What would be the kind of timeline for creating a brand new character from concept all the way through to grey phase, final push?
TL;DRA casual-clothing character takes roughly 40 to 60 days from concept through rigging, depending on complexity, while armored characters take longer because the first one needs both an undersuit and layered armor.
That depends on if we're going to do a costume character or an armored character. Our armored characters are a little more complex because, as you can see with the CDS, the marines right now, we have basically an undersuit where you can then layer things on top. And so that means when we're creating armored characters, the first time we make a new one, we're essentially making two characters, because we have to create the undersuit. And then on top of that, we create the armor elements that are going to be layered on, which also allows for future different manufacturers of those armors being put on that one as well. So that takes a little bit more time investment.
But for something that's in the shops that you can just buy as casual clothing, roughly including concept and including the rigging phase, it can take about 40 to 60 days, depending on the complexity of the costume. Usually a couple days to a week to nail down a concept. When we're doing concepts, we're doing them in batches rather than just doing one at a time. And then the high poly sculpting phase can take 20 to 30 days of time to get that really nailed down, and then the game model and the texturing and rigging go in those last 10 to 30 days. Some people are really good at certain parts of the pipeline; some people are much faster at sculpting, some people are much faster at game asset and texturing, and so it really does depend on that. That's a pretty broad timeline, but 40 to 60 is about average.