Artella

1. A project lives or dies by the engagement of the creator

The success or failure of a project is determined by the level of engagement of the creator/director. This is perhaps the most important tip of all.

If you are going to start a project know that it’s going to take a lot of effort and attention. You are the captain of the ship. If you go missing, don’t answer messages, miss meetings, or don’t give feedback in a timely manner (24 hours max) the team will wane fast.

You are only human, so be sure to be clear to your team when you will be out. Appoint a stand in team member to take the lead if you must be out to cover and keep the production moving during any out times you may have.

If you do want to create an animated project make sure you have the time to dedicate to it. For instance, if you’re about to have a baby, it’s most likely not the right time to start a project.

2. Private or Public?

The only project pages viewable to the public on Artella are the Overview and Crew page. All other pages (your files, feed, etc.) are private and only viewable by your project crew.

3. Clicking the “New Project” button

Okay, so you’ve determined that you have the time to dedicate to make your project come to life. Now it’s time to fill out your project overview page. Here we go!

Cover Image: An exciting cover image will attract potential crew members to your project. If you don’t have concept art we recommend reaching out to someone whose work you like and inquire to see if they would be willing to create a cover image for your project. Doing this will go a long way to making your project exciting from day one. We recommend having this cover image before you click the publish button on your project.

Description: If you have them, be sure to use sketches and additional concept art in your description as this will only help attract people to your project. Be sure to let people know what type of funding you will be using on your project (even if it is a volunteer based project, it is important to let people know this clearly on your project overview page). Here are few examples of well built out project overview pages; Solstice, The Beacon, DUEL.

Pitch Video: we’ll go into this in detail below.

Your project overview is not viewable by others until you click “publish”. You can preview your project before you publish it and you can work on your overview as much and as long as you’d like until you are ready to make it visible to others; i.e. clicking the “Publish” button.

This video walkthroughs how to setup your project overview page. 

4. Adding a pitch video

There’s no doubt projects that have taken the time to create a pitch video are amongst our most popular and most active projects on Artella. We highly encourage you to make one as it will help others learn more about your passion and excitement for the project.

The team at Kickstarter created a great “dos and don’ts” walkthrough for simple pitch videos. We highly recommend following these guidelines for your Artella pitch video.

Here are a few examples of projects with pitch videos on Artella:

The Wrong Rock

Pure

Thistle One

5. Important tips for posting Open Positions

Post Open Positions in stages: A common mistake is to list EVERY position you think you’ll need right when you publish your project. The problem with this is that you’ll get people you need much later in your production and, by the time you need them, they will have moved on or have lost interest.

The ideal is to list the TOP 4 - 5 positions you need right now on your production. This will allow you to dig in with a smaller team and tackle what you’re working on, and right in the stage you are in. As you near the end of that stage, post the next 4 - 5 positions you need and begin searching the online portfolios within the community for potential candidates and reach out to those that interest you.

These are the general stages we recommend recruiting in:

Pre-production 1 - Production coordinator, editor, CG supervisor (your technical counterpart who will be your right hand throughout the production process), Artella specialist (trained members on our file management system - pipeline), concept and/or visual development artist/s , character designer, storyboard artist and/or previsualization artist.

Pre-Production 2 - Social media manager (start thinking about your audience early on and, at this stage, you’ll have some things to start sharing), Modeler/s (hard surface, environment and character modeler), rigger and one animator a bit later into this stage to start testing the rig before animation officially begins.

Production 1 - Color key artist, surfacing/texturing artist/s, layout, animator/s.

Production 2 - FX, simulation, lighting artist/s, compositing artists, sound designer (once cut is locked) and composer.

Post Production - Color correction, sound mixer (could be your sound designer).

Understanding the production process is a topic we will go much deeper into in future blog posts. For now you can get a general sense of the stages an animated film goes through to get an idea of how the above stages relate.

6. Funding Type: Paid, Crowdfunded or Volunteer based

If your project is being created to make money (e.g. a product, a pitch for a TV series, a game published for profit, etc.) then you should find a way to pay your crew members. Be it through crowdfunding, savings, equity sharing of potential profits, Patreon, or some other method. We’ll go deeper into this topic in a future blog post.

If your project is simply being made as a passion-based project then it is common to ask others to work on it on a volunteer basis. Professional artists will most likely want some form of payment, so, if you’re doing a volunteer based project, remember not to be too picky as the next great artist might be someone who just needs a little more time on a project like yours.

We’ve talked before about Crowdfunding and there is an excellent course on Udemy we recommend if you’re considering going this route. Just know that the fate of your crowdfunding campaign is generally determined before you hit the publish button. So be sure to read the article and check out the overview video on the Udemy class at a minimum.

Crowdfunding button. On Artella you can enter the URL of your crowdfunding campaign and a button will automatically be added to your overview page. Then, when people visit your overview page for open positions, they will see that you are making the effort and they may want to help support your project, too.

7. Social Media

It’s never too early to start thinking about your audience. Pick the social channels you want to build your audience on (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) and start building your following. In #5 above we recommended having a social media manager on your project, who can run this part of the project so that you can stay focused on the project itself.

8. Legal stuff: NDAs, Contracts and other good stuff

NDA’s: or non disclosure agreements, are common on projects. A non disclosure agreement is a good way to give you peace of mind on several things:

It keeps your idea protected and private to just the people on your crew.

It asks that your crew members do not share anything outside of the project itself.

It gives your team the sense that your project is legit and that you are all taking it seriously.

NDA’s can be tricky to enforce as your team will most likely be spread out across the globe and laws vary between state-to-state and country-to-country.

Here is an example of our company NDA. It is not meant to be copied or reused, rather it is meant to give you an idea of the type of information you might consider having in your NDA.

Contracts: If you are paying people or sharing crowdfunding dollars you will want to have a contract in place for payment. Your crew members will want to know how they are paid, when they will be paid and how much they are going to be paid.

