[ubuntu-art] What are we working towards?

[Kenneth Wimer]

Hi all,

On Sunday 11 November 2007 00:10:26 Who wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does sabdfl still read this list? Some of these questions here may
> only be able to be answered by him (or kwwii - are you employed to
> work on this at the moment?). After some deliberation I've copied him
> in. Sorry Mark if you don't think you needed to be!

Yes, I am employed to work on this.

> It's really cool to see this list alive again with so many ideas and
> discussions - some of the stuff  looks really sweet, I wish I had more
> time to contribute (though I think the standard's getting well beyond
> me!).

Indeed, it is nice to see people stepping up and showing interest in the 
artwork community. Hopefully we can turn this positive energy into great 
contributions.

> While there's still so much energy around I think we need to get some
> more definition of what the goals of the artwork team are here so we
> can channel it in the right direction. I hope I haven't missed
> anything about what exactly is being worked towards...I haven't been
> keeping up with ALL the list mail recently and couldn't make the
> meetings, but I couldn't see a clear description of goals or process
> (emails like 'how far for Hardy' have gone unanswered... and
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArtTeam which supposedly contains UDS
> conclusions is not very detailed) The minutes of the latest meeting
> say in response to a question about what we will be changing:

The blueprint from UDS was a starting point. We discussed these issues (you'll 
find that discussion on the appropriate wiki page under BOF and Discussion). 
In the meantime several issues have come up which need clarification before 
we can finalize the blueprint for real use.

> "Nov 01 18:47:53 <kwwii>	install screen, usplash, gdm/face broswer,
> Desktop Wallpaper, GTK theme, colors, metacity/emerald theme, icons,
> splash screens"
>
> That sounds mighty exciting, and a lot of what I am asking below has
> clearly been discussed (from the minutes again)
>
> "Nov 01 18:03:47 <kwwii>	we had a meeting at UDS today
> Nov 01 18:04:07 <kwwii>	and talked about the form of the art team and
> how we lead the process"
>
> But I'm not sure enough info has made its way here yet. Maybe it has,
> sorry if I've missed it.

Until now the only information on the wiki is under:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy

If you look at that link you will see that the official guidelines for 
contribution are forthcoming. Part of the guidelines will be the exact 
process for contributions. As this is the first occurrence of the process in 
this form I want to get it right - being hasty and posting something that is 
not well considered would only cause more problems than it would solve.

I can understand that people are motivated and want to help now and while I do 
not want to restrict them it is simply a bit too early for me to offer a 
complete and definite process with "rules" for everything.

> In years gone by, I feel artwork effort has been misdirected due to us
> (as a team) not really knowing what our aims were, not meeting
> deadlines in the release process and not knowing who we were designing
> the work to please and producing the style of work that was wanted. It
> would be sad to see this flurry of enthusiasm ending in some of the
> same mistakes being made again and people being upset about the
> process. I am NOT trying provide  bunch of 'stop energy', but I am
> trying to find out what the structure we need to work under
> (/around/over/through...whatever), for the best things to happen is!
>

I agree completely. I'd like to see the team work effectively together without 
wasting people's time. Clearly defining the process will hopefully help us 
achieve that. I am sure that we will need to keep tweaking the process to 
make it perfect but at this stage any decently well considered process would 
be better than none. 

> So, if we are going to start brainstorming and investing time once
> more I would really like to clarify for all contributors.
>
> 1. Are WE (the artwork team) designing a DEFAULT theme or some
> 'community themes' to be shipped separately in another package? This
> is important because it affects the kind of design we do, and I would
> expect for some people, how much time they have to offer. Obviously,
> there have to be caveats with respect to the quality of the work - if
> for some reason (and the stuff so far suggests it will not happen) the
> team produced something horrific it would not make sense to included
> it. This brings me on to Q2

While the artwork team can and should work on the default theme the artistic 
direction we use in the default theme for Hardy will be defined by myself, 
with Mark and others making the decisions behind the direction and the final 
decision on inclusion.

> 2. Who will decide what work will make the cut and what will not. If
> we ARE designing for the default theme then how will we decide when to
> stop brainstorming and settling on ONE of the ideas to hone (see 2.2).
> How can we ensure we are producing work that IS going to be accepted?
> There are a few important aspects to this
>
> --2.1 How will we get the people who will be making FINAL decisions
> about the work involved _at crucial points in the process_ well before
> the end . If sabdfl is going to be choosing work then how can we get
> his opinions before we reach crucial junctions at which we might turn
> away from what is desired. There is certainly enough talent in the
> team to work towards and produce what is desired, but communication of
> that might need to be better than it has been in previous releases.

