Need advice on rebooting to learn 3D

Zanmato

Hello guys, I've been "learning" 3D in the past 1.5 years, specifically in Blender. During those years, I understood the basic concepts of 3D and all, but it kinda hit me when I started to "jump" on various tutorials and other things that I became lost. My goal was to create environment art, specially in, but not limited to, video games. With inspirations taken from Blizzard, Riot Games, and the likes. However, with those various "jumps" I did, I got overwhelmed and just basically felt lost. Because I constantly felt excited to learn new things, I tried to learn how to hand paint, sculpt in ZBrush, use Substance Painter, and even tried to use Maya. But I missed the important part, which is understanding. I really regret doing what I did back then, because at that time, I have all the time,money, and resources, but really didn't bother to do it step by step. Now that I'm working full time (and it's quite taxing coz I sometimes work even on my free time) I have little time to study, but still eager to do so. So I feel like rebooting, learn the process step by step, and work towards my end goal. My question would be, how should I start from scratch? Should I try to learn how to paint first? Learn Maya? What are your suggestions? 

Thanks guys!

Alex_J

I think first you have to define a specific career goal. If it's game environment art, you may find all the information you need plus a lot of things you didn't expect from the wiki page on this site and also the archived threads. I'm sure some people here can help a lot as well, but you kind of need a more specific question. This kind of question is something that gets asked pretty often, and there is a lot of great advice out there already. But I'd be wary of easy answers, like, "oh, just learn x,y, and z programs," as blindly following somebody's advice, even if it is well-informed and well-intentioned, is essentially you shirking responsibility, which if you make a habit of you may find it impossible to be an efficient self-teacher. Well, maybe you'd be fine following a really smart and thoughtful experienced pro's advice, but I just think it makes more sense to gather a wide range of opinions rather than rely on just a few. That's using the power of the internet to full advantage.

For general step-by-step learning, pluralsight got me off to a decent start. But if you've been at this for awhile, you might not find the kind of intermediate level instruction you need there. Who knows, maybe try the free trial and see if it's useful for you. There is a lot of good tutorials on gumroad, and you can find a collection of those on these forums as well. I think that is an archived thread as well. Of course, that is just a method for learning the profession, but it won't answer, "how do I learn how to learn the profession."

For that, like I said you first need to have a specific goal that you can make plans for. Then, it's just a matter of research. Gather opinions (experienced ones are best, always check out who's giving the advice), read everything  you can find, do some artstation stalking and see what the pro's are generally using... it will take some time and experimentation, and remember no matter how well you research and plan, a year from now there will be plenty of mistakes to kick yourself over. But persistence is the most secure investment, so as long as you can count on your own discipline to keep up the practice, there's no need to worry over the past or the future too much. As long as you have your health and your discipline, you can relax and enjoy the practice, rather than feel pressured over it. But first you have to have a specific goal so that you can build a plan and stick with it. 

Zanmato

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

I think first you have to define a specific career goal. If it's game environment art, you may find all the information you need plus a lot of things you didn't expect from the wiki page on this site and also the archived threads. I'm sure some people here can help a lot as well, but you kind of need a more specific question. This kind of question is something that gets asked pretty often, and there is a lot of great advice out there already. But I'd be wary of easy answers, like, "oh, just learn x,y, and z programs," as blindly following somebody's advice, even if it is well-informed and well-intentioned, is essentially you shirking responsibility, which if you make a habit of you may find it impossible to be an efficient self-teacher. Well, maybe you'd be fine following a really smart and thoughtful experienced pro's advice, but I just think it makes more sense to gather a wide range of opinions rather than rely on just a few. That's using the power of the internet to full advantage.

For general step-by-step learning, pluralsight got me off to a decent start. But if you've been at this for awhile, you might not find the kind of intermediate level instruction you need there. Who knows, maybe try the free trial and see if it's useful for you. There is a lot of good tutorials on gumroad, and you can find a collection of those on these forums as well. I think that is an archived thread as well. Of course, that is just a method for learning the profession, but it won't answer, "how do I learn how to learn the profession."

For that, like I said you first need to have a specific goal that you can make plans for. Then, it's just a matter of research. Gather opinions (experienced ones are best, always check out who's giving the advice), read everything  you can find, do some artstation stalking and see what the pro's are generally using... it will take some time and experimentation, and remember no matter how well you research and plan, a year from now there will be plenty of mistakes to kick yourself over. But persistence is the most secure investment, so as long as you can count on your own discipline to keep up the practice, there's no need to worry over the past or the future too much. As long as you have your health and your discipline, you can relax and enjoy the practice, rather than feel pressured over it. But first you have to have a specific goal so that you can build a plan and stick with it. 

Thanks for the detailed response! It seems what I lack during my self study was a clear and defined goal. I'm all for studying from the basics again because there are tons of things I prolly skipped that's why I was jumping from different tutorials on how to do this and that. With that said, my very goal would create environment art similar to Blizzard and Riot Games as they are the reason why I'd like to do 3D art.

Would you think that jumping on creating those is a good idea or prolly learn from the fubdamentals first like making realistic 3D art?

Looking at Pluralsight's courses they are well detailed, but because they are mostly using Maya and other industry standard software I have to learn the tool first. Would that be a great idea?

Andreicus

Zanmato said:

Thanks for the detailed response! It seems what I lack during my self study was a clear and defined goal. I'm all for studying from the basics again because there are tons of things I prolly skipped that's why I was jumping from different tutorials on how to do this and that. With that said, my very goal would create environment art similar to Blizzard and Riot Games as they are the reason why I'd like to do 3D art.

Would you think that jumping on creating those is a good idea or prolly learn from the fubdamentals first like making realistic 3D art?

