Do I have what it takes?

alec2002

Hi everyone. I'm Alec, and I'm going to be attending the Savannah College of Art and Design for Interactive Design and Game Development this fall. My ultimate goal is to become a 3D Character Artist. I'm aware of the fact that it's very tough to break into the industry as a character artist, but I'm willing to bust my ass. I'm very excited to start learning directly from professors with industry experience, but I'm also worried that four years perhaps may not being enough time for me to master modeling, sculpting, texturing, rendering, etc. to a studio-worthy level. I turned 18 in March, and I've got four months before I head out to SCAD. I'm currently learning through Digital Tutors, the Gnomon Workshop, and books like Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy. Based on what I'm showing below is there anything I should be doing differently? Do I have enough skill now in order for four years of non-stop studying to be enough to learn the artistic and technical aspects of character art and land a job? Thanks in advance.

p.s. Should I minor in character technical direction since there is an emphasis on rigging and character set-up for animation? I'm assuming those are very valuable subjects to learn about since I'll need to create production-ready models.

musashidan

Don't even worry about it. You're well on your way. You're only 18 FFS! You're already on the road to improving your anatomy work, which is probably one of the most important strengths for a CA. If you have the passion, the drive, and the love of learning this stuff and are always pushing your abilities and knowledge, then you'll succeed. I'd give up me left salty ball to be 18 again and in your position.

If Adolf Hitler can go from provincial buffoon to master of Europe in 4 years..............

ActionDawg

These are all quite nice. Honestly I'm not sure if a 4 year degree is what you need when you have the foundations down. The returns are diminishing, IMO. When you get into art school and have a lot to learn it's good, but judging from the level of these pieces I'd argue that independent study or possibly finding a pro willing to mentor and just getting feedback online is a faster, ridiculously less expensive, and less exhaustive than getting a degree.

I went to SCAD and on a personal note I found that the professors were hit and miss. The quality of different majors seemed to me to differ wildly, with VFX being awesome and game design lacking. Some professors had great enthusiasm and a lot of good thinking to impart. Others, well... I'll just say that once I had to sit through a lecture on painting out normal map errors because the professor didn't know how to bake correctly, and no amount of my feedback in and out of class could convince him he was wrong. I feel like that story is representative of a number of instances of bad practice that I saw being taught there. Enough that I can't in good faith recommend it.

Sorry if this is a bit of a downer of a post, but I hope the takeaway is positive in that you're already well on your way and can keep your options open.

musashidan

@somedoggy , although I'm self-taught and never went the college route, I always felt that the team environment, project deadlines, networking opportunities,  post-grad placement, and the general camaraderie of being surrounded by blokes on the same path, far outweighed a few dodgy 'professors' - painting on normal maps at a PHD level is priceless - and learning with the other in the classes and in your own time, whilst in that environment is surely a positive. OP's only 18. Whole life ahead. Financial factor aside, I don't see much to lose. Then again, you're speaking from experience and I'm not.

alec2002

Thanks for the feedback and info, guys. I have been wondering whether the self-teaching route outweighs the college/university route, but I'd like to have all of the benefits that Musashidan mentioned, especially networking -in person, particularly. Having career fairs and pros at the school to check out my work sounds like a great way (albeit expensive, sadly) to find a job in-studio somewhere right out of school. It seems like half of what I'll be paying for at SCAD is networking while the other half is my actual education. On the other hand, however, I feel that I already know what I want to learn and how I should go about doing that. I'll just have to see how things play out after a year or two at SCAD.

ActionDawg

Of course it's fair to say that someone elses experience won't necessarily mirror mine. I have friends who are totally happy with their time there. Conversely, there's just as many that aren't. I think their reasons are well founded.

My normal map example was specifically about painting out bake errors, artifacts introduced because he configured the baker wrong. Not painting on them in the regular sense. It wholly came out of his not understanding normal mapping, and instilled bad practice in the students in that class. Many of them needed help down the road unlearning stuff from that class. But the overall point wasn't really to dwell on a specific instance, merely to give an example of what I saw as a systematic problem at that school.

I don't want to demean formal education as it provides a structure and guides a path for people to discover art for themselves. My first year of foundation and art history (the best way to learn history, for real) classes were invaluable for furthering me. But I went in already knowing the programs and processes of the trade, many times better than the professors themselves, and there was no track for people like that. 1 year of core classes later and I didn't learn a thing, just a bunch of software lectures (and in some instances behind the times) with projects that always felt like a wasted effort (I can elaborate on why if anyone's interested). After going through my foundation classes and core it would have been 2 more years of retreading what I already knew or was already teaching myself at a faster pace. With that knowledge in hand I realized I got everything I needed and left.

Again, it's hard to offer more than our own anecdotes as life advice, and there's no saying what any individual will get out of the things they do. I just wish to share my thoughts here on going into school when you've already got a body of work. Ultimately Alec, do what you think is the best path. If that means SCAD or any art school, by all means. It can always benefit you, especially if finances aren't involved.

