Hi, I’d like to hear what various time estimates are for two typical usage scenarios.
Model
UV Unwrap
Texture
Lighting
Rendering
Compositing
and
Model
UV Unwrap
Texture
Rig
UV Weight
Animate
Lighting
Rendering
Compositing
For modeling a breakdown of method and time percents would be useful also
ie
Base Mesh creation
Sculpt
Retopo
or just modeling directly
etc.
It would be good ot know if you are a ‘heavy’/professional user as well.
LetterRip
Wouldn’t that also require an extra first field for Hi-poly/low-poly, game element or film, previs or architectural? Just to define initial work load. But I guess thats implicit in the request.
Yes it might be good to state what ‘field’ it is for.
LetterRip
Are we talking Blender only here? Or in general? I don’t feel comfortable commenting on the animation portion because I don’t use Blender for animation. I’m a semi-professional. Currently working in 3 different fields web design, 3d and medical. Freelance for the first two.
System specs:
First computer:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core 2.20 GHz
6 GB RAM
IGP 9100
Second computer: (used for painting)
HP 2710 Tablet PC
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
Intel Core2 Duo U7000 running at 1.2 GHz
2 GB RAM
Scene example is a high resolution sculpted figure with props and a basic environment (ie. backdrop with little detail). Total time is roughly 8-16 hours. Please note that many of the steps are combined and not necessarily in this order. I may bake during texturing for an ambient occlusion (dirt) map. During retopology I may model props using it’s tools. etc.
1. Modeling 5-8 hours total
-Base Biped Mesh 1-2 hours (often I will load in a pre-made base mesh from another project to save time)
-Sculpting 5-8 hours
-Retopology 2-3 hours (this varies and sometimes I duplicate the base mesh at the start and bake the displacement from the higher density mesh to it)
-Build props and environment 2-4 hours
-Baking 30 minutes-2 hours (depending on complexity and user error)
-UV Unwrap 2-5 hours (UV mapping may take place prior to sculpting for the figure if I plan to bake to the original)
Things that could improve the workflow and the time each part takes to Model in Blender:
2. Texture 3-4 hours total
-Quick base color with 3D paint 2-3 hours
-Detailed paint in Photoshop 3-4 hours
-Base material creation and texture import/application 1-3 hours
Things that could improve the workflow and the time each part takes to Texture in
Blender:
-Better brush workflow. Allow texture creation and editing from within the brush controls window
-A complete undo system in the UV/Image window for painting. With brush visual representation just like in the 3d window
3. Lighting 30 minutes to 1 hour
4. Compositing 2-4 hours
I spend a lot of time tweaking the lighting in compositing.
-Adding DOF and atmospheric effects 10-20 minutes
-Adding visual effects (ie. glare, glow, etc.) 20-30 minutes
-Adjust lighting (via RGB and normal nodes) 1-2 hours
5. Final Rendering and any compositing outside of Blender 3-4 hours (~2K resolution)
Improvements to rendering to decrease time:
-A way to export all channels (alpha, reflection, etc.) and/or the composite at a certain point out within a single file (ie. psd) and with a single node.
-Saving of render data to decrease the time it takes to re-render.
Nichod,
awesome report, thank you. The suggestions you included for speed improvement are also welcome.
LetterRip
You are welcome. I could give a big list of feature and workflow/speed improvements. But I don’t want to make this a feature request thread.
You can send the list to me privately if you like.
LetterRip
Perhaps stick suggestions in the 2.5 requests thread?
I’d estimate…
Model - 60%
-modeling - 33%
-sculpting - 66%
UV Unwrap - 2%
Texture - 20%
Lighting - 3%
Rendering - 10%
Compositing - 5%
and
Model - 30%
UV Unwrap - 2%
Texture - 15%
Rig - 15%
UV Weight - 20%
Animate - 0% (i’m not an animator)
Lighting - 3%
Rendering - 10%
Compositing - 5%
I’m not much of a professional, but I have done some freelance work here and there
but…yeah, I guess modeling/sculpting would be my specialty. it’s what I do best so that’s what I usually stick to
Model = 60 - 65 %
Texturing & shaders = 15 -20%
Lighting = 15 %
Rendering = depends on the scene and engine used
Compositing = 5
hm… i expected bigger texturing percentages. 
texturing always takes an disproportional amount of time for me (i mostly do low poly models for games).
always having to switch between gimp/photoshop and blender, saving and reloading the image,… it would be nice if there were a realtime connection like there was with verse a while ago. and better painting tools in blender would be nice too of course.
Hi letterrip, I described quite exactly the timing of a simple process in this issue of blenderart:
http://blendertestbuilds.de/blenderart_mag/blenderart_mag-23_eng.zip
it’s the ‘making of head-legs creature’ article.
The workflow was split up in these tasks: sketchsculpt, retopo, PROJECTION ISSUES(half the time in this case), UV, texturing/detailing, shaders/hair, light, render/rendertimes. This is what I measured by watching myself doing actually a single project, so not only an estimation.