Embedded Files
When I first decided I wanted to go into animation, I had no idea I would fall in love with a completely different side of the production process - the world of ORGANIZATION and PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT.
I found myself thoroughly enjoying designing creative pipelines, and most of all, strangely enough, creating spreadsheets. Designing a good spreadsheet is like solving a puzzle - how do you make it functional? What does the group need to know? How can you ensure it will hold up, even when multiple people are constantly editing and changing things? Can it still look pretty at the end of the day?
Organization is a living, breathing process that should grow with the project - and that's the fun of it!
Below, I've included a few examples of my work, created for the production pipeline on our short film, for the Sentry student newspaper, and for my personal comic project, respectively.
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Example 1: Animated Short Film Shot List
ENCROACHMENTSHOTLIST.pdfA shot list for our upcoming animated short film, The Encroachment. Easily adjustable, with multiple sections for notes from both director and animators and a section for a link to each shot (in playblast) to be easily accessible and downloadable for further notes. We have been using and updating this spreadsheet for the last year of work on this project, and it has held up very well! I especially enjoy the ability to see the latest version of each shot within the spreadsheet. HERE is the link to the spreadsheet, made for Google Sheets.
SIGNIFICANT FEATURES
1) SHOT LIST FUNCTIONALITY
A live document for animators and director to collaborate, update the latest version of each shot, and provide notes/details. From left to right, total number, sequence number, and shot number for the shot, a dropdown menu for the status of the shot, time in and out of the shot within the overall film, a brief shot description, camera movement description, a link to the latest version of the shot within its location in the shared Google Drive, notes from the director, a dropdown for who the shot is assigned to, and a place for animators to update with their own notes.
ENCROACHMENTSHOTLIST_STATS2) AUTOMATED SHOT PROGRESS
A place for animators and team members to refer to to see overall progress on the film. The top left table documents the progress for each sequence, with the number of shots, duration, and rough number of frames for each, and then a total sum for the whole film. Beneath it, a counter for each team member/animator, with number of shots assigned, total time, and total frames, with the amount left for each level of progress per artist. To the right, total percent laid out versus blocked versus rough versus polished versus locked.
3) COUNTDOWN TIMER
A countdown timer that updates every minute, which can be adjusted to any deadline or due date. Utilizes a hidden "Clock" tab where the deadline can be changed.
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Example 2: Hourly Pay Tracker
PAY TRACKER FALL 2025 EXAMPLE - FALL 2025.pdfA place to track employee/freelance hours over time, which automatically updates to ensure every added hour is taken into account.
HERE is the link to the spreadsheet (originally made for Excel).
SIGNIFICANT FEATURES
1) Automatic Hour Counting/Tracking
Tracks each person's total sum of hours, and checks whether each assignment is checked off. If all of the check boxes in a certain person's row are checked off, (meaning the person has been paid), there will be a green "NOPE!" in the box and no further action needs to be taken. If any of the boxes are left unchecked, a red "YES" takes its place until all boxes are checked. A total sum of hours left unpaid can be seen at the bottom left, and total hours from the entire pay period can be seen immediately to the right.
2) Tracking For Individual Publishing Dates
The manager of the spreadsheet would manually input hours - the top line of each person's section would be for notes on the type of work done, and the hours earned would go underneath, and a checkbox added to the right of the hours. From there, other than checking the checkbox when the person has been paid, the rest of the spreadsheet should function automatically.
When any of the boxes are unchecked, the box to the right of the date will show up as red. When all boxes for a certain date are checked, it will return to green.
At the bottom, the box located in the same column as the date will sum up the total hours earned on this day. To the right of this, the total sum of hours yet to be unpaid.
In the latest version of this spreadsheet in Excel, new people can be added easily, by adding a new row wherever you see fit. No other rows have to be changed for this to work. The same goes for adding new dates - just copy and paste the previous two rows to the far right! These should work up to row and column ZZ, but can be adjusted to work beyond this.
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Example 3: Comic Page Organizer
MOONTOWNPRD.pdf
A tracker for a page-by-page graphic novel, organized by chapter, scene, page, and amount complete/published. The first tab is for logging progress, and the second tab automatically provides and updates the statistics. HERE is the link to the spreadsheet, made for Google Sheets.
SIGNIFICANT FEATURES
1) Visualized Progress Log
From left to right - first, a dropdown menu to choose which chapter the page is located in. Next, a status symbol to visualize through conditional formatting which pages are ready, which are in progress, which are in planning, and which haven't been started yet. Third, an open note area for scene/episode titles, organized by color. Fourth, the page number, which updates when rows are added or deleted. Fifth, the progress dropdown menu. Lastly, a date selector for when the page has been published.
2) Automated Page Statistics
In the second tab, the number of pages for each scene are automatically tracked, as well as the percent of pages complete and the percent of pages published for each scene. These percentages are also color coded for visual reference.
3) Automated Statistics Overview and Progress Check
The final column of the second tab contains an automated overview in which only one tab should be manually adjusted by the spreadsheet user - the "Target Complete" date, which would set their goal for when they want all of the pages complete/published. First, the total number of pages. Second, the pages that have been completed (published or ready). Third, the pages remaining. Fourth, the total percent of pages completed. Fifth and sixth, the aforementioned "Target Complete" date - how many days remain, and the date itself, the latter of which should be set manually by the user. Seventh, the amount of pages to get done per day in order to complete everything by the goal date. Finally, the chapter progress percentages for each chapter defined in the first tab of the spreadsheet.
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I have also worked in creating ORGANIZATIONAL PIPELINES for projects including:
The SENTRY STUDENT NEWSPAPER at the University of Colorado, Denver, as MANAGING EDITOR since Fall of 2024.
The animation pipeline for upcoming 3D animated short film, THE ENCROACHMENT.
A variety of personal and small-group creative projects, from WEB COMIC to TEXT-BASED VIDEO GAME.
I have experience in both MICROSOFT EXCEL and GOOGLE SHEETS, and am willing to work with either.
If you are interested in or curious about my work, please contact me at siennafergie@outlook.com! I am CURRENTLY OPEN TO WORK and would love to assist in organizing your next project!
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