This week we got organized in our process, story, and team identity.

We began by adapting the agile philosophy to our project by instituting Scrum. Agile follows the four philosophies: 1) Individuals and interactions are more important that process and tolls; 2) working product is more important that documentation; 3) consumer collaboration is more important than contract negotiation; and responding to change is more important that following the plan. Scrum asks us to set short term goals, work for a short term “spring,” and at the conclusion, stop and reevaluate our trajectory. For us, we know that by the 13-week mark, we have to have a finished animation, and by the 9th week, we should have a rough version of that film to test on audiences. This means that by the conclusion of week 4, we should have a “pitch” with fully fleshed out concept, tested software, and solidified branding. Once we knew that solid goal, we began breaking down the tasks and got to work.
Our team then finalized a basic outline of our story, which 3 of our teammates – Julian, Sharon, and Prasanth – then expanded upon. Because we are working in 360-degree space, our greatest challenge became understanding how the characters will move around the space in a fluid and effective manner. After all, when the audience is the camera, controlling what the viewer sees becomes much more difficult. In response this struggle, our mentors insisted we “get models on the table.” And so we did just that.

Using 4 different models as the characters and whatever objects we had on hand as props, we assembled the setting of our story: a doll-maker’s workshop. We went back and forth, debating placement logic and the nuance of indirectly controlling the viewer. Finally, once we had fully fleshed out our script and blocking, we took two videos: 1) a top down view for the purposes of blocking reference, and 2) a video from the perspective the audience will ideally have if they follow the guides we build in for them.

While the story team was working, Flora, Melissa, and Mengyang began the process of designing the look of our world. Flora and Melissa worked on doll design for the various cultures, while Mengyang started on concept art for the environment. The environment design needs to be conducive to the 360 space, expository in nature, but not distracting. In turn, the dolls need to all be accurate to the cultures they represent, visually interesting, and rig-able. The pull between stylish, respectful, and practical is a tough one, so there as been a great deal of communication between 2D artists, modelers, tech artists, and experts and respective cultures to make sure everything we design will work for everyone.

We have also started considering our identity and our brand. We considered who we are as a team, separate from the project we are working on, and how we want to present ourselves to the world. We will  be putting out a logo, poster, re-designed website, and official photo by the end of this process. Next week, once we have finalized our look, we will talk a little more about the decisions that we made.

In the meantime, as we begin to examine the work we have done during this sprint, we have come to realize our next development challenge: scope. At present the experience is far too long, and we all expect that in our end of sprint review, we will end up discussing how to reduce.