Here’s a guide I made for a photographer who wanted to try out photogrammetry outdoors. Basically, try to get every surface covered from at least a few varying angles, and get sharp images avoiding blur and direct lighting.
If you’re into bones, Heinrich has got you covered!

art-buyer
The art-buyer might be a larger entity such as a publication, broadcaster or institute, but might be an individual scientist, an artist-initiated digital publishing or interactive effort.
wants:

• quick overview of visuals to be purchased, either directly in the form of a searchable library or indirectly to serve as a reference, determining the expected quality of a contracted piece
• easily defined contractual clarity of usage rights, including potential exclusivity, time / geographic limits
• one-stop payment (ie. transfer to one entity defining ownership, not individual members of a team)
• pitch-visuals to promote the sale of a project

author
The authors are anyone involved in the content creation process. The simplest collaboration would be a one-man show, such as Mark Witton… scientist, artist and publisher in one. The more complex collaborations might be a number of scientific consultants, artists, developers and a publisher. I suppose the first doesn’t need a coordinating site like I propose, nor would a visual illustrator plus scientist collaborator. But with increasing complexity, a collaboration platform might well enable the team to become a team.
wants:

• access to project opportunities, job generation
• reward in form of credits and financial reimbursement
• trust that these rewards are forthcoming and thus: transparent overview of team constitution, progress and profit
• ideally, a course of action in cases of dispute

A missing link here might the classic role of executive or creative producer. If someone with this role is involved, they are likely to bridge both POVs.

project
The project’s POV is defined within a limited amount of time, with a clear-cut termination goal…  a series of illustrations with set format, resolution, content. An interactive book with game doc defining platform, content, look and performance requirements… not at all trivial to determine at the beginning of a project, but crucial to the feasibility of a successful project. I could imagine some projects being financed in advanced, but as ie. broadcasters are more likely to be a hindrance to plausible palaeovisualization, the assumption must be that financing is at least partially deferred.
wants:

• clearly defined timeline and goal
• project management support (transparent team roles, goals, tasks, schedules, etc.)
• intuitive communication and remote collaboration tools
• exploitation > sales, potentially to continue development on to further projects

conflicts…
Sounds simple, but there are ample conflicts-of-interest between these POVs. What if the result is an asset, which – in order to increase sales – might be offered on various establish asset sites and therefore extend beyond the scope of the collaboration platform. The promise of transparency for the authors is broken. As it likely will be upon payment, as an art-buyer will pay one entity, likely via transfer or paypal, in exchange for distribution / usage rights. All this emphasizes the role of trust in team members, which perhaps should only be able to join the platform via invite, and makes a reputation system necessary.

This overlaps with my experiences… in animation – which I’ll venture to say is a few steps more complicated (not to say mired) than illustration.  I’ve experimented in the past with integrating scientists into the visualization process with varying degrees of success (namely failure). Animation requires a massive investment in asset creation, while broadcasters only commission job-by-job, and by the time it comes to the cg artist, the deadline is tomorrow and the scientific consultant hasn’t been identified yet. The generated assets are then either half-assed or too one-offf-ish to warrant being re-used for ie. print media, so if there’s not another contract (which would just run down the same course) the potential kinda dries up.

An idea…
a platform that garners and coordinates coordination between the involved parties in creating visual media. Probably overkill for illustration alone, but this is in anticipation of a bright new world in which cg technologies are used to create interactive and thus much more widely accessible scientific literature.

It would basically be a team of interested specialists synching up with each other and investing enough trust as to join together in a team in order to create a clearly defined asset… say a pose-able creature (Archosaur X). A private forum helps them discuss, plan and schedule their efforts, including agreeing to a participation percentage. Then the work is (ideally) done and they have generated assets… Archosaur X, as a sequence of images, a pose-able model (animation-ready even) and a limited 3D interactive viewer. ArtBuyers (broadcasters, publishers, scientists) can shop for existing assets, commission new work and vote on quality. Upon purchase, the team members are reimbursed in accordance with their percentage. The platform makes it into a community, with reputation-building and communication platforms… is author M reliable? Does team B make good shit? Does ArtBuyer G follow up on commissions?

Just a thought exercise for now, as I don’t see any movement on this from publishers, broadcasters or us wee individuals. Interested? Comment!

In English (with the help of the fantastic LEO discussions):
– “target vs actual business results analysis”
– “variance analysis”
– “nominal-actual value analysis”
– “deviation appraisal”
but most interestingly, this case of translating “Motivation entsteht über Ist-Soll-Diskrepanzen” in the context of personal motivation and time management.

Don Tyler suggests this apt translation:
“Motivation arises from the discrepancy between what is and what you feel should be.”