Projects in Digital Art

COSC42 - Spring 2009

Instructor: Fabio Pellacini

http://pellacini.di.uniroma1.it/teaching/projects10/schedule.html
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Milestone 0: Story

Project description.
Your project description should contain your story idea and information that will
help us evaluate if the project is feasible. Overall, the details we need are at
least about 1-2 page of texts. But more is better since it will help you later. You
are welcome to include pictures and drawings if it helps (they will be required for
milestone 1 anyway). In particular, we would like to know about:

Story summary. Max of 60-90 seconds. Less is better!

Number and names (these can change) of your characters. Max 2.
Types of environments (outdoors, indoors).
Ideas about story look (realistic, catoony). We suggest you to avoid realistic
styles.
A paragraph or two that suggests why you think you can do it in 8 weeks.
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Milestone 1: Storyboarding

In this milestone, you will produce the storyboard for your story and prepare a
story pitch to tell us your story. Please be prepared to answer questions about you
think you will create the story and in particular about the story style and what
you expect will be the technical and production difficulties of your story.

Your story board should be between 10 and 30 hand drawn sketches and contain:

main story actions

dialogue
character sketches (just in the storyboard itself)
scene rough sketches (just in the storyboard itself)

You will be using these sketches (embedded in a Powerpoint presentation) to tell us

your story during the discussion.
Submission Material

Send an email containing the following items to [email protected].

Powerpoint presentation contaning your storyboard sketches arranged in a slide

by slide fashion and additional slides you would like to use to further discuss
your short (style, expected challanges...). Include a plan for how you think you
will divide the work for the next milestone.

Fabio Pellacini (fabio -at- cs -dot- dartmouth -dot- edu)

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Milestone 2: Modeling

General Description

In this milestone, you will model all characters, props and environments needed for
your story. While you will not rig your characters yet, you will have to decide how
you plan to do it and report it during the presentation. Remember that you will
only have one week to rig, which is considerably little time.
For all your characters, decide how to provide the facial expressions needed in
your story. If using blend shape, which will likely be necessary, please model the
required poses during this milestone. Remember that these facial expressions are
likely to be what sells your story and that you absolutely will have no time to
remodel them later.

While you are not required to do characters' studies, you should include in your
submission any drawing, sketches, or paintings you did for this milestone. In our
experience, it is often useful to sketch characters first, before diving into
computer modeling.

From a technical point of view, you are free to model objects any way you'd like.
For characters, we suggest you use polygons with smooth preview (or subdiv proxy if
you need to do mirroring) as this will give you more flexibility later. For props,
you can use the method you are most familiar with, but using polygons with smooth
preview might help uniform your pipeline.

While this milestone will only focus on shape, feel free to assign rough colors to
your objects and environments to get an initial feel of the final look.

Make sure all your objects are modeled to the right scale and have a consistent
look-and-feel. While you can model them separately, in the end you'll have to hand
in one file with all objects in it, preferably placed in relationship with each
other.
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/02-modeling.

[required] Powerpoint presentation contaning screenshots of your objects; you

will use this to present your work; name this file "presentation.ppt". Include a
plan for how you think you will divide the work for the next milestone.
[required] one Maya file contaning all the objects modeled; name this file
"submission.mb".
[optional] other Maya files containing single objects, to be used during the
presentation.
[optional] include sketches, drawing, etc. in your presentation.

You might also have to open the Maya files during the presentation to help us see
your objects better.
-------------------------------------

Milestone 3: Rigging and Set Dressing

Discussion date: April 28. Please note that all submission material is due the
morning before at 8am.
General Description

In this milestone, you will rig all characters (for body movement and facial
expressions), and define environmental animations (e.g. squishing box, wiggly
tower, feet on the ground) if needed. Doing so will require you to define
deformations and put animation controls when needed. To test your rigs, you'll
produce short animated clips to show how deformations change over time.

From a technical point of view, you are free to rig objects any way you'd like. At
grading time, you will be judged on the quality of your deformed mesh.

Make sure all your objects deformed consistently with the actions you are planning
to use for your story.
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/03-rigging.

