Thursday, March 7th

Class Hours: 9:40 – 2:05
Mr. Cronin

Notes

Thursday! Today and Friday will be our Skills Days.
Tobi you are getting a visitor this AM!
Otto early dismissal at 11:15. Make sure you and Mia connect early…

10:05 Attendance and Article

10:10 Week 24 Skills Production

“Start it up / Turn it on.”

This week I am going to give you the text prompt:

“Start it up / Turn it on.”

Other than a requirement of a character – the story is completely up to your team. We expect to see exaggeration in your animation. We want to be able to discern what is going on at first glance.

We need to understand your story at first viewing.

Consider:

Who is the Creative Director? We are getting to the point where we need to see a defined team leader.
What is your theme? Are you starting up a power cell on planet deep in space far off in the future? Are you turning on a phonograph from the 1898? Are you a high school kid turning on your cell phone?
Using Storyboard paper to get your story down before any digital work. Good pre-production maximizes the use of your time.
Divy up work effectively – who is in charge of what?
Remember that there is no sound – you really need to push the ideas of exaggeration to convey your message. If you are going to consider text on the screen to help tell your story remember you should be able to read text 3 times – keep it on screen long enough for viewers who see your project once to “get it” the first time. Nothing as janky as text flashing on screen and not being able to ready it. Clear font. Big. Contrast with background.
Think about timing – there were some Bad Piggies animations that were far far too short to be competitive at the Vermont animation competition. Give enough time for your animation to not feel rushed.
Think about rendering – size, renderer? Remember that you could have Cycles Renderer for a certain scene where you want the high quality reflections and refractions, and use EEVEE for other shots that wouldn’t require pretty but, but time intensive Cycles reflections.

Finally – lean into what you are good at. Find your role on the team. If your partner is a better / faster character modeler and rigger, let them do it. If you are a better video editor, you do it. If you are a better hard surface modeler (desks, buildings), you build the scene. At this point you have done enough projects as a team to start to see your strengths. You must lean into these at the State Design competition if you want to be competitive.

Save your file as lastNamelastNameStart.mp4.

You have until Friday at 12:25.

Our schedule:

Jan 25, 26 – GDD / STOT / Mood Board
Feb 1,2 – Work and document with Alpha testing as our next deliverable.
Feb 8,9 – Work and document with Alpha testing as our next deliverable.
Feb 15,16 – Alpha Testing and Feedback. This is an early test, conducted after the development phase but before Beta testing. It’s considered a form of internal acceptance testing. Mr. Cronin will play each of your games on Thursday the 15th and Friday the 16th. I must have a playable character to “be”, a world to interact in, and a reason to do what we are doing. This is more than just a level demo – we should start seeing basic gameplay mechanics (collection, opening, exploring, etc.)
Feb 21, 22 – Work and document with Beta Testing as our next deliverable.

March 7,8 (Current) – Work and document with Beta Testing as our next deliverable.

Some teams were right where they need to be – other teams are a little behind. Use your time in class wisely, and consider using vacation to make progress. Our Video Game Competition judge works at Insomniac Games, so he is looking to be impressed.

Look at the requirements for next week’s Beta Testing! You have 1 week before public testing of your game.

March 14,15 – Beta Testing and Feedback. You must have all that you had in Alpha testing, now with sound, a complete 1st level, UI elements, and an achievable goal. This is your MVP – or Minimum Viable Product to pitch to the judges. If the judges walked in the door we should be able to sell our game to them this week.
March 19, 20 – Create Game Trailer for judging (OBS + Premiere + Sound Design)
March 28, 29 – Create and practice 10 minute presentation for juding.
Thursday April 4th – Vermont State Design Competitions!

You are going to create your team folder and document what you have done. Make it as easy as possible for me to learn what you have done through file names, through notes put on images, etc. It is up to your team to impress me with progress and documentation of this weeks work by 12:25 Friday.

You may find that you have to work outside of dedicated Skills time in class, that is expected.

You have until Friday at 12:25.

See Mr. Bohmann’s CAWD2 Dayplan.

You have until Friday at 12:25.

10:50 Morning Break (10 minutes)

10 Minute break – you have to exit the room.
When the door near the TV is open, you are welcome to come back in.

11:00 English

11:55 Week 24 Skills Production

12:25 Lunch

No food in the room / eat in the Cafe.
You are welcome to return to the room when you have finished eating and work / hang out.

12:55 Attendance and Article

1:00 Steve Jobs Biography

Read along with Mr. Cronin. Improve literacy, word decoding, enjoy a nice story, and unplug from the world.

1:20 Afternoon Break (10 minutes)

10 Minute break – you have to exit the room.
When the door near the TV is open, you are welcome to come back in.

1:30 Speed Design

Speed Designs are 10 minute sprints in CAWD where we practice. It could be any medium – 3D, 2D, video, programming, etc.

1:45 Afternoon Practice & Production

Week 25 Agency
- (lastName)Agency_1.jpg
- (lastName)Agency_2.jpg
- (lastName)Agency_3.jpg

Skills work due tomorrow!

2:20 Dailies

2:25 “19 Minutes”

4 of 5 days per week we will end our day in CAWD with the “19 Minutes” of silent reading. Closing down our day with silent reading provides many benefits:

Improve Literacy Skills / Reading Stamina
Create space for a small reading meditation where we can disconnect from the world and get lost in a story
Unplug

At 2:44 each day I will come to 3 students and ask for a 1 sentence explanation of what happened in your story over that day’s reading session. It is neat to hear little pockets of a story, here and there.