Can i be modeler really?
Hey guys, the problem i am facing is i can't model something without a tutorial. With tutorial everything is i do is copy and paste. Without a tutorial, i can't really start to model,i am just starring on the concept art, whatever i found, and i can't start to model i am blocking my self.
The problem is i can't follow a concept art, how to begin with modeling, to get the basic shape, then to add details etc.
Is there any change to become a modeler, or i am dumb?
The problem is i can't follow a concept art, how to begin with modeling, to get the basic shape, then to add details etc.
Is there any change to become a modeler, or i am dumb?
Replies
finish the model even if its not going well, then make another doing your best to get better. there's no quick way to become good. you need to work at it.
Keep on keeping on.
I am getting my self a deadline, But i am can make it what i have give for myself. I am stuck between, l am losing hope of not being able to model something, etc.
ps. don't take this too literally! :P
Time to cook some rice and make some omelets, I mean make some simple props and work on the basics of modeling.
A tutorial shows you how a tool works, what you learn from a trash can tutorial applies to the next thing you model. Because you followed some instructions doesn't mean you know how to make that particular thing until you can apply what you learned to something different.
Also, practice, practice, practice.
For instance you feel intimidated by a fairly complex car. Block it out then start on one part like the hood or the front fender. Once you have a start you will see the rest follows much more easily. Don't work on small details first. get the shape and silhoutte of the whole thing right first.
Someone posted this a while ago. Gives you a good idea how to tackle it:
You pretty much nailed the thread with that word mate.
Through practice you will develop your own personal workflow and won't rely on tutorials to hold your hand.
So only way is working.
Talent = persistence practice and passion
Just do it and reap the benefits later
The question becomes why did you want to become a 3d artist?
This is starting to sound suspiciously like whining, post some of your work and stop yapping
Nobody is born with that. It's learned, practiced, and refined. You're already defeating yourself. Get out of that head space and get to work.
Then you are like most people around world. But with hard work, you still can be amazing.
Can't say for artist but Einstein was for me talented guy. These 2% allowed him to made revolutionary ideas, but it wasn't possible without 98% hard working.
Very talented people are just people who have a lot of enthusiasm to pursue what they love. Since they love it they spend many, many hours doing it. Spending many many hours doing it means you'll become very good.
Just realize, as r_fletch_r said, that it's ALL practice. If you like it, do not become discouraged because you're having a hard time. All that goes away with practice, LOTS OF PRACTICE. 99% of everything you produce in the beginning will be shit, and that's ok, that's how it is.
Do you not like doing it? Then you'll probably run into a wall because motivation will fail you. But to be honest, why do it if you don't like it?
TL;DR: it's ok to suck at first, practice more.
Also, when following a tutorial, try to carry over the principles to your own thing. Like, if there's a tutorial on how to model a Beretta, model a Colt instead. That way you'll learn much faster.
I'll post this rant from a while back and save myself some time...
Also, no one is born with artistic talent, they develop it over time. This is one of the few industries where you can wear the title of artist and suck at drawing and painting. You don't need to be a great draftsman but you do need to know your stuff about art. The funny thing is the more you learn about art you'll find that talent in drawing and painting start to take hold.
If you're not even willing to try then you should give up, pack it in and be thankful you haven't wasted your time.
If you work hard and don't lose your patience, you'll get there eventually. But its a long and tough road, so if you're not enjoying the work then maybe you won't enjoy the journey.
However, at the same time, did you only try your art skills? What about more technical stuff? I have a friend who has some awesome programming skills, but force himself to become an artist because he 'wanted to be noticed', it's kinda biting him in the ass right now, since his art skills are pretty much inferior in every way to his technical expertise.
So don't give up just yet on art-related work, but at the same time, try and see if maybe your inherit skillset lies somewhere else.
You know if you want to make 3d models, you can just start making them right away. The part where you have to pull out a huge amount of detail, picking the right colours and all will come with alot of practice. We werent born artists, we became one.
For me, I practice my stuff almost the entire time of the day and even now I am still seeing mistakes in my work.
If you need motivation for 3d modeling:
Stuff like:
[ame="
If you need motivation for 2d concept drawings:
Stuff like:
[ame="
Should be pushy enough for you.
