Group Project! Überduck!

I think we're just going with Evan's working title for our project: Überduck. Titles shmitles.

Okay, I'm going to use this space to post as much material for the project as I can. Some of it I'll have to make custom for each of your tasks, but this general info should be useful to everyone.

Layout

We have 11 total shots in our project right now, five of which are FX shots and don't need to be accounted for at the outset. My numbering convention may also look odd at first: I'm tagging an extra zero at the end of each shot number for reasons I will explain to anyone who is interested in class. Duration is marked as "Seconds.frames", and it's based on 24 frames per second. So, including those FX shots, this is what our film's timeline looks like:

### :: Duration :: Description

010 :: 16.12 :: Titles + truck back to nest
020 :: 05.02 :: Medium of first eggs cracking
030 :: 04.23 :: Long shot of eggs emerging
040 :: 10.02 :: Medium of überduck egg cracking + initial abuse
050 :: 03.04 :: Medium of first egg rumbling before level up
060 :: FX shot :: LVL UP!
070 :: 03.00 :: Medium of second egg rumbling before level up
080 :: FX shot :: LVL UP!
090 :: FX shot :: LVL UP!
100 :: FX shot :: LVL UP!
110 :: CANCELLED -- it was an extra while I worked on the animatic.
120 :: 05.02 :: Medium of chicks everywhere; continued abuse; überduck ready to level up
130 :: FX shot :: LVL UP! LVL UP! LVLLLUUUUUUPPPP!!!
140 :: 05.02 :: Crane down to long shot from above; überduck SMASH!

For those of you working on layout, I highly recommend sharing some assets. One of you might make a dummy of the set, and another a dummy of the ducklings. Share these things instead of needing to make your own! Also, remember the common settings for cameras:

Resolution: 1280 x 720 (HD 720 in the Render Settings presets)
Focal Distance: 50mm
From your view panel's "View" menu: Camera Settings --> Resolution Gate √


Modeling

First and foremost, DON'T GO OVERBOARD WITH DETAIL. Not in week 1, anyway. Stay as low polygon count as you can: if the shape you are making (be it a leaf, a beak, or a nest) can be described with 10 polygons, don't use 100 to do the job. It will bite you later on, I promise.

Stick with basic shapes for now. That means a clean polygon layout and a focus on the way the silhouette reads from primary angles. If you're modeling leaves or trees or other set elements, we will only see the objects from one angle in this film, so don't bother detailing them! Even the chicks + eggs will be seen primarily from the front and side, so going into massive detail on their behinds will be unnecessary.

If you are working on related assets, talk to each other. Those of you working on various duck-parts will want to share your files and take the best from each other when constructing the final version. Those of you working on the set should communicate as well and share your early work to help the others. Use the group email: companim1@googlegroups.com. Trust me, having everyone see your work is a good thing.

A final note for modelers: last semester we got into the habit of combining meshes to make complete objects. DO NOT DO THAT YET. In the early stages of modeling, we want things separated into as many objects as possible to facilitate quick revisions. When the time comes, everything will start merging into finished pieces.

Links!

And now, some links.

The animatic:
http://www.jedmitchell.com/animatic_03-03-10_H264.mov

Model sheet for the ducks:
http://jedmitchell.com/chickSheet.jpg

"Model" sheet for the ENV:
http://jedmitchell.com/LakeForestSheet.jpg

I will also be sending out an archive of designs from the storyboards and other sketches as the week moves forward, and a link to that collaborative spreadsheet I showed in class so you can fill in your work as you complete it. My apologies for not having all this ready to go at class time; it's been quite a week...

Very Exciting! Try to get your portion of the work done for class on Monday and we'll go with round 2 of assignments from there!