Deadlines too short nowdays. What are yours ?

[correntes]

Hello guys,

In general what are the deadlines that you have to work with ?

Here at the office we usually have 1 day for 1 image.
The usual is an set of 5 images for an office building with 100 meter high - 5 days.

Even if we only have 1 day for 1 image, we are asked to "experiment" too. Strange stuff...

How about you ?

[glorybound]

I usually have a week for the stuff I do, which is usually 1-3 images. They ask me how much time I'll need. usually.

[Neilg]

We dont take on any project under a full week per image. we usually take on accounts that last anywhere from 2-9 months for 10-50 images. The tightest job we've done in recent memory was for 3 images in 2 weeks, budgeted for 2 people full time.


We hired a guy recently who got a job at a place that had decent work on their website. they sat him down and told him to do 2 images a day, no gi, no ps, just take this sketchup model, add materials and press render. Apparently the good stuff was just work they show to get clients in.
he was there 2 days i think. I wouldn't have even made it fully sat down in the chair.

[Pixelcon]

edit: wrong thread

[theedge]

The common delay here is between 1-2 weeks for architecture competitions (anywhere from 1 to 6 images) and 2-4 weeks for urban development projects.
I agree these short deadlines aren't for everyone. But after a few years you eventually develop a set of 3D-ninja-techniques to get the job done in this ridiculous timeframe.
As for "experiments"... it depends. Sometimes you iterate the design to improve it, following a clear direction and that's a good thing. But when these iterations are only the result of hesitations you're just running into the wall.

[Neilg]

The common delay here is between 1-2 weeks for architecture competitions (anywhere from 1 to 6 images) and 2-4 weeks for urban development projects.

Thats the same here for non-account work.
For experiments we put time aside around jobs. We recently took on some big aerials (100km scale) so a couple weeks before starting we went through the entire process we'd use to create it, tried to figure out what problems we'd face and think if there are any quicker ways to do things. then we broke off an r&d group of 2 people to spend a week running through different methods to find any issues we hadnt considered. Got the workflow on lockdown before starting and didn't waste a second of time.

[kalamazandy]

I was underbid by someone that just charges a blanket fee of $500 per image no matter what. I'm guessing they are just making their money when someone asks for 10 views, and losing money when people only get 1 image and never get another of the same/similar project.
Of course, I later Saw the render they pumped out for $500. And I could have done it for that cost as well. It probably only took 2 hours from start to finish. This was for a product shot on their packaging. They didn't end up using it, ended up waiting for the product to be finished, the hire photographers to do it, which really made sense for them because they also wanted usage pictures as well. So unless they want to pay for 3D models/compositing real, with food and everything, then realistically that would be a lot cheaper. But I'd bet they spent 10K on the project in the end....plus the terrible $500 image.

But I end up having to pump out 4-5 minute motion graphics with 20-30 seconds of 3D animation in 2-4 weeks. Still shots are usually .5-1 day. I usually do those in keyshot if it's just a really tight deadline. It's harder to get it to look good, but there isn't really much setup time. I'm still waiting for Chaos Group's version of keyshot. Just a nice stand alone render for single images of product with no BS? Camera settings, environment settings, and materials. That's it.

[glorybound]

I'm still waiting for Chaos Group's version of keyshot. Just a nice stand alone render for single images of product with no BS? Camera settings, environment settings, and materials. That's it.

I have been using Vlad's Universal Method, and it's very much a no BS setup. It's slower, but stopping/tweaking/starting over and over is part of the render time that we never include. Now, I just render with the Universal method, and I trust it'll be clean. No more 3 hours of tweaking to get a 20% increase in rendering speed.

[Nicinus]

Hmm, that's why I'm using SoldRocks, I just can't be bothered with tweaking settings when there is so much else that needs attention.

[Neilg]

Of course, I later Saw the render they pumped out for $500. And I could have done it for that cost as well. It probably only took 2 hours from start to finish.

The amount of clients who come to us with a 3/4 week job, balk at our prices, go with someone else, hate their work, come back to us and end up paying way over what we first quoted because there's now only a week left makes up like half our non-account workload.

[glorybound]

For me, to use SolidRocks I have to pre-calc things, which takes time and even then images are not as clean. Sometimes it works, but most of the time I have to troubleshoot light leaks, splotches.... The Universal method is 100%, 100% of the time and the rendering times are only marginally longer. So, if I am rendering over night anyway, it's the only way to go.

Hmm, that's why I'm using SoldRocks, I just can't be bothered with tweaking settings when there is so much else that needs attention.

[Nicinus]

I'm admittedly not a particularly advanced user and should probably used something like Corona instead, but what do you mean by pre-calc things? I never do that, and I don't seem to suffer from light leaks either? Then again nowadays I usually use brute force and progressive.

[glorybound]

Pre-calculate your irradiance and light cache. Basically render with Glossy and reflections off. Sometime with displacement off, too. You save those file, turn things back on, and render using the saved information. It would take V-Ray hours to do those calculations otherwise. Doing it this way, those calculations are done in minutes.

[Nicinus]

Interesting, I knew about calculating the irridiance map but was under the impression that had to do with animations.

I was also under the impression that using SolidRocks with Brute/LC was very similar to the universal method, but more optimized. Will definitely experiment more.

[glorybound]

Interesting, I knew about calculating the irridiance map but was under the impression that had to do with animations. I was also under the impression that using SolidRocks with Brute/LC was very similar to the universal method, but more optimized. Will definitely experiment more.

Solid Rock does have both a BF and an IRR Universal, but I haven't tried it.