Process - Don't make me go there!

If there's one thing my students love to talk about it's the techno-whoey. As much as I might to try and cram story down their throats, the discussion always seems to come back to the technology and I'll be the first to admit that I'm guilty of it too.

This proof of concept was based on the book, "Sometimes I like to Curl up in a Ball" by Vicki Churchill and Charles Fuge about a little Wombat's busy day of adventures. This team was asked to focus on the environment. If memory serves me right, I asked them to make the best grass they could. I didn't care how they were to achieve it, as long they made their deadline. Being 3D students they took the technical route and decided to use dynamics and simulations to achieve their shot.

With barely seven weeks to complete the project, the students were given weekly deadlines so we could discuss their progress. We work in the context of an animatic as soon and as often as possible to ensure that the focus of the criticism is on the shot and not just the technology. I encourage them to show me everything, even their mistakes. Sometimes seeing the mistakes makes for a good academic discussion and other times its just funny.

What I remember most about this team was their ability to have work and questions at every weekly review. As a result, our discussions felt more like production and my energy could be put into critiquing the work, as opposed to lecturing about the importance of process (trust me, I can go on and on about that one). In short, these guys nailed it. Their advice on adding grass as a background element after figuring it out, "Don't do it. It's a lot of work." I take it they had a few late nights on this one.