In this guide, I will walk you through setting up a cost-effective and flexible remote working environment using Pikapods, Nextcloud, and Tik Manager. This setup ensures smooth collaboration, version control, and asset management for VFX and game development teams working remotely.

Why This Workflow?

Traditional cloud storage services like Dropbox Business and Google Workspace charge per user, making them expensive for teams. In contrast, Pikapods + Nextcloud provides a scalable and cost-effective alternative with no per-user charges. Additionally, it offers extra productivity tools like groupware, chat, and office collaboration features, all for as low as $3.3 per month (as February 2025). This price is total price for entire team. whether you have 3 artists or 30 artists in your team, the price will be $3.3 for the entire team.

Setting Up Pikapods

1. Create an account on Pikapods.

Go to https://www.pikapods.com/ and sign up for an account.

2. Deploy a Nextcloud app from the Pikapods marketplace.

Click on the ADD POD button to deploy a new pod.

Choose the Nextcloud App from the dropdown menu and give your pod a name.

Define CPU Cores, Memory and Storage adjusting the slider based on your project requirements. These settings can be changed at any time.

As the specs go higher, the estimated monthly price increases. But not drastically. Estimated price for 10GB space is $3.28. If you make it 50GB it becomes $4.02. For 1TB the estimation would be $10.90. Again, this is NOT per person price. This is the total price for the entire project, including all artists.

You should have something like this:

Change the domain name from the pod settings.

Configuring Nextcloud (Server on Pikapods)

3. Create/Login to your Nextcloud account.

Once your pod is ready, click the Open Pod button and create an admin account for the nextcloud:

4. Create Shared Folders

We will create two folders

Project Folder: Store assets, files, and collaborative work.
tik_common Folder: Dedicated storage for Tik Manager’s shared data.

Click the folder icon on top menu and create the folders as shown.

5. Add users

The next step is to add team members who need access to the shared data.

From the right-top corner admin menu, go to the accounts section.

Create a user account with the below settings. Repeat the process for each member of your team.

6. Sharing the Project and Common Folders With Team

Select the folder and go to the Open Details from its settings area. Switch to the Sharing Tab. Find the user. Make sure the Allow Editing is selected and click Save Share

Repeat the same process for all users and project folder as well

7. Per User Nextcloud Client Setup

Once the nextcloud server is set up with the user and shared folder, each user needs to install the nextcloud client to their machines.

Install Nextcloud Files client on each team member’s computer.

After installation, you will be asked to log in to the server.

click login and enter the server address.

A browser will pop up for authentication. Enter your credentials (which were created in step 5) and click Grant Access (you’ll need to close the browser to proceed – might be a temp bug)

You will be prompted to define a synchronization local folder.

• Select a folder in your local using the Choose different folder button. This folder will be your Nextcloud connection folder. Both the project and common folder will be synced to and from this folder.
• Select the Synchronize everything from server radio button.
• Make sure both Ask before syncing folders larger than <> and Ask before syncing external storages checkboxes are unchecked.
• Click connect. The defined project and tik_common folder in the Nextcloud server will be synced over.

8. Per User Tik Manager Setup

• Download and install Tik Manager’s latest release (Whaat??? you still didn’t!)
• Launch Tik Manager and set the common folder to the synced tik_common folder in your local
• Start working remotely with synchronized project files and asset management!

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Key Advantages

• Cost Effective
  • Pikapods charge for storage and CPU, not per user.
  • No commitments; services can be paused or cancelled anytime.
  • A fully operational setup can cost as low as $3.3 per month.
• Flexible & Scalable
  • Instant storage and performance scaling in Pikapods.
  • Easily add/remove users without extra costs.
• Simple and Fast Setup
  • No coding or complex configurations are needed.
  • Fully managed cloud infrastructure.
• Extra Productivity Features
  • Nextcloud Groupware (Calendar, Contacts, Mail)
  • Nextcloud Talk (Chat, Calls, Video Conferencing)
  • Nextcloud Office (Real-time document collaboration)
  • Nextcloud Assistant (Private AI assistant)

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Potential Disadvantages & Workarounds

• Storage Limitations
  • Pikapods Nextcloud app currently offers up to 1TB of storage. However, there is a contact link to request extra resources. Even though I didn’t try myself looks like possible to go beyond the resource limits.
  • For larger projects, external storage solutions or hybrid setups (e.g., AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi) can be considered.
• Accidental Deletion of Pikapods App
  • While unlikely, if the app is deleted, the service stops.
  • Solution: Enable Pikapods’ backup service or maintain an off-site backup on a local machine.

Additional Tips

• Use Tik Manager’s localization feature.
  • This feature ensures that only the necessary published files are stored in the cloud, reducing storage usage and sync times.
• Optimize costs by pausing your Pikapod when not in use
  • Unlike traditional subscriptions, Pikapods charges on a pay-as-you-go basis. If your team only works during specific hours, you can pause the Pikapod during downtime to save costs. Similarly, if a project is on hold for a few weeks, you can pause the instance and resume it whenever needed.
• Set role-based access permissions
  • Typically, only admins should have write access to shared folders. You can easily configure user permissions in Nextcloud to prevent accidental modifications or deletions.
• Ensure consistent file paths across all workstations
  • Tik Manager resolves all paths relative to the project, ensuring compatibility across different sync locations.
  • However, manually defined paths in DCCs (e.g., texture file paths) need to be consistent across all users.
  • To address this, team members can symlink or mount the project folder to the same path on every machine.
  • On Windows, a simple way to do this is by mapping the project folder to a common drive letter (e.g., T:\team_projects\myTeamProject\). This ensures that all file references remain valid across different workstations.

This workflow offers a powerful, low-cost, and scalable solution for remote teams. With Pikapods handling the server, Nextcloud managing file synchronization, and Tik Manager providing pipeline control, you get an efficient remote working setup tailored for VFX and game development teams.

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences—drop a comment below!