COLLAB2021 - HQ - Stylized Fantasy Environment

Kent Trammell



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!


THE PROJECT

#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.

REGISTRATION

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]


SCHEDULE / OUTLINE

Disclaimer

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.

Week 1 (Apr 5 - 11): Modeling

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

Week 2 (Apr 12 - 18): Sculpting Accents

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

Week 3 (April 19 - 25): UV's & Texture Painting

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

Week 4: (April 26 - May 2) Materials & Finalization

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

  1. Project status update
  2. Homework reviews
  3. Overview week 4
  4. Demo: 
    • Environment lighting (Day)
    • Environment lighting (Night)

Helpful Content:

Week 4 Homework Due: May 2nd by midnight

Closing Stream (May 4)

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.


Communicating as a Team

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.


Syncing Project Files

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:

  1.  Locate and open your WIP placeholder .blend file that contains your username. Within the "WIP" directory there are folders corresponding to asset categories. Navigate through these folder to find the .blend with your username.

  2. Once opened, you will either see a proxy version of your asset or a blank scene. Either way, copy and paste all the pieces of your asset into this .blend file.

  3.  Look for the "MASTER_" collection in the outliner. The naming convention is "MASTER_category_asset_username'. This collection will be linked into the final assembly file. It's imperative that you move every visible part of your asset into this collection.
    1.  You can have other objects in this scene like reference objects, image planes, utility objects (empties), etc. But they must be outside this MASTER collection.

    2.  Do not name any other objects or collections "MASTER" in the scene.

  4.  If your placeholder scene has a proxy object in it, you need to align your version of the asset to the proxy. Scale it, move it, rotate it however you need to match the proxy.
    1.  Note: These proxies also have a copy of the master camera in the scene for which the proxy is aligned to the art.

    2.  If your placeholder scene does NOT have a proxy in it but DOES have a master camera, your asset should align to the camera, simply keep your asset in the center of the world when saving

    3.  If your placeholder scene does NOT have a proxy NOR a master camera, simply keep your asset in the center of the world and scaled according to the human proxy in the scene.

FAQ

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.

  • spikeyxxx replied

    You need to use a trick for that:

    Usually you are interested in Attribute values and Booleans, so here I just made one and that shows immediately in the Spreadsheet ;)

  • Kent Trammell replied

    Excellent test stickdonkey. I really like the idea of working with PNG's until the end and compressing all textures down to JPGs. I expect the last week to be a lot of optimization efforts. Tests like this will be invaluable.

  • Kent Trammell replied

    Sorry for the delay - I just added your email to the Asset List and Google Drive folder!

  • Matt Dickun(az93) replied

    @theluthier  Am I registered? I filled out the registration form, but I missed the announcement on April 5th about emailing you. Am I too late too join? If so that's alright.

  • Kent Trammell replied

    You're not too late az93 - I have you on the roster. Do you have a gmail or google-associate email account for me to add?

  • splat21 replied

    spikeyxxx YES - I get it now.  Great Trick - Thanks.

  • Kent Trammell replied

    Oh yes, having so much power confined to a non-undoable modal is risky business. Funky and potentially frustrating to work with.

  • Matt Dickun(az93) replied

    Ok, I just sent the email.

  • Kent Trammell replied

    📢 Announcement #2: Updates & Loose Ends 

    Discord

    Our resourceful Team Leads have setup a discord server for us! The server features channels for each team including audio + video capability.

    This changes our communication structure a bit from what I discussed during the stream yesterday. Now I recommend LOW LEVEL communication happens on discord since it’s the easiest / quickest form of communication we have. By “low level” I mean casual, small-consequence discussion. The main negative of persistent chat is their brief nature; they 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 stuff like protocols, announcements, lengthy troubleshooting and idea pitches on the forum threads.

    A big shoutout to the leaders for just nike-ing the Discord idea into reality. I was against it for dumb reasons and now I’m already a big fan. Communication should be much improved as a result!

    Week 1 Stream recording available

    The steam recording is available to watch and features chapters for easier navigation. The stream was 3 hours after all and full of pertinent information. Please watch or at least skim the first 2 hours.

