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CHAPTER 2

Project Organization

2.1 Team Members and Assignments In addition to storyboarding, another important aspect of preplanning is project organization including the management of the production team, the hardware, and the assets and fi les being created. Here again you are faced with an almost infi nite number of variations during the process of assigning work to team members, and you must take into consideration the fact that any of the variables could change throughout the project lifetime.

One of the fi rst steps in project organization is to assign specifi c jobs to team members, so that they understand their responsibilities and how they fi t into the entire workfl ow. The makeup of the production team can vary widely depending on the type of project and the availability of skilled team members, but in any case, it is important to predetermine who does what and when it gets done.

Even in a one-person production team, the clarifi cation of job responsibilities is important. For example, you do not want to be discussing modeling techniques and hardware issues with the client during the storyboarding process. This type of project detail is usually unnecessary information for the client to be involved in and will only tend to distract the client from focusing on topics directly related to the style and content of the presentation. You need to be able to switch hats and be a storyboard artist at one moment and a 3D modeler at another point in time, then change gears on short notice to become the resident lighting expert.

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On larger projects with multiple team members, each individual can become more of a specialist who concentrates on just one aspect such as modeling, lighting, or animation. Figure 2-1 shows a possible production team makeup for a small to midsize project.

Let’s look at some of the possible team members and their general responsibilities:

• Lead Artist – Sometimes known as the Art Director, the Lead Artist has direct contact with the client, sets the visual style of the project, and determines the best tools and techniques for production while managing the overall production workfl ow.

• Technical Artist – In charge of content creation and coordination between the Lead Artist and other members of the production team. He or she is responsible for investigating new technologies and workfl ow methods that will increase production.

• 3D Modeler – It creates the actual scenes in 3ds Max and builds model libraries containing props and characters used in the project.

• Texture Artist – It is responsible for creating and maintaining libraries of materials and textures and then applying and mapping them to the objects in the scene. The Texture Artist works closely with the 3D Modeler and the Lighting Artist.

• Lighting Artist – Based on the storyboards, the Lighting Artist will create the mood for the project by placing and adjusting lights much as a “gaff er” would on a fi lm project.

• Programmers – Productivity can often be enhanced by creating custom programs using MAXScript programming capabilities built into 3ds Max for repetitive tasks. Large projects can also employ C++ programmers to generate more sophisticated routines for use in 3ds Max.

Larger projects might require a further breakdown of job responsibilities. For example, some of the Texture Artists may be responsible only for creating maps and textures in Photoshop ® or with digital photography, whereas others may be responsible for the UVW mapping (UVW refers to xyz axes directions for maps and textures.) coordinates that are used to position and size the textures correctly on the models.

Part of the preplanning process is also to anticipate changes in personnel or scope of the project over its lifetime and determine contingency plans to adapt to those changes. Having a programmer quit in the middle of a project, for example, can signifi cantly slow

FIG 2-1 A possible team makeup for small or midsize projects.

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the production if there are no replacements available. Smaller projects can also make use of contract personnel that work for only a short segment of the production time to fi ll a specifi c need. In this age of high-speed Internet and connectivity, it is not as important to have the entire production team in one place. Although the team that is distributed widely over the world can be a bit of a challenge to manage, it can be a cost-eff ective option worth considering.

2.2 Hardware and Software Part of the preplanning process is to make sure that you have all of the necessary hardware and software to make production as smooth as possible. Some of the considerations are as follows:

• Software versions – Determine early in the preplanning process which software versions will be used by all the team members throughout the project. Updating software or installing untried (and possibly incompatible) plug-ins is a dangerous proposition in the middle of any project.

• Ancillary software – Programs other than 3ds Max necessary for completing any project may include painting and drawing software, video editing software, photo retouching programs, and compositing software.

• Resources – Working with 3ds Max is not just about creating scenes with 3D models but also requires you to gather many resources such as models purchased from third-party sources, still images to be used as backgrounds and map patterns (textures) within materials, reference images, and audio fi les. These resources will require storage space and must be managed so that everyone requiring access can fi nd them easily. For all third-party resources, you need to be extremely careful about proper copyright management.

• Suffi cient storage – Rendered images can take up an enormous amount of disk space. You need to consider not only the physical amount of hard drive storage space but also the speed of data transfer of the storage. In order to eff ectively determine your storage needs, you’ll need information about project deliverables, described in Chapter 3 . Try to plan on double the amount of actual storage space necessary to ensure effi cient operation of hard drives and other storage media.

• Asset cataloging – This is a critical determination for any project. How will you eff ectively manage all of the assets created in a way that keeps team members from “reinventing the wheel?” The 3ds Max Asset Browser ( Figure 2-2 ) is a useful tool for managing assets and Autodesk’s ® Vault software can provide advantages in asset management.

• Operating system/platform – It is essential to have a good IT structure to support a collaborative workfl ow. If you have several team members working on common assets, a client/server network will probably be the best backbone to enable it. That might also include the need to cater for computers running diff erent operating systems such as Windows, MacOS, or even Linux.

• Rendering capabilities – Is there enough “horsepower” available to generate the necessary fi les to stay on schedule and budget? Rendering options include render farms (3ds Max can distribute rendering to multiple computers) and cloud-based rendering, but the process needs to be tested and implemented before the production begins.

• Programming resources – Many projects are too small to warrant hiring dedicated programmers, so you need to line up any contract help or online services that can be called upon for increased production as necessary.

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These are some of the important considerations when preplanning any project, regardless of its size. By determining the needs and assembling the proper team, you’ll be able to “hit the ground running” when the project begins and be able to make changes quickly when the inevitable surprises arise during production.

2.3 Client Collaboration Important considerations in project organization can include determining which person will be the main contact for the client. This individual is usually the Lead Artist or Art Director. Having only one person who is responsible for direct access to the client will help avoid miscommunications and redundancies that are all too common under tight deadlines. The same individual can also be responsible for notifi cation and management of changes that come from the client and documentation for fl owcharting of project progress.

Regularly spaced meetings should be scheduled. Any changes or additions to the scope of work should be agreed upon and compared to the storyboards before a change order is written up and signed by the client and the Lead Artist. Only then should the new job assignments be passed on to the production team.

During the preplanning process, the client should sign off on as many details as can be established during storyboarding, such as required camera views, colors and textures, type of output fi les required, and a payment schedule.

On a continuing basis, the client should be provided with proofs of concept or examples of production work that require decisions and approvals with the understanding that the project is still a work in progress and the current milestones are for progress reporting only.

FIG 2-2 3ds Max Asset Browser for cataloging scene assets.

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Avoid the temptation to win the client’s admiration by announcing, “Oh sure, that will only take just a minute to change,” without fi rst determining the potential cost and signing a change order. Clients usually do not have a good sense of the production process and assume that everything is easy to change because it is “done on the computer.”

It is usually counterproductive to allow the client access to the production team as misunderstandings can easily arise during friendly conversations. Although these precautions may seem cold and unfriendly, it is possible to implement them without off ending the client. A chef usually doesn’t appreciate restaurant patrons visiting the kitchen and chatting with the various cooks about how their meal should be prepared. Although most people would agree that such a thing would be highly inappropriate, clients often feel the need to be in direct control of all aspects of the process and might suggest communication methods that are counterproductive to your process. It’s up to you to set boundaries and hold the client to them.