Blade113

Can't tell if this is enough or not, simply because I'm just 15 and this looks almost perfect for me, lol (or at least better than anything I've made so far)

Anyways I really wish you luck, man. I'll probably be in a same position in 4 years, looking for college or studio, and worried I don't have what it takes. Tryin' to improve until then ^^.

Go for it, man, you can do it!

musashidan

somedoggy said:

My normal map example was specifically about painting out bake errors, artifacts introduced because he configured the baker wrong. Not painting on them in the regular sense. It wholly came out of his not understanding normal mapping, and instilled bad practice in the students in that class. Many of them needed help down the road unlearning stuff from that class. But the overall point wasn't really to dwell on a specific instance, merely to give an example of what I saw as a systematic problem at that school.

oh, I got that alright. It's the painting (smudging/blurring channels) I was referring to. Fair enough, people have used that hack - either people who don't understand the data encoded into an NM or people in a panic to get an asset out - but for a professor to be actually teaching this as a valid workflow is what I find priceless.

Can you elaborate on said projects you felt were a total waste of time?

alec2002

I can see where you're coming from on this, and thank you for the encouragement. I would also like you to elaborate because I'm worried about being stuck in the same boat. For example, if I want to be a character artist and they rarely assign character model projects, then I'm not going to be happy. Does SCAD give students the freedom of choosing a concentration, or is it all very general? I've been searching for an answer to this for a while.

alec2002

Thanks man! You're fifteen, and you've got more time than I did to improve and find a job if you've already found your passion. I found my passion when I was 17, so you've got two years on me. I started modeling as a hobby in seventh grade, but it wasn't until eight months ago that I was finally able to purchase ZBrush. I was using SketchUp for hardsurface stuff and Sculptris for organic stuff way back when I started modeling, haha. During the summer after my sophomore year, I thought I wanted to be a 2D concept artist because I was getting good with software like Painter and Photoshop and could finally draw from my imagination with decent fundamental knowledge, but I didn't have the same level of passion for drawing environments, vehicles, etc. as I did for drawing characters. When I finally grew the balls needed to jump into ZBrush without looking back, I found that 3D character art is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Jaston3D

@alec2002 You're killing it man! Seriously you have a great eye for form! All that aside however from my experience, i'm 19 and just landed my first industry job at a game studio in Seattle. I was going to community college and working part time making minimum wage and came home each night to work on my game art (lots of late late 4 am nights) anyways the biggest part that should be noted was that during high school  I took a digital media technology class that had a kickass teacher who sent tons of kids in the right direction and lots of them are in the industry right now so he has tons of connections and he stays in contact. So basically if he has a talented student he'll just whip their portfolios around to all his old students who are in the industry now until they get in too. I saw a stat about the industry recently saying that 15% of the time game studios hire people who apply for the job and the other 85% are people who were recommended from someone who already works at the studio. So its really not what school you went to at all, and sometimes as sad as it is, the quality of your work doesn't matter all that much in CERTAIN situations because i've seen some damn amazing artists who still haven't gotten their first industry job. It's really about your connections, and school is a great place for that, however you can network just as much on the internet it might take just a little more effort. Don't be afraid to email some of the best of the best game artists and just make a simple connection. Most of them will be more than willing to reply and be of help to you. Basically just keep working hard and try to meet people who are already in the industry. School is something that might put you pretty far in student debt and that comes back to bite you pretty hard. I work with a lot of guys who went to the Art Institute and have racked up tons of debt, honestly i'm not sure how they are making it because even for me (no debt at all) I have to watch my spending pretty close. It's an extremely lucrative career but it's in no way going to lead you to an extremely glamorous lifestyle especially since the main areas for game development have some extremely high cost of living. Unless you work in Texas then your in luck cause it's quite a bit cheaper there and they have a good amount of game industry jobs there! Good Luck though man!

alec2002

Thanks! That means a lot. I am a bit worried about debt, but my wonderful parents said they'll help me figure the financial part out. I'll figure out whether SCAD is worth my time or not before I get myself in too deep and realize I'm not learning much. Hopefully that won't be the case or I'll have still wasted money for one to two years. By the way, wanna be one of my connections? Haha. Where do you work? Do you have an online portfolio or an ArtStation profile? I'd love to see some of your stuff! Again, thanks for the advice and encouragement. It makes me want to work harder and harder.

Jaston3D

@alec2002 Sent you a PM

Kaine123

pssst, transfer over to MICA (it's way better than scad here trust me) 

ActionDawg

musashidan said:

Can you elaborate on said projects you felt were a total waste of time?

Essentially I felt like they spent too much time giving projects that you'd be expected to work 48-100 hours on before students really had time to get a grip on the software they were using, and good practice such as proper topology was not taught in my core classes (though it probably was later on, but I feel that should be the first thing you instill).

