The Game Plan

Tues. Oct 9th:Preplanning Day

Meet in small groups at 9am (animation, concepts, story, editorial)

I will meet with each group to see progress, answer questions, and help.

Story: you will be pitching ideas to the Head of Art Direction (Tara), and then piecing together the final storyline. We want the best pieces of everyone's work, so the overall project will be awesome!! (Work individually over weekend, use printer paper to rough out ideas) Once the final story is established, divide the scenes among people, each will complete their portion of the animatic. Final presented Tues. (16th). (I'm also willing to take on a scene or two)

Concept: Everyone bring their ideas to the table, characters will be in one group, palette/backgrounds in another. We'll lay out everyone's ideas/ pin to the wall and find the best one. (Whether it be common elements, or something completely new). From here the character designers will produce a model sheet by thursday, so that the animators can begin practicing.

Thurs. Oct 11th: Sweatbox/Work day!! 8 am

Animators will warmup by drawing gestures of each other for about 15-20 minutes. This will be a fun way to loosen up /wake up. We will then proceed to animate 2-4 second rough gestures using the characters provided. I want to see each of your take on their personalities. (I will also be participating). Think ahead as to which character you want to explore/ possible gestures. Even make some sketches before hand. These will be very rough, I think it will also be fun. The goal is to find a style everyone can do so that the final is unified. Outside of class, I'd like you to practice sketching the final character designs, have fun with them. Keep loose and be ready to work next week! (work offline in toonboom and save your file to the dropbox)

Story: Work day, make progress on your scene(s) of the animatic. Whether you want to work in photoshop then import the boards to storyboard pro/iMovie- or work directly in storyboard pro, that's up to you. We will keep them all grayscale for now, then export them all in the same format to be pieced together in aftereffects.

Concept: Most of you are also animators, so just focus on the sweatbox. Feel free to take the model sheets and experiment with color, this would be nice for your next blog post in addition to your animation(s).

*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Tues. Oct 16th: Breakdown/Rough Day 9am

Everyone will view the animatic, then divide the scenes among animators.

(If you dual role- you have first dibs on your own animatic scene)

The goal today is to start breaking down the scenes so that animation will go smoothly.

Start backgrounds/ colorscripts

At the last 20 minutes I'd like to view all of them and have a group crit. (To catch things early/ keep improving)

*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Thurs. Oct 18th: Work Day 8am

Continue developing rough animation. I'd like a majority of keys done today and tweens on their way.

Backgrounds and Colorscripts on their way.

At the last 20 minutes I'd like to view all of them and have a group crit. (To catch things early/ keep improving)

*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Sat. 20-Sun. 21st: We will most likely have to work outside of class. I think it would benefit us to meet over the weekend. There will be a sheet to sign up, so that you can pick a day that works for you to meet. (You can always work outside on your own as well, especially if you can't make a meeting) The directors will be listed on which day they'll be there to help.

*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Tues. Oct 22th: Finish roughs, Start cleaning 9am

We want to finish the roughs today and start cleanup, I realize some scenes may take longer than others.

Before moving on to color, I'd like to view all of them and have a group crit. (To catch things early/ keep improving)

Backgrounds on their way, color script finalized

*Be sure to ba- you get the point*

Thurs. Oct 25th: Cleanup 8am

Animation cleanup/color.

Backgrounds on their way to completion

Sat.27-Sun. 28th:We will most likely have to work outside of class. I think it would benefit us to meet over the weekend. There will be a sheet to sign up, so that you can pick a day that works for you to meet. (You can always work outside on your own as well, especially if you can't make a meeting). The directors will be listed on which day they'll be there to help.

Tues. Oct 30th: Final Editing 9am

final sounds, backgrounds imported, scenes pieced together (after effects), tested on projector

If everything goes as planned this will be an online day as originally scheduled, (with the exception of the directors meeting with the editor).

Nov. 1st: Video day!!

• Publisher and Documentary/Photographers- you pretty much have creative freedom here, but I'd like you to check in with me or one of the heads each meeting. Don't save everything to the last minute. 
• Everyone will be busy, so if you find yourself having nothing to do- report to one of the directors. 
• There will be a 10 minute break at 9:30 each meeting (and more as we see fit). Unless we're ahead on our work I really can't afford to have everyone leave early, please talk to me if something comes up.

I look forward to working with all of you! :)