This project started out as a research project for my first class in pursueing my masters.  I wanted to make it a real world application of something rather than something I’m not ever going to look at again.  I had fun doing the project and I’m enjoying the new stuff I’m picking up in Flash as well.  I’m using XML to organize project files for teams that are working on specific shows that end up as podcasts.  The Pixel Corps have a huge membership and I wanted to create a solution to manage not only the assets created during production, but also all of the training the PXC has to offer around those types of tasks.  These tasks and shows are then linked to the team members are creating them, the assets created, the team members who made them and the training they used to learn that skill, as well as providing a link back to the end result. That end result would be the Podcast episode that actually went out. 

The benefits to this are plenty!  General members, not on a team, can see the process from start to finish, view the training affiliated with the specific tasks used to put the show together, ask those members who created the content questions about the project, see the end result and even contribute to the project.  Other team members can also download the project file created (I’ve been calling it PXML – PixelcorpsXML) and see who is on the team, and add to the project file.  This could be used to create ‘second units’ working on different versions of the show, or used as training to bring new team members up to speed on the production process. It also creates a trackable document back to all of the assets used to create the show, video files, motion graphics projects, photoshop files, audio, etc. Some of the applications like FCP and Motion already use XML as their project file so someone could actually edit the Motion Project without having to launch Motion.

I’ll add more to this as I get time…..