Comments on: How you do you determine a realistic deadline?

By: a

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:33:29 +0000

cool, but you can’t make a movie???

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:58:35 +0000

Franco, you will be pleased to know that both 2.49 and 2.5x can do multi-pass multi-layer renders to the “MultiLayer” format (which is OpenEXR… although not the same as the “OpenEXR” choice(!)). Exactly as you describe for C4D.

I second your suggestion … and third … and fourth.

By: Eric Crystal Clear Films

Eric Crystal Clear Films — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:39:29 +0000

Well to start once you figure how long it will take then double it and then add 15% more time
So for example it will take a day then make it a day and a half, and like Scotty from Star trek said “if it will take you an hour the tell them two and a half that way when your done in an hour and a half you look like a genius.”
As far as editing you can figure at least 20min of editing time for every one min of finished product.

By: Nixon

Nixon — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:11:19 +0000

very interesting post, i fail to estimate time needed for my stuff still but i’ll hope to get better by the time…
is there a’ you’ too much in the headline…
shouldn’t it be ‘How do you determine a realistic deadline?’
Since I’m german I’m not sure tho if i might get the sentence wrong but anyway :D

By: Franco

Franco — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:51:34 +0000

What doesn’t seem to have been addressed yet is client changes and their effect on project duration.

To reduce delivery time, doing only the absolute minimum amount of work required in 3d and getting to a compositor as quickly as possible can save a significant amount of time, specially in the client change rounds.

Once the animation is locked, rendering individual passes for material channels, depth maps, object buffers, and each light, can offer a significant amount of flexibility.

You can, for example, darken one building, change its color, or re-render only a few “layers” like the debris in the foreground. Motion channels and depth maps also help you blur individual layers and add depth of field in compositing, which saves significant rendering time.

This increases project setup time, but decreases overall project and rendering time, specially for the change rounds.

When you’re working with clients, the change rounds can often last longer than the original time required for animation. So setting up project set up from the get-go for flexibility like this can be advantageous.

Cinema 4D is strong in the area, with a built in multichannel renderer that can be opened up as a multi layered AE or Motion project. If blender can do the same, I’d love to see a tutorial on that.

Best,

By: Maria

Maria — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:07:10 +0000

In the programming shop where I work they practice “The Scotty Principle.” Based on the confession of Mr. Scott that he always inflated the amount of time is would take him to get something repaired and then looked like a savior when he got it done early. We have learned that the best route when telling the client managers a deadline on the spot is to figure what we think it will take multiply, by 3 for the real amount and then multiply by 1.5 for a nice buffer, looking like wizards and googling.

By: balaraj

balaraj — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:54:57 +0000

I want to start to learn 3D
thanking you

By: DarkCellar

DarkCellar — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:34:25 +0000

I definitely agree that you have to include extra time to deal with uncertainty.

One way is to take the task list and estimate time for each one, and your level of certainty (as a percentage) in the estimate. If the certainty is too low, say below 65%, then break that task down into smaller parts and estimate for each. That way you can find where your uncertainty is.

-Mitch

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:12:31 +0000

Lately I’ve been limiting my working time to 3 hours a day.
It really focuses you – and you always have lots of sleep.

By: Craigsnedeker

Craigsnedeker — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:42:52 +0000

Wow, I never really think of this. I don’t have deadlines for myself, I go-with-the-flow (I work fast, but my clients are dreadfully slow replying to emails, which is unpredictable) lol