Working on a Research and Development project was an interesting undertaking especially, when some aspects of the project are out of your control. For the past 8 weeks,May 23 – July 14, I served as the Producer and Researcher for the Dynamixyz R&D Project at The Guildhall at SMU as part of a Directed Focus Study course. My main objective was to use the Dynamixyz Head Mounted Camera (HMC) and software to create a Real-Time profile that could animate a 3D character’s facial expressions in real time when using the HMC. After many delays and setbacks, I was able to get a first rough pass at this objective and this postmortem serves as lessons learned throughout this project that could help future researchers on their R&D projects.

What Went Well

There were three main points that I believe kept me going throughout the project.

Weekly Status Report Meetings

As a producer, you have to make sure that you inform your stakeholders and executive producers about the status of the project. Once you get into a cadence, things start to run smoothly and at a pace you can adjust to. For our project, we had weekly status report meetings. I prepared a document every week that detailed what I was going to work on that week, what were the challenges and risks and what support I needed. Additionally, the document also laid out what the plans were for the following week.

Skype Calls

Dynamixyz is a company located in France. Therefore, in order to troubleshoot or ask any questions about hardware or software, we had to set up Skype calls. Additionally, because of the 8-hour difference between their France location and Texas, where the SMU Guildhall is, these calls had to be set up days in advance. However, being able to see exactly how to use the software and go step by step on each of the different tools available was such a great help and is something I would recommend if you are working with a team across the world.

Fast Turnaround

Because of the incredible help from the Dynamixyz team, and even after all of the setbacks that we experienced, I was able to complete a rough first pass of the main objective in about 12 hours over the course of a week and a half. I was able to get a 3D character to animate in real time using the HMC and the emotions I was making to the camera. I would encourage anyone on an R&D project to not be afaird of asking questions and getting clarification on any idea no matter how big or small it is.

What Went Wrong

The three main processes that had negative effects on the project were:

Hardware and Payment Delays

We faced setbacks and delays from the get-go. First, we learned that there are strict battery laws that prevent companies from shipping batteries from France to the US. We tried two times and eventually ended up asking the company to buy a similar battery from a US store. This essentially caused a 3-week delay on the project.

Additionally, because we are a university, we have to go through several steps in order to purchase hardware from an international vendor. If one step is missed, it creates delays and in our case, it delayed our project by another 2 weeks.

No dedicated computer for research

For a future researcher, I would try to push for a dedicated computer. In my case, we did not get a dedicated computer because we could not get a Maya or 3DS Max license in time. Because I have all the files on my computer, there will be problems with transferring every file to a different computer and making sure everything still works correctly. A dedicated computer, where all the research lives and stays, helps the long-term future of the project.

Did not write everything down towards end of project

I was rushed at the end of the project because of the delays and setbacks. I essentially had about one and a half weeks to complete work that was planned for three weeks. I managed to achieve it but it affected the quality of the documentation and record keeping such as the Asset Database and Journal Entries. 

What We Learned

The four major lessons learned are:

Research everything you can about the software/hardware before you purchase it

After speaking with Dynamixyz over Skype we found out that the Head Mounted Camera was not necessary for different situations. For example, when we got delayed because of the battery issues, we could have used a webcam to develop some tests and start creating annotations. If we knew we could do this with this software, we could have used our time more efficiently. Ultimately, the future of the project requires having a Head Mounted Camera so my research shows that it is possible.

Scheduling meetings with people across the world is an art on its own

Our Skype calls involved scheduling meetings with people across the world. The time difference between France and Texas is 8 hours so we had to schedule Skype calls days in advance. This means that you have to anticipate problems and create a plan that takes this time into account.

Communication with Executive Producer is key

Our Weekly Status Report Meetings helped the project immensely. All producers were always on the same page and we were able to solve any problems that came up as efficiently as possible. Some of the setbacks that came up were above my student producer capabilities because they dealt with the university so the Executive Producer was able to take care of these problems quickly.