Shot Browser

Shot Browser is where the comfyui_vfx-flow pack stops being plumbing and starts feeling like a production tool. Given the project pipe from Project Browser, it looks up shots on that project, hands you the folder path of the latest published version, and tells you which version number you're about to generate. It's the node that connects your AI renders to the actual cutting room.

In a studio context this is the workflow's context switch: you load the shot, ComfyUI processes it, and whatever you save should slot back into the same shot's version history. Shot Browser is the "where are we and what's already here" moment. Outside a studio, honestly, it's meaningless - there's no shot list to browse. Same caveat as every node in this pack: no Flow site, no point.

How it works

Feed it the flow pipe from Project Browser and a shot_code partial match (e.g. SH010). It queries Flow for shots on the selected project, takes the first hit, and does three things:

• Finds the latest published version for that shot and walks the next version number up from it. If the newest version is v003, your next one is v004.
• Extracts folder_path from the latest version's file path, so you know where the plate lives.
• Optionally flips the shot's status to In Progress in Flow.

The outputs that matter:

• flow (FLOW_CONTEXT) - the pipe, now nominally carrying shot info onward.
• folder_path (STRING) - directory of the latest version's frames or movie. This is the wire the pack is designed around: it's meant to plug straight into a plate loader (the sister pack VFX Bridge uses it for an EXR hot-folder loader) so ComfyUI reads the shot's actual frames.
• latest_file (STRING) - full path to that latest version.
• info (STRING) - a status block showing shot, sequence, status, next version number, and the folder it found.

The toggle that writes to your database

set_in_progress defaults to true. Read that twice, because it's the easiest way to annoy a coordinator: every time you run the workflow (or bump the widget) this node updates the shot record in Flow to In Progress. That's usually the desired behavior - you started work, so the shot should say so. But it's a write to shared production data, and it happens silently. If you're just testing, flip it off. A node that mutates a shared database by default deserves your respect.

Installing it

ComfyUI Manager → search VFX Flow → install → restart. Manual:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/beverlyhillscop90210/comfyui_vfx-flow
cd comfyui_vfx-flow
pip install -r requirements.txt

Just shotgun_api3>=3.3.0; no models.

Where people get burned

• The context pipe has rough edges. Reading the shipped source, ShotBrowser computes the shot details and next version into an updated pipe but hands back the original flow object - so the shot, sequence and version number don't reliably ride the flow wire downstream as of the current single commit. The string outputs (folder_path, latest_file, info) are solid; don't assume what's inside the flow is, until the author tightens it. Test the chain on a dummy project before you bet a deadline on it.
• "No shots found". Your shot_code filter is too specific, or the shot isn't in the project you selected upstream. Fix the Project Browser filter, not this node.
• Version numbers look off. Next-version logic keys off the latest published version. If artists publish version-less drafts elsewhere, your counter will disagree with reality.

Shot Browser is the heart of the pack's promise - real shots, real folders, real version numbers, without leaving ComfyUI. Just keep one eye on what it's writing while it does it.