The House of Cards

As we push closer to our deadline with 7 weeks remaining, I feel the house of cards, the Jenga tower, the project, shaking. Over the past couple weeks I've been jumping into every part of the production. From Character modeling, Uving, Rigging, to Mocap acting and directing, to lighting and effects in unreal, and animation/camera layout. Even outside the technical pipeline, I'm managing and directing the rest of the team and creating a Gantt Chart and dealing with a wavering teammate, To say I've been overwhelmed would be an understatement.

For the entirety of our production we have had a teammate who has not been engaged or prioritizing in the way that has come to be expected in such an important project. They miss deadlines, bail on meetings, and leave the rest of us waiting around for hours or picking up their slack. We have been managing this so far by lowering their scope in the project significantly, as it is really the only thing we can do as peers, Recently this teammate showed interest in a new part of the pipeline, and I encouraged them to step up and be a large part of it, hoping that the new interest would bring re-vitalized commitment from them. Hindsight 20/20, The opposite happened, They bailed on more meetings than I could count and left other teammates in the dark about whether they'd be showing up. Team members spent hours relying on this person to show up, only to be let down at the last minute. The experience of working with this individual has been wholly unsatisfying, and while we are in the midst of sitting down as a team and discussing all of this, It is clear that I will need to adjust our Gantt chart and distribute this persons work amongst the rest of us.

Most of our pipelines and methods are finally realized. We have people working on nearly every part of the production now, from modeling to layout, and It is really a matter of getting things done now. I sat down with a professor and discussed deadlines and long term planning, and we decided it would be best if I were to create a Gantt Chart for the remainder of our project. So I did.

This is a look at our current chart, although there is a lot that still needs to be added and adjusted. So far we are keeping up, but again, things are moving around a lot so until it is updated, we won't have a perfect idea of what our situation really looks like. That being said, it is the best tool we've had so far, and keeps everyone very objectively on their timelines.

In other news, we've finally got our animatic coming together. We have full layout done in some shots. Characters rigged and animated, our scene modeled and texture and set up, lighting and post processing work done, and cameras put together. It is really the biggest milestone we've had so far and is really exciting to see things starting to come together. It's still a long road until we are finished, let alone satisfied, but I really do think we have a strong thing going for us right now if we can sort out or teammate issue and get everyone's goals fully laid out.

As for what I've specifically worked on, I created lighting and worked on some light flicker blueprints, I created custom fog particle volumes, and imported and retargeted mocap animation into UE. I UV''ed a character, and finalized the model of another. I created a new full body and face rig for a character, and did Mocap acting with our team. I've really been jumping around filling holes, but am also reaching a point where the pipelines I've developed are in the hands of the team now and are self-reliant.

I'm aware that this post is a bit rambley and all over the place, but I think it is a good insight into how things are really going and what I am experiencing in the moment. I'll update with more pictures and visual content next time, I just needed to get all of this out of me head in the meantime. Thanks for readin, -Andy.