What you want to try is Surface Deform.OblongUV said:"even with blender's shrinkwrap modifier the hard-edge outlines of the lowpoly will "slip off" the highpoly" [...]
To preface this “article” : Everything stated here is totally anecdotal, as in, based on my own experience and what I observe\talk\learn through other professionals. It DOES NOT necessarily represent my current employer views nor i speak on their behalf, this is opinionated and seen through the glasses of my own individual professional experience. This whole article also is solely focused on the Art aspect
Don't take anything i say here as a “rule”, and if through my way of writing it comes off like that please let me know so that i can properly rephrase it. Always question dogmas !!
Now let's get to the meat and potatoes.
Junior Roles
To start with, i'd like to expand bit more on the junior role in the Game development landscape and why their search are becoming scarcer and scarcer
The Junior Artist is usually an artist that show “promise” or “potential” that can be adapted to a specific production in a studio, needing usually quite a bit of input and “training” by more experienced Artists, usually the Seniors, due to their vast experience in the pipeline, so basically, the Junior is an “investment” from a studio to become an asset that in the future can make up the net loss they bring to the production in the beginning, and thus become seniors themselves in the production, so, basically : faster and more efficient.
Junior artists should never be let off to fend for themselves, while having good communication skills and being proactive about absorbing as much knowledge is a big plus, ideally they should be supervised\taught by the Seniors,but, sadly due to game productions requiring more and more production time from every artist, this is becoming a big “burden” on budgets\time constraints, since, each hour a senior uses with a junior, is an hour that is not translated directly to the production of assets\other duties, instead, it's time used without a guarantee that it will even be converted in productivity, since Juniors also learn at different rates and have different “art vices” that come from their background.
So to sum it up : a Junior is considered a risky investment nowadays, since we are hoping the person will stick around during the years that are needed nowadays to make a big budget game, and also learn quickly enough to not be a financial\resource drain on the studio.
So this is already having dire consequences, there are more Seniors\mid level Artists being searched instead of Juniors due to the reasons above, together with the thousands of ill-prepared students from hundreds of schools and the shitty economic climate\bell tightening on production budgets\timeframes…Wich makes productions take even less risks, in some cases, it shafts the search for juniors…There are other numerous factors that i don't have time to list, but pertaining to the issue written here it's one of those.
Now on my professional experience, i enjoy training Juniors and love to help them out, seeing Artists level up is a great feeling and seeing them also gain confidence and get good Art production habits is very rewarding…But it does require a ton of time from me, which is removed from Art Production sometimes, and sometimes it does take considerably more time to train different artists, so there is no “time” average.
Another big problem i see with Juniors nowadays, is how shitty their learning landscape is
“Oh wow Joao, that's pretty stupid to say, I mean we have a ton more knowledge nowadays than we had 15 years ago !”
This is true ! but before, we had all the knowledge neatly condensed on communities that all shared the same goal : Post awesome Art, give feedback\learn and be tightly knit, im talking obviously about Polycount, CgChat, Subdivisionmodeling.org , and a ton of other resource aggregator websites\forums that were easily searchable and where professionals would be willing to reach out due to their simplicity.
Nowadays we have 10 different ways of making blockouts, 50 different ways of making highpolies and 40 different ways of making textures\low poly\uvs ( these numbers were pulled from my ass, but you get the point ). So what this causes is that artists, while learning their craft, will zero in the most “used” and usually “easier” way to achieve quick visual fidelity, which is great ! I love when stuff is quick and efficient, but the problem is, most of Artists lack the basics, they skip the simple learning fundamentals of modeling, of lowpoly, of texturing, and go straight to the finish line without understanding all the basics.
It's like starting to build a home while working on the way to achieve the finishing touches like wood varnish and decoration but without studying the logic of the way the walls and the foundations were laid out, the WHY and the questioning was smashed through the hundreds of tutorials available everywhere on every modeling package.
This factor is also “shitetized” due to everyone and their grandmother having a discord server ( where searching for solutions to problems is near impossible due to it not being indexed on search engines ), and worrying more about Twitter followers and their “reach”...( don't get me started on that platform, one of the advices i give to a ton of people is to not treat it as a representative of reality ). The way feedback nowadays is handled is very poor due to people not wanting honest to god feedback, nor having a centralized place to get it sadly…I mean just check an Art thread on Polycount 15 years ago, you would learn so much from a single thread…
So we have more knowledge, but the way it is being synthesized is completely broken, thus creating an insane amount of sub-part quality by aspiring artists due to the “wheres tutorial” mentality as well…
Ok enough ranting from an old man, let's get to the questions. I ramble a lot as you can see.
