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.
I am up for any part of this,
And with such awesome sensei as you, this will become a wonderfull project and good learning path.
I do now noticed that i also used the wrong name when signed in,
I can hardly wait, I love this scene. I hope I will be able to be here for all of it. For now, I get on when I can as I am caring for my mother 24/7
Or maybe that's not all yet!
I didn't choose a particular asset in my registration. I'm happy to take one of the more complicated parts, with an eye toward saving the smaller and easier parts for our newer members. But I'll need Kent to tell me which parts are the more complicated ones, because this sort of painterly-style is a little unfamiliar to me, ha!
spikeyxxx. thank you I really enjoyed myself on the last one and yes its right up my alley
I'm here!.......At long last.
Things I have already accomplished since Kent posted.
Relish in previous Collab2020 video: CHECK (actually QUADRUPLE CHECK with some NACHO CHEESE on top)
Collab2021 sign me up: CHECK
Listen to motivating music: CHECK
Post in the HQ Forum: CHECK
Figure out what I want to work on: Not sure, but I want to stretch myself. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Find something to fill the time until April 5th:
Excellent! And it's good to be back. :)
Kind of liking the house....starting to sort of gravitate that way. But, like you said, we've got some time yet.
I'm really excited about this. Has been a long time since the last time I worked on anything at CGcookie.
Sounds interesting. Normally April is a socially busy month. Since that's cancelled I could use a project with goals.
I noticed you were quiet yesterday! Figured you had other stuff to take care of - like job, family, little things 😉
Speaking of, I love that you watched with your kids. I did the same. They said "cool!" and walked away.
Figure out what I want to work on: Not sure, but I want to stretch myself.
You obviously have the modeling thing down. Even though low poly stylized modeling will be different than the DOG, I think you'll pick it up easy enough. What about texture painting though? If you were to practice anything before April, I'd recommend practicing basic painting skills. Even some 2D concept videos here could help.
@theluthier - this looks like a very cool project to collaborate as a team. While there will be activity for a month, it is more bite-size compared to the backhoe project. It is very evident that you have planned and thought this project out very well. Even providing reference training material, which will no doubt reinforce lessons in this class. There are a few classes in your helpful content lists that I have not gone through yet. I will work on viewing the rocks, clouds and tank courses prior to April 6th. I recognize that running a class like this disrupts your normal daily routine. Many thanks in advance - I am definitely looking forward to collaborate on this project.
it is more bite-size compared to the backhoe project
Very true, intentionally so. You're the second person to mention the smaller scope so I'll take a moment to write out my perspective.
7 months is a long time to stay committed to a project, both for contributors and for the instructor (mainly because they can't record courses in that time). Even though I aspire to do huge, multi-month Collabs in future, I think it's best to start smaller in scope to refine the system enough so that it can facilitate larger projects with larger numbers of contributors eventually.
That said, the backhoe also taught me something important about these projects: They are what we make it. When the first volunteers signed up for parts to model on the backhoe I expected a lot less than what they delivered. I just figured they would commit an hour or so here and there since it was all volunteer. But they all took it very seriously. They made it into the impressive model it became. Way beyond my expectations. In fact their commitment and level of detail pushed me to a higher standard. It was so compelling how naturally this happened. Their effort made the backhoe into such an impressive thing I simple needed to animate and render an assembly sequence to do it justice.
What I'm trying to say is that even with a smaller scope environment project, we each will decide how impressive we want the final model to be. That makes me excited to see what it will become!
I don't mean to ramble. I guess I'm starting to read into a potential consensus that the smaller-scope project might seem underwhelming(?) It's understandable compared to the behemoth that was the backhoe. But I've also dropped my jaw at what a collab team is capable of. I suspect the same will be true in April 🚀
I will work on viewing the rocks, clouds and tank courses prior to April 6th
That's great! I'm glad you're going to watch before April. And I'm thrilled to hear you're looking forward to it. April is gong to be a month to remember ✊
I've been really excited about this project since I first read about it and definitely want to be part of the team!
Because of my work pattern I wont be able to join in on every livestream though, but I will catch up with them when they get posted afterwards.
Really looking forward to cracking on with it!!
@theluthier - While I did not participate on the backhoe team, I attend all but one of the live streams. I am confident that I learned several new things during each session. The participants were excited and supported each other in a truly collaborative fashion. There were interesting discussions - such as: if a screw won’t be seen do you still model it? The stretching exercises were always welcomed. In the end, a phenomenal complex model was created. Coming into this Spice Vendor's House project, this community has an exceptional team resume.
I do not consider this project to be underwhelming. I applaud your strategy of working on a relatively small project, refine the teaching process with the possibility of working on larger projects in the future. Get a larger number of people on the same page on how to collaborate effectively within Blender. I am confident that you will enlist more experienced users to assist. Expand from there with bigger projects if it makes sense. The only disappointment that I have with the project is the project name: COLLAB2021. I’d prefer it to be called COLLAB2021A, which would imply that there would be a “B” this year. Having said that, while you are working on this and other collaborative projects, it is probably affecting your timeline for your anatomy course. And, trust me, every Citizen is very interested to learn how to make portraits like you have already unbelievably created in Blender.
I am also excited to see what this project will become. On Vadim’s ArtStation page, he delineates the Spice Vendor’s House into three sections: Market, Residence and Production. My future CG Cookie collaborators are a creative bunch. I am sure that I am not the only one that is thinking: what is on this property that we can’t see? Perhaps there is a balcony from the third floor bedroom overlooking a spice garden on the back side of the house. On the outside of the production side are there bushels of whole spices? Maybe wooden shelves, a table, or staging area? What is the watermill used for? Perhaps, to grind the spices? Perhaps it powers a conveyor system that moves the spice jars within the house and over the stream. The potential for project creep is real. However, it has to be balanced with the course schedule. That is fine. Perhaps some people will create models of what it looks like on the inside of the house when this course is complete.
Also, your enthusiasm is infectious. Just look at the responses you have already received upon announcing this class.
