Transcript GDC Vault

Outsourcing: Studio Process
Pandemic Studios
 Who am I?
 Executive Art Director
 What do I do?
 Oversee and maintain
quality of art studio-wide
 Manage production
 Artist career management
 R & D new technology
 Relationship Management
Outsourcing!!
Pandemic History
Pandemic Studios
 Outsourcing art for 7 years.
 Star Wars: The Clone wars
 Vehicles & characters
 Full Spectrum Warrior (1 & 2)
 Buildings
 Mercenaries 2, Saboteur & Lord of the Rings
 Vehicles, buildings and characters
 Animation
 60-70%
OP studios
Outsourcing Studios
 Outsource Companies
 AMC Studio (Romania)
 37 employees
 XPEC (Taiwan, China)
 437 employees
OP studios
Outsourcing Studios
 Animation Outsourcing
 House of Moves (Los Angeles)
 8 animators
 Technicolor (Los Angeles)
 12+ animators
Process
Outsourcing: Production
Failures
Where does our process fail?
 Lack of complete asset list
 Unclear schedule commitment
 Concept art delay
 Slow concept sheet production
 Idle OP
 Slow revision requests
 Inaccurate task estimations > Increase cost to OP
 Asset complications
 More complicated = more bugs= internal or revise
 OP morale
And Crappy Art!
Production Phases
Production: Phases
Creation
Revision
Approval
Package
Creation: Package
 What’s in a package?
 Content Creation Guide (CCG)
 Setup and method
 Instruction Sheet
 Lists deliverables
 Concept Sheet
 Dimensions and details
CCG
Creation: Package
 Content Creation Guide
Instr. Sheet
Creation: Package
 Instruction Sheet
Concept
Creation: Package
 What’s in a concept?
 Focus on accuracy.
 Be as simple and clear as possible.
 Sometimes the word “reference” is
another word for “option.”
You want their art to reflect your
decisions --not theirs
Creation: Package
 Sample Concept Art (good)
Sauron
Revisions
Production: Revision
Review methods
Revision: Process
 Art Review Methods
 Lead Asset Review
 Depends on strong QA effort from OP
 Prioritized asset Team review
 Lead chooses top 5 assets to review
 Rest of team reviews rest of assets
Creation Phases
Revision: Process
 Creation Phases
 Asset Approval Phases
 Model
 Texture
 Final
 Animation Approval Phases
 Poses (blocking)
 Rough
 Final
Asset revisions
Revision: Rules
 Asset Revisions
 Work at least 1 revision per phase into contract
 Strive for single-day turnaround on revisions
 Revisions should NOT be never-ending
 Assume single revision phase (except for animation)
 Unless they do revisions incorrectly!
 Once approved- don’t disapprove it!
Animation revisions
Revision: Rules
 Animation Revisions
 3 revisions needed
 Larger variables for completion than assets
 Do animation in sets
 Allows for greater consistency
Good enough
Revision: Process
 Production Team Trip to OP
 Review management processes.
 Asset creation problems.
 “Good enough” policy
Vested Interest
Revision proc
Production: Communication
Feedback
Communication: Feedback
 Feedback
 Provide clear and consistent feedback
 All revision requests should sound like they came
from one person.
 All language should be clear and uncomplicated.
 Use consistent subject definitions for each request
Timezones
Communication: Time zones
 Pros/Cons
 Local Timezone
 Decrease cost savings
 Increase short-term iteration
 Shorten delivery cycles
 Non-local
 Increase cost savings
 Decrease short-term iteration
 24hr scheduling
Communication
Communication: Tracking
 Asset Tracking Methods
 Asset Tracker!
 Web Accessible
 Email status notifications
 Tracks artist revision requests
 Includes photos and/or animations
 Charts and tracking metrics
Screenshots
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting!
Email communication issues
 AP: (panicked and angry) “I just got an email from
Proklovich! What’s the !@#$?! He seems horribly mad and
sounds like he’s going to stop production for us unless his
ruthless demands are met!”
 ME: “Calm down, wait until your conference call and then
check with him again. It’s probably just an email issue.
Here, wipe your mouth with this tissue…”
Troubleshooting!
Concept Clarity
 Lead Artist: “I’ve asked them dozens of times to make
their asset this way. Their incompetent! My monkey could
do better!
 ME: “You have a monkey?”
 ME: “Let’s review your concept work to make sure you are
clearly communicating what you need. Also, have you sent
them sample assets for that type which clearly show how
you want it made?”
Troubleshooting!
Good Enough
 Lead Animator: (after looking at first revision) “This totally
sucks! Clearly they can’t animate. I’ll have to accept this
one and fix it myself.”
 ME: “If you do that then you’ll always get that quality. You
have to revise them to quality because that’s the only way
to learn.”
Sum up
To Sum it all up
 They are not an outsource partner
 They are your team.
 You know them
 You trained them
 They want your game to succeed
 Uh…they also want free copies of the game
when it ships. 
Thank you
Thank you for your time!