Looking at Pluralsight's courses they are well detailed, but because they are mostly using Maya and other industry standard software I have to learn the tool first. Would that be a great idea?

First of all if you want a job in a game company you must learn the industry standard software otherwise you will be in a disadvantage against the other artists that know them.
Check out my answer to this thread ( http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2624103#Comment_2624103 ) for a list of industry standard software ( but really, go to the company job page and read what software they want for the role, easy )

With that said every person has a different approach to learning, in my case i find that a methodological approach where the tutor explain step by step what to do and why you do it, works best for me, so i'll tell you what i did to "learn" ( you never stop learning ) environment art.

1) Choose your main 3D package between Maya or 3ds Max
2) Watch a complete course to learn the software in every aspect from modeling to rendering so you can move freely in it ( for maya i reccomend Introduction to Maya 2017: https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/introduction-to-maya-2017 )
3) Start practicing modeling and at the same time watch some modeling tutorials to improve your workflow
4) After you are able to create some decent model you should learn a texturing package like Substance Painter or Quixel
5) Make a complete medium complexity model from 0 to texture and after that learn the fundamentals of Unreal Engine or Unity to put your mesh in a game level and render it OR you can use a software like Marmoset to render it but i advise you to learn Unreal or Unity first, in my workflow i use both, Unreal to assembly the entire environment and Marmoset to render individual props but there are people that do everything in the engine, it is up to you.
6) At this point you should feel pretty confident in modeling, texturing and rendering so my advise would be to start making a small environment like a room with many props and assembly it in the engine to improve your lighting and composition skills that are very important for the mood of the scene
7) After that...keep practing, crank out portfolio pieces and keep learning about stuff and post your works on the forum to receive feedbacks

For the cartoon/blizzard style thing, i don't know, for that style you must learn to paint because the textures are hand painted but i think you should become at least decent in realism first, because when i did the anime classroom scene knowing about realism helped me out.

About the tutorials sites, i think that the best are: Gnomon ( for medium-advanced stuff expect for the intro courses ), Pluralsight ( beginner-medium complexity stuff ), Lynda ( beginner stuff ), CGWorkshop/CGSociety ( advanced stuff ).

Always follow references when modeling props and texturing them and follow a concept art when you are doing a complete environment, don't try doing stuff from your imagination until you have build a reference library in your mind and you are very good in general otherwise you will get lost.

When you will become proficient in your main 3D package you will see that you can also follow tutorials from other softwares and apply them to your software because at the end of the day it is only a tool and the fundamentals are the same.

Zanmato

Andreicus said:

Zanmato said:

Thanks for the detailed response! It seems what I lack during my self study was a clear and defined goal. I'm all for studying from the basics again because there are tons of things I prolly skipped that's why I was jumping from different tutorials on how to do this and that. With that said, my very goal would create environment art similar to Blizzard and Riot Games as they are the reason why I'd like to do 3D art.

Would you think that jumping on creating those is a good idea or prolly learn from the fubdamentals first like making realistic 3D art?

Looking at Pluralsight's courses they are well detailed, but because they are mostly using Maya and other industry standard software I have to learn the tool first. Would that be a great idea?

First of all if you want a job in a game company you must learn the industry standard software otherwise you will be in a disadvantage against the other artists that know them.
Check out my answer to this thread ( http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2624103#Comment_2624103 ) for a list of industry standard software ( but really, go to the company job page and read what software they want for the role, easy )

With that said every person has a different approach to learning, in my case i find that a methodological approach where the tutor explain step by step what to do and why you do it, works best for me, so i'll tell you what i did to "learn" ( you never stop learning ) environment art.

1) Choose your main 3D package between Maya or 3ds Max
2) Watch a complete course to learn the software in every aspect from modeling to rendering so you can move freely in it ( for maya i reccomend Introduction to Maya 2017: https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/introduction-to-maya-2017 )
3) Start practicing modeling and at the same time watch some modeling tutorials to improve your workflow
4) After you are able to create some decent model you should learn a texturing package like Substance Painter or Quixel
5) Make a complete medium complexity model from 0 to texture and after that learn the fundamentals of Unreal Engine or Unity to put your mesh in a game level and render it OR you can use a software like Marmoset to render it but i advise you to learn Unreal or Unity first, in my workflow i use both, Unreal to assembly the entire environment and Marmoset to render individual props but there are people that do everything in the engine, it is up to you.
6) At this point you should feel pretty confident in modeling, texturing and rendering so my advise would be to start making a small environment like a room with many props and assembly it in the engine to improve your lighting and composition skills that are very important for the mood of the scene
7) After that...keep practing, crank out portfolio pieces and keep learning about stuff and post your works on the forum to receive feedbacks

For the cartoon/blizzard style thing, i don't know, for that style you must learn to paint because the textures are hand painted but i think you should become at least decent in realism first, because when i did the anime classroom scene knowing about realism helped me out.

About the tutorials sites, i think that the best are: Gnomon ( for medium-advanced stuff expect for the intro courses ), Pluralsight ( beginner-medium complexity stuff ), Lynda ( beginner stuff ), CGWorkshop/CGSociety ( advanced stuff ).

Always follow references when modeling props and texturing them and follow a concept art when you are doing a complete environment, don't try doing stuff from your imagination until you have build a reference library in your mind and you are very good in general otherwise you will get lost.

When you will become proficient in your main 3D package you will see that you can also follow tutorials from other softwares and apply them to your software because at the end of the day it is only a tool and the fundamentals are the same.

Wow, this was a great response! When I was searching around the net to find answers (mostly found them here) people suggested to learn realism first as it establishes the fundamentals, from there you could break down on your preferred style, which is the part I skipped during studying and I fully regret it now. It's like trying to draw characters without knowing anatomy. Thank you for the tips you gave and recommendations, I will surely check them out!