LegalZoom is a great site that covers a wide variety of topics from NDA’s, employment contracts through to incorporating if you choose to go that route.

A note on legal docs: We work hard to make our legal documents human readable and short. This is helpful for most people as they will better understand what they are signing and removes confusion.  

9. How much attention to give your crew

Weekly meetings: We highly recommend meeting with your crew once a week and providing them with focused tasks for the upcoming week. You can also address any issues, challenges or concerns your team has at that time.

Answer your messages: You may get a lot of inquiry and applications to your project. It is common courtesy to reply back to applicants within a 24 - 48 hour window. Even if it’s not going to be a fit for your project it’s best to let them know so that they don’t sit around waiting to hear back… yes, they are waiting.

Checking your Project Feed: To keep your project active, we recommend checking your project feed several times a day. If a day goes by without something being posted then we recommend finding something that you have moved forward and post it up as this will keep the team engaged and alert.

An active project is a healthy project.

10. BONUS Material - Production Management Docs

Here are some docs we’ve cultivated with several other project that will help you project manage your production. Make a copy of the docs (File > Make a Copy...) and use them as you wish. Let us know if you make improvements.

1. Asset Development Template - Courtesy of Thistle One

2. Shot Production Template - Courtesy of DUEL

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Starting with an idea is a good step, but bring it from an idea into a reality is another story? From our experience, we have discovered three key area that have really helped us take our idea and bring it to life.

1. The right partner

The first key is to partner with someone who complements you. In my case, as an artist, I teamed up with an executive producer which allowed me to focus on the artistic direction of our project, Solstice while he took care of everything necessary to carry it out.

In our case it has worked perfectly and we have managed to motivate more than 80 collaborators, a conductor of symphonic orchestra with more than 60 musicians, a singer who plays the main theme, people who have worked for greats like Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, etc. And all of this, all this talent that surrounds us, united with the same goal and accompanied by a the Artella community that supports the project.  In our case, having a strong partnership has made this all possible.

2. The right moment

I believe in coincidence. But nearly all successes are brought to life with a clear, well executed strategy and a little bit of luck. That is why we have always seen the value of opportunism; knowing when the right moment is and acting upon it.

Throwing yourself into a new adventure is not always easy. However, it can help you discover new challenges, teach you how things work and ultimately to make fewer mistakes the next time. It may not end as you had hoped and this may be a fear that prevents you from starting and thus putting your project back in the drawer, or this fear can motivate you to push yourself to higher expectations and go for it.

We have waited a long time to get to this point, we know more about the industry and now, with more people on the team and a clearer idea of ​​our goal, we have raised the anchor.

In spite of all the challenges and doubts we have set sail on this incredible adventure of making a film and the right moment to make this happen is now!

3. Spreading the word

If you have a great project but nobody knows about it, you have nothing.

Communication is imperative and to do this you need to dedicate the same amount effort you put into your project as you do to make it known by others - and this will excite people to want to work on it, too.

You won't have the opportunity to collaborate with other artists or producers alone, you have to entice them with your most sacred weapon: your project.

Be active in social networks, prepare a dossier each week with updated images, summarize the idea with catchy phrases that you refine each week, and engage the team in the most important decisions along the way.

It is important to publicize the creative process, to build expectation and interest so that people want to see what you´re doing and know more of your work.

We hope these tips help you out and we hope you enjoy seeing some of the progress behind our project Solstice. Thanks!

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We launched

On May 11th this amazing dream we’ve been working on for nearly 4 years, testing, learning, banging on and relentlessly focused on has become a reality for the world to use and to be part of and we could not be more happy with the results.

If you’d like to get a better idea of how Artella works watch this short video below.

  Completely free in 2016

In 2016 Artella was completely free for everyone. While we stay in beta we will continue to be completely free for independent projects!

With that being said, Artella will ALWAYS be free to join, and, while we continue to refine the platform and your key requests, Artella will remain free in 2017 for independent projects until otherwise noted. 

10,000 active community members

We are thrilled by your response, passion and support. This gives us confidence that you are ready for a creative community where remote productions can happen and where you can bring your skills to find work and/or volunteer on projects that interest and inspire you. 

We’re confident Artella will continue to grow and become a place where people like yourself can make a livelihood or simply continue to grow your talents and skillsets. 

200+ Projects

This far exceeds our expectations and we’re thrilled to see so many new films, commercials, webisodes, video games and virtual reality content being made through Artella. Check out the Projects here and see if anything interests you to join and be a part of. 

The first Artella film project compete: DUEL

DUEL, the first completed film started and finished on Artella was released as the show opener at CTN 2016. You can read more about the film here, or can watch the making of webinar replay here. Or, you can watch the film below. 

The first Artella VR project released: Seekers of Damocles

Seekers of Damocles was released on Steam earlier this year. You can read more about the project here and can watch a clip of the game below. 

Several studios were started in 2016

New studios are being formed on Artella every day. This is a big part of our dream and we’re honored and humbled to see this level of adoption. 

If you’d like to know more about starting your own virtual studio you can read our blog post on it here. 

We added integrated video review

A little later than we had hoped, but nonetheless, we’re happy to have our video review tool in full effect where any image or video uploaded to the site can be reviewed.  

Creator Roundtables

We made a decent dent in our vision to create a global brain trust by creating a space for Artella project creators to come together, share their stories and experience as well as get feedback on their projects. We call these meetings Creator Roundtables and we plan to start doing these monthly starting in January. 

First workshop was a success

Just in the nick of time before the end of the year we ran our first ever pipeline workshop. We were going to limit it to 15 members but decided to let a few others in. All in all, 22 members went through the workshop and we’re excited that many are now considered what we’re calling, “Artella Specialists” and will be able to help other Artella creators run their productions with even more confidence. 