    As promised presentation slides also available to view and I’ve added a Week 1 casual stream for Tomorrow (Thursday). Reminder that this will be completely unrehearsed; just a fly-on-the-wall type stream watching me work and being available to answer questions.

    Team Threads

    It’s important to be plugged into your team’s thread. I recommend checking in at least 2-3 times per week for important info:

    Registration is CLOSED

    Officially registration for the class is closed. I let a few stragglers join because I have a hard time saying no...but I’m not sure we can handle anymore! If you’re interested in the Collab you’re welcome to lurk but officially no more joining.

    Asset Assignments

    I’ve been confirming a steady stream of asset requests and the spreadsheet cells are filling up beautifully! As I asked on stream, it seems several “fill-in-where-needed” people have waited to claim an asset out of respect for those who wanted specific assets. Thank you for that!

    At this point I think it’s safe for everyone to request and fill in remaining gaps. The goal being that everyone has a confirmed asset by the weekend.

    If you do not have comment access to the Asset List spreadsheet, please send me an email ( [email protected]) using either a gmail address or google-associated email and I will add you to the share list.

    Syncing to Google Drive

    I didn’t present this great during the stream. For week 1 I’d like to see everyone synced with the project directory but to NOT add their own .blend files until week 2. There’s some specific protocol I want to explain before contributor files are added.

    To sync the project directory I need to add your email to the share list. If you don’t see the “SPICE-VENDORS-HOUSE” folder in your shared with me section of Google Drive, send me an email ([email protected]) using either a gmail address or google-associated email and I will add you to the share list.

    The next step is “adding” the shared folder to your Google Drive. This is a weirdly hidden feature using the SHIFT + Z hotkey. Team Leader Shawn recorded a great tutorial video about this process.

    Once you’ve added the shared folder to your Google drive, you can install the Google Drive applet and begin syncing to your local computer. This syncing capability is very important for the project to function for everyone.

    Submitting Homework

    Reminder that homework is due every Sunday at midnight (your time). This gives me Monday to look it over, grade, and choose submissions to review during Tuesday's stream.

    To submit homework, post a reply to your WIP thread with this top line in bold: "Homework Submission - Week 1 - Asset Name". This tells me that you're finished and ready for a grade / feedback. Below the bolded line please add "@theluthier" to mention me so I will be notified. Below the mention I want to see at least one screenshot of your blocked out model. You're also welcome to include any relevant info or comments if you wish:

    IF you finish your homework before Sunday, it's OK to submit early!

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    Thank you

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    @theluthier I don't know if I've done something wrong or not, but when I try to add the SPICE-VENDORS-HOUSE (shared by CG Cookie COLLABS) to My Drive (Shift + Z) it first pops up and says that it was successful and then this pop up comes up immediately after it.

    So to summarize, I have downloaded and installed the Google Drive app on my Windows computer and it all seems to be working alright, the only problem is when I try to add a Shared With folder to My Drive in Google drive. Any ideas. Thanks.

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    In the mean time I have downloaded a Hard/Unlinked copy of the spice-venders-house_ASSEMBLY.blend file to my computer, so I should still be able to make and rename a copy of that to be able to work on my particular asset.

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    Scratch that idea.
    You can't really work on an asset when the .blend file is looking for the Ref picture and it isn't on your computer.
    Honestly this is my first time ever using "syncing" and I know that I'm out of my depth here. @theluthier
    A tutorial or a quick how-to work in syncing for the Spice Vendor's House specifically would probably be of great value to a few people, not just me.

    I had hoped to start "breaking eggs with a stick" at this point, such is life.

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    When I do the Shift + Z command the folder does move to My Drive, for a second, before bouncing back and giving me the Server Error. @theluthier I don't know if it has anything to do with my available drive storage: I have 6.1GB used out 15GB.

    Unless it's meant for week 2, I would like to know what the preferred workflow is for working with syncing and how I should copy the assembly.blend correctly so that I can work on the All Accessories asset.

    I did watch blanchsb Google Drive tutorial about how to download and set up the Google Drive Storage folder, but after that I started to get lost and my eyes started to glaze over when he began to go into the details about keeping your synced file current and what not.

    Sorry, I really am a total newbie at all this syncing stuff.

