Blog Post 6 - Storyboard Edits and Production Pass Preparation

Our project is coming along nicely!!! Many people have gotten a decent amount of Layout done, models are being finished up and finalized, rigs are being worked on, and UVs are being laid out. Judging from the schedule I've made, adjustments I've had to make, and our general progress compared to other groups, I'd say we're pretty ahead of schedule for where we are. I don't doubt that as time goes on, things will slow down and we may eventually fall behind the other groups for something. But for now, we have time for that to happen, due to how quickly and efficiently we've been working. With most things besides Layout now completed, layout for our 3D storyboard animatic can be done and focused on more and more each day, which means we'll have a decent 3D animatic by about the 3rd production pass, I think.

I just wish all the others would use and update the documents and sheets more often, or, for the schedule, notify me more often when what they've been doing has changed, or that they're ahead or behind schedule. I personally go through those documents often to check our progress, and what needs to be or doesn't need to be done, and if they aren't consistantly updated, I run the risk of missing something, or double assigning something. It annoys me, but it's not like there's much I can do about it. I consistantly remind everyone to update and use the documents, even adding more collumns for things like approval. But still, I find myself having to update them near daily to get them up to date with the work we've been doing. I don't want to be pushy, however, or mean. And I definately don't want to be that person who forces everyone to follow a strict set of rules or "suffer my wrath", but at the same time, these documents are important for me to be able to understand our project, and what we need to do, and it makes me worried and confused when they're not properly maintained by everyone, because then there's a very likely chance I'm missing something. I reference the documents to know if something is or is not getting done, and to know what needs to be done in the first place. If something isn't on there, it won't compute in my brain that it's a part of our project. I think this is why I'm so worried about the storyboard changes we were given yesterday.

I'm glad we got critique and new feedback on our storyboard and things planned out better to change. But I'm afraid those changes won't get done in a timely manner and won't be updated in a timely manner either. I just don't want me or someone else to do a layout pass of a scene and then be told "oh, you did it the wrong way!! It needs to be flipped!!!" I just don't want any of that confusion to happen to us. I don't think it will, because I trust my group members, but at the same time, I want to make sure I am also following along properly, and as I'm not in any way in charge of or part of the storyboard, I'm not usually in the loop when changes are made. So I really just want to make sure the storyboard gets changed as soon as possible and that I know about it so I will no longer have to have this stressed little thought sitting in the back of my head.

Production Pass 2 is next week, and our group is going first. Which I'm actually fairly excited about. I can't wait to go and share all the wonderful work and progress we've made through these past couple weeks!! Over Spring Break, we all agreed we'd try and get as many things to Rianne as we possibly could so that the Production Pass 2 presentation can be ready when we get into class on Monday that week. At the very least, I am hoping to complete a couple layout shots to playblast and send to Rianne to add into our storyboard. Though, I'm unsure how far I'll get, because I also want to use this time to work a bit ahead in some of my other classes so that when we come back from Spring Break, I'll be less anxious and nervous and have less to worry about in other classes. It'll help me focus more of my energy on our production pass. I can't believe we're about halfway through the semester!!