switches turn it on: a master one on the owner, one per mini-account, and one per link.

On download the mark is a different beast: it is burned into the pixels, and such a file is prepared on request. Anyone entitled to a clean file — the owner and accounts with the matching permission — gets it without the wait.

Next door lives the access log: who opened a shot, when, and whether they grabbed frames. It answers “where did it leak from” when material travels further than planned.

Events land in the bell inside the app and, when the tab is closed, as a system notification from the browser — if you allowed them on that device.

• Status changes on shots and versions, verdicts and auto-statuses included;
• replies to your comments and @mentions — those always arrive;
• a choice between “all shots” and “mine only”, meaning the ones you are assigned to.

A version is uploaded from the shot page — by button or by dropping the file. Everything that could refuse it (permissions, the per-file limit, free space) is checked before the first byte leaves, not after the gigabytes have landed.

Files from 16 MB up use a resumable upload that goes straight into storage, past our server. If the connection drops, the parts wait for it to come back and finish themselves — as long as the page is open there is nothing to do. An unfinished upload can be picked up within 24 hours.

• Free — 200 MB, up to 200 MB per file, originals are not kept.
• Pro — 200 GB, up to 5 GB per file, originals kept and viewable in original quality, more mini-accounts.
• Studio — 1 TB, or your own S3: the files live with you and our limit does not apply.

Space in use is shown in the profile menu. When a paid plan runs out the files do not vanish on the spot: there is a grace period, and the warnings come well in advance.

The Files tab gathers the project material: sources, working files, attachments. A cloud drive can be attached to the project — then the heavy material lives there and Gridman keeps the links.

The Board is the project’s shared mood board: images, links and captions on an endless canvas, with every edit visible to the others at once. A board can be shared by public link. Board images count towards the same storage quota, and their number depends on the plan.

Tools is a separate Windows program that works with folders on disk; the basic tools need no account at all.

• Sequence renamer — brings a frame pack in line with the convention: numbering, padding, separator. With a preview, a journal and an undo.
• Project structure — lays out folders from the studio template, including from the real shots in Gridman.
• Project check — gaps in numbering, zero-length and half-downloaded frames, version mismatches, shot codes from another project.
• Delivery packaging — the latest versions from the exports folders across all shots, copied to the delivery folder together with a manifest.csv.

Signing into Tools with your account is worth it for the link to your projects: folder structures then come from real shots instead of invented names. Signing in issues the program a key, see API keys.

A key acts exactly as whoever issued it: for a mini-account, with that account’s permissions, re-read on every request. Disable the account and the key dies with it immediately.

Mini-account keys are created by their sign-in to Gridman Tools and are visible to the owner in the same section: only the owner can revoke any of them.