How to Facilitate Smooth Communication Between CG Artists and the Planning Team

Three Key Points in CG Project Management

Introduction - Project Management in CG Production

Since January 2023, our company has been driving a Virtual Human Streaming Project — ANOME. Through this initiative, we have successfully launched five Virtual Humans over the course of a year and four months, and we continue to support our talents to carry out their streaming activities without issue.

Behind the scenes, however, we encounter communication challenges between the planning and development teams. Instances occurred where CG artists misinterpreted specifications provided by the planning team, leading to misunderstandings and rework from poor communication between planners and CG artists. Each time, we carefully examined how to solve these communication errors.

After accumulating about a year and a half of experience, we have compiled the key communication points between CG artists (technicians) and planners, as well as information to help teams carry out projects more smoothly. We are sharing this information in hopes that it will assist not only CG artists and content planners but also managers and business owners managing production teams.

This article primarily focuses on project management in CG production, breaking down the key points into three main aspects: teamwork, communication, and the CG production process.

What is CG Project Management Anyway?

💡 When people think of CG project management, they often imagine managing schedules and deadlines. However, we believe that the most important aspect is eliminating the noise that hinders the success of a project and working to prevent issues from arising in the first place.

If project managers can take on this role, rather than leaving this responsibility to CG directors or supervisors, it becomes much easier to drive the work forward. For this, in addition to knowledge of CG, it is essential to have the skills to facilitate smooth communication between different departments.

Teamwork

It is common to bring together various specialists in the CG industry to form a CG team. While CG production companies often have resident CG artists with various roles, smaller CG teams or startups typically need to proceed projects with a limited number of members.

This section explains the basics of teamwork that allows even small teams to successfully advance projects.

Minimum Team Composition Necessary

While the roles required will vary depending on the project's goals, we believe that there are three indispensable roles for projects involving making characters: Character Modeler, Rigger, and Animator. Uniquely, these roles must work together to create a single character. This is fundamentally different from roles like Background Artists or Effects Artists, who can generally work independently.

For character-related projects, it is preferable to have these three roles in place from the beginning of a project. The project’s progress management should be decided after discussing with the specialists in each of these areas.

The Importance of Kick-Off Meetings

A Kick-Off Meeting is the first meeting where the project is explained. The role of this meeting is to clearly define who is responsible for what. If the project starts without such a meeting, issues like double-direction or members shifting blame to others are more likely to occur.

Double-direction refers to a situation where there are two different decision-makers, which can lead to confusion about the direction of modeling, for instance. Shifting blame occurs when the scope of work for project members is unclear, making it easier to blame others.

To avoid such situations, it is crucial to hold a Kick-Off Meeting with all project stakeholders.

Important Points to Confirm in a Kick-Off Meeting

There are three key points that should be confirmed during the Kick-Off Meeting:

• Is there a client?

• Who is the director?

• Is there a project manager?

Confirming Client

In projects with clients, there is usually an absolute deadline that must be met. Even in projects without a client, having a deadline is preferable, but in research and development projects, deadlines are often not clearly defined. Whether or not there is a client greatly influences the nature of the project.

Confirming Director

It’s also essential to confirm who the director is. CG involves specialized and complex production processes, but the final output is in a form of a graphic, which people are more familiar with. This means that anyone can easily voice their opinion on the output without specialized knowledge. Allowing everyone to give their opinions can ultimately create confusion in the project and lead to unexpected issues. This is why it is important to clarify from the start who is directing the entire project and whose opinions carry the most weight.

Confirming the Project Manager

It is also important to confirm whether there is a project manager. This is because, in smaller organizations, many projects lack a dedicated project manager. When there is no project manager, it is necessary to determine at the start of the project who will take on that role. The project manager needs to communicate with other departments, gather what those departments want to achieve, and sometimes even reject requests when necessary.

Communication

CG involves working with 3D. To accurately interpret the intentions of other departments and translate them into 3D, communication is key. Miscommunication can occur depending on how progress is reported, the balance between testing and production, and the timing. Here, we explain the key points of communication in CG project management to make work progress smoothly.

Communicating in Words or Pictures?

When the CG side discusses with other departments, the main communication tools are words and images. Whether you communicate in words or images (2D), you need to share what both departments are thinking.

Differences Between Verbal and Visual Communication

Generally, the closer the communication is to the final output, the easier it is to ensure mutual understanding with other departments. In CG production projects, this often means that images are easier to share than words. However, images can be more open to interpretation than words, which presents its challenges. Additionally, visual communication requires knowledge of light, color, and composition to avoid incorrect direction.

This image shows a three-view drawing (2D) of a new character we created at our company. While this image appears to be of high quality and seems to effectively convey the character's design, it actually caused communication issues between the modeler and the planning team.

The problem arose because this character was drawn with a focal length of 300mm in mind, but the character rendering was supposed to be done at a focal length of 50mm. Consequently, if the modeler followed the drawing exactly, the character's face would match the image when viewed with a 300mm camera, but it wouldn't match the reference when viewed with a 50mm camera, leading to additional tasks for model adjustments.

