Pixx Flow — Advanced

#What you'll learn

• The exact rules behind links, runs, readiness and Needs re-run.
• How results, inputs and lineage ("Made from") work across a team.
• How to use quality checks as gates before packaging.
• How teams, invites and removals behave, with no roles.
• The limits, and how to read the time report and its CSV.

#Before you start

• You've built and run a flow. If not, start with Pixx Flow — pipelines, runs and teams.
• Flow needs a plan with at least 2 apps active, for you and for anyone you assign. The trial and complimentary plans count.
• You work in the apps through Send to App, the Library and the cloud; see Working across apps — Intermediate.

#How Flow thinks

#How-tos

#How to design a flow that branches and joins

1. Select a step and add an app from What's next? or the list on the left; it links from the selected step when the apps fit. The new step becomes the selection, so click the first step again before adding the second branch (or drag from its right-hand dot onto any step).
2. To join two branches, drag from each branch's right-hand dot onto the same later step. That step is ready only when both branches are done.
3. Press Tidy to lay the board out left to right by depth.

For example: Pixxava → Pixxeta (hitboxes) and Pixxava → Pixxado (shadows), both joining at Pixxizi.

#How to choose which input a step opens with

1. Open the step in a run.
2. Press Open in and the app's name. If several results could feed this step (from several earlier steps, or several results on one step), Flow asks Open with which input?; pick one.
3. The app opens signed in with that input loaded, and a Flow chip in its top bar.

#How to replace a result or add another

1. In the app, use the Flow chip's Send result to Flow again.
2. If you already sent a result of that kind for this step, choose:
   • Replace my earlier result … with this version: updates the same Library item. Later steps that were done change to Needs re-run.
   • Add it as another result: keeps both, for example a variant.
3. Click Send to Flow, then mark the step done if you're finished.

#How to gate a step with a quality check

1. In the flow editor, select the step and turn on a quality check. Choose a rule set: Engine essentials, Game-ready, Retro strict or Everything (Pixxoku's rules).
2. In a run, after a result arrives, open the step panel and press Check the newest result.
3. The step can be marked Done only when the newest result passes: no errors and no warnings. Hints are fine.

Checks run on images, animation frames and sprite sheets. A newer result clears the old check, so check again after every replacement.

#How to handle a step nobody needs this time

1. Open the step panel and set its status to Skipped.
2. Steps after it treat it like Done and become ready.

Use it for optional branches, such as shadows on a character that doesn't need them.

#How to run a team without roles

1. Create a team (New team) and invite people by email with Invite someone. Each invite link works once, for 14 days, and can be cancelled while it's pending (Cancel invite).
2. Move flows into the team with the Personal / Team menu at the top of the editor, or use New flow for this team on the team page.
3. Anyone in the team can rename it, invite, remove a member, edit flows, start runs, assign any step and comment. Every change appears in the team's Activity.

When someone is removed or leaves, their unfinished steps become unassigned. When the last person leaves, the team and its flows and runs are deleted.

#How to read the time report and its CSV

1. Open Reports on the Flow page.
2. Read the time per step across runs (the top bar is your bottleneck) and each run against the average of its flow.
3. Click Download CSV. Each row is one step of one run, with the columns Run, Flow, Step, App and Minutes.

Time counts while someone has an app open on that step, from the same tracking as your Dashboard. People who switched tracking off don't add time.

#Workflows

#Character pipeline with a final gate

1. Template Game character: Pixxava → Pixxani → Pixxeta → Pixxado → Pixxoku → Pixxula → Pixxizi.
2. The Pixxoku step already has a quality check. Select it to change the rule set, for example to Engine essentials for the bare minimum or Retro strict for a tight retro look.
3. Start one run per character ("Knight", "Goblin"), assign each step and set due dates.
4. When an animation changes late, the artist replaces the Pixxani result. Pixxeta, Pixxado and everything after flip to Needs re-run, so nobody packs hitboxes for the old animation.

#Studio board for many runs

1. Keep one team flow per kind of asset (characters, levels, UI).
2. Use the run's Board view (To do / Doing / Needs re-run / Done) for stand-ups, and Finish run when a run is complete.
3. Archive finished runs you no longer look at; use the Active / Finished / Archived / All filter to find them again, and Re-open if needed.

#Estimating new work

1. After a few runs, open Reports and download the CSV.
2. Average the Minutes per Step in a spreadsheet to estimate the next character, and look at the bottleneck step first when a deadline is tight.

#Tips and shortcuts

• Editor keys: Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z redo, Delete removes the selection, arrow keys move a step.
• Limits: 60 steps and 120 links per flow, step names up to 60 characters, notes up to 500, comments up to 2,000. Up to 20 teams per person and 50 people per team.
• A run name is just a label. Use one run per deliverable, such as one character or one level.
• Comments email the person on the step. Each person chooses their own emails under Email me on the Flow page.
• Deleting a flow keeps the runs that were started from it.
• Flow lives on pixxsuite.com and needs a connection; the apps themselves keep working offline.

#Troubleshooting

• A link won't connect. The two apps can't hand anything to each other. Flow shows why; add an app in between (for example Pixxula to turn frames into a sheet).
• "Done" stays greyed out. The step has a quality check and its newest result hasn't passed. Fix the art, send a new result and check again.
• A step I finished says Needs re-run. An earlier step got a newer result. Open the step with the new input and send your result again.
• I can't assign someone. They must be in the team and have a plan with 2+ apps.
• A result says it was deleted. Its maker removed it from their Library, or their plan ended more than 30 days ago. Ask them, or anyone with the source, to send it again.
• My edits were replaced. Someone else saved the same flow while you edited; Flow asks whether to load their version or keep yours. Pick yours to keep editing.

#Related guides

• Pixx Flow — pipelines, runs and teams
• Game engine hand-offs
• Pixx asset files
• Working across apps — Intermediate
• Your dashboard