« How it's Done: Typical Workflow on a DrGlass Podcast Entry »

The DrGlass email (glass.dpm@gmail.com) gets its share of daily mail.  Over the years, there have been a number of request from users asking "How".  Although its not complicated, it is a little difficult to describe.  In General, the process of creating a DrGlass.org Podcast episode is a multistep effort.  I model my workflow as closely to typical media and video creation studios.

Film and media industry refers uses the words Pre-production, Production, and Post-Production to describe the various phases of content creation.  Because I use a number of different applications and techniques to make a 3D animation with narration, it can be best summed up in one of two ways.  Analogy or Actual explanation.

Let's start with the analogy: Baking a Cake (I love food)

Preparation: deciding to make a cake, shopping for ingredients, cleaning the hardware and utensils, clearing the countertop and laying everything out.

Combining: This is the development part, where separate ingredients come together at different times, different places or in multicomponent.  In plain english, this is the real "muscle-work"

Baking: Once the batter has been developed, its time to pour and bake.  At this point, the oven takes care of the rest.  You just sit and wait.

Dressing: After leaving the oven, the cake isn't ready for consumption until its properly dressed.  This is icing, frosting, fruit, you name it.  All the bells and whistles are added to finish the work before being ruthlessly devoured.

Sharing: Set the table, grab the flatware and dig in.  Best enjoyed with friends!

With this framework in mind, let me convert the cake-baking analogy to DrGlass work for an actual explanation.

The preparation (or Pre-Production phase):
involves a number tasks.  The overall goal of this phase is to get all your ducks in a line.  By this, projects organize funding, contracts, actors, studios, etc.  For DrGlass.org, I simply nail down a script.  Usually this is the Project Lead who heads this up.  Brainstorming, drafting, and finalizing are necessary before moving on.

Now the the design process begins.  Once I know what's going to be discussed, I begin developing the models and scenes needed to tell the story from a visual perspective.  This often works hand-in-hand with the story-boarding, note-taking, and further brainstorming, that are part of my routine.  It saves me time, it helps me get my thoughts strait, and it allows me to focus harder when it comes time for creating.

Mixing (the Production Phase):
Lights, camera, action!  This is when I take the models over to the scene layout and script them to action with keyframes.  By this, they are choreographed, managed, and programed to do what they do.  This needs to be synced with timing.  The camera itself even needs to be keyframed to catch the right angle at the right time.

Baking (deeper into the Production Phase):
Once the scene is completely mixed, its time to "Set it and forget it".  With appropriate settings configured, the scene is rendered and the final product is video media.  This baking/rendering process can take hours, days, or more, depending on the quality and complexity of the video to be created.  Every angular ray of light, reflection, shadow, and radiant glow is calculated by and can be processor intensive.  Pixel by pixel, its assembled as a video file.

Dressing (the Post-Production Phase):
This is where the video clips are put together for the finishing part.  This is where I add transitions, lower-third text banners, captions, and fades.  This edited manuscript is then exported with the narrative audio and exported as a finalized podcast entry. 

Sharing (the overall close of Post-Production):
This is the distribution job.  For the DrGlass.org Video Podcast, I choose to multicast it.  It's uploaded to the YouTube.com account, the DrGlass.org feed.  This feed is also listed in the iTunes directory.  This is for convenience purposes.  I want this to get out there.  Simple as that.

Depending on the video and participating authors, this overall workflow is catered.  From conception to