There will be more information about how to find Artella Specialists early in January and we will also continue to run more workshops like this in the new year so stay tuned.

If you have a passion for all things animation, concept art, storytelling, etc. we think you’ll love Artella. Come check us out - www.Artella.com 

Happy holidays from the entire team!

Bobb Beck

Before joining the Artella project, DUEL as Producer Manager I was one of those few fortunate to personally know the director Tim Rudder and art director Tobi Trebeljahr. From the 46 members of the crew only a 30 percent knew each other beforehand.

The design and the animatic were in progress when I came on board. I couldn't imagine in that moment how big the challenge of bringing DUEL to the screen would be.

I have always thought that a good production manager is the one who can handle oneself no matter which kind of production they are working on. It is always a positive experience to work with a manager that is willing to learn. From getting used to a new platform like Artella to understand the different render passes, each new project is a source of experience that you will bring to the next production.

I admire those producers who have creative experience. Those who know how much effort and time the artists invest in a task because they were previously in that position. I find it easier to plan and schedule with a base of self-experience and communication with artists.

It may look like a basic competence, but a good production manager should always have good communication skills. Coordinators, assistants and managers not only will support executive producers and directors, but also will take care of the daily communication with the artists. And of course there are briefings, meetings, reports…

DUEL, as I said, was a great challenge. Managing a completely online production is not easy and less so, when the team doesn't share time zones. Tracking the work of 46 people in different departments and follow the status of each task is a hard work.

Here are five tips for working in a virtual production that we have found essential.

1. Tracking - Who, when, how… I developed spreadsheets for the different departments. That was our main tracking system and also the way of having a general overview of the project. We gave the artists the right to change the status on their tasks and we received notifications every time a change was done.

2. Chat - A mailing communication with 46 people goes extremely confusing after a month. We used Slack with different Chat rooms for each department.

3. Video Calls - At least once a week we talked face-to-face. We could have 2 or 3 per week online meetings. It will help not only with going fast through the weekly tasks and issues but will also increase the feeling of team.

4. Artella´s feed - We insist using it as much as possible, seeing how the work progress is an inspiration for all the artists. And the review tools are a plus.  They help to have a more accurate view of the style and the look of the short.

5. Have a deadline - A collaborative project without a fixed deadline can be chaotic, the time of work will get extended and it will be difficult to keep the interest of the artists. Is important that the production team and the director work together in being a positive influence for the rest of team.  

Working from home without a physical studio and being a collaborative project increases the level of complexity. On DUEL, most of the artists who joined the team worked with us on weekends or after work hours. I really have to thank the commitment and the effort of all the crew.

For those who want to get started in this line of work, from my experience, it is important to be trustworthy and analytic, to have empathy and be proactive. Be the person that the team wants to work with and in which the director or main producer can trust and delegate tasks.

When I started thinking of working in production, a good friend and mentor told me about the visibility of our work, how different it was from the rest of the crew on a project. In a creative position your skills and your artwork will be seen on screen. But for a producer, there is only the satisfaction of a good work, where everything goes on time and the work goes smooth and with the least problems possible.

It is very gratifying to see the production you are involved in finished and released with success. But there is something special when you hear from a member of your team that they are willing to work with you again.

Ana Obau graduated in Fine Arts in 2006. She is working as a Spanish 2D Animator and Production Manager with experience in advertising and TV Series. 

Goal of the workshop: 

To provide Artella pipeline specialists within the community so that each project can have the option to have one on their team. 

Who is leading the workshop?

Bobby Beck, Co-founder of Artella will be leading the workshop. 

Tell me more about the workshop. 

Our Specialist certification workshop will entail one week of guided training, three video conference sessions and direct messaging contact during the seven day period and beyond. The workshop will focus largely on the use of the Artella app in the Files (pipeline) area.  

What is required? 

If you know 3D software applications like Maya, Max or Blender you will be a good fit for this workshop. We do require that you have a copy of Maya 2015 or 2016. The free student version is fine for this workshop. 

We also ask that you have a completed Artella profile (cover, profile image, skills and reel or portfolio items) be available for the duration of the workshop and attended at least two of the three live sessions.

When is it? 

The workshop will kick off Monday, December 12th and will end on Monday, December 19th. The live sessions will be held on:

Monday, December 12th at Noon Pacific Time

Thursday, December 15th at Noon Pacific Time

Monday, December 19th at Noon Pacific Time

How do I sign up? 

Enrollment is open immediately. You can sign up on the workshop overview page here. 

How much is it and what do I get? 

The workshop is completely free. Upon approved completion you will receive an “Artella Specialist” badge and be listed on our upcoming “Featured Talent” page. 

Artella: Tell us a little bit about the characters of DUEL both from a rigging and animation standpoint.

Sophia: Together with Juan Diego Lugo we had to rig 4 characters for the short. Three humans and one creature. I took the responsibility for the human characters and Juan concentrated mainly on the Beast, on which he did a great job. I think the animators had fun animating it!

I developed a Modular Rigging System for the studio I am working at (DAYWALKER Studios) and was allowed to use it to set up the characters for DUEL (see video below). The system has all necessary modules to create a biped character including the face. Therefore I only needed to implement a couple of additional modules (mainly for the clothing) to cover the other parts of the characters.

With those modules finished and after completing the skinning it was possible to rebuild the rigs from scratch if needed. Which comes in handy if changes are made on the model during production, which happens all the time, and did happen on DUEL too.

Zee: From an animation standpoint, I was really excited to animate these characters. The rigs we got from Sophia and Juan were great, and they were both fast to respond and find solutions to any issues that came up.

