Role Definitions

Administration

- Barbara (Director/Instructor)


Technical Assistants

- Works with individual students in teams and group leaders of those assigned teams.
- Assists with the evaluation of the student work.
- Provides guidance and professional, constructive attitude toward technical problem solving and workload completion.
- Provides technical assistance by presentation of technical material and technical troubleshooting.
- Works closely with instructor to ensure that the students learn to work well collaboratively and get their individual work accomplished in the most productive manner.


Production Assistant / Student Producer

- Take notes during dailies
- Have notes reviewed by director
- Email notes out or have them posted online
- Driving the schedule of the production
- Identifying and managing lab resources


Group Leads

- Collect daily reports from the those in their group.
- Send weekly synopsis to the staff mailing list by Monday morning at 10 am.
- Recommend reference throughout the film and be sure to keep their area members on track and up to date.
- Assign projects to team members.
- Keep staff up-to-date of all meetings.
- Maintain notes and keep track of the team's progress on the wiki.


Story

- Develop the story of the film, including beat sheets and story breakdowns.
- Create storyboards that visually tell the story.
- Create a story reel that tells a story through the individual boards.
- Create character descriptions for each character that outline their background and personality.
- Build a motion bible for distribution in the class that visually and verbally describes each shot.
- Maintain written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Concept Art

- Create several schemes and ideas for each prop model and character model through drawings, paintings, and other customized art for the film and idea development.
- Produce color schemes for scenes with lighting group.
- Create visuals to help clarify the story.
- Design the look and feel of the movie.
- Maintain written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Reference

- Get references for all scenes and models (based on the real world and other media).
- Work in closely with concept art to maintain the look and vision of the movie.
- Coordinate with prop and character modelers.
- When focusing in on final references, obtain as much information as possible.
- Maintain written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Animatic / Layout

- Layout your assigned shots faithful to storyboard using stand-ins for the props and characters.
- Add appropriate camera moves.
- Add rough animation so the production team can get a good feel for the timing of the film.
- Maintain written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Shading / 3D-Paint

- Assign Color and Texture to Surfaces that are true to the look and feel of the film, concept art, and real life objects.
- Design and Test complex shading tricks such as animating shaders, and how to approach objects with complex features such as reflection and refraction.
- Create 3D painted textures where necessary.
- Create and add backdrops and background plates in shots that need them * Work with the lighting team to make sure that all of the surface detail comes through in the lighting.
- Maintain written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Lighting

- Produce color schemes for scenes with lighting group.
- Create lighting tests showing the mood of the scene.
- Produce the final lighting for the scene, portraying the desired mood.
- Make sure character lighting is dynamic and highlights the action of the shot.
- Maintain written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Set / Prop Modeling

- Create all models which are not characters.
- Get as many references as possible for the models.
- Work with Concept Art to maintain the look and feel of movie.
- Keep models well labeled, clean, and rid of histories before importing into final scenes.
- Daily written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Character Modeling

- Create the surfaces of the characters in the film.
- Model surfaces correctly to ensure that they animate properly.
- Work closely with the character rigging group to make sure that the models are built correctly.
- Create different designs/models for characters for testing, as necessary.
- Create multiple character designs for each character, as needed, to be used for jumping/running, extreme close-ups, etc.
- Daily written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Blend Shapes

- Work with the characters head models to allow a wide range of expressions.
- Work with the motion and concept art teams to develop expressions that are appropriate for each character.
- Test expressions extensively to ensure that they work properly.
- Daily written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Rigging

- Build a skeleton for the character.
- Ensuring proper skin deformation in a variety of poses.
- Setting up controls for animation (IK, blendshapes for > facial expressions, etc).
- Work closely with the motion group to ensure that the animation controls are easy to use, and that all necessary animation can be achieved with the setups.
- Daily written feedback in the form of critiques and progress reports must be maintained.


Weight Painting

- Make sure weights on characters yield correct deformation.
- Paint weights on a per-shot basis to fix clipping (hopefully not needed).
- Address weighting concerns as they arise.
- Daily written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Scripting

- Set up shelf with all necessary/convenient scripts for production.
- Make sure class knows when shelf is updated, how to deploy it.
- Script changes to production hierarchy as necessary.
- Address scripting concerns as the arise.
- Daily written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Motion

- Animation of the characters and creatures in the film.
- Define the qualities of each character and their role in the to ensure consistency in how the character is animated.
- Analyze acting and action for the film as a whole and for each shot.
- Create/find reference for each shot as necessary.
- Make sure that the character's actions/acting are consistent.
- Create planning sheets before animating.
- Make sure shots are critiqued constantly.
- Each group member will be assigned specific shots with clear due dates.
- Maintain daily written feedback with lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Facial Expressions

- Define facial expressions and facial motion for all shots in the film and coordinate with the animators such that they are implemented.
- Determine the extremes of facial poses and create a style guide for consistency of facial expressions between shots.
- Test expressions extensively to ensure that they work properly.Daily written feedback to the lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Poster / Title / Credits

- Design, render and add approved text on a movie style poster appropriate to the needs of the film.
- Work with the Director to make sure the data get to the printer and is printed in a timely manner.
- Design small leaflet style credits for screenings and DVD sleeves for DVD and CD distribution.
- Create methods of implementing special effects as needed in the production.
- Create an interesting and unique way of presenting the title for the film.
- Organize and create the credits for the film, ensuring that credit is given appropriately and all information is correct.


Render / Renderfarm

- Use and understand render farm
- Support the render farm as necessary.
- Check renders as they begin to ensure desired results.
- Understand the use and needs for motion blur, layering, compositing etc.
- Where to place the renders so they are easy to find and are static for the compositing team.


Effects

- Create methods of implementing special effects as needed in the production.
- Ensure consistency of effects across shots.
- Make sure effects are seen through to completion.
- Maintain daily written feedback with lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Audio

- Add sound and foley to movie.
- Ensure that all sounds used are not copy-right protected. If they are, research to see how easy it would be to obtain permission to use.
- Maintain daily written feedback with lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Editing

- Maintain an updated premiere file that includes the film in its entirety. Update this file as shots are completed.
- Develop the timing and pacing between shots to deliver the story in the best possible way.
- Maintain daily written feedback with lead in the form of critiques and progress reports.


Post Production

- Set up a Post Production pipeline.
- Image processing on final renders to ensure consistency and desired look.
- Composite layers and various other elements.
- Create DVD Menu and implement DVD features.
- Output final product to DVD and other medium.


Outtakes

- Collect and organize technical mistakes and intentional bloopers.
- If there is sufficient time, find new & creative ways to use the characters and setting in original outtakes.