How much time do you invest in your images (work time, not render time) - and how frequently do you get several hours into something and then scrap it?

I scrap 95% of my projects.Average time on a project can be 1 week to 4 months depending on complexity.I am usually too hard on my own images(I still only have 2 in the gallery).I must say though,even if you dont finish its still good time spent if you are pushing yourself and learning new stuff.

For a picture that has ended up in my gallery, I've spent anywhere from 2 hours total to 4 weeks work time. I have made scrapping projects a way of life, lol. But, basically they all just turn into backburner projects, or just raw resources in which to cannabalize parts from. I'll put it this way, I only have 69 pics in my gallery but I have 643 Bryce scene files on my hard drive. AgentSmith

I usually do a sketch first(I carry a sketchbook with me everywhere), and fool around with it for a day or two, then layout how to get it into Bryce, do the models I need, pick up any other references I might need, etc.

That's about three weeks, maybe less, then I spend another two weeks actually creating it in Bryce.....however, some of my best work is created in minutes when I'm in the 'zone'(an extreme creative period right before a massive migraine splits my head open), where everything falls into place lighting fast, and I only need a day or two to refine the details....at least two challenge winners went together this way....

I do have a few sketches as preliminary Bryce images, they have Poser figures in them and it takes me forever to put these together, actually none are finished yet...

I have several CD's full of BR5 files, but post only a fraction. It's quite intersting to go through and load files that I have no recollection of creating. As for actual time. Like AS, some take hours, some take weeks. Difficult to judge. I also have several pictures at wip and chop and change between them. Some will go no further, others I'll not touch for a month and then pick up again.

I can usually do an image in a couple (2-4) hours, if I have just pure time with no distractions. But normally it takes a little longer including planning and such. Siigh. I just never have enough time. Especially not lately! I have 4 different Bryce projects I have to work on, and only one of them is for Renderosity!!! But these days shall be over soon! (the busyness, that is)

I tend to have a pretty long "think and procrastinate" stage - maybe 5-10 days, before actually starting an image. The images that I don't finish tend to stop in the blocking-out stage (where I am just putting 3d blocks into a scene file and moving them around to see how things would work out for POV or composition) and so don't take very many bryce hours at all - maybe a couple of hours for a fail. Once something gets past the blocking out stage, I tend to have a pretty tight idea of what I want to do in the picture these days and how to go about it, so it tends to get finished (maybe 90% of the finishes I am willing to show to people these days). As for time spent on the image, the pictures that I finish these days take ages - average seems to be about two months from start of work to posting. I tend to only do about 10 hours a week tops (excluding rendering time which can be done 24/7 if necessary) on 3d scene creation including modelling so its not really as bad as it sounds. Recently I've been working on projects one at a time due to a lack of remaining HDD space (20MB at time of posting my last image), but right now am planning on starting the next part 10/12 of my skel series, and devoting a bit of time to the challenge - actually have a challenge idea that may have a chance to render before August ;). Opps, an essay just appeared. Sorry.

I'm with Flak. I usually start something and then have a long period of it simmering in my head. "Lazing on a sunny afternoon" took almost a year to finish. OTOH, there are some images that I managed to finish in a couple of days. The problem is, I start the image, come to a certain stage and then see I have to change things, so I have to ... I don't know ... rebuild models and import them again, that's the usual culprit. Or I change the model and see it doesn't work with the current composition anymore, so I have to move everything around. I don't scrap the unfinished scene, but I have many more Bryce files than I have finished images. And I don't think there's a single image that stayed the same from the idea to the finish. Take that WIP several posts below. It already passed through three complete changes. All of them asked for a more complex model. :-)

My ideas usually come spontanious. I've got the feel of the image and the basic look in my mind. Then I just start doodling on paper or I start directly with modelling and texturing. I can work on the composition and lighting at any point during the project. I tweak composition and lightin as soon as I get an idea to improve things and that happens very often. The end result will still be the same the idea I had, it just takes a bit of fiddling to get there. An image can take anywhere from an hour to more then a month to create. I often scrap images, usually because I wasn't really making anything specific but just playing around. It also happens every once in a while that I have to stop a project after days of work because it's simply too complex for my computer to handle. Parts of ideas from scenes that were too complex will sometimes return in a simplified version in other images, so scrapping things does not always mean that the idea is lost too.

I usually only have 2 hours at work to do something, so at most 3 days from concept to 'rendering'..if I'm doing a model, I'll do a Google search for reference pics..a couple hours modelling (or less), import, positioning..and it's a debate as to which takes longer; the render, or finding the right mat..;) Longest render so far has been 6 hours, some have been 30 seconds..;) the last posting took about a week altogether(though I recycle props whenever possible)..mainly loading those Poser characters and saying 'hello' to the 'shruggin' man'..:|
I post everything, though when the count gets too high, I'll cull the less 'popular' or good ones..I've done a couple hundred here over the years..
dang, that pesky essay done bit me now..is it a thread virus or somethin'?..;)

Thanks for the insight. I don't feel (quite) so bad now. :) (So by inference or implication, you can assume that I also scrap a lot, or find I have to change gears after what already feels like a significant time investment just so that it doesn't 'totally'suck.)

I tend to orbit between 2 and 10 hrs exclusive of render time. I also find I finish about 90% of the projects I start. I must note, however, that I don't always end up where I expected to.

I usually just start playing and see what happens. Sometimes I have a general idea but mostly not. I just start with a terrain(yes, that's why I do so many crappy landscapes)and go from there. That's why I didn't get an entry into the April challenge,......was go to use Shakespere's "Henry V",.....you know, the "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he who sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother, be he ne're so vile that his condition will not be gentled by this day" soliliqy(spelling). But, alas, I started 6 times to compose a siutable image, all for naught. Maybe I'll get it right and post it someday,......probably not though. To make a long story short,......they all looked crappy. 98.5% of my images never see final render.