Difficult Modeling Job

[Billabong]

Are you asking people how long it would take them? I could probably have one modeled in little over a day and half, maybe a little longer depending on the amount of detail

[ClassicGamer]

A ferry would indeed take a considerable amount of time to create.

Personally in order to create a fairly photo realistic Ferry, it would probably take me about 1 week, then another week of material/shaders test rendering and optimising etc try to get the most realistic render output possible.

They are quite complex water vehicles and as such would require a few days of modelling even for basic's in my opinion. But not impossible.

It all depends on textures/materials.shaders used, but it's certainly possible.

I've built the Titanic for a client last year to be used for print and only one side and that took me 6 months.

It all depends of the level of detail you wan't and/or textures details to get it as real as possible. But depending on deadlines one of those factors would have to be slightly sacrificed to a lower quality than expected.

I could probably get this done in a week, however i've not got Final Renderl, Fry Render or Vray to get the best quality renders, but I do have friends who have it, who I could ask to render it out for me :)

I think we need some more details really.

Plus depending on the amount of work involved it could be very pricey.

Kind Regards

Classic Gamer

[vid2k2]

There are many different styles of these working watercraft.
Do you have photo reference for the one you want ?

I used to model museum quality watercraft from scratch and
detailed plans with strict adherence to scale will get you a
super 3D model. From there, as said above, it's textures, lighting,
environment and render engine. AR will do a good job with careful
lighting.

HTH,

[Mike Abbott]

I do a fair amount of this sort of high detail, high accuracy technical type modelling (ships, aircraft, trains, pianos...)

As well as the amount of detail required, the other major issue is how accurate it needs to be - is it just a 'generic' ferry where you can invent stuff so long as it looks right, or are you building an accurate model of a specific ship? If it's the latter, you're more than likely to find you've got a significant research job before you even start modelling.

The other thing you need to think about is usage / maximum output size - could this model / render end up filling a 48 sheet poster site?

It's impossible to suggest a useful timescale with the info you've given (got) - it could be anything from two weeks to two months - or even more if it's a specific ship and the brief is tight.

As you're new to this type of project one thing is almost certain : it will take you at least twice as long to do as you think. So build your estimate and double it...


Mike A.

[Billabong]

I'm not trying to start a flame here or anything, but I disagree with you guys. Thae hardest part of modeling a ship is the hull, once you have it, the rest pretty much falls into place. Ive done a good bit of military, cargo and passenger ships for the history channel and some studios down in Fl. The hardest one I ever did was the The Queen Mary. now granted it was not modeled down to the anchor with detail, but enough to tell what it was from a first glance. That only took me 12 hrs. I just think it all depends on how much time you are willing to spend on it in one day. I hardly ever leave the computer which is probably why I try to go so quick, but if your only planning to spend 3 or 4 hrs a day on it then yeah it might take you a while. A ferry has pretty much a flat bottom, not a lot of curves, so I really dont see that taking to long

Good Luck

[Billabong]

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[Billabong]

Good god this thing got posted 4 times, sorry guys I kept getting errors everytime i hit submit

[Billabong]

delete post

[Meteoro]

The hardest one I ever did was the The Queen Mary. now granted it was not modeled down to the anchor with detail, but enough to tell what it was from a first glance. That only took me 12 hrs.


Well... Surely you already know that me and a lot more could really love to see a modeling tutorial showing your techniques.

If someday you find the time and the will... :)

[AdamT]

I'm not trying to start a flame here or anything, but I disagree with you guys. Thae hardest part of modeling a ship is the hull, once you have it, the rest pretty much falls into place. Ive done a good bit of military, cargo and passenger ships for the history channel and some studios down in Fl. The hardest one I ever did was the The Queen Mary. now granted it was not modeled down to the anchor with detail, but enough to tell what it was from a first glance.
There's a huge difference between modeling something so it pretty much looks right at first glance and modeling it so it's accurate from the fairing of the hull down to the small details. It's the difference between a couple of hours and couple of months.

[wesware]

So many factors here... especially for photo-real.

Modelers speed.
Modelling detail
Texturing detail.
Lighting setup. GI?
Render size.
Post work.
Client input.
Availabilty of GOOD photo reference.

