For a detailed day-by-day schedule of what groups should be doing and what is due, please consult the weekly schedule. For a high level overview of the schedule, see the gantt chart below.
The goal of this lab is for you to collaborate with 3-4 other classmates to write and produce a complete 1 minute long animation. The animation should tell a story and/or express an idea or opinion. You will also be collaborating with one or two students in MUSC 121 Creating Music With Technology taught by Professor Mike Nord.
Story and StoryBoards: You will begin by developing a one minute story either by yourself or others. Once you have the story idea, you will develop the associated storyboards and "pitch" your story (using storyboards) to the class. Based on class feedback, the storyboards will be revised and you will pitch the story again.
Once all of the stories have been revised and pitched, the 4-5 best stories will be chosen to produce. Groups will be created for each story. You will be assigned to a group based on your interest in the story as well as on how well your skills complement others in the group.
Each group will again pitch and refine the story until everyone is completely satisfied with the story and storyboards.
Storyreel: Once the storyboards are complete, the storyreel can be made. The storyreel will be generated by bringing the storyboard images into an Adobe Premier Elements project. The timing of each storyboard image should be adjusted so that the entire storyreel is exactly 1 minutes in length. The timing of the shots/action should be as accurate as possible. This timing is critical for the music students and also for the people in your group doing layout/animatics.
For directions on creating the storyreel and what to place on enfuzion, click here.
Assign Tasks: The gantt chart below contains the dues dates and approximate time span of each task. Each group should fill out a task list (excel file) to identify who will to do what. The tasks should be assigned in a way so as to insure that each group member has something to do in any given week. The task list should then be placed on enfuzion. Note that everyone should contribute to some of the tasks, most especially the animation.
Music students will be assigned to each group at this point. An email group will be established for each group and will be used to maintain communication between animators as well as musicians.
| Scene # | Shot # | Maya Scene File | Reference Files | Length | Start Frame | End Frame | Animator | Description |
| 1 | 1 | opening.mb | char1.mb, env1.mb | 2 sec | 1 | 60 | Mary | Opening scene - Frog enters room |
| 1 | 2 | opening.mb | char2.mb, env1.mb | 1 sec | 61 | 90 | Frank | Frog jumps on sofa |
| 1 | 3 | television.mb | char1.mb, env2.mb | 5 sec | 1 | 150 | Sarah | Frog watches TV |
| 2 | 1 | kitchen.mb | char1.mb, char2.mb, env3.mb | 10 sec | 1 | 300 | Mary | Baby frog gets in fridge |
The shot list should be placed on enfuzion in the lab 8 group folder for this animation.
Concept and Reference: As the story is being developed, individuals in the group will begin to work on the look and feel of the characters and scene. Collect or take photos of actual items. Reference materials should be collected and placed on enfuzion in the lab 8 group folder for this animation.
Layout/Animatics: Once the storyreel is complete, the group should begin to create the layout/animatics. This will be done in Maya and should focus only on the high level character motion and camera work. The "character" can be a simple shape such as a sphere. These "characters" should be placed in separate Maya files (even if they are only spheres!), named properly to reflect the name of the final character, and referenced into the scene. Once the full model is created, the refererenced animatic model will be re-referenced to the full character. Be careful about how keyframing is done so that the keyframes transfer over properly. Only high level movement (top node in hierarchy) of the animatic should be keyframed! As shots of the animatic are completed, they should replace the storyboard image in your Adobe Premier Elements project and the quicktime file should be regenerated. This should contain the most accurate documentation of the action and must be made available to the music students as soon as possible.
Timing: Once the animatic is complete, it should be given to the musicians. At this point, YOU CANNOT CHANGE ANY OF THE TIMING of the shots or high level motion without first consulting with the musicians to make sure it won't louse up what they have done so far. Also, let the musicians know how much time will be added for the title and credits so they can plan the music accordingly.
Scene and Props: Once the "look" of the animation has been decided and the reference materials have been collected, work can begin on the scene and prop modeling in Maya. If there are any special effects, the special effects person can start to learn about how to generate them. As the scene and props are completed, they need to be referenced into the appropriate animation scene file.
Character Modeling and Motion Testing: Character modeling can also begin once the "look" is decided and reference materials collected. Movement controls need also to be added. Sample motion can be tested. As the characters are completed, they should take the place of the simple models in the animatics. As animation is refined, the Adobe Premier project should be updated and a new quicktime file should be generated.
Animation: This is the most time intensive part. Everyone in the group should animate the shots they have been assigned. As portions are completed and rendered, they should replace the the appropriate sections in your Adobe Premier project.
Lighting, Shading, and Textures: As the above tasks are being done, someone in the group can be doing some experimentation with the lighting, shading, and textures. Once the animation is complete, however, final work on these should be done.
Title and Credits: Add your title and credits. The title should be no more than a couple of seconds and the credits should be no more than 5 seconds. Be sure to add the names of the musicians. If you have several musicians doing separate scores, then you need to create separate credits for each.
Rendering: Make sure plenty of time (several days) is allowed to do the final render. You should be using the renderfarm or you can manually do runs on separate machines (see batch render scripts).
All project material, sample images and animations, references, etc for the entire project will be kept on \\home\enfuzion. See readme.txt for rough idea of what goes in the group folder. In addition to assigning people to the various tasks (story, lighting, shading, etc. ), each group should have a:
Each group will be part of an email group. Tuesday (after critiques), students should email the entire group with the following:
The status report will be used throughout the semester to assess where things are with the group. At the end of the semester, these status reports will also be used to help with evaluation of each person's individual contribution. WARNING, if you don't send a status report, you may not be credited with doing the work you did.
Note, at the end of the semester, each person in the group will write an evaluation of themselves and the others in the group. This evaluation will be confidential.
Due Date: Except for the presentation, all of the items below are due no later than Dec 17, noon. Turn the materials in to Prof Orr (office Ford 210).
Group Reflections: In preparation for the final presentation, each group will write-up a summary of the following. This will be turned in on the day of the presentation.
Group Presentation:The final presentations will be at our finals time,
Dec 17, 8-11am :
Each group should give this presentation (with slight modification) at SSRD
next semester!
Individual Evaluation: Each individual will turn in an evaluation of what you felt each person
in the group contributed, including yourself, (this will
be kept completely confidential).
Group Data: Each group should turn in a DVD (or DVDs) containing
After you have created the DVD, please check it to make sure that
all of the files can be read and/or opened, e.g. images, animations, maya files, etc.
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