an idea to work together

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
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PREFACE:Hi…a few days ago I was thinking on something in which many in this community may be interested.we all are actually solo 3d-artists(if you are an artist!!) isn’t it?we don’t quite have any real knowledge of the workflow of professional 3d-industry.we do not have the habit of working together.in our solo projects we all do each and everything from modelling to final rendering all by ourselves…and can not concentrete on a single thing that we like most.i personally like modelling most but have to do all the texture works too.you may like animating most but have to model your characters which may be boring to you.so I was thinking that we should grow the habit of working together to enhance our capabilities….to gain more and more experience and learn teamwork.this is the best way to work under some supervisors,know our faults and work with concepts that are not developed totally by ourselves.the inituitive should come from ourselves.

THE STRUCURE:I was thinking of making some project by a group of blenderheads.it may be a short-film of 5-10 minutes of duration or be a very very complex scene which may take a year to be done by a single person.i think a short-film would be a better choice.we will have separate divisions for every aspect of the project….from the very first concept art to the final rendering.each division will include sufficient number of people interested and experting in the very field of work along with a supervisor or director who will look over everybodies work.in my opinion we should have these following divisions:
1.concept and storyboard artists(3-4 people)
2.modellers(3-4 guys or more depending on the complexity of modelling)
3.texture artists(2 guys or may be one more)
4.character and general animators(10-15 people!!)
5.compositors(2 guys)
6.rendering guys(more people here is better…people with powerfull PCs)
7.final editors(2 people)
each divison will include a separate director and overall there will be a final director.

THE WORKFLOW:first we will need a small story or fable kinda thing.it may be previously written or developed by somebody here.when the story is selected the director of concept artists will clean it up,divide it into separate parts and distribute among the concept-artists.the concept artists will make sketches of each and every character,scenes etc.then the storyboard-artists will make the storyboards(a comics actually) of every single sequence.when done everything will be corrected by the supervisor.
The concepts then will be passed to the modelling supervisor.he will distribute specific jobs to the modellers.when modelling is finished the models will be send back to the supervisor.if anything in the modelling goes wrong he will correct it by himself or send it back to the modeller.
The texture artists then will start painting the textures.for character-models they will work with the UV-unwrappings done by the modeller.
Next steps will go on the same way as the previous ones…except some changes.no doubt the toughest part here is the animating.
For different python-scripts needed to enhance the animation etc. there should be a separate group of 2/3 guys like eeslo,ripsting or theeth.
Finally for the sound sequences,dialogues etc. I think some experienced people should be there …or we’ll do that by ourselves!!
I think I gave the rough idea for the total things.suggestions are needed.

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This sounds like a very interesting idea. If you could get such thing organized I would love to help.

By the way. Why aren’t there lighting specialists mentioned in your list. I think thats a pretty important job.

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Excellent idea I’m up for it and can probably bring some students with me
-Simon

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actually there is allready such a project ongoing… I’m talking about the-exodus film…

We have a big group of people doing more or less what you are suggesting, here…

I must tell you that it is great fun, working this way… every single person gets a specific task to accomplish… and everyboduy contributes to the same goal…

You’ll need ofcourse a lot of coordination…

In cas you need some help, I’ll help you if you want me…

I wish you good luck…

Spyros.

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Good idea!
Looks like professional.

Is very important to select good BlenderHeads for this.
For Example: I can be a good modeller but my character can’t be animatable because a bad construction.
Or I can be a good animator but can’t figure how to setup this diabolic Blender armature :-?

IMHO the most important thing, is the story and the animation.

I have no time now, but I stay tunned about this idea.

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I want to play too, get it organized and count me in.

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Interesting…this is somthing I would like to do…Now I’m not to sure what help I would be, maybe concept, or texturing…I bring alot of darkness to the force…I would gladly add my serveces… get it organized!!! I would like to see “more” collaboration within this comunity

Chuck

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a shared and excellent dream… but things like this have been tried before though and all have failed =\

if u do bring this together, make sure u choose DEDICATED people… most people jump at the chance to join such a group in hopes that it will go somewhere… the moment things get hard or slow, or hell as soon as some work needs to be done, i guarantee youll have alot of drop-outs and quitters and people who wanna stay in the group but do as little work as possible…

honestly i wish u all the luck in the world! but the odds are against it so make sure u choose the most dedicated, and skilled people who have art/animations that proves they can work hard

good luck! :slight_smile:

-chris

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Well said… everyone loves a project until they have to stay up all night doing something boring, tedious, and repetitious like assigning vertices groups to armatures. After that, they change their minds and decide that something else other than 3d animation is more interesting and fun. Good luck anyways, there are exceptions to the rule. Finding people who can prove that they have done major projects are ideal candidates for collaborative projects. Good luck, I wish you the best.

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I love these ideas. True, these things have a history of failure, but why not go for it?
Im actually working on an online animation right now (using realtime) and had some help from Snailrose in texturing. But its not like what you’re thinking of Kos. What Im doing is more like favours from others, like pitching in where they can help when i need it.
But i’d love to be in this one too.

