Announcement #6: Final Presentation Premiere!
Announcement #5: Conceptualizing the Final Animation
Announcement #4: Closing Post
Announcement #3: Blog, Syncing Saga & More
Announcement #2: Updates & Loose Ends!
Announcement #1: Collab2021 has officially begun!
#Collab2021 is focused on stylized, low-poly, fantasy environment creation! Specifically this gorgeous illustration by Vadim Zaitsev:
You can find more from Vadim on artstation.
Through April we will be creating a comprehensive 3D version of this environment and we need a committed team to make it a reality! If you’re not sure what this Collab format is all about, check out the blog article first. If you know what you’re getting into, continue reading about how to register and what the schedule will look like.
Collabs are open to all Citizen members (membership is required to participate). You need to be subscribed by April 5th and remain subscribed through May 4. You're welcome to subscribe earlier so you can access the recommended courses listed below. This option could be helpful for focusing on learning from content before the collab begins at which point you can focus primarily on applying what you've learned.
Collabs don’t have an official web page or system built into our site. Instead it’s facilitated through the Forum, Live Streams, and Google Docs. Fill out this form to register for the Collab. This will give us insight into how many people are interested, the skill levels involved, and some other info that’s helpful before we get underway.
The last day for registration is April 5th. After April 5th the team will be closed! [evil laughs]
As with any production, one can only plan so much before unanticpated things come up. That’s to say we will be at the mercy of the project and the content could change as needed. Schedule should remain the same though.
Goal: Since we’re working within a low-poly, stylized (simplified) genre I think we could finish all the modeling in the first week. For most assets in the scene the modeling is straight forward. For trees and bushes it’s a little different. I highly recommend using the Sapling Addon included with Blender) as taught in the stylized forest course. Similarly clouds will be a unique asset to tackle; something we will need to brainstorm as a team.
Stream 1: April 6th @ 1pm US central time
Helpful Content:
Week 1 Homework Due: April 11th by midnight
Goal: It’s possible that sculpting will be the next step for some assets (ex: rocks) and not for others (ex: trees). If your asset doesn’t need sculpting then your task this week is UV layout and texture painting a color map. If your asset needs sculpted detail, you can do that in addition to the UV layout and texture painting. By the end of the week we all should have our completed model painted with a color map and sculpting done if applicable.
Stream 2: April 13 @ 1pm US central time
Helpful Content:
Week 2 Homework Due: April 18th by midnight
Goal: This should be an easier week than the first two. Since the style is simplistic, the material can also be simplistic. It can also be more complex if one is so inclined. Things like procedural texture accents, procedural water, randomization of the same material across multiple objects, etc. Additionally we will dip our toes into lighting. At the very least we need to implement lighting in a way that informs our material qualities. At the most I want us to light our asset in a standalone presentation, as if you were presenting it to a supervisor for approval.
Stream 3: April 20 @ 1pm US central time
Helpful Content:
Week 3 Homework Due: April 25th by midnight
Goal: As with most productions, the last stretch is the most unpredictable and often results in a lot of problem solving. I expect this week to be a smorgasbord of tasks from catching up / putting final touches on assets, assembling the final environment together, polishing lighting and atmosphere, and who knows what else.
Stream 4: April 27 @ 1pm US central time
Helpful Content:
Week 4 Homework Due: May 2nd by midnight
With the project officially complete, this stream is meant to be a celebratory bookend. We will revel in our hard work and discuss a post-mortem: What worked well, what could be improved next time.
Of course communication is key for effective teamwork. To facilitate this we will utilize a network of forum threads.
Discord: Our resourceful Team Leads have setup a discord server for us! The server features channels for each team including audio + video capability.
Discord is best for LOW LEVEL communication since it’s the easiest, quickest way to communicate. By “low level” I mean casual, small-consequence discussion. The main negative of persistent chat is its brief nature; comments appear and then immediately get buried. This is fine for the majority of our discussions (let’s say 75%) but we want to avoid important info getting buried.
HIGH LEVEL communication is the important stuff that shouldn’t get lost in a persistent chat. Please keep high level discussion like protocols, announcements, lengthy troubleshooting and idea pitches on the forum threads listed below.
HQ Forum Thread: This thread is the foundation of our communication structure as denoted with "HQ" in the title. Discussion here should be broader in context; having to do with the project as a whole. It's the place I will be posting important announcements for everyone involved. It's also ideal for general questions about the project and light-hearted "water-cooler talk" for the team. Things like encouragement, inspirational info / artwork, relevant memes. I love memes.
It's NOT ideal for *specific* things like questions pertaining to a certain part of the environment, WIP of individual parts, or person-to-person discourse.
