Orchard Pig: Group organisation & Submission

When the collaboration started there were only two of us: Vlad (animation) and me. Later on, on Monday the 20th, Thomas joined the group as he had no one to work with.




This is a register of all of our meetings and the purposes of them:

Thursday the 9th - Brief interpretation + brainstorming.

Monday the 13th - Bringing more ideas and picking which ones are going to be developed

Monday the 20th - Decide who is going to do what and introduction to the concept and ideas to Thomas (animation).

Thursday the 23th - I meet Vlad (Tom wasn't able to join us) and I suggest that the deadline should be the 5th of March for the boxes, pig and point of pour so we can focus on the animation from that point onward.

Wednesday the 8th - We meet to discuss the creation of an App that ties up everything.

Monday the 20th - Vlad and I meet to ultimate details.

Wednesday the 22nd - We meet to submit





This is how we split the work:


What - Who - When

Point of pour - Tom - 5th of March

6 Pack model - Vlad - ASAP (needed to be created before design for the UV Maps)

6 pack design - Alex - 5th of March

Character - Vlad - 5th of March (won't be used as it might create confusion)

Pint with the shape of a hoof - Vlad - 5th of march

Boards - Alex - When everything is finished

Animation - Vlad, Tom, Alex - If we have time (Changed for the App)

App - Vlad (Map section and sections pictograms), Tom (Milestones section) and Alex (App design  + games section) - Deadline: 17th of March

I was supposed to design the pint with the shape of a hoof, but my skills on Sketch Up are not as good as I originally thought. Luckily, I started to design it quite early, which allowed Vlad switching work with Vlad.

We were considering making an animation, but after settling the idea we thought it might be too ambitious. It will be made depending on how things are developed. Tom can do the illustration, as he has an amazing portfolio in this matter, and Vlad could potentially animate it. I can take care of the post-production adding audio and colour grading everything if necessary, as I have experience with that.

The vibe in the group is great and everyone seem with motivation to carry out the work. Tom is a bit absent during our chats online. He answers our questions of how the work is going, but doesn't seem to fully engage with the brief. It is probably because he is dealing with a part-time job, which is understandable. He only has been able to meet us in one occasion, but his work seems to be progressing as much as ours. Vlad has engaged with the project with passion and it is very easy to work with him. For some reason, I've ended up doing a bit of art direction, but the guys seemed to like my ideas and where I was suggesting to take this project to. Vlad is also very supportive developing further ideas that I come up with, which is always important. He always question my decisions and we have an excellent communication, which I think are two very important things and it makes me see how important is for him this brief. The only thing is that he is not fully interested in winning, which makes me feel like he is doing just enough to get the work done. But apart from that it's just a different approach to solving the same problem, nothing that should create problems in our collaboration.

After some time, Tom's absence persisted and I wanted to try to solve this problem. And after talking to the tutors I decided to e-mail him in order to help solving any problems he might have. This was the original e-mail and the answer:



In the meeting that followed, Tom had a lot of participation. It was good to see him enjoying and taking the work that seriously. Using one of the animation rooms and a board, we decided what needed to be designed for the app and we split the work.

Vlad (Map section and sections pictograms), Tom (Milestones section) and Alex (App design  + games section) - Deadline: 17th of March



By the 5th of March, not all the designs were finished as it was established to be able to focus on the app. Tom said he needed more time. It was the 17th of March when he updated us with his work, letting us know that he couldn't render his model due to some complications. I explained him that's exactly why I wanted to finish everything by the 5th, to also have the possibility to work on potential setbacks, but he said he was working on many different briefs at the moment. We will have to present the point of pour in the form of a sketch.

By the 17th my work was done, including the presentation boards. I didn't have most of the work to be shown but if the boards were written then the remaining days would only be about adding the work on them. I made some mistakes in the writing on purpose when I passed it to the other members of the group asking for possible corrections and opinions. This might seem like a bit sneaky strategy, but it has a good purpose. If they don't say anything, I will tell them about these mistakes so they will have to admit it and they will read them, add their bits or get rid of some of mine. It is a team submission and I want them to be part of it as much as I am.

On the 18th the deadline is very close. They know my intentions of finishing this as soon as possible to have it ready to go. Now is when we need more communication and they should be sending the final outcomes. I'm getting anxious, but I don't want to "be that guy" on them. So I'm just listing the things they need to send me on the chat and saying that I need them for today, because otherwise I'll get everything the last day and it's me who has to put everything together.



I kept insisting on them about reading the design boards, but they said they already read them. I advised them about the grammar mistakes, and after that, they admitted that they only skimmed the text. The last time I insisted was when one of them asked me why a design looked in a specific way, and I replied that it was explained in the text of the design boards. Eventually, they were submitted with at least one mistake (not done on purpose). The word mischievous wasn't correctly spelled. I should have run a spell check, but I would have liked them to read the boards anyway.

The week of the 13th was the week I was hoping to have everything finished and ready to submit. Vlad managed to finish his designs by the end of that week. The 21st of March, a week later and a day before the submission, I get this e-mail from Tom:



When I got this e-mail I was polishing the presentation boards and making sure everything was ready to go. If I had the time I would probably had finished his work off for the sake of the submission... if I knew what to do, because I wasn't sure what he meant with putting that together and I couldn't ask him, because he was working. In this situation I decided to leave it as it was. I could have done his work despite the unfairness, but that wouldn't have reflected well on this brief. It was his responsibility and I tried to warn him as it can be seen in this post. What I did do to try to keep this submission in a high standard was asking him for a paragraph to explain what he sent for the presentation boards and presented his sketches in the best way possible.

On the 22nd of March, I met with Vlad and Tom to fill the submission together. Before sending the boards I offered them the last chance to have a look to the presentation boards. It was succesfully submitted without any kind of problems.