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ya…we should get organised.actually a lot of research should be done before you jump to start such a serious project.the team should also include only dedicated people who really blend seriously.i am no way near to get people organised…nor do i have any kind of idea of a story etc…i don’t even have a steady website!! i really don’t want to be a organiser.i just want to inject my idea among the blender-heads.some guys with excellent organising capability should come forward.i will be happy enough if i get a modeller’s job in the project.think of it seriously and come forward if you feel like.
btw hannibar,i think lighting can be done by modellers…you may bring people interested in doing only the lighting…and if you do so that will be great.

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It’s pretty hard working on huge projects over the internet. I’m working on a 10 minute film using Blender and Icarus (3D and live action) and it would be nice to work with more people, but the amount of video data having to be sent back and forth would be monsterous! A pure 3D animation would work better than my project because you could just sent the .blends and the textures, but it still needs a strong developmental base.

I think it was the Exodus film that I signed on for, but sadly never contributed anything. I missed a supposedly important IRC meeting (time zones can be a big problem if you’re spanning countries) so I was no longer on the team.

Sketches and clear ideas are very important. You have an idea for a film. The modelers can’t see what you envision. The script and detail should set a clear mood that the other team members can work off of and 2D sketches are very helpful if 2 or more modelers are working on objects for the same environment. Antique phones do not go with plasma TVs. Make sure to set up deadlines or the team won’t be motivated to get things done (at least I wouldn’t :-?)

Need an idea for a story? Check out some of these sites on the internet:
http://www.flatearth.com/utilities/storygen.asp
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/storymech.html
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/sentai.html
http://earth.vol.com/~journal/storygenerator.htm

Have fun!

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Actually, http://www.lifeformz.com/idea/idea.cgi is a good place for randomly designed stories. The others are cool, too.

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Count me in,

but YOU must come up with clear guidelines, clear storyboard, clear project, good sketches, good rules etc.

I can model.

Stefano

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…things looking like that i should come up first…ok give me a good short story.i don’t read much story etc. in english so i don’t know much about them.also someone interested give me some space in your website and help me developing the forums for the project.i myself can take on those organising thingies first but i need more and more guys.if you are interested let me know…i have some rough idea of how the forums should be designed.

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kos: I’ve got the perfect idea for a flexible community project. It’s rather self-explanatory. It was supposed to be a contest for a weird reason that could be thrown out, but it could very well be a normal community project. Wait, I haven’t told you the name! As I said, it’s self-explanatory:

PLOTLESS FILM

You see, the point of the contest was to get people more dedicated (that happens with contests), and to create a pseudo-climax

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Hey Kos, I can help you on the story bit…i’ve been told that Im pretty good with making up crap :smiley: But seriously, I can come up with a pretty good story…we just need an overall scene/theme settings that everyone can agree on eg:

-space/sci-fi theme
-post-apocalyptic
-romance
-abstract

No wait…theres actually a story i was gonna make into a game, but i couldn’t lead a team (lack of leadership in my part, back in the blender.nl days). So i though I’d post it here as a storyline:

Remember, i inteded it to be a game, so there may be some stuff here that will make you go “what the f#@k?”, i didnt have time to edit it
This is a rough draft and is the main plot.
The other characters are yet to be integrated into the story.
(as I have mentioned in the discussion board, its only half
finished.)
This is a very very very brief and quick storyline. !!!

The Main Character is Xen (or Prince Valor).
The other main character mention in here is Duhane.
The whole story is set in Eterna.
So here it is…

Machina: Unwritten Legend.

Chapter 1: Thy Kingdom Come
Chapter 2: A shadow in His Name
Chapter 3: As it is in Heaven
Chapter 4: Tailing the Beast
Chapter 5: The Face Off

Chapter One.

Xen (main character) grows up as an orphan, and is made to
realize that he is something more after an encounter with an
old begger, who told him to seek out the “Cave of the Brimstone”
Xen’s friends tell him that its a load of crap. They also tell
him that the stone burns when rich blood walks through the
entrance of the cave, but they say its also a load of crap.
Xen finds the cave without his friends and walks through it.
To his surprise the Brimstone explodes and reveals a large blue
flame. Upon looking at the flame, Xen gets visions of a Kingdom
to which he is suppose to belong to, and sees the crest of the
Palace, which is the same crest tattooed on his wrist (which
he covered up with a wristband).
Xen says goodbye to his friends and foster family and sets out to
find the Kingdom in his vision. Through the journey Xen gets into
a lot of trouble, but is helped out by a stranger who keeps
on disappearing. Xen finds the kingdom with the crest from his
wrist and and also finds the stranger waiting outside. The stranger
tells him that a cult has taken over the Palace and the present
King has been killed by the Region Master. The stranger disappears into the
Palace. Upon reaching the Chamber of the Throne, the Xen and sees the stranger
talking with the Region Master and disappeared. Xen then confronts Region
Master and defeats him. Xen then is told by the palace officials that
he is the Prince Valor (stolen at birth by a begger) and
claim his Kingdom because it’s his birth right (the crest on his wrist
is a mark of this).

