East Meets West in Descent to the Underworld May 31, 2005 Group Presentation COM 597 Kathy Gill

Project Background  Descent to the Underworld © is a multi-national, student collaborative game-film project created by Druid Media, Inc. for development across the Internet2 (Abilene) network. Student teams from University of Washington, Seattle and Tshingua University, interpreted a narrative, developed a work plan, and delivered twenty film clips in a period of eleven weeks.

Presentation Overview  Pre-production  Production  Post-production  Final production

Pre-Production  Audience analysis  Content plan  Collaborative tools  Defined roles  6-Week plan Descent to the Underworld launched May 24, 2005

Audience Analysis Academics Casual-users

Content Plan  Premise  Historical context  Script  Look and feel

Collaborative Tools  Web conference

Division of Labor Plan AUWTUShared Project management  Storyboard  Illustration  Editing  Animation 

6 - Week Plan Week 1 Storyboard and gesture drawing Week 2 Backgrounds Week 3 Character detail Week 4 Integrate backgrounds and characters Week 5 Animation Week 6 Deliver clips to Druid and revisions

Production  Interpreting narrative  Photoshop illustration  Animation

Interpreting Narrative  Storyboards  Gesture drawing

Storyboards  Create enough for team to start Keep area small Outline gesture (action) Sketch in pencil Number ‘shots’ for reference in editing Create pdfs and FTP for shared use Not a work of art

Photoshop Illustration Rough in backgrounds UW TU

Photoshop Illustration UW Rough in character detail

Unexpected Challenges Plan BUWTUShared Project management  Storyboard  3 clips IllustrationPurple smoke  Editing  Animation 

The Process  Storyboard and Photoshop Efforts to simplify

The Process  Storyboard and Photoshop Alternative endings

Animation  Flash (virtual camera) 4 sec 1 sec 2 sec 10 sec clip

Animation  Flash (virtual camera)

Animation Challenges Revisions needed Pixelated close ups Frames need resizing Need high-res images for print Saved to eps Told us in the beginning All files saved in tact to psd! Should have…..

Conclusion  Define  Plan  Be flexible  Save everything UW team web site Play Game-Film