6 months to create ONE equipment set!?

[Physic]

Try this...
1) Conceptual design ( artist sketch on paper/ hand draw ) for all races = 3 weeks
2) Model that concept design with simple wire frame/few texture for ALL RACES = 3-4 weeks
3) Detailed sculpture for 3D model for all race = 2 months
4) Texture creation and lightning = 2 Months ( can start after #3 finish for 1 month )
5) Apply armor physic and touch up = 2 months

I think it's reasonable timeframe for their design effort. I'm not sure what is the real development lifecycle for make new gear is but I'm sure for 1 things.... there are 8 races to make and that's why it take time a lot.

Try imagine above work yourself before complain....

Im an artist 3-4 weeks to design one armor set is an insane luxury, I have done that in 1-2 days. though if i was doing it for work, id prolly take like 1 week or 10 days and tell them thats how long it takes, but a month? na thats crazy

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Im an artist 3-4 weeks to design one armor set is an insane luxury, I have done that in 1-2 days. though if i was doing it for work, id prolly take like 1 week or 10 days and tell them thats how long it takes, but a month? na thats crazy

Ofcourse it doesn't take that long unless your boss is someone who say "Make me another one"

[Preypacer]

Im an artist 3-4 weeks to design one armor set is an insane luxury, I have done that in 1-2 days. though if i was doing it for work, id prolly take like 1 week or 10 days and tell them thats how long it takes, but a month? na thats crazy

The process involves the creation of a number of different concept sketches, reviews, modifications, approvals. They could be picking and choosing between a number of different possibilities, perhaps mixing elements from one concept with that of another. It's not a straight-forward process where one person is drawing away in their studio for a couple days, turning the work in as "finished" and moving on to the next one.

[Delsus]

The process involves the creation of a number of different concept sketches, reviews, modifications, approvals. They could be picking and choosing between a number of different possibilities, perhaps mixing elements from one concept with that of another. It's not a straight-forward process where one person is drawing away in their studio for a couple days, turning the work in as "finished" and moving on to the next one.

I would like to know on average how many concepts get thrown out making the artist have to start again as well, if somthing isnt up to scratch for the devs it will get scrapped. I could imagine its atleast 10 sketches for each piece of gear, because it needs to work with all models.

[Preypacer]

I would like to know on average how many concepts get thrown out making the artist have to start again as well, if somthing isnt up to scratch for the devs it will get scrapped. I could imagine its atleast 10 sketches for each piece of gear, because it needs to work with all models.

I don't even think it's a matter of "having to start again". I think it's more a system of iterative refinement.

In most cases, they'll come up with a bunch of different concepts to begin with. Each is a bit different, has a different style, etc... From there, they're reviewed and a decision is made on which concepts seem the best in line with what they're after. The artists might be asked to create additional concepts that are a mix of 2 or 3 of them... They'll go, create those concepts... come back... review, etc.

Ultimately, the final design is decided, and the artist then creates the final, high quality concepts (which are the ones we usually see). They'll create studies of them in different poses; in this case, it might be a character wearing the armor.. They'll also create the concept art for the modelers to use as reference which are typically drawn at specific orthographic angles (front, side, etc).

I don't know exactly how SE does it, but that's the general approach used by many/most studios.

Like you, though, I would also be interested to know how much of it ends up "on the cutting room floor", so to speak.

[Physic]

The process involves the creation of a number of different concept sketches, reviews, modifications, approvals. They could be picking and choosing between a number of different possibilities, perhaps mixing elements from one concept with that of another. It's not a straight-forward process where one person is drawing away in their studio for a couple days, turning the work in as "finished" and moving on to the next one.

I am an artist, i have done this process, and basically if it takes that long its a combination of lazyness on my part, poor management on their part and a excessive amount of complete redos. And even that is probably bull, cause thats how long it might take me, when i do it for like an hour a day, and am doing long distance freelance work with someone who is always busy. If im working 8 hours, and my boss can see and respond to what im doing normally it wouldnt take close to that amount of time.

Done properly you do a lot of rough concept work that is fairly fast, it doesnt require in depth rendering, just the rough idea, that can take a day.

then you get some feedback, that may take another day, then you work on the actual straight mock up, maybe another day, then back to the management with tweaks and changes, the whole process shouldnt really take more than a week even in a bad situation.

from what i ve seen, i think he was basically exaggerating to give himself room, if it really takes 6 months to make one model, no game they have made in the past 10 or so years would have been finished in less than 10 years.

how many npcs/pcs are in your usuall ff game? do you really think it takes them 6 months per chr? if this is really the case how do students in a 3d modeling class with 5 classes a semmester do the same thing in a few hours a day and no real expeience multiple times throughout the class? you ever been to conceptart.org? do you see how much stuff some of these guys push out in 6 months?

Its either him misrepresenting the situation, or they have a serious problem with management and art development.

[miqokini]

No, we should not accept this if it's true. Yes, we should complain. No, I don't have to go make a game like FFXIV before I have the right to complain.

6 months is insane no matter what they are working with.

I also took art and design classes in college. If I were to tell my professors about this, they would laugh in my face and wonder how the f SE is such a big company.

Actually, that's most likely the problem. SE itself is huge, but how many people are actually working on XIV? Like 11?

[Charismatic]

No, we should not accept this if it's true. Yes, we should complain. No, I don't have to go make a game like FFXIV before I have the right to complain.

6 months is insane no matter what they are working with.

I also took art and design classes in college. If I were to tell my professors about this, they would laugh in my face and wonder how the f SE is such a big company.

Actually, that's most likely the problem. SE itself is huge, but how many people are actually working on XIV? Like 11?

Wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to put a lot of people on the project especially not for the artwork and such, the core of the game is what is important for them to change to get this game into a ready state so they can actually begin to make money off of it instead of hemorrhaging cash.

[miqokini]

Wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to put a lot of people on the project especially not for the artwork and such, the core of the game is what is important for them to change to get this game into a ready state so they can actually begin to make money off of it instead of hemorrhaging cash.

I guess this makes sense. They should have been more specific, in that case. They could have said, "At this time, with so much devoted to core mechanics, it takes us 6 months to pump out one armor set. Once we have the core mechanics squared away, we will be able to devote much more resources to designing new equipment."

But the way they said it makes it seem like that is the case regardless of where there resources are being spent.

And the argument that they are moving so slowly to not waste more money than they have to does not make much sense to me. Not many people are going to buy into the game if content comes at a snail pace at this point to warrant future purchases/subscriptions.

[Kajika]

For those of you who say this should be done in a month, I say put your money where your mouth is. The artist's work is the short end of the schedule. There is much to do to make this happen. It can happen much faster than 6 months if you rush it and avoid a lot of "polish", but if you are trying to do the job right, it will easily take over 3 months. You can put multiple people on the various steps though and start to crank these out much faster. Even WoW took a long time to put out new models and those were much much simpler.

For those of you that say "I am an artist and I can do it in a month", I say "show us an example and tell how long the entire thing took from start (concept) to finish (working in a game)".

Finally, why even get upset about this? How is this bothering you in-game?