Question 1
As a 3D character Artist, what skill should I increase and work on ?
Character art positions are probably one of the hardest to fill in studios.
So to make Character art Standout, we must work on skills that allows us to make those more convincing and in a way that showcases craftsmanship, so the reply i always give is : Study anatomy, not only human, but also of animals, the way bones and muscles behave have all a reason to be and are all interconnected, one of the things it really helped me was to go to live drawing sessions and to observe animals in nature. Going outside and just simply asking someone that volunteers so that you stare uncomfortably to their face for a while while you study the bone structure, the “why” the face looks like that and behaves like that in diff lighting conditions, these are the foundations i would love to see Artists tackle more before jumping in to Zbrush and make high frequency messes.
The other advice is to look at shapes from macro to micro, and work first in your macro shapes before worrying about detailing, look at your models zoomed out and compare with references, ALWAYS use references, never do things from your head since ( unless you're already super experienced ), what we have in our head is most of the time flawed in terms of accuracy. A great exercise of this is to grab a bust base mesh and just work on the first subdivision level, it will force you only to work on the macro shapes !
Another thing i recommend is to avoid making fanart of already existing art, as you will most likely make it not as accurate\good as the original artwork, thus adding another layer of scrutiny to your art piece, this is something you can do later when you're more experienced and even add your own spin !
Question 2
What type of Concept Art should I use to showcase my abilities as an aspiring character artist ?
This is one of the hardest to reply because i'll have to use my stamp of “it depends”, if you're aiming to a stylized art studio like Riot or Blizzard, make sure to tailor your learning to that style, if you want to work on realistic games, do the same…Just make sure that the standard of quality you aim to, is the quality present on those games, break as many almonds as you can to try and reach it, ask for feedback, deconstruct the assets as in study them ingame, look at available post-mortems\study game files to really understand the logic of what goes on there.
Now I'm not saying “oh just produce artwork that matches one of those studios!”, that would be almost impossible obviously, but make sure the bar you're trying to reach is the same, to push you in a good direction. Eventually you will get there and get the attention of a studio.
Now for the concept art itself, I am more impressed by loose concept art being chosen and the “gaps” of the concept being filled by the 3d artist, thus showing good problem solving skills. I also prefer to see concept art used that challenges modeling skills, not just boring boxy stuff with booleans, but flowy sci fi shapes that look fcking awesome.
Question 3
Do you recommend any type of events or volunteer work while I search for a job in the industry ? or should I focus 100% on my portfolio ?
To this one i say “both!” There are game jams, mods that come to moddable games, even indie productions that sadly don't have the budget to pay properly to artists where aspiring artists could work on ! hell even CS2 skins ! anything that will have you in a community while you learn your ins and outs of game engines\implementation will always be a plus. I prefer to see people create cool artwork for mods\projects etc than to just spam artstation and twitter.
So basically yeah, you can do those two at the same time, and they will help you immensely. Polycount still has a section where you can offer your help for projects !
Question 4
What are some of the key things you look for most when hiring juniors?
To me, i'd rather see juniors that KNOW how to showcase their skills and that tailor correctly their folio to the role they are achieving, elaborating on that :
Clear and clean showcase of the art with lowpoly and uvs and textures, you have to assume i have 0 context of who you are and what you are capable, if you SHOW me what you can do i'll know about it, if you only showcase a kickass rendering of your character but no breakups, i don't know how you got to that result, if you know how to make propper lowpolies, uvs and if you understand the basics of texturing.
IS proactive on the search for knowledge and keeps trying to produce assets to study\practise, since artists that barely produce anything for a year, ( even tho i understand people have different backgrounds\struggles ) dont showcase that, i keep seeing the same people posting the same artwork for years on twitter hoping it would get them a job and honestly sometimes having an entitled attitude of “i keep sending my folio that is outdated for two years and not even getting replies ! This industry sucks!”