I animated seven shots of the Beast and Hero Boy. The Beast was definitely more of a challenge with his giant head, exaggerated proportions, and long tail which added a great flow to his motion! The fast rig allowed me to block in his motion quickly which was great. Getting the arcs working on his big feet and long tail took a bit more time. For the Hero Boy, it was really fun to work in stepped keys for blocking and to do keyframe polish for his hair and cape. My regular work is often realistic and integrated with mocap and dynamics, which doesn’t allow for a stepped method of blocking. I really enjoyed this project for allowing me to return to that.

Artella: What were some of the best parts of working with a distributed team and seeing these characters come to life for the first time?

Sophia: For me personally it was having the possibility to work with a bunch of talented animators from all over the world and getting really constructive feedback. And, of course it was amazing to see the characters in action, to watch what the animators were able to achieve with them.

Following the Artella feed on the project was daily fun too, seeing the project grow and how much effort everybody puts in it was just great. And not only the project grew, but the size of the team as well. I think we are nearly 50 people now working on the project.

Zee:  I have been pretty blown away with the quality of work on this project, from the very first piece of concept art to now seeing final renders coming through. It’s pretty amazing to be able to work internationally on a project, and of course we needed Artella to do that. Being able to see everyone’s work on the Feed is great - it can be easy to feel isolated when you’re not actually in a room with the people you’re working with, but seeing constant updates of people’s work and being able to comment and have quick feedback on your own work gives you that team feeling. 

Zee’s Blocking Pass followed by Final Animation

Getting to animate on a small team and cheering each other on, and making connections all around the world has been really rewarding. Having someone like Zach Parrish (DUEL’s anim supervisor) commenting on my work was an honor, and living in New Zealand, the only way for that to happen was through a production like this.

Artella: What were some of the challenges you had working with a distributed team and how did you overcome them?

Sophia: I initially thought that the different time zones could be problematic. But it actually worked pretty smoothly. The only thing you need to make sure is to test your stuff properly before submitting it. Because it might cost somebody else on your team (in a different timezone) a whole workday if you submit something broken shortly before you go to bed.

I think communication and keeping everybody in the loop is the hardest part with a distributed team. We started off with email, but it got impossible to keep track even after a short period of time, so we switched to Slack which turned out to work pretty nicely.

Zee: I also wondered about the time zones and was pleasantly surprised how little of an issue they were. Slack and Artella were a great help in that regard for keeping up communication. I was also consistently impressed by how present Tim Rudder, our director, has been. He has kept the whole ship on course. And in terms of time zones, if I did need to wait a day for something, there was always enough to do to continue making progress.

Artella Tech Support was there for us as well when issues would come up.

Rig test by DUEL animator Zach Baharov

Artella: You guys had a lot to do in such a short amount of time? What tips can you provide others who are looking to keep their projects on a focused schedule?

Sophia: I think the most important thing is to get yourself organized. Do not overestimate the workload you can handle. If you are working full-time, there is only limited time to work on a side project like DUEL, because unfortunately you have to eat and sleep.

Try to estimate the time you need to finish your tasks as realistic as possible and then add a buffer to it. Also, if you are not able to meet a deadline, communicate it as soon as possible! So that your team members have the chance to either help you out or adapt their schedule to the delay.

Zee: There’s a lot of places for creativity in animation, but the schedule isn’t one of them! My general rule for making a successful schedule is to think about each task, determine how much time I genuinely think it will take to complete, and then double that time. It’s especially important when you are doing a project outside of work - a side project is competing with EVERYTHING in your life and there are a lot of pressures on your time! If you have factored in a bit of cushioning, you will be able to stick to your schedule and help keep the project on target.

Artella: Where do you think the future is headed for the virtual studio and distributed productions? Where do you think it could go?

Sophia: I think the virtual studio will gain more and more importance. There is so much potential. Suddenly you are able to gather talented people from around the world - even on short notice - as they do not have to move to work on the projects.

In my opinion Artella is a helping a lot on minimizing the negative sides of a distributed production. All the data and information the artists need are bundled and well structured in one spot, it is getting even more interesting.

Zee: Duel has been a clear indication for me that distributed productions are gaining a strong foothold in the industry. I see it as the future for smaller productions. It would be interesting to see a larger scale use of distributed production, and to see how issues such as large amounts of data, time zone discrepancies, and security would be handled.

Artella: Now that DUEL is nearly complete what’s next for you? Would you consider working on another distributed production?

Sophia: It was a great experience working on DUEL, with such a bunch of incredible people! I would definitely work on a distributed production again. But first I will get back to my normal working hours and enjoy the tremendous amount of time which is freeing up now. I am currently working on the character rigs for a TV series called Worry Eaters, which are technically challenging, and really fun to work with.

Zee: I’ll be coming from New Zealand to the CTN Expo in LA on November 18th, which will kick off a three week vacation for me! After that I will be going to Australia to direct an animation for TED-Ed, the education division of TED Talks. And I can almost guarantee that I will work on another distributed production!

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Related Links:

DUEL - Project on Artella

DUEL - concept Artist spotlight

Sophia Zauner  

Jun Zee Myers

Be sure to check out CTN Animation Expo in Burbank this November 18th - 20th. DUEL will be Premiering as the show opener Friday, November 18th at 11:30 AM in the main theatre and a, “Making of DUEL” panel with the director and crew members on Sunday at 10 AM at Talent-opolis Center Stage. We hope to see you there! 