Team Threads: If more than 30 members register for this project we will divide into sub-teams. Each sub-team will collectively tackle a group of related assets and will be lead by a member (most likely contributors from #collab2020). Each team will have a dedicated forum thread for specific discourse pertaining to their parts. Same guidelines as the Central Thread but with a specified topic.
Individual Homework Threads: Each contributor is required to create a thread for themselves for posting homework confirmation at minimum. This is also where any discourse about your specific part happens. You're encouraged to treat it as a work-in-progress (WIP) thread, posting updates about your work as you go.
Direct Contact: Tagging is ideal for directly contacting me or anyone involved with the project. Tag me (@theluthier) with questions or advice in any of these threads. I guarantee I will be checking my notifications regularly every Monday-Thursday throughout the duration of the project.
Of course the more people that register the less accessible I will become for direct / lengthy conversation. This is where sub-team leaders will be invaluable. If we break into sub-teams please contact your leader first, then me second.
Livestream Chat: The realtime interactivity of streams is another great way to communicate. Taggin works there as well along with an additional tool: Typing "[Q]" in the chat adds a blue "question" label to your post. This makes it easier for me to spot direct questions for me to answer while streaming.
DISCLAIMER: These guidelines are only intended to streamline the challenging task of communicating globally across the internet. They're not meant to create a tense atmosphere of rules! We're a relaxed, reasonable bunch of Blender heads. If you don't know where you're supposed to ask a question, go ahead an ask somewhere and you'll be answered or kindly directed to the right place if applicable.
Everyone working from the same project directory is important for a production like this. From linking models back and forth to sharing texture maps, it's a must for a smooth working experience. Further protocol like file naming conventions and saving files in the right place is necessary to avoid a confusing mess.
The following instructions are depending on you syncing the project's Google Drive folder to your local computer. If you haven't done that yet, please check the Announcement 2 post for instructions.
For this project I want to make the process as simple as possible for participants. To achieve this I've come up with a "plug-n-play" system. Basically I will save a placeholder .blend file in both the WIP and MODELS folder for each participant by including their username in the filename. Once the placeholder is present, each participant saves their work into the MASTER collection within the scene and that's it! I take it from there.
I covered this concept in the Week 2 stream but here's a set up step-by-step instructions as well:
How much time am I expected to commit to this project?
We stress commitment because it's the best to ensure A) the project succeeds and B) lasting skills are learned. We only expect you to commit as much time as you can. DO NOT commit full-time hours to this project (8 hrs a day). As the instructor, I should be the only one doing this.
Everyone else (sub-team leads and contributors) shouldn't need to apply more than 2 hrs per day to the project. It's all relative depending on your availability and skill level. If you can't afford 2 hrs per day you can pick a simpler asset. If you have more time to contribute then perhaps choose a more complex asset. It's up to your discretion.
If you only have 2 weeks available in April, that's OK! Just let me or your sub-team lead know and it's all good.
How do I tag someone?
Like twitter and instagram you simple type "@username" to tag someone. Tagging fires a notification to this person. Everyone's username is either A) in parentheses beside their display name or B) substituted if they don't specify a display name:
What service do we use for syncing files as a team?
We used Google Drive last year and it worked pretty well. Syncing our files to the cloud proved to be a crucial way for everyone to stay up-to-date conveniently. Since we lean heavily on library linking, it's imperative that we all be up-to-date. Google Drive is very accessible too; most people have an account anyway.
If you don't have one, sign up to get 15GB of storage for free. That should be plenty of storage for our project.
I know people are hesitant to sign up with Google but a burner account just for this project isn't too invasive, right? Otherwise Mega drive could be a good alternative since it offers 50 GB for free.
What if I'm not available at the time livestreams are broadcast?
Unfortunately the stream time can't be ideal for everyone. If you're not able to watch the stream live, I will post the recording within 24 hours of broadcast.
When is homework due exactly?
Homework is due every Sunday @ midnight each week. This means whenver your midnight is; relative to your timezone. This gives me each Monday to review homework internally before streaming on Tuesday. Please adhere to this deadline as late submissions can really stunt the flow of the schedule.
Can multiple people volunteer for and build the same part?
Yes! Early volunteers will have the best chance at picking a unique part but eventually parts will be assigned to multiple people. Of course we can't feature multiple of the same part for the final scene so the best execution of each part will end up in the final.
Are we bound to also 1 asset or if there is spare time can we even go for a second or third piece?
You're not limited to 1 asset. I'd love to see contributors challenge themselves with multiple assets, as several did last year. This gives contributors the ability to define their own scope of participation: If someone is newer to Blender they can choose one asset. If someone is more experienced they can choose multiple assets.
Who “owns” the final project?
Technically CG Cookie owns the project but the final project will be released freely as Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0).
