Niv Khurana
Project Goals
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Developing project management and producer skills
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Developing art direction and conceptualization skills
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Practicing management skills across multiple projects at once
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Experimentation with project management styles and deadlines to build on personal reference and experience
Pre-Production & Planning
Project Management
This project began development in August, gaining momentum in November as artists who connected with the pitch volunteered for the pre-production stage. While Dastaan was still ongoing, I had learnt a lot in that year and build my plans for Saathi Re accordingly. This project was made as a way to gain experience and better understand how to adapt to a variety of people's different working methods.
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Saathi Re is a Multi-Animator Project (MAP), a common project in online spaces. These are understood to be voluntary, with deadlines and an artistic vision that must be followed, though the rigidity of that varies between projects and project managers. For Saathi Re, I chose to focus on emotional storytelling, rain and experimental art. During pre-production, I created different concepts and asked the team of volunteers for feedback. Parts of the project were changed and adapted based on suggestions. As Saathi Re features a frequently changing screen layout, this would need to be made clear in the pitch for this project. From late-November to mid-January, I worked with the pre-production team to make a variety of material to promote the MAP, which also functioned as a way to test the flexibility of the art direction.
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During this time, I assembled the documentation for the project. The Dastaan spreadsheet was taken and updated as the project developed. There was a single document made containing information such as deadlines, project summary and the art direction. Parts were then split as the final art was made, each one being 2-10 seconds long. Additional resources, such as lipsync references and layout files were created. Dastaan was the primary reference used for planning the organization of this project, while the art direction relied on peer review, especially from project leads who had organized and completed many maps in the past.
While the project was initially given a 2-month deadline, it is rare for MAPs to be completed on schedule. The shorter deadline was given to encourage artists to work within a limited and achievable scope, with the final estimated completion being during Monsoon months (June-September). An estimated timeline was created, with deadline goals being set according to the 2-month schedule. This chart would be updated on a monthly basis to reflect goals and deadlines according to the amount of work that had been done on the MAP that month.
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Art Direction
The music was chosen first for this project, with the concept being built around it. The song referenced the seasons often, and is about the singer calling to their companion, so it was decided early on that the two key themes of this project would be grief and rain. Based on the music, the song was split into various sections. Rain clouds or raindrops would always be present in every part of the project, but only some sections would have rainfall, with the amount changing depending on the part. The secondary theme, grief, presented a bigger challenge in its depiction due to it being an abstract concept. As the song goes through the stages of grief, an early concept was to show the beginning of the project in grayscale, with more color being added in as the song progressed. Many versions of this were drafted and expanded on before the project shifted to include more artistic freedom, and the limits on color palette were kept as an individual choice rather than a requirement. The grief theme was instead explored through split-screen formats. Animations are primarily done in a single 1920x1080 format, but there have been examples of animated projects that utilize panel formats to imitate comic books or similarly break the screen in some way. I explored various versions of this, splitting the screen into panels to show disconnect or conflict between characters. Many iterations of this were also tested, with the final decision being made to use different breaks per section rather than one type of split screen for the entire project. The different splits were assigned based on the emotions of the music. A first draft was made to test the formatting and timing. Based on this draft, artists were asked to choose a template and fill in their own characters for the project pitch artwork. Templates were created and provided, along with being specifically marked within their sections for ease of understanding.
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The project initially had a strict art direction, but with the specificity of the project, as well as feedback from volunteer artists, the pitch would have been limiting and only appeal to a small number of people. The decision was made in mid-December to remove many of the requirements for types of characters or specific color palettes and instead focus on experimental art and emotional storytelling. Additionally, animators were encouraged to use limited animation or resources like photography in order to reduce the amount of work needed in animating multiple panels. For parts which had many panels, it was also encouraged to use symbolism and small elements in order to keep to a slow, reflective pace for the audience and not overwhelm them visually.
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Development Process
Work Distribution
Saathi Re was launched on January 15 (Sunday), with applications remaining open until Thursday. This was based on research into previous MAPs. Due to the projects being voluntary, a key element for their completion is to maintain momentum and motivation. It is a common practice for artists to drop out of a project for any reason, and while there are measures in place to account for this, multiple artists dropping out can cause the project to stop. Thursday is considered an optimal day for allocating parts, as between Thursday and Friday, participants will be able to join group chats and servers created for project management, and then have the weekend to make a start. The first week is critical, as it is when the excitement and inspiration for the project is at its highest. By setting an initial deadline of Monday for each person to send concepts, moodboards or a pitch, it ensures that people returning to the project in the following weeks have some of their references and materials on-hand, which can help prevent art block.
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Between the launch of the MAP and the allocation of parts on Thursday, I compiled much of the data from the google application form into different spreadsheets. The first spreadsheet documented the parts each applicant had listed and the order of priority they had stated. The second sheet recorded each part and the names of the people applying to that part. The third sheet was a draft of my choices, with the forth being the final private list. The first and third sheets were duplicated and filled by my peers, who were not personally involved with the community of artists and therefore were able to counter any biases I might have had. Applicants were assigned parts based on their ability, previous experience working with them and the story pitch they submitted, with the latter allowing both myself and my peers to ensure that people were given sections of the song that related strongly to the emotions they wanted to portray.
An additional measure taken to keep the project from stagnation is the "backup" role. Animators may be given this role if they are interested in participating after the assignments were given out. These artists are on stand-by if a part becomes available or a participant requires help.
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LEFT: Sheet tracking the applications per part
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BOTTOM: Final spreadsheet with updated information as of January 31st
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Other sheets not included for the sake of the individual's privacy
Production
Saathi Re has been in production since January 19. Animators were asked to provide concept work by the following Monday, after which progress updates are required every alternative week. Updates can be in the form of videos, gifs, screenshots of art or written updates, in order of preference. Participants are not required to provide progress every week, as the project is flexible towards different work preferences artists may have, but are required to maintain contact with the project lead. If certain milestones are missed or the participant does not respond when asked for a status update repeatedly, they are removed from the project. Participants are encouraged to send many works in progress between check-ins to catch any mistakes, collect feedback and to discuss transitions between different sections with each other.
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During the first week, all the video works in progress were collected and edited into the final video. This was shared with participants to check for mistakes in timing or length, check for the right rain cues and screen splits, as well as show a visual reference of the parts next to each other so people would collaborate as needed.
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This page will be updated as the project continues.
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What Went Right
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Project is at 8% completion in under a month and is in active production
- Participants are communicating clearly and working well with deadlines
What I Learnt
- I was able to expand on my resources from hosting my first project
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What Went Wrong
- Project was launched at the beginning of university semesters and return to work, causing scheduling issues with participants
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Music and other elements were not widely known and thus had a smaller target audience of animators
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Due to specific templates being used in specific sections, there was an uneven split in popularity among parts
How I Overcame It
- I provided extensions and set minimal initial goals for participants during the first two weeks
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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 reached out to as many applicants as possible to get a better understanding of their ideas and ensured that everyone was given their preferred parts