Visit us at BOOTH #B35

FRIDAY 18th

All Day - Demos, Swag and More Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

11:30 AM - Noon - Artella CTN Kick-Off with “DUEL” & the Creators  Tim Rudder (Director), Tobi Trebeljahr (Art Director)

Location: Theater 01

1:30 - 2:30 PM - Meet Creators: Eric Swymer & Chris Figat, “Pure” Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

3:00 - 4:00 PM - Meet a Creator: Everett Downing, “Book of Mojo” Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

SATURDAY 19th

All Day - Demos, Swag and More Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

11:00 AM - Noon - Meet a Creator: Cinzia Angelini, “Mila” Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

1:00 - 2:00 PM - The Virtual Studio - The Future of How We Work With Directors: Jorge Gutierrez (”Book of Life”), Everett Downing (”Book of Mojo”), Carlos Baena (”La Noria”), Eric Swymer & Chris Figat (”Pure”). Location:  Workshop 02

3:00 - 4:00 PM - Meet a Creator: Michael Cawood Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

8:00 - 10:00 PM - CTN and Artella Co-Hosted Afterparty! Location:  CTN Café

SUNDAY 20th

All Day - Demos, Swag and More Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

10:00 - 11:00 AM - Collaborative Filmmaking From Your Home - The Making of “DUEL”   Location: Talent-opolis Center Stage

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM - Meet a Creator: Tim Rudder, “DUEL” Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

2:00 - 3:00 PM - Meet a Creator: Carlos Baena, “La Noria” Location: Artella | BOOTH #B35

Our original idea for Pure barely qualified as a short film and wasn’t going to be much more than a cool homage to the first sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. One pretty simple environment, some fun animation, and nothing more than a minute-or-two in length was as big as we were thinking. We figured that we’d have to find someone to model and rig a character and might need to recruit a friend or two for some lighting and rendering support, but that was about as complex as we thought it would be.

We started working with a concept artist early on to help us visualize our main character and soon after found another artist that we really connected with who really helped us start developing ideas for the world of Pure. As we worked together we started to realize how much more there was to this world and how many fantastic stories there were to tell. We spent more time developing the story and characters and it began to snowball from there. Our little action sequence began to look like a 7-8 minute short film.

As our project grew we quickly realized how much we had to learn, we were no longer two guys making a short film but directors managing a team. We found that we had some big flaws in our communication and project management early on so we forced ourselves to get organized (you creatives out there can relate) and started using tools like Wunderlist and Slack to keep track of tasks and stay in constant communication with our artists.

As Pure continued to grow we brought on a producer and were able to acquire a bit of funding to help speed production along, and we eventually decided to actually create a studio to be able to manage everything on a more professional level. After some planning and paperwork Keed was born. We debated on whether or not we needed to start a studio, and in the end decided that it was probably the best choice for managing finances and with a mind towards planning for future projects. We do have a small budget and have compensated our artists the best we can, and while we might spend a few dollars for an accountant when it comes time to file taxes we decided we’d much rather deal with that than have one of us attempting to manage that on our personal taxes. If we want to do a Kickstarter or similar campaign for future projects we can manage all that through Keed instead of as individuals, and it also gives us a feeling of legitimacy when we’re talking with people about Pure. We aren’t two guys making a short film, we’re a small animation studio managing a production.

While the idea of starting a studio sounds rather daunting it was actually a pretty simple process. After doing a bit of research and deciding on which type of business formation was most appropriate for us, we filed our company with the state, then opened a bank account in the company’s name after receiving the necessary paperwork. If your project has more than one creator be sure to evaluate what fees are like in different states or countries, in our case we were able to save several hundred dollars by filing in one state instead of another. You can also probably file online, something that saved us a lot of time after an incorrect filing by mail took up several weeks of time and caused a few headaches.

We’ve joked that it’s all Artella’s fault, as they asked us to join in their early beta and things starting going fast from there. For us as creators, and as now a studio, however, Artella is more than a place to store our files and was critical to the idea that we could potentially run our own small studio.

After the official launch of Artella the community grew immensely and we were amazed at the quality of artists that are represented. It gave us access to talent outside our circle of connections, and we’ve since brought on people that we’ve met through Artella who are critical to Pure and potentially to our future studio success. We’ve also been completely inspired by the work we’re seeing from other creators and have gotten to know some amazing people doing fantastic projects. Artella offers us some huge pipeline advantages when working in a virtual studio with team members all over the globe, but it’s the personal connections we’ve made that really make it valuable.

Our days are currently filled with reviewing work and the evenings are packed with crew meetings, and we know it will only get busier from here. Pure is beginning to take shape and we’re looking forward to sharing more of this world with everyone. 

We’re nearing a finished animatic and are deep in modeling and texturing characters, props, and environments. Our sets are starting to take shape, camera tests are in progress, and we’re developing our first rigs. We can’t wait to start animation tests.

We don’t quite know what Pure and Keed will bring in the long run, but we’re excited about the potential. Our goal is to finish Pure at as high a quality level as possible, and in doing so establish a network of artists through Artella that we can work with on future productions. We have many more stories that we want to tell in this world as well as some other ideas for characters and stories we want to develop, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Non crew members can stay in touch with the progress of Pure via our social channels: 

www   |   Twitter   

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1. Step 1: Setup a new Artella account (it’s free) with your company's name; i.e. Boutique 23, Keed, ArtSource Studio etc.

2. Step 2: Post work in your company’s profile to show members what you or your studio have created previously.

3. Step 3: Create “New Projects” (big green button in the upper right) logged in with your company profile as they will then show up on your company's projects area.

4. Step 4: Invite people to your projects, and/or watch them apply to yours. 

You can also have a personal profile on Artella, but if you want to run your studio through Artella the above steps will make this much easier as you can drive traffic to one place, your studio profile, and people can apply to the projects that interest them right from there. 

Of course there are other important topics to cover when considering to start your animation studio; i.e. NDA’s for your team, incorporating your business, etc. We’ll cover these topics in future blog posts so long as you’d like to know more about them. 

Important tips for a successful project:

1. When posting positions for your project do it in stages. A common mistake is to list EVERY position you think you need. The problem with this is that you’ll get people you need way later in your production much too early and, by the time you need them, they will have moved on or lost interest. The ideal is to list the TOP 3 - 4 positions you need right now on your production. This will allow you to dig in with this smaller team and tackle what you’re working on right in the stage you are at. As you near the end of that stage post up the next 3 - 4 positions you need and begin searching the community and reaching out to potential candidates. 

