AREA OF FOCUS: Writing, Production, Direction

SOFTWARE: Excel, Google Drive
PLATFORM: Youtube
TEAM SIZE: 47
TIMELINE: October 2021- July 2023

DASTAAN E
ASHFUR

Animated short

Project Goals

Learning the process of animation production
Developing methods for managing large teams
Practicing writing skills for animated projects
Developing character study and adaptation skills

Research & Planning

Project Management

This project started out with the development of the script and storyboard, based on a concept I was fond of. Due to the complexity and length, I decided to recruit other artists for the animation, as it was a project I was passionate about and wanted to ensure could reach its full potential. Online art communities are known for hosting a variety of different projects, with Multi-Animator Projects (MAPs) being released in the hundreds per year. Because of the extensive history of MAPs, there were publicly available resources for etiquette regarding these projects that I was able to use when preparing. As I already had my storyboard, script and translations for the song, I had a clear project vision and began to look into documentation for projects similar to mine, with a higher focus on story and specific art direction. By referring to the documentation of

successful MAPs (completed and released), I assembled a checklist of assets, documentation and resources I would need for the animators.

MAPs are understood to be a voluntary project which animators and artists can join for a variety of reasons; ranging from building their portfolio to it being a hobby. Because of this, MAP participants are varied in age, skill and time available, all of which had to be accounted for when establishing deadlines and managing expectations for the project. Based on my research, I divided the parts up into different lengths, but each ranging from 2-10 seconds. The deadline was also decided to be at 3 months during this time, with people being asked to give progress updates twice a month.

Script and Music

The music for this project is performed as a climax for a movie I am fond of, and I had wanted to create a project using this concept for a long time. Due to Multi-Animator Project (MAP) communities and animation enthusiasts gravitating towards certain franchises, I decided to center this project around a villain from a particular book series. Due to the change of singer going from a hero to a villain, the context of the song shifted as well. Dastaan became a song being written by a villain who has captured his romantic rival and is telling a biased version of his love story. Scripting for this concept began after the character was chosen. I created a document with the lyrics and translation of the song, then referred to the Wikipedia page for the character, my own knowledge and popular fan perceptions of the character to start blocking in specific moments of his life that related to specific moments in the song. Because the song itself relayed a love story, I was able to keep the order of events chronological, though some events were framed with a specific bias and others changed or removed entirely, based on my understanding of how the character would tell his story. This script went through a few different iterations as my personal interpretation and understanding of the character developed.

Version one of the script involved having the kidnapped rival go through a character arc as he saw himself turned into a cartoon villain and realized his own flaws. This was scrapped to maintain the focus on the main villain, but elements of this were kept in the storyboards and script, where the rival- a stand-in for the audience- has an emotional journey as he sympathizes with but later fears the villain.

The final script was written in sections, with specific scene or event descriptions fitting a single stanza of the song, rather than being written by the line. This allowed for the storyboard to determine the pacing of the actions, taking into account singing speed and music.

Development Process

Pre-Production

The original music video for Dastaan was made in the context of being a performance. As a tribute to that, I decided to have the MAP follow a similar theme of being a performance put on by the villain to sing his victory over his rival. As the story is based on an existing franchise, I had written descriptions for the main characters and important locations as a starting point.

I had to take certain factors into consideration; as MAPs encourage animators to create work in a variety of styles, the art could change drastically between parts. Thus, the main characters were designed to be the most vibrant and have key features and shapes to help distinguish them regardless of style. The backgrounds were designed to be simple forests, with the color palette being more important than the exact type of trees being drawn. As it is a retelling of the character's life, the key players in it (his love interest and rival) were give two designs; exaggerated "actor" designs that are seen throughout the project, showing how the villain sees them, and the "real" designs of the characters that would appear at the climax to illustrate to the audience that this narration is false. My goal was to show the self-obsessed nature of the villain and place him as the "director" of this animation, creating designs based on how he would view those around him.

During the storyboard process, I created a map of the island to track the characters movements; as the villain has kidnapped his rival, the latter makes many attempts to escape, but those are foiled, instead leading him to a different stage and environment that allows the villain to tell a particular part of the story. I then made a video tracking each character during every part of the song, which was included in the official resources so that animators would be aware which stage their part took place on, and what might be in the background. To further assist people, I commissioned a 3D model of the island, to be used to give accurate references for the background at any part, from any angle.

The final list of reference material: References for all five main characters (Villain, Actor rival, real rival, Actor love, real love), a reference for background character requirements, background palette references, shading/lighting references, props and stage references, 3D map of the island, the final storyboard with numbered parts, translations, script, storyboard with notes, character movement/staging video, lipsync reference footage.

Production

The project was launched on October 8, 2021 via Youtube. The full project is almost 9 minutes long, with a final team of 47 artists and animators who contributed work to the final project.

The workflow on the MAP is varied, certain parts had multiple artists working on a single shot, while other parts and sections were almost entirely done by a single artist. Due to this being my first project of this scale and my first project as a team lead, the production schedule has been developed through trial and error. Upon launch, the project had a small following with a few artists volunteering. During this time, deadlines were more relaxed and relied on self-discipline. In January 2022, I took a more active approach following an increase in artists joining the project. Progress updates were requested every 10 days, which became every 1st and 15th of the month from August onward, and every two weeks from December onward. At progress updates, people were required to share either a written update, video or GIF of their animation progress. Participants were given an estimate of what kind of progress was expected at each month, but this was not enforced due to the project being voluntary and to accommodate for differences in working style and schedule. Artists who were unable to meet deadlines were given assistance by other volunteers or myself, as well as being given the option to drop out of the project. Artists who chose to drop out were allowed to stay on as volunteer assistants for others and apply for a part again in the future.

The project progress was tracked through a google spreadsheet. In addition to listing the names of each person working on a single part, the sheet also contained their current progress, individual deadlines, latest progress update and charts to calculate the overall statistics of the project. The google sheet was checked for accuracy and kept updated at least once a week, allowing me to reach out privately to any artists who may not be responsive for a period of time or might have difficulty meeting the final deadline. The sheet was designed this way to account for the voluntary nature of this project- only documenting the essential information that allowed progress to be assessed and prevented stagnation of the project, without requring the level of work or detail that would be expected from a full-time assignment.

January 2023 Spreadsheet

What Went Right

Project was completed in under two years, with no crunch to finish by the deadline
Many participants took on multiple parts and are willing to provide help to other artists
Art direction decisions and the 3D resources significantly cut the time and workload required from each participant

What I Learnt

I was able to develop my own resources and material for project management
I gained a better understanding of working remotely and with a wide variety of people
Improved my conflict resolution and project management skills
Expanded on my writing and conceptualization skills for animation

What Went Wrong

Project was too ambitious for the resources and experience I had at the time of launch
Music and other elements were not widely known and thus had a smaller target audience of animators
Work slowed down more than expected around October-December due to other project commitments for participants

How I Overcame It

I quickly expanded my own animation skillset and availability to assist participants and take on more parts, as well as actively working to frequrntly promote and incentivise people
I actively sought out people who may be familiar with the premise, as well as being flexible with the animation and experience required for the project
I maintained communication with the participants, making resources and help easily available, as well as adapted deadlines based on the overall progress of all active parts

DASTAAN E ASHFUR