How fast should I be at generating assets?

RossHildick3D

So I made a petrol pump for fun...




This, now fully textured and game-ready, took me two working days; Is that good?

When going to interviews I'm sure they'll ask how long things took you to do and I don't really know where the bar is and what is the 'norm' in a game studio to work on my speed in terms of asset creation.

I know it must differ from studio to studio and person to person but just an indication as to what is a fair amount of time to spend on an asset like this in your studio would be very insightful!

Thanks polygods

Brygelsmack

Why don't you show the final version? It's hard to judge what you got done within those two days otherwise. 

I was never asked about how long things took, probably because it's a difficult question to answer. As you get comfortable within the company you will speed up your workflow, learn new things and get faster. No one expects you to be blazing fast during the first few weeks of your employment. I wouldn't worry about it. 

RossHildick3D

Brygelsmack said:

Why don't you show the final version? It's hard to judge what you got done within those two days otherwise. 

I was never asked about how long things took, probably because it's a difficult question to answer. As you get comfortable within the company you will speed up your workflow, learn new things and get faster. No one expects you to be blazing fast during the first few weeks of your employment. I wouldn't worry about it. 

Thanks Brygelsmack!

Thats the only picture i had on me when I get home later i'll upload it

Im not worried about it at all, its just something Ive always wondered... like when I'm finishing up modelling something about to start unwrapping, I'm always thinking "shouldn't I be well into texturing by now?" I always think I'm spending too long whatever I'm doing and I'm not sure if thats just a mentality I have picked or what...

Thanks for reply

Mark Dygert

Focus on producing quality. By constantly producing quality results, you will get faster.
No one will hire you if you're really fast at producing crap.

Be able to estimate your time effectively and accurately, that is much more important than being able to hit some speed benchmark.

Joopson

Mark Dygert said:

Be able to estimate your time effectively and accurately, that is much more important than being able to hit some speed benchmark.

This. At my jobs, this has been the issue more often than knowing something will take a long time and saying so. I suck at estimating how long I'll take, and usually undershoot, when really, you should overshoot when possible. You're essentially shooting yourself in your foot doing that.

RossHildick3D

Thanks for your comment guys The vibe I am getting is that games studios are much more laid back about this than I thought. I worked at Double Negative as a matchmover for years and the personal turnaround on shots were very tight (like, breaching-the-impossible tight)... it seems that games is a little more laid back?

Ruz

not fast enough dude work faster:0  tbh the image you showed is just a blockout but a finished fully textured asset is a different thing

RossHildick3D

Ruz said:

not fast enough dude work faster:0  tbh the image you showed is just a blockout but a finished fully textured asset is a different thing

read it again, lol.

RossHildick3D

updated with textured version

Synaesthesia

I could probably model and texture that in about seven hours, possibly less, depending on motivation and stress, etc. Two days isn't bad at all!

It's worth keeping in mind that creating quality art is, of course, our top priority. As artists, however, we're also exposed to the other aspect of the business: profit margins. If you want to stay competitive in the field, being able to create quality art quickly is also important. Finding efficiencies through workflow or choice of software can bring down costs to your employer or to yourself, if you're freelancing.

When it comes to the Good / Fast / Cheap triangle, I try to hit Good and Fast, personally.

Jakob Gavelli

It's hard to estimate if you're not used to working 8 hours days in a studio. Did it take you 16 hours to reach that point? That seems a bit slow tbh, the thing on the left is not finished and I wouldn't call that game-ready. If you find that out of 8 or 16 hours you're only getting a couple of hours effective time then that's something to work on for sure.
Or if you're not spending 8 hours a day, then you need to work more and not necessarily faster?
If it indeed took 16 hours maybe you need to work faster/smarter/etc. 

It's rarely about how "fast" you swoosh around the mesh and spam your hotkeys in Maya. It's the problem solving and overall execution that can cut down the time an environment or prop takes with huge amounts. 

It's really stupid of me to say this, but in my experience making props is more about filling a space and putting something in a scene instead of emptyness. 90% of the time it's a hammer or a bunch of wood etc, no one is going to care or look at it. But if it's not there, players will feel that something is off.
It shouldn't take more than an hour to get something like a hammer into the game. You don't need to sculpt or do high-polys, no-ones going to zoom in on it and say " What a shit game, the hammer doesn't look photo-real. " 

But when you're creating your portfolio the mindset has to be the opposite sadly. You need to show that you can make awesome looking stuff even if it takes you a really long time, so that the studio knows that you can hit a really high bar of quality. In reality though you rarely get the luxury of polishing an asset for days.