Toy making, action figures, etc...where do you apply for that???
greentooth
I've always wanted to make toys ever since I was little, but I didn't know what the responsibilities are involving toy making or creating action figures. Now you have things like Sideshow Collectables and resin statues and so forth and I was wondering...is there a careers page for doing this? Where would I apply? haha
This is all merely speculation but if there's an oppurtunity for me to do it, I would apply....
This is all merely speculation but if there's an oppurtunity for me to do it, I would apply....
Replies
At this point, probably. Plus I think their sculptors start with clay, not CG sculpting.
Andreas: thats wrong, they as a lot of other move more and more in the digital direction
You can check the links on this page for more info, Adam Ross has sculpted for Sideshow Collectibles and has a bunch of usefull info if you read over his threads. http://pixologic.com/zbrush/industry/figure-creation/
I've managed to get toy work with just a game art portfolio, so I think you just need to demonstrate good sculpting ability. You will also need to adapt some new technical skills like making your meshes water-tight and doing decimation. This thread has some good info on the workflow: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?176344-Hec-s-2012-early-2013-works-dump
There's also this:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88735
Its quite difficult as the market is saturated by extremely talented traditional sculptors that are gradually switching over to digital medium without very much difficulty (since they have the foundations locked down, learning an app is a weekend away).
These traditional sculptors all have huge followings and fanbase that creates the demand and the toy and collectible makers dont want to lose that.
Also a lot of the companies run very traditionally, where they stick with a few sculptors loyally and dont really get new ones unless one of their regulars leaves by choice.
But, as anything, hard work and dedication will prevail and iv managed to get a few contract sculpting jobs by persisting, and i find is totally worth it in the end!
http://www.statueforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32
For places that do 3D prints I would just shoot them an email and see if they have work. There are a decent amount on kickstarter.
Did you have a chance to ask him why he couldn't be bothered to credit them on the packaging somewhere? After all that was one of his reasons he left Marvel.
(Sorry, back in the day I wanted to work for him, but the above left a bad, bad, taste in my mouth. I had much more respect for Clayburn Moore)
Did some toy sculpting about 6+ years back for a small guy here who was making some of the Halo 2 toys. We used a method pf sculpy and wax, make a mold, cast a plastic version, then add the fine details to show the client. If they approved, make a final cast and send. If they didn't (most of the time - the person at Microsoft/Bungie was very specific, of course my I think my bosses attitude didn't help), we would change what we could then recast again.
We also didn't have to worry about the joints, as the engineers at the factory would remake the sculpt with the joints.
Going through that much silicon casts got expensive fast. Also, fwiw, he went under and went back to LA for the props/effects business.
These days as most say, its 3d printing, and I do believe you need to add the joints or at least account for them so your sculpture ends up segmented.
I don't know if I entirely agree with that. You just need to show that you can use Zbrush really... you don't even have to be that good for most miniatures below 5cm. "Art Toys" like MacFarlane and larger ones like that is a different story...
I did work for Heroclix and Warhammer. Honestly the detail level required for small miniatures is low. You're pretty much just making the basic forms and blobby detail here and there. There were a few exceptions (such as spiderdude here on PC) but for the most part the sculptors are cheap labor from Asia and kinda suck.
Huh. From what I could see, Todd was always really respectful to the artists, at least to us on the enviro and lighting teams. He frequently would say he wanted to see some of the artists gain exposure from the project, via spotlights or art books or whatever. That said, he knew his name was a marketing asset and was willing to leverage that to help us get press eyeballs on the project and such. He always seemed like a decent guy to me, though I admittedly only knew him on a fairly limited professional level.
As for crediting--he seems to properly credits the artists on his comics..dunno why toys would be different. Your guess is as good as mine.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?174566-Cuts-and-key-in-zbrush-4r4
http://www.hardingstudios.blogspot.com/