Friday Update, January 27, 2012

[adonys]

I've just doublechecked with one of our professional modelers, taking the RATA/109 as our subjects, and we've reached the following conclusions (assuming you have all the documentation already gathered and available, which usually is the job of the designers):
- 1 week for the external frame (modelling & unwrapping)
- 3 weeks for the internal cockpit (modelling & unwrapping)
- 4 weeks for texturing (1 for external frame, 3 for internal cockpit)
- additional 4 weeks for tweaking, etc

That's a timeframe of around 2-3 months per model, with a single man working. Working with two men (one modeler, one texture artist) will cut this time frame in half (of course, the texture artist will have to wait for the first model to be ready, before starting the cycle)

...

[bongodriver]

Originally Posted by adonys

I've just doublechecked with one of our professional modelers, taking the RATA/109 as our subjects, and we've reached the following conclusions (assuming you have all the documentation already gathered and available, which usually is the job of the designers):
- 1 week for the external frame (modelling & unwrapping)
- 3 weeks for the internal cockpit (modelling & unwrapping)
- 4 weeks for texturing (1 for external frame, 3 for internal cockpit)
- additional 4 weeks for tweaking, etc

That's a timeframe of around 2-3 months per model, with a single man working. Working with two men (one modeler, one texture artist) will cut this time frame in half (of course, the texture artist will have to wait for the first model to be ready, before starting the cycle)

...

so assuming they have 1 person per plane (maybe they have 2 planes per person?)

2-3 months for the basic textured model....animations too?

how many more months for the FM, DM etc and the tweaking time for them?

then add the research time to that (it should be included)

[Dano]

Originally Posted by bongodriver

so assuming they have 1 person per plane (maybe they have 2 planes per person?)

2-3 months for the basic textured model....animations too?

how many more months for the FM, DM etc and the tweaking time for them?

then add the research time to that (it should be included)

Indeed. It's not like you can just drop a completed model in and it magically works.

[Sutts]

Originally Posted by adonys

I've just doublechecked with one of our professional modelers, taking the RATA/109 as our subjects, and we've reached the following conclusions (assuming you have all the documentation already gathered and available, which usually is the job of the designers):
- 1 week for the external frame (modelling & unwrapping)
- 3 weeks for the internal cockpit (modelling & unwrapping)
- 4 weeks for texturing (1 for external frame, 3 for internal cockpit)
- additional 4 weeks for tweaking, etc

That's a timeframe of around 2-3 months per model, with a single man working. Working with two men (one modeler, one texture artist) will cut this time frame in half (of course, the texture artist will have to wait for the first model to be ready, before starting the cycle)

...

I think you've forgotten all that complex internal wing/fuselage structure haven't you? I've done some modeling work for a real mosquito wing structure using information from original plans. I really think you're underestimating the time it takes to figure out proper dimensions and how everything fits together from the sparse documentation available.

If this was a fictional model you could approximate pretty easily and get away with it....we'll stick the throttle here and the flap controls there...jig them around a bit until they look about right and so on. However, modeling a complex historical aircraft in such incredible detail takes more time than that and suggesting otherwise is a bit of an insult I reckon.

If you study the CloD cockpits and internals you can see they're very faithful to the real aircraft. The throttle quadrant etc. aren't just thrown together to look something like - they're dimensionally accurate objects. Repeat that for all the cockpit fittings and controls, then the wing spar, ribs, gun bays, weapons, fuselage formers, engine and ancillaries and you have a hugely complex job on your hands.

It's not necessarily the time it takes to chuck the stuff into 3D Studio...there's a lot more to it than that.


EDIT: To be fair you did remove the research effort from the estimate with the statement "assuming you have all the documentation already gathered and available". I can't stress enough how difficult and time consuming this part of the job is to get right. I do still think there is far more to modelling a CloD aircraft than any other sim aircraft to date. If you look at the complete model with internals you can see there is very little of the original design that isn't included in some form or other. Each little detail can be a research job in itself.