Art 450 again

0. A working title:

• Hungry Puppy

1. Project goals:

• Create a 3d animated short.
  
• Learn the technical processes included in such, and have something to show for it.
• Make it fun to watch.
  

2. A project description:

• A 3d modeled Welsh Pembroke Corgi of about teenage years making various attempts to get at a cake on top of a fridge. And it's funny.

3. Specific products of study or deliverables that you will be creating for your project.

• The finished, polished movie clip. The corgi model which can be re-used for other projects. The 'story board' which is really a "low production quality" 2d flash video, but shows I thought it out before doing it.

4. Visual and/or written research for your project. Stuff done by other people.

• Lots of picture of adorable dogs. Lots of tutorials, several books I actually paid for. Disney's "Bolt" as an example of a 3d animated dog whose teeth don't scare little children.
  

5. Treatment visuals for your project. This is stuff done by you. This can consist of links, a bibliography, images, etc.

• All those photos (see tag 'puppy refs'), the story board anamatic.
  

6. A written description of specific technical and research issues you will need to address during the course of your project.

• Modeling organic things accurately-ish is hard, and requires trying several things before finding the right way to do it.
• I've never skinned something like this (or anything other than a box).
• Rigging? What's that?
• Animating a complex model?
• Lighting it
• Capturing it (woo render farm nights...)
• Polishing the final capture is really beyond my current experience. I'm sure I can figure it out with help from resources, I've just never even used any of that software.
• Finally, my creative adviser (My girlfriend, who, when I mused last year "I should do an animated short..." immediately shouted out "Make it about a puppy!! Trying to get food!! from the top of a Fridge!!"), anyway she still thinks I should try to get fur on the dog... which would be better but more work.
  

7. A timeline of your project. When you will be doing all of this good stuff. You must include specific DEADLINES (for example: "January 27th", not "some time in January."

• Well.
• Working on the model 3 times a week,
• Work on the animatic for 2 hours a week or more as sanity allows.
  
• Finish the teeth and tongue Wednesday 10-14 (2 weeks from today).
• Finish the eyes/forehead the week after that (10-21)
• Final touch-ups by the following saturday (10-24)
• Rig it for 2 weeks (Nov 7)
• Skin it for 2 weeks (Nov 21)
• Test drive it, start animating.

Honestly... I would like to keep to this schedule but I don't feel confident that I can. I need to schedule regular work time more than goals; if I work it then it will get there.
My schedule as a 1 year CS Masters student is a little rigorous. And not completely to my liking. But this is my year, and i will do with it as I want to.