The amount of time is takes to fully model, texture and rig a creature/character?
Hey guys, i'm in class right now and we're discussing our capstone project proposals that we're submitting next week, and executing next semester (final semester). I have a good idea (I think?) that I haven't seen capitalized on too much in the demo reels of previous graduates. It basically revolves around the concept of a creature in an environment, evoking the aesthetic and feel of a "boss" scenario, with a beast in or outside a grim cave situated behind elegant ruins within a forest glade that stone steps lead up to.
The reason i'm considering this is that, despite aiming towards specializing as an environment/prop artist, I understand the importance of being a generalist first before specialist later in the industry. It's important as a graduating student to showcase versatility in several disciplines, to maximize hiring potential for obvious reasons. This capstone idea will feature at the minimum, environment art assets in UDK as well as creature art. If I have the time to further develop it, at best I might be looking at having a rigged/animated creature moving within my UDK environment. That's obviously showcasing several disciplines within one presentation. With the time constraints we're going to have, if I was a freak of nature, the beast would be chasing the player around the level in a full-blown boss scenario. I think it's a bit ambitious, and I might opt for my "basic" approach I first mentioned, which I think is fine for me.
If I go for the middle range iteration of this idea though, how long should one expect to spend on this thread's title? Feedback on my capstone idea, if any, would be appreciated as well. Thanks for reading.
The reason i'm considering this is that, despite aiming towards specializing as an environment/prop artist, I understand the importance of being a generalist first before specialist later in the industry. It's important as a graduating student to showcase versatility in several disciplines, to maximize hiring potential for obvious reasons. This capstone idea will feature at the minimum, environment art assets in UDK as well as creature art. If I have the time to further develop it, at best I might be looking at having a rigged/animated creature moving within my UDK environment. That's obviously showcasing several disciplines within one presentation. With the time constraints we're going to have, if I was a freak of nature, the beast would be chasing the player around the level in a full-blown boss scenario. I think it's a bit ambitious, and I might opt for my "basic" approach I first mentioned, which I think is fine for me.
If I go for the middle range iteration of this idea though, how long should one expect to spend on this thread's title? Feedback on my capstone idea, if any, would be appreciated as well. Thanks for reading.
Replies
In the eyes of an HR Recruiter, one bad thing in you're portfolio can turn them right off especially if you're a junior. It's all about quality rather than quantity. Not saying you cannot pull it off but just being a realist as you would have to balance all the other different courses. If you're looking to be an environment/prop artist, make a bad ass environment that shows off you're environment art skills (art theory,modularity,technical skills etc).
As for the main question, I would agree with Bardler. It's hard to judge as I have no idea how comfortable you are with skinning and rigging by itself can be a tedious task getting all the deformations themselves to look good. Best way to judge is to critically look at you're skills and search up character threads and see how long they took (might fluctuate depending on you're skill)
EDIT: Agree with all points of Vailias too. One thing I forgot to mention is that you can easily incorporate other skills and showcase them off within an environment. Prop animations, shaders, and generally stuff that adds to you're environment can showcase you have other skills beyond modeling and texturing.
Generally speaking if you're just out of collage, and working on things from varying disciplines, you'll be mediocre at all of them, which will significantly LOWER your hiring potential. Bigger studios have the space for specialists, but they need to hit the ground running.
Generalists are great, but are most useful to smaller indie studios, which also means that the generalist will need to be outstanding in at least one area. One studio describes themselves as looking for "T-shaped generalists. People with a broad range of talents with a lot of depth in one particular area."
Get the depth first.
My honest suggestion to you is to focus on the environment, OR the character. Pick one, and make it amazing.
If you still somehow have time by the end of the semester (ie all you did was this project, you didn't date, or sleep much) then tackle the character.
Also the mantra of " a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" holds here too. Imagine you have a great environment, and you put some blocky poorly done character in the middle of it. That one poor spot will detract from all the good work you've otherwise done.
As to your direct question of timing, Bardler really hits it on the head. The complexity of the character and your own skill level with the 3-5 disciplines involved really makes the estimate nearly impossible.
1: Environment Art - modular asset and building block focused - high asset reuse
2: Character Art - often one-offs and much higher individual asset fidelity
3: Texturing - (should be requisite for either of the above, but it IS a separate skill)
3a: (optional) Shader/Material creation - Fairly technical and math heavy if you're doing anything other than filling pre-made slots.
4: Rigging - Highly technical if it is to be done well. Closer to programming than art in many cases. Do you know MEL or python?
5: Animating - dealing with timing, motion, and use of the rig from #4