COLLAB.02 | "The Spice Vendor's House"

‹ Collabs

Collab 02: The Spice Vendor's House

  • 2021
  • 133 collaborators
  • fantasy realtime 3D environment
  • Made with Blender
A heart-felt story about a spice vendor's beloved homestead. As his business travels often take him far way, he yearns to return home to his quaint house in a picturesque countryside.

Always Iterating and Improving

Our "pipeline" from Collab.01 technically worked well enough but there was obvious room for improvement. For our sophomore project we wanted to iterate our format, which has remained a goal for every subsequent collab.

We shortened the production period, added new skills to our pipeline, introduced teams and team leaders, while keeping our "DIY" pipeline tools. More about that below.

New Subject, New Style

Hot on the heels of Collab.01, we were keen to see if lightning could strike twice in a row! We knew we wanted to try something different: Instead of realism, let's do stylized fantasy. Instead of super hi-res geometric detail, let's do realtime / game-read (ish). Inspired by Vadim Zaitsev's artwork, we set out to create the Spice Vendor's house in the spring of 2021

Watch the Collab.02 Livestreams

Experience the collab atmostphere and learn from our process

View Playlist

Download the Project Files

We made the entire project directory available for download. It includes all assets from models, textures, as well as all .blends.


NOTE: This project has a lot of 'moving parts' and it's recommended that you open with the version of Blender it was created with: 2.92

Download the Project

More about the project

One-Month production schedule

Collab.01 had no schedule essentially, which allowed it to take a long time. For Collab.02 we chose a compressed 4-week schedule to see how much we could accomplish quickly in an "all hands on deck" commitment. This proved to be a hectic and stressful schedule.

Assets for All Skill Levels

This environment was chosen as a bigger overall project that would need better organization and tracking. We split up the tasks according to difficulty so beginners, intermediates, and advanced artists could contribute accordingly.

Introducing Team Leaders

We also assigned assets and contributors to 3 departments: House, Standalone Assets, and Nature. We then invited veterans from Collab.01 to serve as department leaders. This proved to be a key evolution for the pipeline and would continue in Collab.03.

Keeping "DIY" Pipeline Tools

None of the tools we use (Google Docs, Google Drive, Forum Threads) are pipeline-specific but they are free and easily accessible. Put another way, they're very DIY-friendly and we want to keep it that way as much as possible so anyone can replicate our format. Therefore we opted to continue using the same tools with the goal of utilizing them more effectively for our pipeline.

New skills for the utility belt

Collab.01 was really only a modeling project, meaning contributors weren't responsible for textures, materials, lighting or anything else. With each new Collab, we aim to add new skill levels to our collective experience so that, eventually, we will have a fully-featured production pipeline capable of any project.

Collab.02 required modeling, sculpting, texture painting, and some animation / FX work. Tackling new skills would remain a goal with Collab.03 as well.

Contributors

  • Alan Morosanu
  • Adrian Bellworthy
  • amblender
  • Andrea Weikert
  • Andy Begg
  • artifact
  • Austin Dunham
  • Aubrie Lee
  • Beau Kromberg
  • Ben Nicholes
  • Ben Reichel
  • Ben Rottke
  • bun-bun
  • Cannon Raymond
  • Carlo Schat
  • cgcdough
  • clementk
  • cooly
  • Dan Melton
  • Dani Tufeld
  • Daniel Molina
  • Damian Czujkowski
  • Daphne Lameris
  • Dave Hudson
  • David Soares
  • Fabian Frundmann
  • fancypigeon
  • fide
  • Florian W
  • Fred Gobry
  • George Sangeorzan
  • hapit
  • Ingmar Franz
  • ironsoul
  • Ivan Cipriani
  • Jake Korosi
  • James Langley
  • Joao Pedro Gaelzer
  • Johannes Hellwig
  • John Sanderson
  • Jonathan Lampel
  • Karen Trevino
  • Keith Tomlinson
  • Kent Trammell
  • Konstantinosk
  • Ladymito
  • Luis Fernandez
  • Maria Dablander
  • Martin Bergwerf
  • Martin Riha
  • Mat Bevan
  • Matt Dunn
  • Matthew Halls
  • Matthew Ullrey
  • Michael Artsymovych
  • mishag
  • Mona Loren
  • Nathan Gardano
  • noonespecific
  • Omar Domenech
  • onelombax
  • osado
  • Parker Bourassa
  • Phil Osterbauer
  • Piotr Brzostynski
  • Probhjot Singh
  • qpola
  • Randal Gray
  • Richardyi
  • Rob Campbell
  • rstich
  • Samvolcano
  • Sheila5
  • Shawn Blanch
  • Simon Buz
  • splat21
  • Stephen Clark
  • Szabolcs Regenyei
  • Tat
  • the3dbanana
  • Tijnkroon
  • Tobias Schmid
  • Undiscovered
  • Vadim Zaitsev
  • Vincav
  • Wayne Dixon
  • William Miller
  • Wograebn
  • Yukino Hatake
  • Zach Why

More links

Original HQ thread

Team Supervisor, Omar Domenech, relit the Spice Vendor's house for night time - how cool is this?! We love to see folks engaging with out project files 🫶