Tips on managing your project?

I didn’t really know where to post this so I’m tossing it off in here

My roommates and I have been brought on to work on a startup based on our modeling and animating skills. However my main role is to learn blueprints to help with the other people working on development. So since I am working on blueprints and live with my friends who are going to do modeling, animating and design I thought it’d be nice if I managed their work so that they could Just focus on the creativity where as I do all the more technical stuff. I havens really worked around in unreal with my college semester ending I am going to learn as much as I can.

I wan to create a sort of paper trail so I can toss it off to our boss. So does anyone have any ideas of documents that would be useful to log, Print, and put in a file?

One thing I was thinking would be an Asset/Model Breakdown Sheet. Like 4 images of it in it’s lowest subdivision leading up to its Highest division. Along with poly counts, and any other details that would be useful to see.

If you were looking at a sheet like that what details about the Asset/Model would you like to see on it?

What other types of documents would be useful to create?

It sounds like I’m writing a stupid school question sheet but I’d like the opinion from people who have tried, failed, learned and succeed. Apologies If I used improper terms for somethings.

Also any other tips would be nice.

I don’t have much experience in the modeling side so I can’t really say what would be good to add in documents related to them. I do have some knowledge when it comes to project management though so maybe it will help you out.

Normally, in project management, the first thing you need to determine is the scope of the project. What is part of the project and what isn’t (working on something that isn’t part of the scope will be a complete waste of resources - time and money). To understand the scope better you usually need to talk to the main stakeholders of the project by understanding what they think the project should do. What makes the project a success or not?

Once you determine the scope, you can start to identify and list the requirements. What is absolutely necessary for the project to be considered a success? What things are optional or only “nice to have” but not critical for the success of the project (knowing what not to include is also just as important). What resources do you need to accomplish that? Do you need animators, developers, 3d-modelers, sound-engineers, story-writers, money, etc?

From there you prioritize, assign tasks, set milestones, and come up with a timeline so you can measure the progress of your project. Is your project on-schedule or behind schedule?

That’s a very general overview of project management. An asset/model breakdown sheet will probably help you figure out what has been finished and what hasn’t in a way so I think it will help.

Thanks, that helps me get an Idea of where I can prioritize my and my roommates work. Hopefully by doing that we will be able to increase productivity :slight_smile: Thanks man.