Introduction

Welcome to my ADP (Advanced Digital Production) class web page. The page is to act as a portal to the project and work that I will be doing during the course. All the pages will be regulary updated as the class progresses, even the website itself is a work-in-progress with a number of improvements already planned.

A this point I have to point out that a number of pages and links are not 100% yet. I have tried to include all the necessary pages but some of the pages are only placed as markers right now. These pages and entries will be updated in due course.

So what is the ADP course?

The Advanced Digital Production course is being run by the team over at 3D Buzz. The aim of the course is to guide the students in the creation of an animated short, taking them through the full production process, from concept to the finished product.

The full details for the course can be found on the website over at 3dbuzz.com

News and Updates

I have started work on the concept art part of the course, although I am struggling with both the "concept" and the "art" part. I'm finding it a slow progression. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend (1 Dec) I will have something to show and will post an update on the site.

I have completed my final version of the story, which can be found in the Pre-Production Page in the site.

We are still awaiting feedback on our stories but considering the number of students in the class and the amount of work that has to be reviewed, it is no real surprise. (I'm glad of the time because of my problems with the concept art) So no complaints from me

I have continued working on the Socom model from the advanced Maya class. I reiterate that this is not, strictly, part of the course, but I want to practise and improve my modeling whilst we are doing our pre-production work, so the screenshots will be used to decorate the site until the "real" work is produced.

Finally, I have started getting into the habit of updating the blogs more regulary. There are entries directly related to the class, and another blog with a few thoughts and comments from the BAU (business as usual) side of life.

Planned Updates:

I am still planning to do some maintenance work on the site. As some of the entries are starting to grow, I am thinking about restructuring the flow of the site to make it a little more interesting.
The course and work schedule needs to be expanded. I think it's time to dive into MS Project and get the course plan on the site. I am not quite sure how feasible this is but if you don't try .. you'll never know. I'll see what I can get done this weekend.
Finally, I want to add some screen shots of the work I have been doing last week. I do not want the site to appear too static, so new screenshots will be added regulary.

Synopsis

A student has been given the assignment to come up with a story within a certain deadline. The student has a number of ideas which appear as a thought bubble above his head. Unfortunately, every time he tries to get them from his head into the computer he suffers from writer’s block and they disappear. We see the student struggling to capture his ideas and present them in his assignment. In the end, he is presented with a unique solution, from an unexpected source, to prevent the idea from disappearing before he gets it written down.

Synopsis Page

This is the final story that I have submitted, which is currently awaiting review.

Screenshots

This section will contain and be continually updated with the latest screenshots of the work-in-progress. These thumbnails will eventually become links that will take you to a separate page, which will hopefully become a small gallery, reflecting the various work being done.
As the class has only recently begun, there is not a lot to look at right now, so I have included some shots of the work so far and the applications that I have been using this week.

The above screens show (from left to right), the webpage being constructed in Dreamweaver; a mech being built in Maya; and a default screen from ZBrush. Students from the Mastering Maya Fundamentals class should recognise the Mech as it was used in Project 3. I'm revisiting the project to do some rigging ahead of time.
Some further work for the webpage was done in Photoshop (which is not shown)

Other than Maya, it is the first time that I have been using the applications - so please be patient with the website construction whilst my experience with Photoshop and Dreamweaver improves.

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Schedule

Short Term Goals and Milestones

General Planning Milestones

Milestone	Planned Date	Actual Date
Initial Website uploaded to webspace	1 November 2007	1 November 2007
Finalise Story Selection	4 November 2007	12 November 2007
Start work on Concept Art	12 November 2007	-

The above table is just an interim measure. The full planning will be done in Project, and will have a separate dedicated page. The page will contain a much more detailed planning and schedule for the course.