RocketMan ProjectPlan

Rocket Man, a short film projectProject Plan

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Author Phone number Date Version Document nummerJohannes Lindberg 0702668507 14-11-2007 1.0 1

Rocket Mana short film project

project plan

AbstractThis is the project plan for the “Rocket Man, a short film project” project. Public

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Version history

Version Date Author Comments1.0 14/11/07 Johannes Lindberg2.0 04/12/07 Johannes Lindberg Changes from MS1 Feedback3.0 11/1/08 Johannes Lindberg Minor changes in Milestone 2 delivery


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 BASIC INFORMATION...............................................51.1 PURPOSE.................................................................................................................... 51.2 BACKGROUND...........................................................................................................5

2 GOALS.............................................................................62.1 PROJECT GOALS.......................................................................................................62.2 PROJECT OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................62.3 STRATEGY.................................................................................................................. 62.4 REQUIREMENTS.........................................................................................................62.5 ASSUMPTIONS...........................................................................................................72.6 INCLUDED/ EXCLUDED.............................................................................................72.6.1 INCLUDED.............................................................................................................................72.6.2 EXCLUDED............................................................................................................................7

3 CONNECTIONS TO OTHER PROJECTS...............83.1 FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS PROJECTS..............................................................8

4 PLANS..............................................................................94.1 MILESTONE PLAN......................................................................................................94.2 PROJECTS PHASES.................................................................................................104.3 TIME SCHEDULE......................................................................................................104.4 RESOURCE PLAN....................................................................................................104.5 PROJECT BUDGET..................................................................................................10

5 PROJECT ORGANIZATION....................................115.1 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITY AND AUTHORITY.........................................................115.2 REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES...............................................115.2.1 Project Communication..........................................................................................................115.2.2 Project Meetings.....................................................................................................................115.2.3 Project Reporting....................................................................................................................115.2.4 Document plan.......................................................................................................................11

6 QUALITY PLAN.........................................................136.1 QUALITY OBJECTIVES............................................................................................136.2 QUALITY FRAMEWORK...........................................................................................136.2.1 Reviews..................................................................................................................................136.3 SUPPORTING ACTIVITIES.......................................................................................136.3.1 Document Management.........................................................................................................136.3.2 Change Management..............................................................................................................136.4 VERIFICATION...........................................................................................................136.4.1 Reviews, inspections and tests...............................................................................................13


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7 RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES...............................14

8 PROJECT CONCLUSION.........................................15

9 REFERENCES..............................................................169.1 ABBREVIATIONS......................................................................................................169.2 REFERENCE LIST.....................................................................................................16

10 APPENDICES............................................................18


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1 BASIC INFORMATION

1.1 PURPOSEThe purpose is to learn and make a short film with filmed material and CG elements composited into it, our group consists of people interested in animation, modeling and texturing and compositing.

1.2 BACKGROUNDThis project started with a simple idea about making a cartooney looking animated movie about an astronaut, that idea transformed a bit and we decided to make a short film with CG material merged into filmed footage.In the filmed material a little girl is reading her favorite pop-up book, the story will gradually come to life and turn more and more into reality. In the story a man lives in a small house, he´s lonely despite of the company of his monkey, so he builds vehicles in order to travel to meet others. As he tries his creations he gets more and more gets aware of the world outside his little story and tries to get out there, with mixed results.So we are going to film the scene where the girl comes into the room and sits down to read the book, for this we will have a child actor and it will give us the opportunity to try some camera tracking and putting CG material into film in a seamless way. Our hopes is that it will be more interesting with a film like this then just a computer animated story.


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2 GOALS

2.1 PROJECT GOALSTo produce a short film with nice feeling, impressive looking graphics and a good story that hopefully leaves the viewer with the feeling of wanting to see it one more time. During the production we will make animated CG environments, characters and vehicles. They will then be merged into the filmed material in post and corrected so that it blends nicely. The progress will be documented in RocketMan_Timeplan.xls and RocketMan_Propslist.xls.

2.2 PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Increase knowledge in modelling, texturing, animation, rigging, camera tracking and compositing. Also to get the experience from planning, researching, coordinating, producing and executing a short film project like this. This as a big learning process for the future.

2.3 STRATEGYLots of reference material collecting and research leading to better understanding of which tools and methods to use, trial and error and group meetings to ensure that everyone gets to give their opinion so that all are happy with their work and the final result.

2.4 REQUIREMENTSA small budget for rental of camera equipment and recording of the filmed material, mentorship for

tips and their experience. Our work stations at campus and a recording studio.