2. The success or failure of a project is determined by the level of engagement of the creator/director. If you are going to start a project know that it’s going to take a lot of effort and attention. You are the captain of the ship. If you go missing, don’t answer messages, miss meetings, or give don’t feedback in a timely manner (24 hours max) the team will wane fast. You’re only human, so be sure to be clear to your team when you’ll be out. Appoint a stand in team member to take the lead if you must be out to cover and keep the production moving during any out times you may have.

3. Weekly team meetings. We highly recommend meeting with your team once a week and providing them with focused tasks for the upcoming week. You can also address any issues, challenges or concerns your team has at that time. 

4. Answer your messages. You may get a lot of inquiry and applications to your project. It is common courtesy to reply back to applicants within a 24 - 48 hour window. Even if it’s not going to be a fit for your project it’s best to let people know so that they don’t sit around waiting to hear back... yes, they are waiting. 

5. Here is a link to a production docs that have been used on DUEL, Thistle One and other Artella projects. Make a copy of the doc and use it as you wish. Let us know if you make improvements.

Asset Development Template

Shot Production Template

We hope this helps you get your production started in the right direction.

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Artella: We’ve been blown away by the visual style of DUEL. How did you you go about defining and designing the magical world of DUEL?

Tobi: Most of world was derived from the first artwork I made for the project overview page to advertise DUEL on Artella; our main communication and pipeline platform. 

Above is the first pitch artwork I created. A lot of things premiered here including the spiky vines as a runway and the rough design for the Beast character.

In our film, the jungle is an imaginary world. The kids dream it up together and have a wild dynamic chase. So we didn’t want a romantic and moody fairy tale forest, but something that said: fast-paced-action galore!

That's how I came up with big vines as walkways for the characters, intercepted with huge boulders of ancient rock, suspended in tangles of smaller creepers. Those give the right level of strong lines and surreal awesomeness to the setting. 

Early concept featuring the suspended rocks

The neon colored look came from the same thought of, “not so much romanticism please”. The initial header image was just a bit too normal and standard-lush-forest in color and light. So i tried to push it a bit in a more stylized direction, to emphasize the otherworldliness of the place, and to distinguish it better from the grizzly real world setting we see later in the piece.

I think it translates quite beautifully into the 3D sets, and gives a good stage to the character-action, while being simple enough to not distract from it.

Artella: How did you go about designing the beast character? What was you inspiration for it? 

Tobi: The Beast came practically 1:1 from the original pitch artwork. We explored a bunch of other possibilities, but...

The giant expressive mouth, the catlike body and face that make it as formidable as it is likable made it the No. 1 pick. 

Some variations on the beast’s head

In this case the inspiration ran along things like prehistoric vegetation (giant size of everything, no real ‘foliage’) and sidescroller video games (clearly defined ‘runway’, low-poly-look). I usually started with quick layouts, trying to figure out how to maximize the “fast chase sequence” effect with strong dynamic lines in the composition. After the first few paintings, we’d mostly have some 3D previs ready, which I used as a base to colorboard and further develop the sequence (see below). 

Shots from 3D Layout (left), with colored paintovers (right)

Artella:  What were some of the challenges for you seeing your designs come to life? Did it all just work or did you have to make modifications along the way?

Tobi: I’m actually amazed how close our team came to what my initial thoughts on environment were.

If we’d have had more time, I would have loved to include a greater variety of weird plantlife, rocks, architecture, maybe even other fauna. Just to make the fantasy more juvenile in a way fitting to who dreams it up. In retrospect I think though the sets as they are work quite nicely, as their simplicity doesn’t distract from the character-animation.

Artella:  We understand the team is spread out over 12 countries and 16 time zones! What was it like working with a fully distributed team through Artella? What did you learn?

Tobi: I experienced how smooth it can be today to work with a spread-out team. The combo of Artella and Slack made this possible. Sure, sometimes you stay up late, or a meeting is at 7 in the morning to match with all the time zones people tune in from. But, it’s really not that different from working with another person or team in the next office over, except for going for a drink after the the day is done, of course.

Artella: Now that DUEL is nearly complete, what’s next for you?

Tobi: First I hope to spend some lovely days with a bunch of nice people at CTN. After that it’s back to Germany for me, where I`ll have a little gig in Berlin. In April next year I’ll start preparing for my thesis at Filmakademie, while hopefully doing some cool freelance projects on the side. 

Be sure to check out CTN Animation Expo in Burbank this November 18th - 20th. DUEL will be Premiering as the show opener Friday, November 18th at 11:30 AM in the main theatre and a, “Making of DUEL” panel with the director and crew members on Sunday at 10 AM at Talent-opolis Center Stage. We hope to see you there! 

How to use Video Review

Upload your video to either your Activity or Project Feed. 

Let it process - this can take anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes depended on the length. 

Come back to the page, or refresh it.

Click the video and start drawing over it on a per frame basis - add your text comments and post.

Tools Available

Our video review has a host of drawing tools, line and eraser thickness adjustment (hold shift and drag to the left or right to adjust size), color picker and ghosting/onion skinning to make giving feedback super easy.

Hold down Control and click the left or right arrows to jump to the different drawings.

Our review tool allows you to draw over as many frames as you want and save that whole session as your review. This makes it easy to know who is commenting on your work and prioritize the feedback as needed; i.e. director, supervisor, crew member, etc. The comments with the paint icon and their drawings will show up for you. 

You can now FLIP the video you are watching to see a mirror image of it. This helps you see what you’re looking at with a new perspective, almost for the first time.

Getting Reviews

Artella members can give you feedback when something is uploaded to your Project (private, only to crew members) or Activity Feed (public, anyone can comment). 

If you’d like to solicit feedback, say on social media, you can click to view your video in Artella, then copy the URL from the overlay and send it to others to review. Note: they will need a free Artella account to give feedback.