I will admit, and i really want to be 3D artist, especially modeler/texture artist. And i am enjoying this really, watching tutorials how things are done. I also tried to create something on my own, without a tutorial, but i don't some things how to do.
Like, shape inside of shape, perfect circle, stuff like that.
Also i am not really confident in the beginning, because i have 24 years, and i am too old for this. Some of you guys started with this, when you were young. And you are awesome of what you are.
Before i got really interest in 3D, i was web designer, but most of my time was programming, writing code, for me that was really not enjoyable, and i really suck at coding.
I brought a drawing tutorial from Riven Phoenix, but i still didn't watched his tutorials, because i am learning 3D max, and now i want to start to learn Zbrush.
I am 23 atm, a year ago I hadn't touched any 3d yet.
Sometimes it's normal to have doubts, will I ever make it into the game industry?
I don't know, but the important thing is, give it everything, atleast when things don't work out, youll be able to look back and be happy that you atleast tried.
But to come back on the age thing, the last thing I am ever thinking is that I am to old for this.
Yes there are always much younger "talented" people (put it between quotation marks, since everyone has another opinion on what talent is), but in the end there are always people better then you.
As in your case my art background is fairly terrible, I don't know a lot about color/composition, but what is my plan for the coming 3 months, study art (books/drawing/etc) while doing 3D, as others have said, this is stuff you learn, you aren't born with this knowledge.
You don't know certain things, or some things aren't working out?
That's part of it, sometimes you make something it sucks.
Sometimes you wanna do something, but you have no clue how.
What do you do? You try again, you try to make it better, or in the last case, you ask help on how to do it, google tutorials etc.
You have seen some of the works on polycount? Amazing stuff isn't it.
What you don't realize is all the hard work, all the missteps and all the problems people had to go trough to get the end result.
Except for maybe some rare cases, people don't just sit down and make something amazing just out of the blue.
And then there is all this experience/hard work that they have put in in the years before.
Maybe the following sounds a bit harsh but well:
stop moping and thinking you can't do it, and just do it.
Just make something on your own, yes it will suck, and yes people will point out all the bad things about it, but that is something you have to go trough.
But take it slow, don't rush things, maybe hold off on Zbrush for a while and just start off with the basics in 3dsmax.
And to close it off:
Have a look at the first page of his sketchbook.
Now look at the last page, or even just 10 pages further.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108183
And imagine if this guy had said that he was to old/not confident/couldn't do it, those pages behind the first wouldn't have existed.
I was 24 when i started at school and all my 3d stuff generally. Im hitting 26 this month, have graduated, have my own 3d modeling business, doing freelance work and with good luck getting my first game industry job real soon. The point is, things will change for better real quick if you will keep practicing and dont give up.
There's no such thing as "too old".. Youre only too old if you think you are.
Believe me, i've been through those same feelings too, feeling down why i haven't started this earlier. But the thing is im doing this now, it's too late to cry about it, instead im putting my energy trying to catch up to get to the same level as everyone else.
So to focus one thing at time would be modeling. I really want to be modeler.The on;y thing i need to do is to get some good payed job. I have a change to do interior/exterior job that it's good payed. I really need something to earn by myself. With the money i am going to save them. i want to buy Visualirum courses to learn human anatomy and Zbrush.
I think i am rushing things really fast, i want to do something, that people need it to learn that for years. Something like,creating a character like Blur, and i know how hard it's going to be, and that letting me down, Can't help myself.
The barrier to entry is non-existant. Don't have money? Sculptris, Blender, Gimp, UDK, and Unity want a word with you. Can't go to school? Check out 3dmotive.com and DigitalTutors.com, they are relatively cheap for a few months worth of lessons.
My suggestion is that you start on small projects. Things you can do in under a week. Simple props; swords, chairs, shoes, cups, it's all good. Make sure you follow through the whole process even if it's not going so well. Your failures are your greatest learning experiences. Model, UV map, texture, and render, do it all even if it turns out badly. Save it for later so you can see your progress.
One final word of advice, don't set yourself on one thing before you've tried a lot of stuff out. You might find out that you really don't like what you were originally drawn to, but absolutely love to do something else. Being open to new experiences is very important, because ultimately if you don't enjoy it, you won't practice, and if you don't practice, you're doomed.
