How long will it take to make a low poly model of this building?

inti11

Hello everyone,

I am a freelance 3D artist and a company wants me to make a low poly version of the next mall http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/9166/index2n0.jpg. I have more experience modelling for animation and films so I need some advice on this. The models will be used for a Kinect racing game that will be placed on a stand in the mall, the mall is the starting point of the races an the car will pass through all the parking. The camera would be at a car height of course so the work has to be more focused on the ground level. I am not sure what the polygon count limit will be. Can somebody please tell me roughly how long will it take to make a textured model like this? Much appreciated.

DireWolf

Are the parkings inside the building or just outside?

Well it depends on a lot of factor but for myself, If I don't need to model any interior space I'd estimate ~2 weeks for complete model + texture. Considering you probably don't need to do any sculpting and all details could be done on the texture side. there are a lot of repeating pattern all over the building so that's something you can take advantage of.

If there's interior involved it could take a month at least depends on how complex it is inside.

WarrenM

Good, cheap, fast ... pick two.

inti11

Thanks very much guys! It will really help me to tell them a realistic time to complete the work

DireWolf, thanks for the advice! They just want the parkings that are outside and the interior is not required either, so I will go for 2 weeks roughly as you estimate. I will definitely try to take advantage of the repeating pattern as much as possible.

WarrenM, thanks for the info! I hope I can do it fast too!

Considering that I don't have too much experience I will tell them that it will take three weeks as I need to learn how to send the assets to Unity.

Thanks guys

Eric Chadwick

I moved your thread to General Discussion. A question like this doesn't belong in the section Royalties or Post-Launch Compensation Work.

skyline5gtr

Ott

Warren is being generous. Tell them to pick 1

JedTheKrampus

In my experience it's closer to 1.7.

CaptainBlasto

This is really not a hard building/complex to model, especially since your target is a racing game. Because of that, you can skip the finer poly details and focus more on surface topology, which is actually pretty basic. The texture work will be similarly basic here too.

1. Gather your resources. The more the better.
2. Identify your key shapes. I tend to do this in PS first, color coding the primaries.
3. Block out those shapes & refine them
4. UV and identify those areas where you can use tiling or overlap. A model like this lends itself to repetition and decaling.

For the mall building itself, I could knock it out in a single afternoon. Two at most. Texturing it is pretty simple and could be accomplished rather quickly. If you exclude the cars, there aren't that many extra elements required to fill out the scene. Sign posts. A few tree variations. Parking dividers. A shrub.

I can't speak for anybody else, but I don't imagine that this would take me to long. Four (4) afternoons. Tops. There are a lot of repeatable elements and simple shapes here.

Like I said, know your target genre and do your pre-production. That will save you loads of tme and effort. The actual work required here is very simple.

Also keep in mind that you might not actually have to model or texture everything. If your race car is driving by, there's zero chance that the back or underside will ever be seen. Same if the replay camera isn't 100% free roaming.