AWS Setup

Animation Browser can upload animations to Amazon S3 for cloud storage and sharing. This guide walks through setting up AWS for use with the Browser.

Create an AWS Account

1. Go to the AWS sign-up page
2. Enter your email address and choose an account name
3. Verify your email and complete the sign-up process
4. Add a payment method (required, but S3 costs are low for typical usage)

Account Security

AWS accounts are valuable targets and theft is common. Use a strong, unique password.

Use a Company Email

Register with a company email address (e.g., aws@yourcompany.com) rather than a personal one. This ensures account access survives personnel changes.

Set Up an S3 Bucket

Create the bucket

1. Open the S3 Console
2. At the top right, select an AWS region (us-west-2 recommended for West Coast organizations)
3. Click Create bucket
   • General Purpose
   • Enter a unique bucket name (e.g., myorganization). This name will be publicly visible in shared URLs.
   • ACLs disabled
   • Uncheck "Block all public access" and acknowledge the warning
   • Leave everything else at defaults
4. Click Create Bucket

EXAMPLE IMAGE

Make the bucket world readable

1. Open the S3 Console
2. Click on your bucket
3. Click the Permissions tab
4. Under "Bucket policy", click Edit
5. Paste the following policy:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": "*",
            "Action": [
                "s3:GetObject"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::YOUR-BUCKET-NAME/*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Warning

Replace YOUR-BUCKET-NAME with the name of your bucket.

1. Click Save changes

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Auto-expire files

1. Open the S3 Console
2. Click on your bucket
3. Click Management
4. Click Create lifecycle rule
5. Enter a name (e.g., "Expire 60 days")
6. Select "Apply to all objects in the bucket" and acknowledge the warning
7. Check "Expire current versions of objects" and set the number of days
8. Click Create rule

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Create an IAM User

Create a dedicated user with S3 permissions for the Browser.

Create a user group

1. Open the IAM Console
2. Click User groups in the left panel
3. Click Create group
4. Enter group name: S3
5. Search for and select AmazonS3FullAccess
6. Click Create user group

Create the user

1. Click Users in the left panel
2. Click Create user
3. Enter a username (e.g., myorganization-uploads)
4. Click Next
5. Select Add user to group
6. Check the S3 group
7. Click Next → Create user

Create access keys

1. Click the user you created
2. Go to Security credentials → Create access key
3. Select Application running outside AWS
4. Click Create access key
5. Copy the Access key ID and Secret access key somewhere secure. You cannot retrieve them after leaving this page.

Configure the Browser

1. Open Animation Browser
2. Go to Settings → Upload
3. Set upload target to S3
4. Configure the S3 settings:
   • Region - Select from the dropdown (e.g., us-west-2)
   • Access Key ID - Your IAM user access key
   • Secret Access Key - Your IAM user secret key
   • Bucket Name - Your S3 bucket name
   • Subfolder - Path within the bucket. Set this if sharing the bucket with other apps. This path will be publicly visible in shared URLs.