We hope you enjoy this latest addition to the platform!  

Today our dream remains the same and we want to contribute to the professional development of the 3D animation community with this vision: We believe that resources should be available to professionals and students alike to encourage training, professional growth and content creation.

As mentioned, one of boutique23’s mission points is to encourage productions and creations so that animators have the opportunity to grow and learn in a collaborative environment. Where better to find a collaborative environment than Artella? The Artella vision goes hand-in-hand with our dream and we think it is the best place for creators to meet and create awesome things together.

Following this premise we would love to invite creators to collaborate with us in the creation of this series, contribute with their ideas to the entire story creation process.

What prompted you to want to create episodic shorts?

TOO and TREE is an idea that appeared when we first opened boutique23. We wanted to come up with a Series of short quick and feasible to produce episodes, that was fun to watch and that could fit many audiences. If you think about it, it was almost designed so that it could be produced on the internet by many different people. We just came up with the ingredients, and we think they are good enough to come up with great, fun content.

We know there are many talented animators and potential creative directors out there. We thought it would be nice to give them an environment (Artella) and the characters (B23) where they could create within a common purpose, instead of creating just an animation exercise or an isolated piece of content.

When Artella came out we saw a great opportunity to put this into practise. The Contributors can get organized and create separate episodes that together create a bigger piece of content, so we can all be part of something bigger, and hopefully be proud and happy about it all.  

What are your plans with the shorts and where would you like to see this endeavor go?

Our immediate goal is to start creating the first 4 to 5 episodes in this way, and trying to learn from the creative environment created and learn how to become more productive with time. We hope to work with very creative and proactive artists who want to make this project also theirs.

We also contemplate the option where other professional studios work on the episodes. Right now we are in the middle of one episode where two studios, MINIMO VFX and Primal Shape, are participating with B23, and it is looking great.

As we say in Spain: “Dreaming is free”, and we like dreaming quite a lot. This dream goes in the direction of creating nice and fun episodes that people can watch on the internet and try to get as many views as possible, so that TOO and TREE becomes a recognizable brand. If we achieve a reasonable number of views it would be great to study possibilities of co-production and distribution with potential partners in the future.  

You guys are stepping into a world that excites us very much which is sharing of the actual intellectual property with artists. Tell us what prompted you to take this bold step forward and what you hope to achieve with it?

These projects have not been funded yet, so we do not have the economic power to actually produce episodes in a traditional way. Since the artists are contributing with their talent, their time and their expertise we thought it would be more than fair to share with them the ownership of the episodes where they participate. This way artists not only feel the project is theirs due to their artistic contribution, but also it is actually theirs in the proportion of their contribution. It’s like if the artist becomes a co-producer with us. This way if one or more episodes makes any profit in the future they will benefit from it as well.

How can people get involved?

It is very simple! You just need some things in order to participate:

Become an Artella member - Free. 

Read our Artella Overview page or dedicated webpage so you are clear on what is expected.

Make sure your Artella profile contains your updated reel so that we can study if your profile fits the current needs of the project.

Apply to the project and we’ll send you the agreement with the Terms and Conditions for Contributors.

Here’s a few reasons to give sound some serious thought before jumping into production:

SHAPING THE STORY

If you are a script writer or a director it wouldn’t be unusual for you to be visually-oriented and to think of a film in terms of pictures, light, and movement. This is very common, but sooner or later the sound designer will ask you questions like, "does she live by a highway?" - "what kind of energy powers the spaceship?" - "is the robot equipped with servos or hydraulics?" generating confusion and, possibly, amusement. These are fundamental questions that will give your sound team the right tools to bring out a fitting, recognizable sonic personality for each place, prop, or character, so why not be prepared when the moment to answer them comes? Surely, they can all be addressed during post-production, but thinking of how something will sound beforehand will impart personality to your film while providing all the departments with inspiration to draw upon.

Think of EVE's soothing, hi-tech sound against WALL-E's clunky machinery or the T-Rex's squealing voice against its massive, imposing figure; these are all elements that bring personality and drama to a story, allowing you to create contrasts and come up with characters and places that your audience will recognized with their eyes closed. If you are having a hard time thinking of your film in these terms, try to have a conversation with your sound designer before production starts: their sound-oriented perspective can give you other colors to paint your story with.

POINT OF VIEW (AKA SPICING THINGS UP) 

There is a scene in, "No Country For Old Men" [spoilers ahead] where the main character is locked in a hotel room, bag of money in his hand, afraid that his enemy might have found him. As he calls the hotel lobby, the phone can be heard ringing in the distance with no one picking up, suggesting that the receptionist, introduced a few moments before, is now dead. With the camera still inside of the room, a speeding up beeping sound of a tracking device is heard approaching the door together with some footsteps, telling us the man outside the door is the bad guy. After much tension, an armed fight ensues.

The scene is long, there is no dialogue and no music, so what makes it work so well? As spectators we feel as sensory deprived as the main character: just like him, we can only rely on our hearing to figure out what's going on and there is no dramatic music to tell us what to feel other than the terrifying sound of a tracking device suggesting the impending danger.

Cutting between the good guy and the phone ringing, showing closeups of the man approaching the room wielding a gun, or having music underscoring the scene would have been fine and probably a more conventional choice, but by sticking with our main character we experience the drama through a specific point of view rather than as passive spectators.

Try to take a scene or experience you are creating and think about how your audience could experience it from a sonic perspective rather than a visual one. You might come up with solutions you wouldn't have otherwise considered.

SAVING TIME AND MONEY

Hearing things off screen can be a big time and money saver. By focusing on already existing or easy to animate assets, we can create a whole world of menacing creatures, spectacular explosions and supernatural events without having to spend a single frame showing them. Clearly, having a whole movie made of face reactions when everything else is only heard is no fun, but, should time or money be a problem, an experienced sound designer will be able to suggest where in the script this compromises could be made without butchering the story, giving you the chance to plan ahead and save your resources for more essential tasks. You'll be amazed at how effective this can be when supported by a distinctive sound and some smart directorial choices.