The issue is that the people who hadn't used maya or zbrush before lagged behind, whereas those who already knew the software wasted that in-class time getting what was little more than a crash course. As a result, the people who knew what they were doing were given huge leniency and weren't pushed further. Those who needed to learn the most would get help learning software, but never the fundamentals of 3D art. After that it was straight into individual and later group projects that took huge amounts of time as mentioned above. My take is that students should spend time doing small things that build them up to bigger projects, as well as small in-class assignments (and it's not like this would take too much time, the classes are 2.5 hours and there were no more than 20 students in a class).

As a side note that I don't want to get into, I also have some ethical issues with how the school appropriated money. The departments cared a ton, but I feel the administration never did anything for the students and even acted against their interests. I'm sure this is something that can be researched quite easily.

alec2002

somedoggy said:

musashidan said:

Can you elaborate on said projects you felt were a total waste of time?

Essentially I felt like they spent too much time giving projects that you'd be expected to work 48-100 hours on before students really had time to get a grip on the software they were using, and good practice such as proper topology was not taught in my core classes (though it probably was later on, but I feel that should be the first thing you instill).

The issue is that the people who hadn't used maya or zbrush before lagged behind, whereas those who already knew the software wasted that in-class time getting what was little more than a crash course. As a result, the people who knew what they were doing were given huge leniency and weren't pushed further. Those who needed to learn the most would get help learning software, but never the fundamentals of 3D art. After that it was straight into individual and later group projects that took huge amounts of time as mentioned above. My take is that students should spend time doing small things that build them up to bigger projects, as well as small in-class assignments (and it's not like this would take too much time, the classes are 2.5 hours and there were no more than 20 students in a class).

As a side note that I don't want to get into, I also have some ethical issues with how the school appropriated money. The departments cared a ton, but I feel the administration never did anything for the students and even acted against their interests. I'm sure this is something that can be researched quite easily.

Thanks for expanding on that and sharing your experience. It's too bad to hear that. I hope I can learn the basics of Maya and Max over the summer before I head down. I've yet to get into advanced topology, mapping, baking, etc. since I've really just been trying to improve my sculpts and basic art foundations like anatomy and form. I have some late nights coming in the next few months! What software would you say was used the most during your time there?
On another note, I'd like to know when you began taking classes regarding game art and the game design major. First year? Second year?

melli06

The good thing is you know what you want to do! Look at some professional character art and hold yourself to that standard. I feel like no matter if you go to college or not you can still push yourself to achieve your best results. Also I am super excited too cause I have a full summer ahead to just learn, learn, and learn! Best of luck! Also your anatomy is my envy lol

ActionDawg

alec2002 said:

somedoggy said:

musashidan said:

Can you elaborate on said projects you felt were a total waste of time?

Essentially I felt like they spent too much time giving projects that you'd be expected to work 48-100 hours on before students really had time to get a grip on the software they were using, and good practice such as proper topology was not taught in my core classes (though it probably was later on, but I feel that should be the first thing you instill).

The issue is that the people who hadn't used maya or zbrush before lagged behind, whereas those who already knew the software wasted that in-class time getting what was little more than a crash course. As a result, the people who knew what they were doing were given huge leniency and weren't pushed further. Those who needed to learn the most would get help learning software, but never the fundamentals of 3D art. After that it was straight into individual and later group projects that took huge amounts of time as mentioned above. My take is that students should spend time doing small things that build them up to bigger projects, as well as small in-class assignments (and it's not like this would take too much time, the classes are 2.5 hours and there were no more than 20 students in a class).

As a side note that I don't want to get into, I also have some ethical issues with how the school appropriated money. The departments cared a ton, but I feel the administration never did anything for the students and even acted against their interests. I'm sure this is something that can be researched quite easily.

Thanks for expanding on that and sharing your experience. It's too bad to hear that. I hope I can learn the basics of Maya and Max over the summer before I head down. I've yet to get into advanced topology, mapping, baking, etc. since I've really just been trying to improve my sculpts and basic art foundations like anatomy and form. I have some late nights coming in the next few months! What software would you say was used the most during your time there?
On another note, I'd like to know when you began taking classes regarding game art and the game design major. First year? Second year?

They exclusively taught Maya, though going off my time there they'll tend to let you use an equivalent if you already know it. I used Max my whole time, only bringing files into Maya to meet any project requirements as it's not my software of preference. I actually wound up tutoring a number of classmates and friends in 3ds Max because it fit them better.

You begin taking game art classes in your second year. The first year has an intro class where they teach Adobe programs and dabbling with a bit of Maya at the end of the quarter. To answer an earlier question too, you get to decide whether you want to focus on game art or game design. I can't speak too much on the game design focus as my professor had to leave midway through due to surgery.