To prevent such issues, we’ll explain in detail what to pay attention to when communicating between the planning side and the artist side.

Points to Note When Communicating Verbally

Always Clarify the Subject

When conveying information verbally, it’s crucial to clearly state the subject and use short, definitive sentences. Phrases like "The director is...," "The budget is...," and "The character’s outfit direction is..." clearly identify the subject, which helps ensure decisions are made definitively. This type of communication facilitates more organized meetings.

Avoid Ending with Vague Statements

On the other hand, poor communication examples include statements like "I want it to be cute overall" or "It’s still kind of vague, but something K-pop-ish," which are unclear about the specific image being discussed.

It is sometimes inevitable that such exchanges occur when the concept is not yet fully formed, but delays in decision-making will slow down the progress of the project.

Define Key Terms Early in the Project

For terms that are prone to ambiguity, such as "angle," "shot," and "perspective," it's beneficial to define their meanings clearly. Doing this early in the project helps facilitate smoother communication within the team.

Clearly Distinguish Between Personal Impressions and Objective Data

It's important to separate personal impressions from objective data in communication. For example, the term "cute" can be too broad and subjective, so it's helpful to distinguish between "my own idea of cute" and "cute in the context of this project."

Points to Note When Communicating Through Visuals

Enhance Understanding of 3D Concepts for Those Providing 2D Materials

When providing 2D images, such as illustrations or photos, there is often an implicit common language related to fundamental principles of CG, like light and camera. Ignoring or misunderstanding these principles can make accurate CG reproduction difficult, as CG is based on mimicking reality.

Explicitly Specify Camera Angles (Focal Length) in All Materials

It's desirable to specify camera angles (focal lengths) in specifications. Without this, it's unclear "from which distance the view is taken." For example, changes in camera focal length can alter the appearance of a face, as shown in three-view diagrams. To avoid such issues, it's crucial for those providing 2D images to understand 3D concepts, particularly cameras.

Focus on Creating a Good 3D Result Rather Than Just Reproducing 2D

A method involves co-creating the final image by reviewing 3D progress while working collaboratively with the 2D design team. Although this method can increase communication costs and potentially slow down overall project management, it helps reduce major rework costs and is well-suited for face-to-face communication.

Necessity of Communication Tools to Facilitate Interdepartmental Interaction

In addition to verbal and visual communication, it is crucial for the CG team to provide some form of communication tool to enable smoother project management. For example, quickly preparing something like an animatic can be very effective. An animatic is a simple video created from storyboards. By presenting an animatic from the CG side, it creates a back-and-forth communication exchange. This exchange helps both sides align their visions. It is important to introduce communication tools like animatics as early as possible in the project.

The same applies when developing characters. Even if the progress is minimal, sharing data can turn a 3D model into a communication tool. Presenting these communication tools early on helps prevent problems before they occur. The worst situation is to show nothing until the last minute before the deadline.”

Approach to CG Production

Lastly, let's go over some key points regarding how to create CG data and manage CG projects effectively

Importance of Environment Setup and Version Control

CG production generally involves two stages: verification and production. Verification is the period for testing new approaches, tools, or processes. Production is the stage where data is created for the final output. It is important to determine when to start production. Ideally, production should begin after all expected verifications are completed, as this is the most effective risk management strategy. Often, verification and production proceed simultaneously, such as modeling characters while testing hair pipeline setups. This approach may seem efficient but can lead to rework if significant defects are discovered during verification. Therefore, verification should be thorough but minimal, and starting production after verification often leads to reaching the final output faster.

Optimal Timing for Starting Production

CG production typically involves two stages: verification and production. Verification is the phase for testing new approaches, tools, or processes, such as experimenting with a new version of a game engine, setting up a new hair pipeline, integrating unfamiliar DCC tools, testing sample sizes for rendering, or assessing texture resolution impacts. Production, on the other hand, is the phase where data is created for the final output, including tasks like character modeling, background modeling, character rigging, creating effects, and rendering.

Determining the optimal timing for starting production is crucial. Ideally, production should commence only after all necessary verifications are complete, as this is the most effective risk management strategy. Often, verification and production proceed simultaneously—such as modeling characters while testing hair pipeline setups—which may seem efficient but can lead to rework if significant defects are discovered during verification. Therefore, thorough yet minimal verification followed by production often results in reaching the final output faster.

Check Points

Here are some key considerations when checking progress:

Clearly Define Decision-Makers and Include Everyone

When checking development progress, it's crucial to have clearly defined decision-makers and to involve as many relevant team members as possible. For character production, this includes modelers, riggers, animators, and lighting artists. Ideally, both the planning and development departments should participate in the review process.

Explicitly Record Feedback as Logs

Always ensure that feedback and logs from checks are documented. While using communication tools like Slack for logging is acceptable, it's also important to maintain records in a format that won't get lost or overwritten.

Conclusion

CG project management goes beyond mere schedule management and deadline adjustments. It plays a crucial role in team coordination, communication, and risk management. This article has covered the basics of teamwork, effective communication, and key points in the production process. I hope you found it helpful!

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