Open Movie?

2007-11-07T17:59:00.000+01:00

Excerpt from an excellent blog article by AndyD.
(http://andy-dolphin.blogspot.com/2007/08/
want-to-make-open-movie.html)

STORY IS EVERYTHING: Movie-making is story-telling. Without a story, the movie is pointless unless it is being made to serve some other purpose such as developing or advertising software capabilities. And don't expect amateur modelers and animators to necessarily be good script writers. If you need scripting advice, consider seeking guidance from writers.
THINK SMALL! Animation takes a long time. Depending on complexity (see "KISS" below) and experience, a one or two minute short will be enough to test most online collaborations. Keith Lango wrote in his Fool's Errand series about the problems faced by the independent animator and Keith's list of concerns is equally valid for open-movie collaborations. If you can take a one-minute short to completion using a collaborative model you will have succeeded where many before you have failed and you'll be far better placed to move onto something bigger.
HAVE A STYLE GUIDE: Once you have a rough script and some firm idea of where you're heading, you can start on some concept art so prospective team members will know if this project is their "cup of tea" (some people like fantasy, others like hyper-reality while others like toons). Better to start with the right people than to try and retro-fit a team as the project progresses. Ultimately, style flows through to more than just the models and sets - it involves decisions on lighting, using fluids, fur, cloth and other features that need to fit together to deliver a cohesive finished product.
BE A DIRECTOR: (or appoint one). While the opinions of employees at film companies might be valued, the director makes the final decisions and this must be the case with an open movie project too, if it is to succeed. The director has authority to decide what does and does not make it into the script, the sets and the movie. He or she should probably take advice from a select group of project members (see below) but it just isn't realistic to make every decision a democratic one for the whole group.

Don't underestimate the importance or workload of a director. Keep the team informed with regular updates , be prepared to say "no" and don't go on holidays just as things get difficult. If you don't think you can wield supreme executive power or stick with a project over the long-term, then maybe you should contribute to someone else's project instead of trying to run your own.
APPOINT TEAM LEADERS to handle some specific areas. Team leaders should have demonstrated experience in their area but they still work for the director. Team leaders are the first level of control in ensuring contributors are following the plan as laid out in the script, storyboards, art-direction and animatics.
KISS: (Keep it simple, stupid) Again I'll refer to to Keith Lango's advice regarding the urge to mimic Pixar in your own animations. Unless you have a big budget or free access to a render farm, you might want to forget RAM hogging features like ray-tracing and ambient occlusion. At the very least, be clever enough to limit the use of these features to a few scenes where they're necessary. You may even be able to tell your story without complex scenery. Look at everything in your arsenal to limit your modeling, animation and rendering times. It's much better to have a simple movie that looks good than a complex movie where corners had to be cut just to get it finished. It's really a question of balance. If you keep things simple then a 30-minute short wouldn't be out of the question for a well-managed project but if you want or need visual complexity then trade this off against the length of the movie.
FOLLOW THE RULES: DVD movie releases from major animation companies like Pixar, Blue Sky and Dreamworks are awash with examples of the movie-making process yet most wannabe movie-makers seem all-too ignorant of the basics. Either that or they simply don't believe they need to consider them. You can't expect to make a movie efficiently if you start modeling before the script is written and the concept art and story-boards completed - it is the first sign of a pending train wreck.

If you're going to do it, then why not do it right? Have a story, have a design concept, have story boards and an animatic, with a rough audio track. Then, when you know what you actually need for the movie, call for models, record a finished soundtrack THEN move on to animation and effects. The director should ensure no one is doing things before they are required. Even if someone volunteers to make a model, politely ask them to wait until requirements and specifications are published.

You'll also want to understand accepted techniques (you can ignore them by choice, but you still should know them). If you don't know a pan from a dolly, learn. If you don't know a cut from a fade, learn. If you don't know what "the fourth wall" and "crossing the line" are, learn.
MANAGE YOUR ASSETS: The story-boards and animatic should give enough information to allow the director to determine exactly what assets are required for each scene. If a building is to be seen in the very far distance, there's little point using a highly-detailed model containing thousands of polygons. Either use a low-poly model with an image texture indicating architectural details or better still, make the building part of a matte painting (you can render a single frame of a complex model and use this as a matte painting).

If a shot involves an exterior view of a building, don't use a model with a fully-dressed interior that won't be seen. Every polygon affects render time. Take a tip from live-action movie sets where many buildings are little more than facades. Also, background shadows can be baked to save on render time and scenes can be split into separate render layers or even rendered separately and composited in post-production to save time.

Another thing to consider is where to host all this activity and how you'll get it rendered. You'll need good forum and database facilities with fast and easy access. As the project grows, members will be handling huge amounts of data as they upload and download assets. You will definitely want to take the project out of the very public eye of a general forum community if only to maintain some level of sanity. Regular reports can still be made to other forums in order to maintain public interest and possibly attract new members but for the most part you'll hopefully be too engrossed in production to be dealing with constant questions from passers-by. And make sure the host site is secure and stable (idiot hackers apparently get their jollies by demolishing anything vaguely positive) and that you won't lose everything at the whim of the server's owners (this happened more than once on the project I contributed to). If the site requires subscription, make sure to keep it current. It's embarrassing to have project members see some weird generic splash screen where their favorite open movie site used to be. For rendering a high-poly movie, you'll need a decent render farm that supports your file-type.
KEEP IT LEGAL: If a project stands a good chance of success it would be wise to ensure all members are truly committed to the open-source ideology. It would be very embarrassing, and possibly costly, if a contributor decides that their contribution had strings attached and demands compensation for their effort. Spell out the nature of contributions, using one of the many Creative Commons licence-types or GPL, if appropriate, then get the release forms signed and returned by everyone.

Keep tabs of who worked on what and if you don't have a release (or some form of consent) for something, don't use that asset. You could make it clear that every model submitted must be accompanied by a text file releasing that model under the chosen licence-type or it won't be used. (NOTE: I'm not qualified to offer legal advice)
HAVE FUN: That's why you're doing it in the first place. Never lose sight of that. Maybe this should have been point number one. Oh well, if you want it that way, consider this a count-down list and your wish is granted ;)

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2007-10-07T13:09:00.000+02:00

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