  • adrian replied

    Hey vincav81 I think you may not have access until next week, which is why you will get the error, But here's what to check for:

    Be sure to select Shared with me then click on the Spice Vendor folder once so it is highlighted and then SHIFT + Z. Click on My Drive and you should see the Spice Vendor folder here also, you don't need to access it here, you should now be able to sync (save to it via the Google drive folder on your desktop)

    If you still have trouble see here 👇

    Try checking your Firewall settings in any antivirus software you have, the default or recommended setting is best.

    Also check your file sharing setting in Windows.

    Go to the start menu, scroll down to Windows System, in the drop down menu select Control Panel. or search 'Control Panel' if you have the search facility activated.

    In the Control Panel select Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Centre, then in the list on the left select Change Advanced Sharing Settings.

    In the private(current profile) section under file and printer sharing, I think this will need to be on.

    Also in the All Networks section, under File Sharing Connections, select 128 bit encryption.

    Also check the Google Drive sharing settings (You said you have 6.1GB used you should have nothing used if you are a new user on Google Drive, so definitely check these settings).

    Do you see a cloud icon on the task bar next to the clock?

    If not, in the start menu scroll to Backup and Sync from Google and in the drop down menu select Backup and Sync from Google

    If you do, click on it and then click on the 3 dots on the right  and then click preferences.

    In the preferences window 

    Under My Computer deselect everything

    Under Google Drive select Sync My Drive to This Computer and then select Sync these folders only  (Absolutely Definitely if you have other non spice vendor files in your Google Drive) and you will see a folder named Spice-Vendor when you have access and done the SHIFT + Z thing next week, select this folder.

    Under Settings, select Network Settings, then check the proxy setting is Auto Detect and the Download and Upload Rate are both set to Don't Limit. (Limit setting not necessary but best for speed based on your ISP Mbps)

    Hope this helps.

    @theluthier  Maybe worth everyone checking their settings, especially which files to sync so we don't share private files and blow our 15GB limit on day one next week.

  • Andy Begg(andybegg) replied

    Hey @theluthier

    There was talk about having moving water, thought I might draw your attention to this flow map addon in case you hadn't seen it.

    https://www.blendernation.com/2021/03/03/free-flow-map-painter-addon/

  • ladymito replied

    Nice effect. Downloading addon :P

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    @adrian2301 Thank you for your response, I will check out your suggestion.

    About the 6.1GB, I'm an "old" user on Google Drive, I've just never had to sync anything before.

    Thank you.

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    I wish I could edit these posts. @adrian2301 I made mention of the 6.1GB because I didn't know or not if it was a lack of space on my end that was stopping the file from being moved to the Google MY Drive section.

  • Vincent (vincav81) replied

    @adrian2301 @theluthier Ok so I've gone and done all that and I still get the server error.

    I may have got the stick by the wrong end. The way I understood (right or wrong) was that we all get access to a version of the Main Assembly file with the camera correctly set up and the artwork linked to the camera as a viewer background image; then we create and rename a copy of that Main file and make that our Asset Project (insert naming convention) file and create our model inside of that and then create a render and put that in our personal WIP Homework threads with Bold Text Titles to say that we are ready to be graded; and then upload the .blend files in the 2nd week after Kent's instructions in the next live stream.
    Hopefully that was clear.

    I have downloaded from the Shared Drive an unlinked copy of the Main Assembly file to my computer, but when I opened it I found/realised it did have the reference artwork set as a BG image for the camera, but the file path was for something that wasn't on my machine and I didn't want to mess with the download file by downloading the reference artwork onto my machine and linking that instead to the camera. I don't know if that's what everyone else has been doing, I just wanted make sure I wasn't doing something wrong which then led into the Server Error problem.

    I'm in Australia, so I'm kinda feeling the deadline a bit differently to other people and I obviously had wrong expectations/understand of what we we're expected to do and maybe I missed hearing something Kent said on the 1st livestream, I don't know. I only joined CG Cookie the week before this Collab started so I really don't have an back knowledge that the rest of the expats on here may have. Sorry for rambling.

    Thank you for hopefully helping me to set up my computer for week 2. Goodnight.