Notes from 7/2/2011

Overview

-Website Update
-Narrowing In
-Staying Organized
-Art Jam Sessions


Website Update

It was not a big surprise, since I had posted earlier on the Robojams facebook page, but we officially acquired web space. I found a great deal on iPage for hosting, including the following features:

• unlimited bandwidth
  
• unlimited storage
  
• unlimited e-mail accounts
  
• free ad credits for facebook and yahoo (not sure exactly what this entails, but possibly we'll be able to advertise on those sites without paying, if we so choose)

All of this for only $3/month! Amazing. Normally, I would've waited and brought this to the whole group to make a decision, but considering the deal only lasted a couple more days, I decided to buy it on the spot.

I have set up e-mail accounts for everyone (they are simply your name @robojams.com), but unfortunately there have been a couple of snags I need to get sorted out. I believe these snags are all related, though, and the issue I need to solve is getting the robojams.com domain transfered over from godaddy to iPage. For some reason the permissions are locked, preventing me from completing the transfer. I simply need to call up godaddy's help line when I have the time.

I will continue to keep everyone updated on that process. Soon we should have a fully functioning website!


Narrowing In

Last meeting we discussed narrowing down the concepts on the animal mask guy. We had a bunch of ideas, and though they all could work, it will be good to have our idea chosen so we can move on with the rest of the creative process.

We all voted, choosing our two favorite designs. The bunny mask (that Nyssa had concepted) was a clear favorite, with the frog and toucan masks tying for second. We decided that the animal mask guy would wear the bunny mask, and that our main character would wear either the frog or toucan mask - when he tries to be like the animal mask guy near the end. We will have a vote later, involving everyone in the group, to determine which one will make the cut.


Staying Organized

After the completion of our first project, we have discovered some pitfalls and danger areas to consider when doing more group projects in the future. As we move into this new project, we have been discussing these areas of concern, and we fully intend to solve as many of these problems as we can before they arise. Some of the issues we discussed are:

• keeping the file structure organized and appropriate for the project
  
• determining what technology we're going to need BEFORE we need it
  
• building appropriate, customized rigs for our characters
  
• nailing down or timing and story progression before moving into production

We determined that many of these issues developed from the process of pre-production bleeding into production. Pre-production should be the time where we solve our issues and plan ahead for the rest of the project BEFORE we move on to the actual creation of the project. Therefore, for this project, we are going to create a "Pre-Production Checklist" that must be entirely fulfilled before we move on to production. By doing so, we will make sure to have everything figured out ahead of time in order to avoid running into problems during production. Production should be simply that: the time in which we produce the piece, like a machine spitting out the appropriate results.


Art Jam Sessions

The purpose of moving meetings to a bi-weekly basis was to allow us more time to work on ideas and develop content that we can discuss during the meetings. However, with the meetings being further apart, it is easier to forget about the project altogether and not work on anything. In an effort to stay productive, we have decided on a new policy.

We will continue to have our official meetings on a bi-weekly basis, at Victor's coffee. However, on the off weeks, we will meet at Tully's for a sort of art jam session. These will be informal meetings in which we get together and simply do art relating to the project. There will be no check-ins, and group discussion will take place on an "as needed" basis only. In other words, if you need to consult with other people, or want to bounce ideas off of others, you can (and are certainly encouraged to do so). However, if you just want to do some drawing/painting/brainstorming on your own, that is alright too. The idea is just to give us a pressure free time slot in order to do work for the project so that, when we do have our official meetings, we will have things to discuss and show.



**BEGINNING NEXT WEEK, JULY 9th, WE WILL MEET AT 4PM AT TULLY'S COFFEE NEAR BELLA BOTTEGA FOR AN ART JAM SESSION. PLEASE BRING APPROPRIATE MATERIALS TO WORK ON MATERIAL FOR THE PROJECT.**