The ability to communicate questions and search for knowledge to me is as important as the art itself, if you're a person that barely asks me questions when I'm open to that and thus struggles in production\stresses themselves is a big no-no. I understand some people are shy, but I can't read minds nor what they are struggling with if they don't tell me. Reading and having questions about whatever documentation\asset samples are a must.
Question 5
For those trying to get freelance gigs, how can they reach out to a company to make themselves available for the work?
LinkedIn message to an art director, spontaneous application on the company career page?
Usually contacting Art directors\leads etc directly will depend on their personality\willingness for that. I use the rule of “if they say they allow it, I will contact them”, but if you don't find any instance of those individuals saying they don't mind being contacted, I think it's safe to avoid that. Be mindful that they probably say the same things over and over to aspiring artists ( it's one of the reasons I decided to write this ).
In terms of freelance gigs, I'd say it's almost the same as the question above : make sure your portfolio showcases that you CAN do the work and that the hiring entities don't have to guess if you can actually do it or not. Also, the constant portfolio\learning output showcased helps alot.
Question 6
This is a location question: Why is it that a lot of junior jobs I find now are in other countries outside of the US? I've seen a lot of positions available in the UK and in Eastern Europe so far.
I can't answer that one very well because it depends on the necessities of said studios, but I would put the finger on the starting junior context I gave above of them being an investment\risk and those countries having more willingness to take that risk.
Question 7
Given the huge amount of junior applications you have reviewed, what are some of the main mistakes juniors make when applying?
Basically what was answered on question 4 but i will refer some stuff i really dislike to see :
Fanart using official templates, as in, from a glance it looks like it was made for the game, and stated only on the inside page that its fanart.
Entitlement on “deserving” the job even though their portfolio doesn't showcase what we need them to show us.
Spamming their always outdated folio
Having the portfolio hosted on platforms that make it hard for me to get to the artwork, if i have to search like a detective for artwork where you showcase me what i need to know from question 4, you're in a bad spot as i will simply give up and move on to the next candidate, even if your artwork looks kickass.
I don't care about anything other than the art, don't make me click a ton of sections and subsections please.
I don't need your whole life story when contacting us, can you do the job ? Are you someone we can actually enjoy a conversation with or will you behave like a nutjob to your colleagues ?
Question 8
Currently looking for a job, do employers expect me to be perfect or is it fine not being good at some things as long as I show that i'm willing to learn.
Studios that search for perfect artists will have a rude awakening, they simply don't exist. There are only the candidates that seem to show that they will require the “less” training time.
As stated on previous questions, the way to showcase me you're willing to learn is for me to see you trying by producing new content and evolving on each one.
Question 9
I would be interested in learning how to find more freelance jobs. Especially higher paying gigs.
The “higher paying gigs” are complexity dependent and the amount of specialized people available to do them.
Question 10
How does raw skill pit against actual industrial experience for you? For eg, a killer portfolio (personal projects) vs someone who has worked in a relevant industry. I need experience to get experience, that's been my worry.
I have reviewed folios of people with industry experience with appalling skills and aspiring artists that give them the run for their money.
At the end of the day, it's what you can show me that you can do. Can you implement assets into freely available game engines ? what is your workflow, as in, do you do a blockout first then move on ( on hundreds of portfolios i only seen a handful where they do this, and those always catch my eyes ) ? What were your artwork constraints, as in, texture limitation and polygon limitations ?
Having artists with immense raw skill can be a double edged sword, the same as someone who already is more experienced. I honestly find people with more experience a bit harder to adapt to workflows due to them having bad habits that are harder to shake off.
But this depends totally on the individual\role etc. I can't make a blanket statement about it.
And that's it for now ! I hope this helps aspiring artists or anyone really !
Don't take this as gospel as I said, and there's a ton of answers that are context dependent Also check Polycount excelent wiki for timeless knowledge ! http://wiki.polycount.com/
Anything lemme know if you want me to expand ! contact me on my twitter https://twitter.com/JoaoSapiro or on my Artstation https://www.artstation.com/joaosapiro
This is the first time I am trying one of the Environments, so I'm kind of scared, but excited as well. Masks are my obsession, so this is the perfect project for me to begin with.This is a quick blockout made in Blender, just to throw in Unreal and have a feel for proportions. Im going more for a playable space, rather than a perfect duplicate of the concept.