Thursday, September 06, 2007
How Long Does It Take To Build 3D Models?
Scott Hsu-Storaker, the "Thousander Club" guy, runs the Low Poly Cooperative (a totally awesome "open source" content site with a focus on Blender and Torque --- check it out, enjoy, take advantage of the free content and tutorials, and by all means contribute if / when you can). Anyway, he has written a somewhat lengthy article breaking down the average amount of time it has taken him to create all the models in the "Gilman Street Project."
Now, GSP was - as I understand it at least - something of a learning experience for him. So maybe a more experienced modeler could cut these times down. But measuring his times, he came up with the following breakdown:Average time to create a completed model: 7 Hours.
1.5 hours -- Modelling and unwrapping
3 hours -- Texturing
1 hour -- Exporting and file wrangling
1.5 hours -- Management (of project and other contributors), finding source materials, and miscellaneous.
Note that Scott didn't have to work on rigging and animating at all with this project. THAT can be a time-sink. But we're talking nicely textured but simple everyday items. Like the pictured floodlight.
So for 3D game devs out there trying to estimate (guesstimate) budgets for creating all the 3D assets in your game... this may be some useful data to chew on.
Read Scott's full article here: "How Long Does It Take Anyways?"
(Vaguely) related tales of my own miserable failures:
* A Blender Journey
* Getting Better 1,198 Polygons At A Time
* The Joy of Tex(turing)
.
Labels: game art, productivity
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink)
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Hey, thanks again for mentioning our work. I've been loving the dev diary work you've been doing and it has actually inspired me to go ahead and work on a complete game by myself. I hope to be posting more model work on the coop soon -- kind of getting back into it after real life came knocking.
Scott
Scott
Heh - well, it's kinda mutual. I was digging around there to see what kind of assets I could use, and feeling the urge to contribute some of my own craptacular efforts to the cause.
Texturing is still my greatest weakness, but I've not done much animation beyond the trivial, either.
Texturing is still my greatest weakness, but I've not done much animation beyond the trivial, either.
Low poly co-op rocks, love the Daggerfall remake section. Honestly, there have been a few occasions I've felt a bit out of it, I browse the screens, think "Damn that looks cool, I want to make something like that" and I get back to work. :)
But on topic, modelling takes a lot longer than most people think, yes indeed. I've been working on my player/NPC models recently, hoo boy, time sink! I seriously hate feet. Why can't people just have cubes at the end of their feet? ;)
But on topic, modelling takes a lot longer than most people think, yes indeed. I've been working on my player/NPC models recently, hoo boy, time sink! I seriously hate feet. Why can't people just have cubes at the end of their feet? ;)
The last model I worked on was a door, which I hastily threw together in 20 minutes (not including animation time). I still need to do the Frayed Knights fountain... to make it look even more like a toilet.
I know that I'd get a lot better if I put more time into it. It's just juggling modeling time with... everything else. Becoming an indie game developer has led me to the distinct feeling that there really aren't enough hours in the day.
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I know that I'd get a lot better if I put more time into it. It's just juggling modeling time with... everything else. Becoming an indie game developer has led me to the distinct feeling that there really aren't enough hours in the day.
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