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Miscellaneous
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General Discussion
Planning your project
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15 Nov 2005Hey everyone, I figured I would introduce myself since I?m new and maybe ask you a few questions.
Currently I am attending a college in Michigan for Digital Animation. I am a junior and since the Digital Animation major at my school is new, I don?t have much to show for the time i've spent there (i'm a lab rat pretty much). After next summer I will be required to make a short film of some sort for my final senior project. I really wanted to go above and beyond, and set a standard for my schools animation program.
I figured I would get a head start on the project since its going to be a ton of work. I have some concept art and a rough story so far. It isn?t much but I?m planning on spending my whole summer on the project.
Anyways, I had a few questions about planning an animation project. Are there any pointers you could give me as far as planning and production stages go? What are the steps I should be taking to keep focused and organized?
Any help is appreciated.
By the way this sire is an awesome resource!
Any help is appriciated.
By the way this site is an awesome resource! -
15 Nov 2005Well, I think the normal process for Uni projects is to spend about 95% of the summer going to partys - kid yourself that everything is under control, then suddenly panic a week before deadline and live on caffiene until you loose the whites of your eyes.
This, I think, is good practice for when you begin work...
But seriously though, I think you've made a good start by thinking about it now and getting the concept and story done way before you begin production. It's really nice to start modelling, rigging and animating when you have a firm idea as to what you want (In my early days I'd often create and rig a character, then think... 'well what am I gonna do with it?')
So yeah, pre-production is critical - run the story by friends, colleagues (Or here on Simply CG) for crits as the concept itself can make or break an anim. Even though you have plenty of time from now until the deadline I'd still not try to go too far with the idea (ie, don't try to write a sequal to Final Fantasy) Simple is best, as long as it is done well.
And as you still have plenty to learn, I'd suggest doing short animation tests to hone the skills before you begin work on the production.
Hope that helps - And Welcome to the forums
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15 Nov 2005Hey badpigeon,
Welcome to the forums! It's great to see your interested in pre-production as many artists skip over this step purely to get into creating. I won't go into it all too much seeing your just starting out but once you have a basic idea of the characters and environment try putting them into a storyboard. This is a great thing to do as down the track it prevents you from compromising your origonal story if you become bored as many artists can become. It also gives you a hard copy of your origonal ideas. If you want to take a further step you can break down each shot into eliments. These might consist of known and unknows. The knowns you know how to do already, the unknowns are what you don't which gives you the ability to do some research or tests before beginning the shot.
There's SOOO much more i could say about this topic but i'll just leave it here for now. I hope you can take something away from it. All the best with it dude!
Cheers,
~Todd -
15 Nov 2005
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18 Nov 2005
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