To: Everyone.

Group,

We have been burning a lot of time. No more classes can be missed by anyone (unless it is an immense emergency), due to there not being an even amount of communication being distributed.
There is good news, and bad news.
The good news is, that so far, everything looks awesome, and we're well on our way to finishing!
The bad news is, a lot of time has been burned due to perfectionism and not just blocking out scenes and heading forth with a strong head.
With that being said, we need to give our 100% to EVERYTHING, and this includes updating and checking the blog (I cannot be the only one updating this thing, people!), checking emails, being communicative in class, being present (body and mind), sorting through everything that we have done, ie. scenes (and possibly documenting everything, since there are a LOT of files that, when I see them in the Open box, I have no idea what is what), and just being positive.

Here is where we stand, percentage-wise with all of our scenes:
1. Cathedral Envi.: 100% modeled; 100% UV'd.
2. Houses: 100% modeled; 25% UV'd; 15% Textured.
3. Subway: ???
This one is tricky. Melissa, I have no idea where your scene is/what it is titled for this. We found 3 different railroad scenes, but all were earlier forms of your work, and we cannot find your latest work. Inform us, please, on where we as a group can locate this for future reference.
4. City 'scape: 75% modeled; 25% UV'd.
5. Props: 50% modeled.

Here is what needs to be done.

Nicole: Cavern camera plan and execution; referencing all houses into the scene; working on stalagmites.
Kellen: City 'scape (arranging everything).
Linda: UV and texturing up to two houses. Good job on the first one so far! You rock!
Melissa: Let us know where the railroad is located; texturing the railroad.
Anyone (?) Make pottery, urns, etc. for fillers in the Hearth Room/Cathedral/etc.

You are all fantastic, group, and with a lot of effort, and a little magic (and no sleep whatsoever), we can DO THIS!

-Coletrain

ps:
State of Mind: Frustrated.
Current Task: Sneaking this blog into On-Screen classtime.
On the Horizon: GORGEOUS ENVIRONMENTS.
What's Working: Things and stuff.
What's Not Working: Other things and stuff.
Other Thoughts: Owwie.

House info!

Hello, animators!

Tonight, me and Erik decided we needed some updating on the houses for the cavern scene.
So, we typed it up.
Here is all the info, just in case you are interested in looking at it.
The Word document is also in the Scenes folder located in the futureold_env folder named boxHouseInfo (:

Have fun! Don't forget to keep updating this here blog! It gets ronery.

box_house_v01_geo.ma = Shower curtain house pulled apart
boxHouse01Model_01.mb = Simple house with roof
boxHouse01model01.01.mb = Similar to boxHouse01Model_01.mb
boxHouse01Model02_01_mb.mb = Slanted house with drape on top/wide open
boxHouse01Model03_01_mb.mb = House with metal roof and crisscross support planks
boxHouse01Model03_02_mb.mb = Similar to boxHouse01Model03_01_mb.mb; has book inside
boxHouse01Model04.01.mb = Shower curtain house put together
boxHouse03Model_03.mb = Similar to boxHouse01Model03_02_mb.mb; almost identical
boxHouse04Model_04.mb = Similar to shower curtain house; is in wire-frame view
boxHouse04Model05.ma = Shower curtain house in Maya ASCII
boxHouse05Model_05.ma = Planky house with tarp draped on top; in Maya ASCII

-coletrain

Things to do!

What to do:

Nicole: Get reference images for things such as suspension cables; hanging pottery plants; and cables in general. More props. One solution for a hanging house and how to hang it.
Linda: Still waiting for those texture images and some props (: Work on props
Kellen: Adding indented areas/UV mapping/City scape.
Melissa: Anything you need to. Oh, also, to get better!

Have at it!

State of Mind: Hungryyyy..
Current Task: Figuring out camera movements.
On the Horizon: GORGEOUS ENVIRONMENTS and switching between 2010 and 2011.
What's Working: Employees.
What's Not Working: Probably half those employees.
Other Thoughts: Zzzz.. sleepy...

-coletrain.

rolling into production

Lots of great artwork and ideas have been developed. Melissa has great looking boards showing our journey into the underworld. Nicole and Kellen have been developing paintings and Linda has loads of reference art, images, and is building a textures library daily. Now it is time to build and speed is of the essence. First lets address Methods, then assignments.

Methods
We will be using Scene Referencing in Maya. All referenced objects will have custom names and textures as soon as they are created.

Each object will start as a proxy and the proxy will be the source used to create a complete model. All proxy objects will be located and oriented in a scene with a group.

Consistent naming is key. Example: smallBucketProxy01_geo will have a custom Blinn named smallBucket01_mat, the object is located inside of a group called smallBucket01_grp.

Proxy objects will be selected and exported leaving a reference inside the entire scene. If done correctly, all exported proxy objects will be found in the middle of the scene grid when opened separately.

Assignments (for Wednesday)
Cookie: organizing collected textures into 12 categories.
Melissa: 10 examples rocks, 4 pieces of pottery, 10 different examples of fire wood. Animatic v1.
Coletrain: 1 chair, 2-wooden shelves, fire
Kellen: overhead view relating to original city painting with rough blocking of buildings and streets.
ce: an extensive naming convention protocol.

Progress Logs

Hey Everyone! Here is the groundwork for greatness... proactive transparency.  With that in mind everyone will begin posting progress updates to this blog.

Each team member is responsible for posting at least 2 times per week. Deadlines for posting progress are before midnight on Sunday for the first post of the week and before midnight on Thursday for the second post. You can post before these times and as many additional times as needed.

Progress log entries will follow a simple format. Answers should be relatively brief unless there is a huge problem. Otherwise, short phrases or single words are preferred. Below is the format. Each item in the format requires a response even if it is to say “nothing” or “N/A”.

Progress log entries…
Current state of mind:
Current task:
On the horizon:
What is working:
What is not working:
Other thoughts:

Example use of this format…
Current state of mind: relaxed
Current task: communicating format for progress logs
On the horizon: creating a production blog
What is working: my keyboard
What is not working: my runny nose
Other thoughts: anyone got a tissue?

During past team projects this method has worked extremely well for maintaining clear communication and full transparency. Two of the group projects that used this method just won Gold at the Tucson Addy Awards and are now moving forward to regional Ad Fed awards.

Use in good health. -e

Hello World!

This begins the process for creating a future world that also is old.