As part of that goal, we are allowing public access to our work environment during the weekend of our production. Since our team is located throughout the world, we collaborate on our project through the Internet. We’ve opened some windows to that process so anyone can follow along as we make our animated short… four of them, to be exact:

• The Hand Turkey 48 Hour Film Project Wiki – This is our central collaborative tool. Brainstorms, sketches, designs, task lists and workflow descriptions all live here. Check out the Recent changes page to see the latest updates.
• #ht48hfp on freenode – We use IRC as our main means of real-time communication. If you have a preferred IRC client (Chatzilla, mIRC, Xchat, etc.), point it to the #ht48hfp channel on freenode.net. If you don’t have a client, you can use freenode’s web interface.
• Follow us on Twitter – The entire team has access to update that account, so any of us can let you know what’s going on.
• Streaming webcam footage – We are actually going to stream footage from webcams at the locations of some of our international team members so you can watch the craziness that ensues. We’re still hammering out the kinks on this, but we’ll have a direct link set up by Friday.

That’s it! Come watch us slave away this weekend and wish us luck!

If you’re in or around Connecticut (and even if you’re not!), come on out. It’s sure to be a great event!

Blender Basics
Date: Saturday, 9 June 2007
Time: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Apex Digital (900 West Broad St., Richmond, VA 23221 – map)
Cost: $50, payable via Cash, Check or Credit Card via Paypal

Basics II: Organic Modeling & Materials
Date: Saturday, 16 June 2007
Time: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Apex Digital (900 West Broad St., Richmond, VA 23221 – map)
Cost: $50, payable via Cash, Check or Credit Card via Paypal

Also, we are offering a $10 discount if you attend both workshops!

If you’re interested in attending, please send an email to info@handturkeystudios.com.

Descriptions of each of these workshops can be found on the Workshops page of this site. Copies of Blender for all modern computing platforms and all files used in the workshop will be made available on DVD for course participants.

There is limited space available, so please confirm your attendance early.

You may notice that we’re holding our workshop at a new location. This location has computers on-site, so bringing your own computer or laptop is not necessary. However, you are more than welcome to bring your own machine if you’d like. If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting us.

On the last day of the conference, attendees will be able to participate in a small presentation on “Connecting Families, Kids and Students Through Digital Media”. Jason will be doing a short run-though on modeling with Blender while Steve Simmons of EDR Media will be discussing audio gaming and Ted Jordon of Funutation LLC will give a session on computer game creation.

The Defrag conference is held quarterly around Ohio and is geared toward offering “an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to address our innovation imperative in rich media, with a focus on education and workforce development.” They’re really interested in open source software as being a part of that equation.

Date: Friday, 23 February 2007
Time: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: The Work Factory (1113 West Main St., Richmond, VA 23220 – map)
Cost: $45, payable via Cash, Check or Credit Card via Paypal

If you’re interested in attending, please send an email to info@handturkeystudios.com.

We will cover the basics of using Blender; becoming familiar with its interface and creating a 3D model and a small animation. Copies of Blender for all modern computing platforms and all files used in the workshop will be made available on DVD for course participants.

There is limited space available, so please confirm your attendance early.

We will have a very limited number of computers on hand, so if you have laptop, it is highly recommended that you bring it with you. If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting us.

Date: Friday, 12 January 2007
Time: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: The Work Factory (1113 West Main St., Richmond, VA 23220 – map)
Cost: $45, payable via Cash, Check or Credit Card via Paypal

If you’re interested in attending, please send an email to info@handturkeystudios.com.

We will cover the basics of using Blender; becoming familiar with its interface and creating a 3D model and a small animation. Copies of Blender for all modern computing platforms and all files used in the workshop will be made available on CD for course participants.

There is limited space available, so please confirm your attendance early.

We will have a very limited number of computers on hand, so if you have laptop, it is highly recommended that you bring it with you. If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting us.

“Elephants Dream” is an 11-minute short film produced by the Blender Foundation in the Netherlands. The film was released as an ‘Open Movie’. What’s an Open Movie? It’s a movie that comes with all of the production files used to create it. Don’t like the way the film was made? You have the files to make it your way! Want to find out how they created that awesome effect? You can look and see exactly how it was done! And not only that, all of the visuals for this film were created using freely available Open Source Software. So you have the tools, too! All for free.

“So waitaminute,” you say, “you’re organizing the screening of someone else’s movie? What gives?” Yes. Yes we are. It’s a great short film and the small team of artists who created it are our friends. Not only that, but since the film and just about everything around it is free and open, we figure this is a great way to get to know the rest of the creative community in the Richmond area.

Come on out to C3 and watch this movie with us. Find out a little bit about what went into the making of it. Share your thoughts on it with others in the community. Maybe even lay the groundwork for your own project! Admission is free, but donations to C3 are welcome.

For more information feel free to email me (groo at handturkeystudios dot com). You can also get some more information about “Elephants Dream” at www.elephantsdream.org.