Well, I finished it on time and was able to submit this year! Following is the presentation shot I submitted. I also had to submit a beauty shot, construction shot, texture sheet, and inspiration sheet.Â

Click on the above image for fullsize.
I learned quite a few things working on this project, and think I did some things right. The things I learned/did wrong are as follows:
-Make a schedule and stick to it as much as possible. This seems pretty straight forward being that I always schedule stuff out at work, but it’s definitely important not to get stuck at the end with a ton of stuff to do.Â
-Have a character(or 2-3) picked out before the competition starts so I don’t waste 4-5 days trying to figure out what subject I’m going to be doing.Â
-Be even more active on the forums. I left a decent amount of genuine comments this year, but I think it’s necessary to get even more dialogue going. I used to think stuff like “good job, keep it up” was kind of silly and meaningless, but those sort of comments can keep you going if you ever hit a sticking point. As long as it’s a sincere pat on the butt, I think it’s fine to leave short, positive comments. It also gets more people looking at your stuff.
The things I did right:
-Spent the time necessary to design a character and resolve the design issues that I had. I could have just thrown something together and moved on to the modeling phase, but it definitely paid off in the end to have spent the week+ on a concept.
-I finished! Basically, I didn’t finish last year’s comicon, and haven’t finished the past 2 dominance wars, so this was a huge accomplishment. I’ve got a much better idea of what to do from here on out with competitions while working full-time.
-Achieved a level of quality I’m happy with. Yes, there are things I would’ve done differently and fixed had I had more time, but ultimately I’m pleased with the end result.
So, that’s about it. For the next competition I have a schedule in mind, working backwards- 1 week for final presentation, 1 week for textures/lighting, 1 week for low poly+baking, and the rest for concepting+high poly work. If I look at dominance war’s deadline, that would give me essentially the following:
2 weeks for concept
3 weeks for high poly
1 week for low+bakes
1 week for textures/lighting
1 week for final presentation
This seems pretty reasonable for finishing on time, with little stress, while still working full-time. If I look at comicon’s schedule for next year, it would be more like:
1 week for concept
2 weeks for high poly
1 week for low/bakes
1 week for textures/lighting
1 week for presentation
I would potentially take some time out of the presentation and low/bakes estimate to add to the high poly, but again, this seems reasonable.
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