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2.5 ASSUMPTIONSEquipment needed; Our work stations at school, recording studio with lights and a simple set, music studio, camera.Sofware; Alias Maya, Adobe Photoshop CS, Eyeon Fusion, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, Adobe Premiere.

2.6 INCLUDED/ EXCLUDED

2.4.1 INCLUDED

Modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, camera tracking, compositing, editing, music and sounds.

2.4.2 EXCLUDED

HD Footage, Voice acting


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3 CONNECTIONS TO OTHER PROJECTS

3.1 FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS PROJECTSGroup work can be difficult to organize, it is therefore important that everybody knows what’s going on and who’s responsible for the different parts and to get it done. Because of this we will have a lot of meetings in the beginning of the project so that everyone feels okay with what’s going on, and probably decide some sort of group positions or titles this in order to have a good and dynamic group.

The design phase is important, it is also important that everyone comes with reference material of the thing that is to be produced, so that no one spends a lot of time on doing things that the other ones dislikes or things that don’t fit into the other design of the project.It also makes the production phase easier because you know what you’re going to do, and this will give us a the RocketMan_Propslist.xls we’re everyone can see what’s to be done. And the status of the production, props, animations etc. can be tracked in the RocketMan_Timeplan.xls, you will this on the blog as RocketMan_Timeplan.xls.We have a Production Progress Report on the blog, this posted at milestone 2 delivery as RocketMan_PPR_MS2.doc.

Good documentation can be helpful, therefore we will be serious about this.


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4 PLANS

4.1 MILESTONE PLANThe milestone dates assume that project can be started no later than 07/11, in order to finish the 1st delivery.The following Milestones (MS) are defined:

MS/TG Date Scope Exit criteria Responsible

MS1 29/11/07 Documentation Delivery RocketMan_ProjectPlan.doc RocketMan_Timeplan.xls

Johannes Lindberg

MS1 29/11/07 Research Delivery RocketMan_ResearchDoc.doc Johannes Lindberg

MS1 29/11/07 Concept Delivery Concept work Michal, Tim, Olov, Mehmet

MS2 11/01/08 Previz Delivery RocketManPreviz.mov Tim Sundin

MS2 11/01/08 Storyboard Delivery Storyboard Michal Marcinkowski

MS2 11/01/08 Character Delivery Modeled and rigged characters Tim, Mehmet

MS2 11/07/08 Production Progress Report

RocketMan_PPR_MS2.doc Johannes Lindberg

MS2 11/01/08 Test Reports in the RocketMan_PPR_MS2

Compositing, Rigging, Particle effects, Animations, Lighting

CG1

MS2 11/01/08 Modeling/ Texturing First Delivery

House, Motorcycle Olov & Michal

MS3 31/03/08 Final Delivery Delivery RocketMan.avi CG1

MS3 31/03/08 Presentation - Exam Presentation of Rocket Man CG1


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4.2 PROJECTS PHASESThe table below describes the activities, entry criteria and expected documented output from each project phase.

Phase Entry criteria Activities Output

Research None Knowledge of which tools and methods to use.

RocketMan_ProjectPlan.doc, RocketMan_TimePlan.doc, RocketMan_ResearchDoc.doc

Concept Research Collecting of references and concept design, tests of various techniques

Concept work and RocketMan_Story.doc

Production Finished research and concept

Production of models, textures, lighting, animations, particle effects

Models of environments, characters and vehicles. Animations and some particle effects.

Update of RocketMan_Timeplan.xls

Post Production Almost complete scenes

Finishing production and Post FX, Compositing

Maya scenes with animations, and some compositing work done

Additional Finished everything above

Tweaking and fine tuning, Compositing and editing of the film, credits and intro scene.

Completion of the film

Final Delivery Complete short film

MS3 presentation of the final short film “Rocket Man – a short film project”

Examination in Forum at campus, delivery of RocketMan.avi

4.3 TIME SCHEDULESee RocketMan_TimePlan.xls

4.4 RESOURCE PLANThe group members work effort and help from our mentors and other contacts, such as somebody to make some music and sound effects.

4.5 PROJECT BUDGETHopefully a small budget from Film I Västerbotten and maybe an “arbetsstipendium” or scholarship from Kulturnämnden in Skellefteå, if needed we might pay some costs from our own pockets.


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5 PROJECT ORGANIZATION

5.1 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITY AND AUTHORITYJohannes Lindberg - Post FX/Compositing and project documentation.Tim Sundin – Animation and rigging, will model and texture Rocket Man.Mehmet Özdemir - Animation and rigging, will model and texture Space Monkey.Olov Jacobsen – Modeling, Texturing and Lighting of the environment.Michal Marcinkowski – Modeling and texturing the vehicles.

