“KODI the Coder”
ROLE
Production Consultant and Art Director
OVERVIEW
“KODI the Coder” is a 2D animated short film created for a proof of concept for an animated adventure series that introduces the audience to computer programming and S.T.E.M. concepts through storytelling and innovative connectivity. Companion mobile, web, and augmented reality applications immerse the audience into Kodi's world and reinforce the foundations of programming through interactive games and quests. Concept created by Mattox and JR Allen
When Morristown is the target of a mysterious cyber-attack, a 12-year-old computer whiz, Kodi Dimon, enlists her best friend Jordyn and homemade A.I., STEM, to help her fight back against the hacker known as Glitch and save her hometown.
Link: https://onefifty.com/content/kodi-the-coder/
DUTIES
Collaborate with a team of 30+ artists to produce a 6:15-minute hybrid 2D animated film that utilizes both traditional hand-drawn animation and puppet animation.
Conduct 2D team meetings to kick off, maintain, and conclude project scopes.
Briefing team members on delivery objectives and keeping everyone informed on the progress of the project.
Create a naming convention to be used throughout the film.
Coordinate the organization of Toon Boom Harmony project networks.
Foresee and address possible planning/production issues, translating the complexity of the project into lucid language that team members can understand.
Communicate with the director to ensure the film stayed on vision.
Plan and organize the production schedule using Trello.
PROGRAMS
AirTable : Asset list creation
Trello : Team shot completion
Toon Boom Harmony : Scene setup
Google Docs : Task organization
Google Sheets : Task organization
Google Hangout : Communication
Discord : Communication
PROCESS
Consult with the director on production’s best practices by drawing from my industry experiences.
Review the animatic, and find shots that could be consolidated or eliminated to reduce the film’s overall run-time.
Strategize ways to consolidate character poses to reduce asset creation and character rigging.
Seperate animatic into individual shots, and place them in Toon Boom Harmony scene files with the corresponding assets and reference footage.
Assign shots to artists based on the level of difficulty and time it will take to complete.
Track the completion progress of each shot using AirTable.
EXPERIENCE
The greatest challenge I faced on this production was the wide variance of skill levels I had to accommodate for with the artists. The majority of the artists had limited animation experience, so I had to adjust the pipeline and my communication methods to help up-level their skills.