Chapter Two.

Xen, now also known as King Valor, is having trouble adjusting to the
responsibilities and duties of a king. But Xen cant stop thinking
of the stranger. What is his intentions?
Temporarily left his kingdom to his best friend and set out to find this
stranger. After many searches, it seemed like the stranger
disappeared off the face of Eterna.
After much deeper searching, Xen finds out his name is Duhane,
and is strongly linked to the Cult, the same one responsible
for the previous King’s death.
The chase for Duhane begins and the Xen finally meet in a showdown.
Xen loses but Duhane doesn’t kill him. Duhane reveals that he is
King Valor’s Royal guardian, chosen at bith (Xen and Duhane were
born at exactly the same time).

Chapter Three.

Duhane reveals an unclear plot by the Cult that he descovered by going undercover.
The plot seems to be at a large scale and concerns the world. He also reveals that
the cult is made of 12 regions, each with a Region Master and a Grand Master.
Xen already killed one at his Palace.

Xen and Duhane stumbles onto a village where one of the Cult regions has taken over.
They set out to Deliberate the village and take on the Region Master.
They beat the Region Master near death and he reveals that the Grand Master’s
plot to unleash “The Divine Destruction” upon Eterna to pave the way for the
“Golden Age”. He also tells Xen that his Kingdom was a key area for the the
Unleashing.

Chapter Four

This chapter deals with unravelling more of the Grand Master’s plan.
What is “the Divine Destruction”? What is the “Golden Age”?

Encounter after encounter with Region Masters, they find out that the Region
Masters believe that the Divine Destruction is a destructive force that is destined
to be unleashed to purify Eterna for the age of which begins eternal happiness.

But upon the encounter with the Grand Master, he reveals that he is a Demon Incarnate
bent on “raising Hell” upon Eterna. The Grand Master’s encounter with Xen and his
party left him wounded and so Xen and his party was blown into the Artificial Astral
Plane, where the 12 Region Masters (Which were destroyed by Xen’s party and
now tainted with evil) rule.

Chapter 5

The Artificial Astral Plane contained souls of those who got caught in it. Xen and his
party are the only ones alive. They found out that that Artificial Astral Plane can
only exist as long as the 12 Region Masters exist. So they set out to destroy the 12
Region Master.

Upon the Destruction of the 12 Region Masters and saving the lost souls,
Xen descovers that his Kingdom is over-run by the Grand Master (fully healed)
and is preparing (again) to “Raise Hell”.

Back in the Palace Xen and his party has a final showdown with the Grand Master
(consisting of 6 battle; with each battle, the Grand Master transforms).
Upon the 5th Battle,it looks as if the Grand Master
was going to kill Xen, Duhane intercepts and gets killed instead.
Enraged, Xen goes all out with full power (even with full power, Grand Master still
proves as a challenge).
Xen and his party destroys the Grand Master, stops the Raising and Saves Eterna.

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I started my own Company making DVD for people i.e. Promos, Converting old VHS, Home movies. Low-end stuff. Having one client dig the pov-ray stuff we did for fun wanted 3D style menus. So I opt for Blender. Now the company is moving shop from DVD Authoring to 3Dart work. Sloooowww process I say. sofar there is 4 of us. We are using mix of apps Blender main modeller, Pov-ray, BMRT, 3Delight, Blenderman for 3D stuff and Final Cut Pro 3, DVD Studio Pro for the video and DVD work, good ol’ Photoshop for those touch up work.
3D work is done on SGI, Sun and Linux boxes. Cool thing is we done nothing for $$$ mostly freebie work now and for hardware. The company started out as a way to gather folks in graphic world together and form a network of freelancers under a common roof. Also an easy way for a resume builder and skill builder. Its moving slow but there is no real structure on what we do.
After all that jibber jabber, I’m game for anything that is productive any way. I got some gear and I’m a UNIX head. (UNIX heads are always needed somewhere)
So count me in.

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Unfortunally my exams for this semester are starting and i won’t have too much time for such a time-taking project, but if the community manages to organize, than i could do small things such as giving feedback, or ideas, or even rendering (i bought a new PC, a P4 2GHz with a GeForce 4 TI 4200, wich could render some models). But with the size of the project we should get a coordinator. It is very important to have a guy or a group of more experienced guys for us to report back. About the story, i love the sci-fi area, but if you choose something else it´s alright with me. But not a romance please, that´s so LAME!! The separation into diferent areas is also important. Modelling, textures, lights, etc.

I hope someone who knows this community better than me tips of this idea and starts this selection.

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sci-fi stories are quite hard to make in 3D.i think we should think of something small and very simple…not many characters,all surrealistic and a story that will be very simple but will give a message to everybody.