Protofriday - Timeline

I think I've got a plan!  There's a lot of stuff for me to do and, luckily for me, there's not a little time to do it in.  I posted earlier about my asset list and everything I'll have to make up for the Prototytan Project; fourty-six robots, a half-dozen humans, a few sets, and a lot of props - and that's just for the first season.  But before I do all that, I still have to learn Lightwave.  It's not completely new since I'm transitioning from 3DS Max, but it's still taking some time before I get comfortable with it.  It's an uphill battle, though, because I'm stubborn and hate having to adjust to new things. 

I've looked at all the assets and I've figured out a timeline that I think will give me enough time to get everything modeled.  The timeline has a few steps; the first is the learning phase.  I'm giving myself til the end of the year to learn as much as I have to about Lightwave.  I'll go through a ton of tutorials, I'll model a bunch of junk, I'll mess with the materials, everything I can do to learn without feeling pressured to make a Prototytan just yet.  I don't want to start out trying to model Huffer or Reaper and just get frustrated when nothing's turning out right.  So I'll start out with toasters or rockets or whatever else I can think of.  Also during this time, I'll finalize the alt mode and design for all the robots.  There'll be lots of sketches here so hopefully I'll have a lot to post here.

The second step is the asset production.  As soon as it turns to 2011, I'm going to start modeling with a purpose.  I'm giving myself a long time - two years - to model everything I need.  I'll start with the robots and give myself 11 days to model and surface each one.  By the time that 11th day hits, I'll have a model of the alt mode ready to sell online, and have a fully transformable robot.  I measured this out and all together, it should take me 18 months.  That'll give me 6 months to model out everything else; the people, sets and props.  During this time, the Prototytan Project will have daily updates to keep me going.

The final thing I'll have to do before the deadline is get the first update ready to post online.  It's not a long one, I think just a few pages, but it has to be ready to go by January 1st, 2013.  That Tuesday is officially... Prototuesday!  Watch for it!