How long should it take to make an asset?
So wanted to ask how long should I be taking to make an asset? Like a wood crate for example? Even something as basic as that or a table or chair I tend to give up on before even finishing modeling.
Frankly I hate failing or doing a crappy job at something and without knowing how long each part of the process should be taking me I just find myself thinking its taking too long so I must suck.
Trying to build a rifle I have this and I think after 8 hours or so of modeling it should of been finished completely textures and all, not still half modelled. 3rd image is the concept I found online I was trying to match.
Frankly I hate failing or doing a crappy job at something and without knowing how long each part of the process should be taking me I just find myself thinking its taking too long so I must suck.
Trying to build a rifle I have this and I think after 8 hours or so of modeling it should of been finished completely textures and all, not still half modelled. 3rd image is the concept I found online I was trying to match.
Replies
People who are learning should never worry about speed, it hinders what you can learn a lot! (imo at least, but im just a moose)
day one blockout (feedback from artdir or client)
day two proxy mesh (from this mesh you create the highres and the lowres version its near the final highress)
day three highress final (feedback from artdir)
day four lowres and uvs and first testbakes (going crazy cause nothing works like you thought)
day five repair mesh and uvs bake and texture... (still not final cause to much to do)
day six missed deadline cause you have vorgotten to create the LODs... ;(
Thanks guys I wasn't aware things should take quite that long. I was thinking 1 day an asset. No wonder my textures always suck. I was rushing every step with no idea why the thing looked worse and worse rather than better.
As you do things over and over, you will get faster as certain things become wrote, and you pick up new tools/techniques.
Just try and make great looking pieces first, because nobody cares how fast you are if your work is of poor quality.
as said above it depends on the asset... if you are working on a hero asset it can take up to one month to finish it... with all the pipeline stuff like locators, LODs and different deeded versions/textures...
Exactly ! I feel like there is a bit of a distortion going on these days, which is probably caused by some of the training material being released recently showing 3d artists improvising stuff on the fly. Now of course I absolutely love watching videos of artists jamming like that and producing great assets in a very short timeframe, but this is very far from the reality of working at most studios where an established concept department provides designs to be followed precisely.
I actually believe that both methods are valid, as shown by the fantastic art direction in the recent Wolfenstein titles, and I do wish more games were done that way. But this is indeed far from the norm since it requires such a high level of team synergy. @peteed1985 , @Shinigami : I hope this clarifies things a little.
when you are exploring something new to you its bound to take longer, and you can always run into issues, some assets I will bang out in a day, straight forward Geometry, ive done a ton of times before, then others I might take a week if theres say a lot of complex moving parts, or I am dealing with shapes or styles well outside of my comfort zone.