Designing a template for an art wall!
polycounter lvl 18
Hi guys! Different kind of pimping here. Would love some feedback on this as well.
(I've also posted this to my blog: http://www.jonjones.com/2013/08/27/worklog-how-to-create-an-art-wall/)
Art management time! Has anyone created a wall grid full of printed art assets for basic tracking and visualization? How did you do it and what did you track? I decided to design a system for that today.
I do all my project tracking in Shotgun (www.shotgunsoftware.com) but I like the idea of a wall to visualize relationships between sets, with really limited tracking indications that map to asset-specific tasks.
Lets choose a standard 8.5 x 11 piece of paper to print on. Thats 2550 x 3300 pixels at 300dpi. Lets see how many figures (characters in this case) we can fit onto a sheet. The practical considerations here are:
1) Scale. How many can I fit onto one sheet and still be meaningful? If its too few itll take up too much wall space. If its too many itll make looking at it difficult. We can also use either portrait or landscape mode, depending on the proportions of the image. Additionally, if there are too many and youre printing updates, if you update more than one asset in a sheet youll be printing up new pages all the time.
portrait:
5×4 grid: 510×825
3×3 grid: 850×1100
2×3 grid: 1275×1100
2×2 grid: 1275×1650
2) Buffer room at the edges in case youre using a paper cutter. Do EVERYTHING you can to size it correctly so you dont have to use a paper cutter to correct it. Trust me, Ive been down that road.
3) Buffer room at either the top center (for magnets) or in the corners (for push-pins) so youre not covering up information.
4) Clearly labeled asset name with stroke around text, for easier visibility in all conditions. I like white text in Impact with a black border, or inverted colors if necessary.
5) Limited colors so we dont waste printer ink.
6) Character is on a neutral RGB 128 grey background, but outside of those bounds its white. This saves ink, and prevents the painful contrast of looking at a character with a bright white background. Thatll distort your perception of color and values. (note: Im using a placeholder since I cant show any of my games assets.)
7) Stroked inside edges of the image. Thisll aid in snapping them correctly (although you should be using Guides) and cutting them out, if you absolutely have to.
8) When you print, make sure to Scale to Fit Media otherwise itll clip the edges by default.
9) Clear indications of asset status at the bottom that you can mark with a ballpoint pen or Sharpie. I have R C B S T I, which stands for Ref Concept Blockout Sculpt Texture Ingame.
After several experiments, this is what I ended up with: http://i.imgur.com/WofAUSQ.jpg
This is what 4 of them on an 8.5×11 sheet looks like: http://i.imgur.com/FXRbQqn.jpg
And this is what all my experiments look like on the wall: http://i.imgur.com/BnwKEmo.jpg
Bottom right is the winner.
Obviously this is just the start of a LOT of effort, but I feel like I have the design down and have avoided a LOT of pitfalls Ive subjected myself to in the past.
Hope that was helpful, or at least interesting! I'd really like to hear how your studios do it and if you have any suggestions on a simpler format, or if there's anything I haven't covered.
Cheers!
(I've also posted this to my blog: http://www.jonjones.com/2013/08/27/worklog-how-to-create-an-art-wall/)
Art management time! Has anyone created a wall grid full of printed art assets for basic tracking and visualization? How did you do it and what did you track? I decided to design a system for that today.
I do all my project tracking in Shotgun (www.shotgunsoftware.com) but I like the idea of a wall to visualize relationships between sets, with really limited tracking indications that map to asset-specific tasks.
Lets choose a standard 8.5 x 11 piece of paper to print on. Thats 2550 x 3300 pixels at 300dpi. Lets see how many figures (characters in this case) we can fit onto a sheet. The practical considerations here are:
1) Scale. How many can I fit onto one sheet and still be meaningful? If its too few itll take up too much wall space. If its too many itll make looking at it difficult. We can also use either portrait or landscape mode, depending on the proportions of the image. Additionally, if there are too many and youre printing updates, if you update more than one asset in a sheet youll be printing up new pages all the time.
portrait:
5×4 grid: 510×825
3×3 grid: 850×1100
2×3 grid: 1275×1100
2×2 grid: 1275×1650
2) Buffer room at the edges in case youre using a paper cutter. Do EVERYTHING you can to size it correctly so you dont have to use a paper cutter to correct it. Trust me, Ive been down that road.
3) Buffer room at either the top center (for magnets) or in the corners (for push-pins) so youre not covering up information.
4) Clearly labeled asset name with stroke around text, for easier visibility in all conditions. I like white text in Impact with a black border, or inverted colors if necessary.
5) Limited colors so we dont waste printer ink.
6) Character is on a neutral RGB 128 grey background, but outside of those bounds its white. This saves ink, and prevents the painful contrast of looking at a character with a bright white background. Thatll distort your perception of color and values. (note: Im using a placeholder since I cant show any of my games assets.)
7) Stroked inside edges of the image. Thisll aid in snapping them correctly (although you should be using Guides) and cutting them out, if you absolutely have to.
8) When you print, make sure to Scale to Fit Media otherwise itll clip the edges by default.
9) Clear indications of asset status at the bottom that you can mark with a ballpoint pen or Sharpie. I have R C B S T I, which stands for Ref Concept Blockout Sculpt Texture Ingame.
After several experiments, this is what I ended up with: http://i.imgur.com/WofAUSQ.jpg
This is what 4 of them on an 8.5×11 sheet looks like: http://i.imgur.com/FXRbQqn.jpg
And this is what all my experiments look like on the wall: http://i.imgur.com/BnwKEmo.jpg
Bottom right is the winner.
Obviously this is just the start of a LOT of effort, but I feel like I have the design down and have avoided a LOT of pitfalls Ive subjected myself to in the past.Hope that was helpful, or at least interesting! I'd really like to hear how your studios do it and if you have any suggestions on a simpler format, or if there's anything I haven't covered.
Cheers!