When to call a model done

Melazee

Hey Polycount,

Just been thinking today about how everyone actually decides when they can call a model (or any piece of art really) done. I myself never truly feel like a piece is done, and so knowing the point when to stop and move on can get quite difficult. 

When do you decide the cutoff point, and that a model is ready to be called done? Do you also struggle with feeling like it's never actually done?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts!

almighty_gir

when the low poly + textures look better than your last piece, and it's presented nicely.

another good practice is to literally give yourself time limits. 5 weeks for a full model. separate the weeks into tasks to complete.

ZacD

Call it done when your minor tweaks aren't making it any better, and when your time would be better spent on a new project. You don't want to redo the textures over and over when you could be texturing something new and better in a week.

Hard short deadlines are probably better when starting out.

Melazee

Good advice! Sometimes it is better to move on than to keep tweaking the same model. And the time limit is a good idea too. When I'm at work, I find it easy to say when a model is done because I have no choice, but my personal work is a different story! 

beefaroni

I usually try to pick a visual target from another artist or game and work on the project until I hit my goal.

To add, my approach is that as long as the piece I'm doing isn't too large, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to hit the visual quality with enough work and time. 

Finally, I think it can be dangerous to set deadlines as a beginner. When you don't know the entire process, it's hard to estimate how long certain steps will take to achieve a portfolio worthy goal. 

PyrZern

When I was more green, I followed the deadline. (30 days) At first, I usually finished before the deadline but the quality wasn't so good. And I couldn't improve it better without throwing like half away. Just call it done.  This phrase means you have no skill and no perception.

Then, I knew more stuff, and maybe a bit more experienced; I started using up the whole 30 days. It meant I could make some more adjustment at the end before calling it finished. Still not looking so good, though. This means you just skilled up, but still no perception.

Later, I  started running out of time. I knew I could do better; but it took longer time than I expected. Sometimes I stopped at only sculpting, no lowpoly. Or sometimes I used another month to finish up sculpt and do lowpoly.  Shit start to look more decent as well. This is when your perception overtook your skills.

And I believe that's where I am atm  ^..^

xvampire

I love the way people here can think 30 + days of work

while a lot of ppl can be so proud of 1-3 hours works ( actually wrote it )    T_T  

Melazee

Seems like setting yourself deadlines is a popular opinion. Of course, being strict enough to stick to your own deadline is another matter entirely But it seems like a good habit to get into. Perhaps I'll try that for my next personal project.

Ged

I aim to learn something and create something good at the same time, this means that even if the final result isnt magnificent in my own eyes at least I have learnt something along the way. So a lot of my portfolio pieces were as much about the art as they were about learning eg learning anatomy or morphology, learning techniques or workflows, learning software etc

This means that when Ive learnt some great stuff Ive already accomplished something, the model is done when I think its done. Sometimes I have to move on to stay creatively fresh even if there are a few bits I know I could improve - this is with personal projects, its just not fun to work on the same personal project for 6 months so I sometimes mix it up a bit and do some other stuff inbetween too.

At work I would hit deadlines and be as close as I can to the concept and stay within the poly/texture budget specified. Sometimes I try to improve on a concept or push the quality higher if I have time.

Biomag

For me its when I reach a certain goal I set. At work it is mostly deadlines - though not just for a single piece, but keeping the whole project in mind.

For personal work it depends. Am I working on a project with friends? Then it might end up with deadlines like at work to not getting them stuck too. Am I practicing something or learning something new? Then only once I improved on what I was exercising or learned the new technique/tool/whatever.

It's about being aware what the priorities are for what you are doing. How much sense does it make to put more time into the thing in front of me? Would it be more efficient to start something new and just wrap this one up? For example with bigger projects you might reach the point when you have to admit to yourself you have just to bring it to an end because there are already so many things that you learned on this one that the next project will be a lot better, but you also know that you can't include the knowledge into the current one anyhow.

Joopson

When you're sick of looking at it~  

Fansub

When you're sick of looking at it

This.

leilei

I'm never confident on anything being done.  When it's done, I learn something vital later on, which makes my done stuff undone. It's an endless cycle

"art is never finished, only abandoned" - leonardo da vinci

leilei

I'm never confident on anything being done.  When it's done, I learn something vital later on, which makes my done stuff undone. It's an endless cycle

art is never finished, only abandoned"

(hopefully, this didn't post twice because i had to be approved for some odd reason)

leilei

I'm never confident on anything being done.  When it's done, I learn something vital later on, which makes my done stuff undone. It's an endless cycle

"art is never finished, only abandoned" - leonardo da vinci

leilei

I'm never confident on anything being done.  When it's done, I learn something vital later on, which makes my done stuff undone. It's an endless cycle

art is never finished, only abandoned"

(hopefully, this didn't post twice because i had to be approved for some odd reason)