[required] Powerpoint presentation contaning screenshots of your objects; you

will use this to present your work; name this file "presentation.ppt". Include a
plan for how you think you will divide the work for the next milestone.
[required] one Maya file contaning all the objects rigged; name this file
"submission.mb".
[required] one clip per character/object contaning a test animation for the
body or animated environment; name this file "testRig#.mov". Please compress using
H.264 in Quicktime.
[required] one clip per character contaning a test animation for facial
expressions; name this file "testExpression#.mov". Please compress using H.264 in
Quicktime.
[optional] other Maya files containing objects, to be used during the
presentation.
[optional] other clips, sketches, drawing, etc. in your presentation.

You might also have to open the Maya files during the presentation to help us see
deformations better. We might even do so ourselves to grade you.
------------------------------------

Milestone 4: Shading

Discussion date: May 5. Please note that all submission material is due the morning
before at 8am.
General Description

In this milestone, you will shade all objects and characters you will use in your
animated sequence. Plesae note that after this milestone, I will strictly not allow
any more objects to be produced.

As for all parts of the project, you should keep in mind that objects' shading is
intended to support storytelling. Rather than focusing on producing beautifully
shaded individual objects, you should take the time to think about how shading can
help define the overall mood of the story. You should pay particular attention to
the color palette and overall feel (cartoony, realistic, etc.) and how to make sure
that the look is overall consistent (for example it would be weird to have all but
one object textured). Also consider overall story readability; for example
characters should be clearly visible in the background, which in turn should not be
too cluttered since that might obscure motion and acting. Also when shading
character remember that facial features and expression should read well, so you may
need to use shading to help highlight that too.

From a technical point of view, you are welcome to use any technique you feel
confortable with. Since shading often requires solutions that are significantly
different depending on which objects you are working on, please ask us for advice
on how to achieve different effects (and which one are possible) for your
particular piece.

Please note that I will not judge how much work you did, but how effective it is.
For example, you do not necessarily have to texture map all your objects unless you
feel that is necessary for the story. On the other hand, I do realize and will take
into account that certain shading styles are significantly harder to achieve than
others. But overall our usual rule works: better to do less with high quality than
to do more with low quality.
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/04-shading.

[required] Powerpoint presentations contaning FINAL RENDERINGS of ALL your

objects, possibly from different camera views and lighting if you expect to do so
in your story. Obviously you should focus your presentation on the most important
objects, i.e. characters or main props/environments. Please render each object on
the background it will be used against (not on a black background). This is really
fundamental for evaluating if shading works! You will use this to present your
work; name this file "presentation.ppt".Include a plan for how you think you will
divide the work for the next milestone.
[required] Maya files for the shaded objects (please combine as much as
possible); name this file "object##.mb".
---------------------------------

Milestone 5: Layout and Animation Tests

Discussion date: May 12. Please note that all submission material is due the
morning before at 8am.
General Description

In this milestone, you will produce a full animated sequence of your short with the
exact timings you expect to have in the final sequence. Consider this similar to
producing animatics for your short to test that the actual story is told right.
Timings, characters, and actions should all be present and similar to the
animatics/layout tests shown in class during the production lecture.

Please remember that this is your last chance to change the story. After the layout
tests are done, we will consider your story set in stone. You will only work to
make the animation, shading and lighting better, but will not change anything else!
On this, we will be particularly strict.

From a technical point of view, we suggest you to split the story into shots which
are typically broken down into times when camera angles change or major actions
take place. Do not worry about having too many shots, but think about a logical
organization of shots to help you break down different parts of the short. We also
suggest you put each shot in a different Maya file, so you can later work on them
individually (you will do so during animation, but it is nice to know you have an
idea about the current split right now).
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/05-layout.

[required] Powerpoint presentation contaning screenshots of your layout broken

down by scene; you will use this to present your work; name this file
"presentation.ppt". Include a plan for how you think you will divide the work for
the next milestone.
[required] one Maya file per shot containing the animatics; name this file
"shot##.mb".
[required] the rendered video of the full story - this is your main submission
which you will use to describe your story; name this file "story.mov". Please
compress using H.264 in Quicktime.
------------------------------------

Milestone 6: Animation I - Blocking

Discussion date: May 19. Please note that all submission material is due the
morning before at 8am.
General Description

In this milestone, you will produce a full version of your short that includes all
primary motion and all sound effects you feel are necessary for the story. Please
do not include music unless you feel that is necessary. While you should focus on
getting blocking fully finalized, you are welcome to start producing the secondary
motion needed for the truly final animation (since that's due in just a week!).
Please note that you will have no time to fix your animation after the next
milestone!

