Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Multimedia Work Process pt.1: pre-production

Since I am doing Multimedia in University, I thought it might be of interest to readers to know how we work.

The process for all the different subjects are pretty much the same. It all starts with a project brief. We have to strictly follow the basic guidelines laid out in the brief. Anything else is up to us.

After getting the brief, we have to plan a timeline on when we are to get certain parts of the work done. There are mainly 3 parts to the workflow: pre-production, production, and post-production. I will explain a bit more as I go along.

Once the timeline is done, documentation is then prepared. Relating to the brief, it can be anything from a navigation chart for a website, to written concepts say for a story. In short, the documentation explains what your project is gonna be like and what it is about.



Now to the pre-production part. This is mainly on-paper stuff. Ideas are jotted down. Characters or design or backgrounds are sketched in sketch pads. For a story sort of thing, a script is written. For a design, rough sketches of the composition. All these things are to give you a rough idea of what your project is gonna be like, and is also a guideline for other group members who are involved in a group project.

In the case of an animation/video/movie, a storyboard follows after the script and characters are done. What is a storyboard? It is like a simple cartoon/comic version of your story drawn out. Where the characters stand, what camera angle... all these are drawn in a linear progression unto the storyboard. There are rough-outlined versions and detailed versions, but the main idea is to bring your idea across.

If it is an 2D animation, characters and backgrounds then have to be created and the colour scheme has to be set. The style of the whole project is also then determined at this stage.

And lastly, we have to stock up on coffee. Lots and lots of coffee...



Stay tuned for the next installment!