Of course this all goes out of the window if your budget is infinite, which we all know is usually the case anyway.

I like to see the look on a director’s face after I’ve given them a sonic idea that brought new colors to the scene. It’s as if a sleepy part of their critical thinking has now been awakened and given them a new way to look at things for their future work, in perpetuity. 

Next time you watch some of your favorite movies keep your ears open: you will often find that a great piece of storytelling is such because their creators took full advantage of what you see as well as what you hear.

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Bring your skills to Artella and help shape one of over 150 creative projects. 

The power of having advisors was never more apparent. Just like when you’re making a film, a game or anything creative, having an outside set of eyes look at your work, ask you questions, challenge your assumptions always makes for something better in the end and, at the very least, pushes you to check in on what your original intent was in whatever you are creating. That second, third and fourth set of eyes is truly invaluable. 

Our team is so diverse across many different creative and business mindsets that it provided an incredible balance between all the necessary worlds and was exciting for us to know that we have such a strong and engaged team that cares very much about what Artella is bringing to the world. 

Everyone involved shared their belief in Artella’s trajectory for becoming THE place for independent creators to make content while enabling more diverse stories to be told and additional insight that will shape the future of how we move forward. 

No matter what you create we recommend having those outside, objective eyes to give you input as it can only make what you are doing better. And, with that, we invite you to share Artella with your friends so that we can continue to strengthen the community and the types of stories that are told through it. 

Create a story, create your own studio, be a part of the future of how animation is being done! 

Today, I am very excited to see that the borders and boundaries are being eliminated which lets artists from all around the world create together. In this respect, Artella offers a great platform for artists to increase collaboration for creating animated films, video games and virtual reality content. I am so glad to have the opportunity to share my personal remote experience working from Turkey to create a series of characters for Animation Mentor in an early version of what has now become, Artella.

As a rigger working in Istanbul, Turkey; I had mainly taken part in projects where the whole process is done within the same studio. I had also taken part in some freelance projects, but even for them, I was the only remote one while the rest of the team would still be in the same place. So, the Tribes would be the first project for me where the whole team would be in different physical locations and time zones. That’s why, at the beginning of the project, I was a little concerned about how the project could be handled without having problems.

At this point, I would like to start mentioning the workflow and the ‘24 hour effects cycle’ approach used in Scorsese’s movie Hugo which fascinated me when I first read about it. Having teams with different areas of expertise globally located (including East/West US, China, Europe, London and Canada), the studio took great advantage of difference in time zones to have sequence of shots completed in shorter periods. The idea was that, a shot in their New York office would be sent to the next production sequence at the end of the day, going westwards around the globe, first to LA, then to China, Europe, London and Canada respectively by which it could be ready for people in NY to work over again before the lunch time on the following day. This is a great example of an efficiency that could be possible through taking advantage of time difference and expertise across the world. Besides, it enabled the movie to be completed over a much shorter time vs the traditional approach with great quality.

I find the idea and approach in our Tribes project very similar to the above mentioned Hugo case. I was the Rigger located in Istanbul-Turkey, the animator was in New York and project director in California. As the shared pipeline was located in the cloud, we were mainly working in different time zones where our daily timeline could be depicted as below in simple terms.

(3 pm @ CA) The animator sends test animation and poses to the project director for review (6am @ NY) 

(7pm @ CA) project director reviews the file and sends revisions to Ozgur just before leaving the office (5am @ Istanbul) 

(11pm @ CA) Ozgur starts working on the revisions (9am @ Istanbul) 

(7am @ CA) Ozgur finishes revisions and checks in the updated file in the pipeline (5pm @ Istanbul) 

(10am @ CA) project director gets the updated file next morning when he comes to the office (8pm @ Istanbul)

Using this workflow, we got the most out of 24 hours in a day without anyone sacrificing their work/life balance, and finishing the work much faster than we would if we were in the same time zone. Besides the time efficiency, it also enabled to form the desired team from different parts of the world without being have to be in the same place. By this way, I could have the chance to work together with people whom I might never have a chance to be in the same team otherwise. So, for me one of the most rewarding parts of this project was collaborating with some amazing artists in the industry.

Despite all the fun, collaboration and potential efficiency it offers, these kind of projects also need to be very well organized and followed up not to have any discrepancy due to being in different locations. In this respect, the project director really did a great job, organizing everything so well that things could perform smoothly and everybody could stay on the same page. For this, he organized video conferences when needed, regular mails were exchanged, the notes from mails and meetings were listed in the common platform. By this way, that everybody could stay up-to-date and to-do’s could be easily followed up. Besides, access to common folders were granted to each member of the team, where latest works could be quickly updated and both the prior and latest versions of either the design, model, rig or the test animation could be accessed any time for reference or follow-up.

In this respect, Artella offers even more organized platform to manage these kind of projects that has evolved from what we used on Tribes. It therefore came no surprise to me that Artella was designed by the creators of Animation Mentor, whose main purpose is provide all students globally with the access to the most qualified rigs, mentors and resources regardless of their physical location.

Having rigged 10 characters for Animation Mentor's Tribes project and being part of such an amazing team, last but not the least I can say is that it was super fun, yet challenging project and improved my skills along the way. It really equipped me with the exposure and experience to make my dream come true and now I'm working at Blue Sky Studios thanks to being part of such an international project.

Finally, I'm so excited that the borders and boundaries are diminishing. It's great that artists from all around the world can create together and collaborate, without having to move to another country or even leave their houses. I'm looking forward to seeing the first animated feature that will be produced with this approach. I don't think it's just a dream through a platform such as Artella, it will be a reality very soon.

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