From a technical point of view, you are welcome to use any technique you feel
confortable with. Please ask us questions if you feel we can help speed up the
process. We strongly suggest to work on shots separately, and start blending them
together sooner rather than later. This will help you nail the style and feel for
the overall animation. You are welcome to split the work as you prefer, either by
shot or by character. In our prior experience, splitting by shot helped getting
things done on time (for example if a group member gets sick, the others can help).

You are to submit your animation fully rendered through the Maya renderer. You
should not use any playblasting.
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/06-preliminary_animation.

[required] Powerpoint presentations contaning a discussion of how you organized

the process, with particular focus on what worked and what did not. You should feel
free to talk about technical aspects of Maya, group dynamics, workflow, etc. When
preparing your animation, you should consider that you will give your talk after
the movie has played. You will use this to present your work; name this file
"presentation.ppt". Include a plan for how you think you will divide the work for
the next milestone.
[required] Maya files for the animated scenes; name these files "shot##.mb".
[required] one video with the whole animation; name this file "animation.mov".
Please compress using H.264 in Quicktime.
---------------------------------

Milestone 7: Animation II - Final

Discussion date: May 26. Please note that all submission material is due the
morning before at 8am.
General Description

In this milestone, you will produce a full version of your short that includes all
final motion and sound effects. Please do not include music unless you feel that is
necessary. Please note that this has to be your final animation/story! You will
only be allowed to change the lighting and render at higher quality after this
milestone!

You are to render this milestone using the final Maya renderer, no playblasts.
Remember that you will only have one week after this to light, render and composite
the whole thing! If you feel that the lighting you have is what you want already,
please go ahead and render this at full quality - you just saved a week of work.
Please review the prior assignments for comments on other technical issues.
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/07-final_animation.

[required] Powerpoint presentations contaning a discussion of how you organized

the process, with particular focus on what worked and what did not. You should feel
free to talk about technical aspects of Maya, group dynamics, workflow, etc. When
preparing your animation, you should consider that you will give your talk after
the movie has played. You will use this to present your work; name this file
"presentation.ppt". Include a plan for how you think you will divide the work for
the next milestone.
[required] Maya files for the animated scenes; name these files "shot##.mb".
[required] one video with the whole animation; name this file "animation.mov".
Please compress using H.264 in Quicktime.
---------------------------------

Milestone 8: Lighting and Rendering

Discussion date: June 2. Please note that all submission material is due the
morning before at 8am.
General Description

In this milestone, you will produce final lighting, render your short and edit it
at full quality. This submission is the final one and you will be graded on this.

You are to render your movie at 640 by 480 resolution at the highest quality for
the Maya renderer and with full lighting. Your final submission should include
sound; please note that we only require the sound necessary for storytelling and
nothing more (but you are welcome to add more if you have the rights for it). You
should submit either an AVI or Quicktime file.

Note: If you would like to keep working on the project after the milestone, feel
free to do so and drop the results in the "postproduction directory". I will not
grade that.
Submission Material

Place the following content under your group UNIX account in

/net/da/cs42/[groupName]/milestones/08-lighting-rendering.

[required] Powerpoint presentations contaning a discussion of anything you'd

like us to know about how the project went. A chronology, some funny facts, some
cool/weird shots that did not make it in, tehnical and workflow issues, group
dynamics, a behind the scene thing. Anything is fair. For this presentation, all
group participants should be present. You will use this to present your work; name
this file "presentation.ppt". If you'd like, you can use this presentation to show
your friends during the final showing.
[required] Maya files for the animated scenes; name these files "shot##.mb".
[required] one video with the whole animation; name this file "FINAL.mov".
Please compress using H.264 in Quicktime.
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http://pellacini.di.uniroma1.it/teaching/projects10/RenderFarm_spring09/
tutorial.html