Can I feature my work from Collab2021 in my online portfolio and / or demo reel?
100% yes! Contributors are welcome to use/share visuals from the project to social media accounts, online galleries / portfolios, and featured in demo reels.
llegobenj Here's your new Exterior Home my homie from another homie. Check back in the HQ for general stuff but all other Exterior Carpentry and Masonic creations can go here from this time henceforth and forever.........or at least until the end of April.
Google Drive email is away and I've been having a look through that spreadsheet - gut feeling has me leaning more towards the House or Acessories sections given that I have less experience in the 'organic' modelling style of the Nature section, but I'll wait until the stream before making any solid commitments. From there it's just a case of choosing an asset that's complex enough to be interesting to work on but not so complex that I stand no chance of finishing it.
hunter-x cool man
Just about every asset is going to be unique and amazing and it's own level of interesting and difficult. It's going to go beyond standard modeling. The lo poly aspect of probably going to be the easiest part but the texturing and baking process will make every asset uniquely interesting to keep most people engaged all month long.
Hey guys I just have question. I filled out the form a couple weeks ago and I didn't get conformation email or anything. I assumed I would get it maybe after deadline submission ended but I still didn't get it. Is this normal or did I just messed up filling out the form lol? Thank you guys for your time, hope all you reading this have a great day.
Hi Wardred, it may seem old-fashioned, but when I was in class for 3D graphics, I used to keep a notebook right next to me and jot down the hotkeys to the software I was learning. The act of writing it down helped my brain make those connections to the material. There are other instructors out there that have made electronic cheat sheets and offer the PDF for just signing up to their websites. CG Boost is one example.
Bryan, in Kent's official announcement post, a few posts up from here, Kent mentioned the following:
"Sign up for a Google account. Remember that we're utilizing Google Drive to sync all of our project files together. You will need a Google account access the project files. This can be a burner account that you only use for this project.
Once you have your google account, please email this message from your Gmail to [email protected]:
Subject: I've drunk the Google Koolaid
Message: [CGC username] reporting for duty. I'm ready to access the project files and receive commenter access to Collab google docs"
I recommend you reading his post.
Once you have send that email, you ll get your confirmation mail very soon.
Greetings!
Hiya Bryan, My best guess is that you are in. But to be on the safe side...
if you already have a google account still send in the "Google Koolaid" message just to be certain.
I'd bet the Axe from https://cgcookie.com/exercise/texture-painting-an-ax would look good in this. Haha
bbryandr thanks for the post. With such a large number of participants this was probably bound to happen. I’m sorry you feel like you fell through the cracks but fear not. You have done the right thing and posted your desire to be one of the greats despite such adversity.
Thanks for rolling with the punches. Make sure to email Kent as mentioned above and I’ll @ mention @theluthier to keep you counted. We look forward to seeing you be a part of this collab.
Whoops looks like I was messaging while Matt was too. Haha. Well now don’t you feel like the center of attention now Bryan?!
So this is what I was trying to convey, that I'm always curious as to what gives an art piece its appeal.
Here's the concept art.
I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, maybe it wasn't finished, but I saw the render of that concept art and was like uh... that doesn't feel very appealing as the concept art does. But what is it? Yeah sure the lighting, the modeling, the composition, etc, etc, but then what do I have to do? Model more? light more? do some push ups and run 2 miles and then it'll happen?
Then someone with skills could take it as it stands and make the right choices and it will suddenly feel alive. But what did he do different? What choices did he make as he was working? I've always find it fascinating, that it all boils down to eye and tiny choices adding up to greatness.
This on the other hand, from the references Kent compiled, looks killer. I wonder what choices were made that ended up with this result compared to the one above. Gather up the scientists, we need science on top of this ASAP.
I think you touched on it already, the lighting and textures do play a big role. Also, the staging of the camera adds to the overall feel of the image. The ones you like also have a nice background image. The sky, clouds, soft shadows all lend to the appeal of the image. The low-poly image does have a particular charm all on its own, though.
Yup I agree. The Melvin is in the details. The textures, mesh details, lighting, and environment. But there is a secret sauce that totally sells the piece on top of all of that and it's finding a way to bring the piece of art to life like a god breathes air into a newly created human. My question is how do we ignite that spark?
This piece totally makes me think of you Omar, it's one I saw a long while back: Somehow you have a knack for this kind of thing.
The difference is one is a piece of artwork and the other IMMERSES you into an artists' world.
It's kinda like reading a children's book versus getting sucked into a Harry Potter universe.
I think it had a lot to do with understanding the details so well that you consider the smallest things like how the waves crash up against the fishing boat. How the puffin would be nesting. The struggles of a group of fishermen. The insatiable hunger of Seals.
