Setting Deadlines

Hi there,

I'm currently struggling on setting deadlines on when i will get work down for.

Previously i have gone over the agreed deadline as i hadn't budgeted enough time on how quickly I could get bits of work done.

I do interior & exterior arch viz work in 3dsmax and vray.

I am curious on how people work out roughly how long a project is going to take them and generally how long it takes other people to create an interior view or exterior view.

I understand that this is quite a vague question as different qualities and different types of projects have different level of details, but a rough estimation would be great

I have attached the type of quality that i tend to aim for.

Thanks in advance

Michael

You gain the ability to budget hours only though experience. The example you posed, that's about 4 hours worth of work with assuming that all of the furniture is pre-made. The scene, the lighting, the materials are all very simple.

A good rule of thumb is to take whatever you initially budget and add on 25-50% to it to cover any unforeseen issues.

You gain the ability to budget hours only though experience.

Exactly. Start keeping a log of hours (even break it down to modeling, materials, lighting, post process, etc), and notes or rating on the difficulty of the scene. That will give you a good average over time and then look for trouble areas that will need more time. Furniture or details that you need to model, materials you'll need to make, special landscape elements, etc.

I generally give projections in no greater precision than by day. If I estimate 4 hours and I don't have a pressing workload, I will tell them that I will have it to them no later than the next day. I will likely get it done sooner and send it to them the same day, but this let's me beat the time expectations more often than not.

Having more than one workflow will also help in beating expectations. I started using Lumion and Enscape specifically for this reason. The advantage with using those tools is in utilizing the efficiency gained from them to fit more into the end product than you could have otherwise. It still makes my head spin when I use Lumion to add landscaping, cars and people to a project after having used Max to do those things for so many years.

Hi Michael

Based on the image you show I would personally schedule a day to get that kind of image done.

I would probably tell the client it will take 2 days ...

Its always good to give yourself some room to breath if possible.

This isn't always the case on a lot of my projects - usually the client imposes a date (for competitions or client meetings etc.)

I also tend to get a varying number of requests for modifications. So over time I've developed methods for dealing with these quickly...

With experience you'll become a much better judge of this :-)

If you're struggling with time management there was an interesting article on Archdaily here:

https://www.archdaily.com/774786/6-essential-time-management-tips-for-architects

some good tips to be had !

cheers

You gain the ability to budget hours only though experience.

Absolutely agree with this. It's something everyone struggles with until you've got a decent amount of experience under your belt; and even then it can feel like someone is asking you "how long is a piece of string".

As others have said, log your hours for each project and make a note of any things that stood out to you as taking particularly long so that you can factor them in on future jobs.

You gain the ability to budget hours only though experience. The example you posed, that's about 4 hours worth of work with assuming that all of the furniture is pre-made. The scene, the lighting, the materials are all very simple.

 

A good rule of thumb is to take whatever you initially budget and add on 25-50% to it to cover any unforeseen issues.

Four hours is very little for the that job.

Even with the model ready, the rendering and the lighting would be more.

No models are ever premade precisely for a job, there is always some adjusting to do.

Obviously you tell the client 2 days..................for profit.

Thanks to all for the input. Will take your advice on board and hopefully over time i will get better at it.

Totally understand this issue. Especially when I get a model that is less than par.

Coupled with the advice given above, perhaps under promise, over deliver. So ... say, that it will take 24 hours when you know it will really take 18. Then you have given yourself some wiggle room.