At DreamWorks Animation SKG, I authored the Torch User's Guide for their proprietary next-generation 3D lighting system created for use throughout their global studio operations. On this project, I collaborated with the Research & Development Team during the agile software development cycle to create support materials related to the software application and the new production pipeline.
As a part of this process, I created instructional imagery, videos, style guides, designed & coded the website pictured here, and built Confluence wiki templates for global online help and training documentation. I also built targeted, hierarchical documentation spaces for multiple development, production, and training teams to use in their communications efforts. In order to complete this, I captured multiple production workflows across the studio (Crowds, Surfacing, Lighting Production, Interactive Rendering, Shadows, Multi-Shot, Visual Development, Batch Rendering, etc.) which assisted with development planning. Finally, I worked with Research & Development leaders to integrate the application with the online documentation so that users could directly access help information from within the UI.
These are images of the online User Guide, which allowed new Lighters to ramp up on the application. Introductory pages gave them access to the entire universe of documentation tools such as Glossary, How-to-Videos, and the encyclopedic Torch Application Reference (which I also authored).
Users could navigate the Torch Guide via chapter link buttons on the left-hand navigation bar, each of which cracked open to reveal sub-topics within each chapter. This way, they could jump around in the content as needed. It also featured a page-by-page turning capability if the user wanted to just read the entire document in sequence, as they would any other book.
In addition to breadcrumb links at the top-right which let users know where they were within the hierarchy of the document, each chapter had distinct concept art from various recent productions in the header, to serve as a visual indicator of the reader's location within the document. Clicking on the DreamWorks logo, would take the user directly to the larger corporate Wiki, where they could obtain other studio information more broadly.