5.2 REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES

5.2.1 Project Communication

The project uses a common project place (projects.gscept.com) where information, project documentation, blogs, progress report, address list, project calendar will be accessible.

E-mail and the blog will be used as the primary project communication tools.

5.2.2 Project Meetings

Project meetings/reviews will be held every second week or on request. Representatives from GSCEPT at LTU will attend these meetings if possible.

At the project meetings, agreements can be made within the scope of accepted specifications, time plan and resources available. LTU must approve functional and design changes and other change requests that can not be regarded as minor.

Agreements and decisions are documented in the minutes of meeting (of project meetings and technical meetings). Minutes on meetings must be available on the project site no later than three working days after the meeting.

5.2.3 Project Reporting

Progress reports will be delivered with every milestone using standard based on the input from project meetings and the resulting delivery.

5.2.4 Document plan

< Important!! The documents produced in the project. Sketches, movies, executables etc >The following documents will be prepared within the scope of this project. These documents will also reference documentation not listed in the plan.

Title Description Resp.

RocketMan_Proposal.doc Proposal for the project “Rocket Man – a short film project”

CG1

RocketMan_ProjectPlan.doc Project goals and objectives, organization, responsibilities, communication.

Johannes Lindberg

RocketMan_TimePlan.xls Time plan Johannes Lindberg

RocketMan_Story.doc The story for the short film Michal Marcinkowski

RocketMan_MS1_ResearchDoc. Research document for Milestone 1 Johannes


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doc Lindberg

RocketMan_MS1_Pres.ppt Presentation for Milestone 1 Johannes and Olov

RocketMan_Propslist.xls All that is to be done in the project, with progress status color schemes

CG1

RocketMan_PPR.doc Project Progress Report, track the status of the project

CG1

RocketMan.avi Final Short Film CG1


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6 QUALITY PLAN

6.1 QUALITY OBJECTIVESThe quality objectives of this project are: To produce a short film with material produced at a level higher then our previous work, the quality of the film will be good enough for commercial use.

6.2 QUALITY FRAMEWORK

6.2.1 Reviews

Milestone deliveries are performed according to in chapter 4.1

Method of reviews is preferably peer review or walkthroughs.

6.3 SUPPORTING ACTIVITIES

6.3.1 Document Management

All project-related documents shall be written in English.

Each revision of project related documentation shall be uploaded to the blog.

Project correspondence (e-mails, faxes, and letters) with important information for the project will be treated as project documentation.

6.3.2 Change Management

Changed requirements or exemptions can be addressed at project meetings or by e-mail

6.4 VERIFICATION

6.4.1 Reviews, inspections and tests

The author of a document has the responsibility to initiate a review of the document.

The review methods used are walkthrough and peer review:

Walkthroughs are performed as a meeting where the author walks through the document and comments are collected. The comments are documented on a copy of the document or in a separate review record.

In the peer reviews, the author distributes the document to the reviewers who review it on their own. Comments are given to the author, orally or in writing.


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7 RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

RisksThe risk is that we aim to high and misses some deadlines but hopefully that won’t be the case.

OpportunitiesGaining knowledge in new fields and more in the ones were we have prior knowledge.


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8 PROJECT CONCLUSIONDelivery of a short film with animated elements as described earlier. Acquiring knowledge of how to organize a production like this.


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9 REFERENCES

9.1 ABBREVIATIONSCG Computer GeneratedComp. CompositingVFX Visual EffectsPPR Production Progress ReportPreviz Pre VisualizationCG1 Computer Graphics 1 a.k.a. Our group

9.2 REFERENCE LISTJL 0-7821-4403-9 Matchmoving – the invisible art of camera tracking

JL 0-240-80760-X Digital Compositing for Film and Video 2nd Edit.

JL 0-12-133960-2 The Art and Science of Digital Compositing

CG1 1-59200-117-3 3D Short Film Production

OJ 0-471-79404-X Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting

wOJ 2-38046-763-2 The Essential Lighting

OJ 0-240-52022-X The Essential CG Lighting Techniques w 3DsMax

OJ 978-0-240-80819-2 Light - Science And Magic - An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

TS 978-0-471-78920-8 Stop Staring 2nd edition

TS 0-571-20228-4 The Animators Survival Toolkit


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10 APPENDICES

RocketMan ProjectPlan

Documents

Transcript of RocketMan ProjectPlan