Production Workflow for general application

#1

I may say that almost all of us had been there. If you are working as an individual, you definitely have the idea where to start, what folder to get the needed file, knows the name of this object, what texture applies to that object, what combination of textures applies to that object, relation of this object to another object and so forth and so on. And no matter how messy you know it is, it gets done if it is a simple project. I define simple here as 2-3mb Architectural Walk-through, or maybe a single view render.
Model>UV map>Texture(Use your favorite Image Manipulator)>Assemble all together>Light Bake> re apply texture> render or whatever> Program(for any Application)>Presentation

It is very different when working as a Team of Modeler, Texture persons, Programmers etc… Old habits do not apply anymore. Sooner or later everything gets messed-up, from naming conventions to file updates. Much more to Client presentations. Sooner or later you are doing and redoing the same thing all-over again and it don’t work anymore. Lots of time wasted.

I am thinking of a Production Sheet.

Any ideas?

#2

I reviewed my old favorites, and I know that there is something worth interesting, relative to this. My memory brings me to http://www.blendenzo.com/indexTuts.html

There are two articles here:
[ul]
[li]Pre-development Planning by Social[/li][li]A Proper Pre-Production by Bob Mees aka Fenryal[/li][/ul]It is good to re-read it again and pick-up the lessons the two articles may offer.
Thank you Social and Fenryal!

It reinforces my idea of a Team Production Sheet that would not only document the production, but also acts as a guide of “who-should-do-what-before and after-this”. My problem is I can’t help but think in linear terms, when it is obvious that workloads are parallel and dependent to one another.

So basically the question here is " How do you manage to get things done when working as a team in the most effective and efficient manner?"

Any ideas?

#3

Well, I don’t know how useful this is, but have always found mind-maps
useful tools to map and ‘organize’ pipelines ‘on paper’ so XMind comes to mind:
http://www.xmind.net/

Also google wave, albeit in beta, may be of interest,
I’ve still got some invites I can give you one if you need it(pm me). :slight_smile:

As for file structures and such, the Institutes Open movie’s
production file collections have always been useful to me…

#4

Thank you for the Xmind link. I downloaded it and would dwell on its usefulness.

As Artists, we’ve been mind-mapping on paper before we start on a project. There maybe an increased awareness of what everyone in the Team should do but seldom does this results in changed behavior in “doing it right the first time” and a product that conforms to requirement.

With Blender, we are able to pack the data all together in one .blend file, eliminating folders and zips of sorts as we share it with the team. Experience would tell that there will always be revisions, cleaning, quality and and so on. The .blend file gets bigger as former meshes and textures(all the more with procedural) are retained in the file’s memory.

I think, using Blender professionally requires (on the part of the User) a better quality spreadsheet tool. How I wish it is integrated in the “OUTLINER” and it would measure works done.

#5

yes, the outliner could always be ever more expanded up on,
but for now I’m just happy you can differentiate between
linked lib’s and whats local to the .blend.

Speaking of which do you use relative linking?

http://durian.blender.org/news/library-linking-asset-management/

'And off course blender-aid:
http://sidedish.atmind.nl/

#6

The work-flow that I use basically goes like this …

[ul]
[li] Design the rough set. All of the objects and fixtures that are going to be on the set are divided into separate models, and the (relative path based) directory and library structure is established from the very start. The most important thing now is that everything is “to scale.” The fellow who’s going to be pushing a wheelbarrow might for now be pushing around a square box … but it’s the right size, and so is he. [] Dream up some action and make it happen. Rig up all kinds of camera-setups to record it. Shoot film… lots of it… using the “preview animation” button at the bottom of the 3D window. Shoot lots more than you need. Splurge. It’s cheap and fast. [] Ruthlessly edit that film until you’ve got a complete rough-cut. When satisfied, start pulling-off frame numbers to compose your shot list. Now you know exactly what you do need, and you have not wasted a lot of time on what you don’t. [] Construct Blend-files for each of these shots. They’ll link to the preview blends from which they were taken. You can also use “scenes” here. [] Construct more-refined models and drop them in place of the stand-ins. Generate the shots in which they appear and drop those into the rough-cuts. Gradually add detail. Anything that does not actually appear on screen (and you know by now what does and doesn’t…) is “not there.” Just to be sure, color all the unfinished faces with a bright, garish blue. [] Now for the shot breakdowns! Working shot by shot, each shot is going to be assembled with very heavy use of compositing, such that when one detail is rendered it does not have to be rendered again. Each completed shot is dropped into the rough cut. Of course, it matches perfectly. [] You’ll probably find that those “comps” are going to require some little something extra to be added to them. Just another layer of material; a twist of a noodle knob; another source-file. [*] When everything is finally done, you’ve got one more step which is similar to the “mastering” process in audio: tweaking all of the “mixes” so that everything actually works together seamlessly. [/ul]
[/li]
While this process is fairly labor-intensive and requires a lot of attention given to detail, a lot of it can actually be automated using Makefiles and scripts. But anyhow, it’s constantly moving forward. When a render is done, it’s done. That render might be one of a dozen or more in a single shot, but, “it’s done,” such that whatever happens downstream from that is tweaking that can be done in comp.

Where do you spend most of your time? Staring at Final Cut, surrounded by mountains of roughly-rendered stand-in film, “all over the cutting-room floor.”

#7

Thank you for your answers. They are informative and helpful.

How do you go about in relative linking when you are in a team?
Same with MakeFiles?

I’ve read them somewhere but I really do not know how to use it yet.

#8

You should surf over to the various tutorials that are being produced right now by the Durian Project (“Sintel”) at http://durian.blender.org/, where libraries and linking are discussed among many other things.

Library linking, using relative paths, is fundamental and critical. Whether your project is a big cooperative movie or “a one-man band,” you must firmly understand (and apply) this principle.

#9

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