ZBrushCentral

How long does a character REALLY take?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m not sure if this is the best place and hope this does not get lost, but the main forum seems mostly to be WIPs.

I’m still very much just learning, and I’m surprised how good things are looking (for me, anyway, not compared to the typical work here) but at the same time it seems to be taking SO LONG. I’ve spent weeks and I have a mostly done sculpt but I haven’t even started to try painting, let alone get it retopologized, UV mapped and into another program and animated etc. etc.

After someone has some experience how long does it take to sculpt, texture, retopologize etc. starting from nothing and getting it into another program and ready for animation?

I see a lot of talk about everything being a few hours or even under an hour for some people to do stuff that looks very detailed. I think this might be possible for a few especially talented people or those who do it day in and out for a long time but what’s realistic for someone who spends the time to learn to do it but doesn’t have years of experience in 3D?

How will a more or less average guy do once he’s done everything a few times and knows how it all works? Good quality but not overcomplex stuff intended for an indie game project, but not something that is a showpiece or intended for film or a big budget game. I’m starting to wonder if it’s going to be too much for me to do all the work I need to do.

#2

Strictly depends on the type of character, clothes, accessories, etc., and the natural/learned skill of the artist. The more you learn, the faster you’ll be. If it’s taking you a long time, it’s because you’re just beginning. Even at the master level I’m still working towards, these things are technical and take some time. At that point, though, what you must realize is that the time won’t matter as much if you’re getting paid off for it.

To answer your question, my last character went through about 15 hours of modeling, but that was without retopo. It was for concept art illustration. I also spent about 6 hours adding detail in Photoshop, and another 6 compositing it into a background, but that’s how I roll. I don’t do animation. So if that’s what you’re doing, study your ass off so that you can become efficient at the workflows needed for your projects. You could easily spend a week or 3 months on one project, there’s too many variables to accurately answer that, I think. Just remember, hard work pays off and success in anything is a choice.

If you happen to glance at my site to see an example of such work, just know that I haven’t posted anything on it in a couple years! Not only am I busy as hell with custom art, I rarely post clients work anywhere online because most of it involves projects of theirs that are in the works. No need to spread ideas that someone is paying you to realize. Good luck.

#3

How long you got?

I’ve sketched a character in a few hours (e.g. less than a day.) I have other character ideas that development and redevelopment have been years of calendar time (literally) and probably more than 100 hours of time actually sculpting. In general, I’ve put together characters “on spec” for a producer in less than a week (about 40 work hours) depending on the demands of the assignment, the detail level, reprocessing for rigging, client change requests, etc.

The last character I did just for myself was about 20 hours of sculpting time. I’d expect that UV’ing and detailing with texture/bump maps will add another 10-20 hours before I’ll be satisfied with the results.

-K

#4

Ok, if I can get it down to around a week at some point then that would be great.

#5

Like most people, I’d say it varies, but if you’re looking for averages, it’s my impression that in videogames at least, for modeling, sculpting, normal mapping, and texturing, people seem to shoot for 2 - 3 weeks, depending on the level of detail and how much of the character can be constructed out of parts of other characters, etc.

I recall hearing somewhere that an individual Gears of War character took roughly 3 weeks, and based on the D’Artiste Character Modeling 2 book, it seems that’s with having a separate modeler and texturer, and spending a good chunk of time doing detailed poly modeling in Max before doing the final detailing in Zbrush.

I also believe I’ve heard the Assassin’s Creed folks on this forum say something around 2 weeks per full character, or 1 week for a high-detail normal-mapped head.

Obviously, if you compare Gears of War’s high poly work and AC’s high poly work, they’re completely different styles, and it’s pretty educational to see the differences in how the artists approach them. (I’m definitely impressed and inspired by both!)

I can’t necessarily speak for cinematic characters–I’m sure that varies even more, since those artists often get as complex as they can to make the craziest looking weird stuff possible! (ie. Grendel in Beowulf, with it’s many many texture maps, heh.)

Hope that helps!

#6

2-3 weeks seems reasonable. Hopefully I can do it faster since I don’t need to be (and probably can’t achieve) big budget quality.

#7

i typically get one week (maybe two if it’s complex) to do a character, or a day maybe two to do a complex prop like a highly detailed sniper rifle, etc.

it all depends on the asset really, but on the average, this is what I usually get done.

It also depends on what aspects of the character you’re actually talking about. as a modeler I typically only deal with the mesh itself, and usually the UV’s texture. materials and shaders go off to a lighting TD, rigging goes off to a rigger, animation is done by an animator :slight_smile:

honestly, when you sit down and work on something for 9 hours straight (if you’re not the type that gets distracted by intra-office shenanigans), you’d be surprised how much you can get done without even really thinking about it.