Process
From 2009 48 Hour Film Project
Alright... the following is a rough description of how the workflow should go during the weekend of the event and where folks are going to be needed. Feel free to discuss this on the mailing list:
| Step | Description | People |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | We are assigned our genre, character, prop, etc. | Jason, Warren, more? |
| 2a | The story's script is written | Warren, Jason, Roberto, Chris |
| 2b | Modelers begin creating assets. Specifically, the focus will be on our additional character (if necessary), the set for our story, and any necessary props. All Blenderheads not involved with writing will be on deck for this step. Jonathan will head up a group focused on modeling the character (textures included) while JS will run a group to build the set and props. | Jonathan, JS, Hal, Bob, Bassam, Andy, Claudio, Dolf, Jeff, Pablo, Sam, Jarred |
| 3a | As the third character gets modeled, Bassam will incorporate his autorigging tools to get the character ready for animation while the model and its textures get finalized. If it turns out that he needs assistance, Claudio will be a good go-to. | Bassam, Claudio |
| 3b | With the script finalized, Warren will begin drafting the storyboard. | Warren |
| 3c | As the boards get made, Any narration or dialog will be recorded. Depending on the time, we will either use the sound studio at VCU's KI department (thanks Althea!) or the sound booth at Casa de Fweeb. Either Jason, Chris, or Roberto will direct the audio recording (depending on where we're recording). There's an off chance that we may need Sam's awesome voice, so he'll have to record that remotely. | Althea, Heather, Jason, Chris, Roberto, Jennida, Sam |
| 4a | With the boards completed and the audio cut, a rough animatic will be assembled so everyone can get a sense of the timing. This will be particularly useful to the audio guys. | Jason |
| 4b | With their work complete on pre-production steps, Warren, Roberto, Chris, and Heather will conspire to generate some fun assets for credits, a movie poster, and possibly documentation video. They may also play video games and make coffee. | Warren, Roberto, Chris, Heather |
| 5a | With the animatic complete, each shot is roughed out, camera location/movement first, using only stand-ins for characters and props. The set needs to be done by this point. Basic lighting for the set also needs to be in place. Other models can still be worked on, though. | Jason, Bassam, Andy, Claudio, Dolf, Pablo, Sam, Jarred |
| 5b | With the animatic as a template, scoring and rough sound effects can be shuffled into place. | Althea, Derek, Thomas |
| 6a | As each shot completes, we consider the camera animation to be locked and immutable. These background plates are sent to the render farms. Still cameras are rendered as a single frame. Moving shots are rendered as a sequence of EXR files (tentative) to facilitate easier integration. | Andy, Bob, Hal, Mark, Jeff |
| 6b | As camera work is finalized, character animation begins. Shot by shot. Each animator is assigned a shot to animate. | Bassam, Andy, Claudio, Dolf, JS, Pablo, Sam, Jarred |
| 7a | As animation on each shot gets closer to finalization, periodic (hourly?) OpenGL renders will be created and sent to the audio team to help get cleaner sync. The current idea on the table is to take a series of shots that take place in the same time/place and consider that a sequence. This gives sound folks bite-sized chunks to work on rather than the whole piece at once. | Jason, Althea, Derek, Thomas |
| 7b |
As character animation completes for each shot, we have two options:
| Andy |
| 8 | When all of the shots are in and all the audio is finalized to a final mix, the last render and encode step happens locally. If additional compositing is required for a few shots, it happens here. | Jason |
That should about cover the basic process. Feedback and suggestions are more than welcome.