You also need to know the demographic of the viewers.
Example: I work with a client that manufactures water heaters... these images only go into trade magazines and brochures which is viewed by the people that intimately know water heaters... everything has to be right except for the occasional glamour shot or when we can simplify the model to specify one particular element.
If these images where viewed by the general public then some liberties could be taken.

Unless someone models photo-real sea vessels on a consistent basis (this would be important in a "fast" turn around scenario as the modeler would have knowledge of what each part is and what it looks like (how things connect, etc)... photo reference doesn't always answer these questions)

I can't imagine this taking any less than two weeks for a highly detailed, well executed image. Probably more like 3-4 weeks if the modeler needs to get up to speed on ships.

[Billabong]

There's a huge difference between modeling something so it pretty much looks right at first glance and modeling it so it's accurate from the fairing of the hull down to the small details. It's the difference between a couple of hours and couple of months.

A couple of weeks I can understand Adam, but a couple of months to model a ship, I just don't see it, but hey that's just me

[Srek]

If you want to model a ship (even a small one) en detail a couble of months seems a reasonable time to me.
Cheers
Björn

[mikeh64]

days, weeks, months.... what about budget?

I'd love to spend 2 months modeling 1 thing - but are there clients who will pay for that? Let's say you work for $50-65/hr - 2 months to build a ship model would be $16,000-$20,000.

Beyond that, are there clients who plan far ahead enough to even give you that amount of time?

I'd love to hear that there is lots of that sort of work out there (big budget/long lead time=dreamy).

mike

[acid2002]

why dont you do what they do with cars, get the cad drawings of the ship.

[Mike Abbott]

what about budget?
I'd love to spend 2 months modeling 1 thing - but are there clients who will pay for that? Let's say you work for $50-65/hr - 2 months to build a ship model would be $16,000-$20,000.
Beyond that, are there clients who plan far ahead enough to even give you that amount of time?


The short answer to both questions: Yes.

Are they everyday jobs, no :)


Mike A.

[dan22]

I can't offer any advice, sorry - I've never done any marine exteriors - but could some of you guys post some images of the kind of vessels you have built, with an approx. modelling timeframe?

It would be interesting, not only for "wonky", but for anyone faced with a similar brief in the future?

Cheers, D.

[vid2k2]

Since there's been no response from wonky, do a google search
for car ferry or passenger ferry. As you see, there are huge vessels
and small ones. Perhaps this was just a fishing trip ?



http://www.eurodrive.co.uk/images/PO_PrideOfBilbao.jpg

[ClassicGamer]

hmmmm the P&O Ferry if i'm honest would take me about a week to construct, a whole day of that would be getting as much information, reference pictures and corresponding artwork compiled before starting any modelling, and i'd be modelling in 4 hour segments like I do with most projects for instance 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm then a couple or 3 hours test renders and such afterwards every day.

That's just the way I work things out, another thing that would need to be considered is buget or not? Sometimes i'll either be able to negotiated a fixed working fee or they might only be able to afford a certain amount of payment in that case there's only so much you can model for a certain amount of time, in most cases though they are paying me for my time and skills in which to model and texture and light and render this object(s) and i'll layout a typical amount of hours and hourly fee.

I think basically we more information and details about the project to help you any further?

Also by the sound of things we're not sure If you are building this yourself, or asking any freelancers in here how long/much? for us to do it.

CG

[ClassicGamer]

Double Post Delete Please

[Billabong]

The short answer to both questions: Yes.

Are they everyday jobs, no :)


Mike A.


Thats the kind of client I want

[ChrisCousins]

Also by the sound of things we're not sure If you are building this yourself, or asking any freelancers in here how long...?


If it's the former, I'd suggest around an hour and a half. If it's the latter, I'll need atleast five weeks ;)

[wonky]

This thread has been very useful as I has confirmed my rough approximations. I recon about a week for a fairly good model suitable for a print job. This was never to be engineeringly perfect.

[WillBellJr]

My only comment would be that I'd probably try to model that in Rhino or preferably Moment of Inspiration (since it has the cleanest exports into Cinema 4D)...

Trying to model that using polys would be a hell of a time imo, using NURBS you could probably block out your major shapes in an hour or so...

-Will

[e[dub]]

just wanted to ad that if you have a hard time with photo references or CAD drawings, maybe you can find one of those plastic model kits from a toy/ hobby store. You can measure directly from the pices, and it would give you an accurate idea of what parts are needed, as everything is already split up into little objects.

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