By creating a clearly defined process with precise dates the community will 
have the opportunity to contribute to the default artwork which is chosen. A 
few weeks ago I began creating documents on the artistic direction and the 
process on how to create and contribute. After the discussion of the last 
couple of weeks it became apparent to me that the direction I had assumed was 
in place was still somewhat shaky and needed to be reworked.

I am in the process of recreating the information and will have sign-off on 
this by all those in charge by the end of November.

> --2.2 What is the time-scale for our development? We need this to be
> clearly defined _whether or not_ we are designing for the default
> theme or for a bunch of community themes. If we are going for default
> work then we need to be sure to make and meet deadlines for review and
> feedback. The same is true even if we're just doing 'extra' themes,
> except the community is more able to define what will and won't be
> included. In the past with community themes lots of work has been
> dumped on a few members of the team and Daniel Holbach when he was
> already incredibly busy - I wasn't involved in the last few releases
> so this issue might be fixed now....See 3 for more on this.  Another
> reason the deadlines are important is so we give the documentation
> team and the web team time to update to reflect the new art.

In the past we used a schedule which I defined. I am in the process of 
revamping this information. Once complete it will be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseSchedule

Basically, my plan is this (note that this is an idea and not the final plan):

1) Have all the information ready and available by or around Alpha1

2) Have as much artwork as possible ready in a first rough version for Alpha3. 
The general artistic direction needs to be reflected in this artwork but it 
is in no way final or complete.

3) Alpha5 will represent a much more completed version of the artwork although 
many many parts might still change.

4) The Beta release should be 99.9% complete, allowing plenty of time for bug 
fixing.

At this time the best way to contribute is to present ideas of what everyone 
and anyone thinks would be best. From this information we will compile 
examples and create the final documents describing the artistic direction for 
Hardy.

> --2.3 I am not at all sure what other stuff relies on the art (docs
> and web aside) - which other parts of the Ubuntu Jigsaw do we
> interlock with?

Other than the general development stuff the docs and website screens are the 
most important thing in our strict time schedule.

> --2.4 Who is in charge of what in the team/calling which shots? kwwii,
> I guess is the head here? Is there going to be a hierarchy?

A couple of people have stepped up and helped greatly on the wiki (nothlit and 
lassegul, you know who you are!). Andreasn and lapo have kinda assumed a 
leadership position on several issues relative to the icon themes.

Meritocracy has worked well so far and is probably the best way to go about 
things in the future with the exception that the final decision on the 
default artwork still comes through myself, as explained earlier.

> 3. How are we distributing and packaging the work? We should be doing
> this throughout the process so we can see how it is working - to avoid
> last minute rushes on packaging. My understanding is that Launchpad
> has very good facilities for making this 'JustWork' - are enough
> people familiar with them now?

This is probably the biggest open issue at this time. For Gutsy I packaged 
everything myself. Several issues arose from that. In the future I would like 
to see the community take a bigger role in packaging and distributing the 
artwork. Artists in general do not make good technicians and seem to shy away 
from tasks like packaging and tweaking scripts, etc. Launchpad goes a long 
way at making distribution easier but the actual "laying of hands" on the 
python scripts, makefiles, etc. seems to be better left to those who can 
concentrate on that aspect. Naturally for every rule there is an exception so 
any artist who knows how to do this is also welcome to help :-)

> I am sad that I do not have much time to add at the moment - so I
> guess I am asking these questions less for myself and more for the
> people who will be spending a lot of time on design for the next
> realease. By answering them I hope we will have a better understanding
> of how to use people's time effectively.
>
> I do not presume I have asked all the important questions, so please
> jump in if you think there are other things to clarify.
>
> I hope this whole email doesn't come across as pompous or
> presumptuous, I know this was discussed at UDS, I'm sad I could not be
> there (but I would be sure I'm not the only one!) - I only want to be
> sure that the effort people invest is well directed and that the art
> we make rocks as much as possible!

Your email raises questions which needed answering and did not in any way come 
across as pompous or presumptuous. Thanks for everything you have done so 
far - I hope that you find more time to contribute in the future.

--
Kenneth