You need to pick one thing and learn it thoroughly before you move on to something else. It seems like you are all over the place.
on a lighter note 'oisoo'
https://twitter.com/#!/oisoo
I like his philosophy:) which says give up you will be comfortable
You have to make a work, and then learn what mistakes you made. And then try to correct it the next time.
It's similar with tutorials. It's important how you approach them.
For example, when i was looking at my first 3ds max scifi ship tutorial, i was also having similar feeling, like "how the hell do you know do use certain tool and certain time?".
Well, then i watched that tut. He started with the box. Well, box was not the correct width and length. So what do i do in this case? I use scale tool to scale it in both direction to match the space ship body.
Ok, now i have to make rought wings. Ok, i can select side face of the plane body i just made, and extrude it - oh wait, but then i will extrude entire side of the plane surely i don't wanna do that. I need to extrude only one part of it. Ok, that means i need to split that face. Ah, great, i know just the tool - insert edge split tool. I use that tool to times, to split that side face into several pieces, so that i can have the face to extrude from.
Great, now i can finally use extrude tool to extrude face to form a wing.
Yay. But now, the wing looks too boxy and square. Well then, i'll select far verticies, and use scale tool on them to bring those closer together.
Ok, looks better, but still kinda boxy. Ok, what can i do about that? Ah, i have bevel tool, great, i will bevel edges a bit to make them more smooth.
So, as you see, it's not so much about talent, it's not even so much about just practising and practising, it's also how you aproach things.
First learn some basic tools, what they do. Following tutorials, say, for maya, be very carefull what tools tut guy uses. What certain tool does, and in what way you can use it.
And when you know atleast some basic tools, be methodical when you model something.
Take reference, and then make a cube for example. Using those tools, try to first maatch (as practise) that reference only roughtly. It has wings? Ok, how can i make wing? Ok so if split face here and here, i can get new face, from wich i can then extrude face. AH, great, sounds like a good plan.
Reference has hole in the plane? OK, lets see, if i make face similar to size of a whole, if i extrude it inwards, it will shape a hole. Great, another good plan.
And so on and so on. Learn some basic tools of that 3d app, take a reference, observe it's basic shape, and sit down and think a bit, using the tools you know, how would you get to the similar shape. You know how to split face, you know how to extrude face, you know how to move verticies...you can already do a lot with that...
And also, for start, practise in simple models. Nail, baseball bat, hammer, chair, simple sword,....
Hope that helps atleast a bit.
But, i always always end up with blocked head, like, how the hell that shape inside of shape is created? How that good curvature is created etc. And i am thinking thinking, looking for a solution, what tools to use it.
Probably i know 80% of the tools in max for what are they, just i don't have a clue for the modifiers, don't know what modifier is for.
This is a great piece of advice for beginners, don't get caught up in modeling the Millenium Falcon or a complex AAA character, go along in small steps, quick iterations. You'll enjoy the sense of accomplishment from finishing models quickly, and you'll learn many things you can later apply to more ambitious projects.
I would ask another thing, It's good to use Mental ray for 3D max 2012? for lighting and rendering?
[ame="
( ^ ..im too slow apparently xD)
You are not slow.
Download a game engine like the UDK (google it, it's free), and try to put a scene together in that. Employers like to see that you can bring your stuff in-engine, so it's a very important skill to learn. Plus you can do some awesome things in UDK.
Read the last reply:
For example, if i start to model from side view, in front and top view are not line up with the image, etc.
So is it important as modeler to have orthographic view of concept art from something? Or you prefer to watch the concept and model it, and not mess up with the lining up image planes.
PREP YOUR REFS
Use tape measure tool or the edge of of a plane geo or dummy to help you line up your images. I don't use Max as my primary modeler but those are at least some tools I'd use.
Easier to prep your images in Photoshop. Drop a horizontal or vert guide line to help you adjust the different sizes so they're pretty close matching up when you import them in Max or other app of choice. If the images share at least one images dimension, say height, then that'll help too aligning them in your modeler app. Always refere to your source to make sure the images didn't import flipped - important, if the project requires a high level of accuracy or if the object to be modeled is asymmetrical.
Photoshop tip: put all images in one doc but in separate layers. Lower opacity so you can match up easily. Make sure when you adjust transform is to shift-drag the gizmo so you maintain image proportion and not scale them out of proportion.