Learning Everything Or Specializing?

bblotus

As somebody who would like to dedicate themselves to Maya and Zbrush. My goal is to freelance for small to medium sized studio's that are often advertising here on the forums. I feel comfortable with Modeling high poly meshes for characters and also hard surfaced objects. But in the terms of low poly game assets and even UV painting it feels like I've got a long ways to go. UV layout I'm decent at and okay at weight painting and rigging. But these things aren't enjoyable at all - it distracts me from what I really want to be doing.

Can I focus exclusive on the modeling process or will this really hurt my employable qualities for studios who seem to want one artist to create a complete asset from start to finish?

Treboras

"Can I focus exclusive on the modeling process or will this really hurt my employable qualities for studios who seem to want one artist to create a complete asset from start to finish?"

Yes and yes

Sure, you can concentrate on the modeling only part, but it sure is way more comfortable for a studio to have both rigger and modeler in one person ...

it's a risky gamble in my opinion. Especially small and medium companies may be looking for someone to do both ... or they look for someone else, who can meet their expectations ...

I have not much experience in this exact matter, for I am no character modeler, but I have seen both sides and both the "model-only" and the "modeling+rigging" freelancers can get jobs

Maybe something to think about: Are you THAT good+fast with modeling, that the company REALLY wants you and can get someone else for rigging+skinning, then go ahead. If you are fairly good but not exceptional, I would try to optimize your workflow and swallow the bitter pill and do the rigging+skinning too ...

But also keep in mind: There are a lot companies (often big and sometimes medium too), where the animator prefers to skin and rig the character himself, so he can really work towards his preferences and the specific tasks for the job. Sometimes they have technical artists and riggers who specialize in this exact thing.

It finally comes down to the following: Sure it would be better, if you do both (if the company prefers this) but if you really hate the skinning+rigging process so much, it's not worth it to destroy your passion for it ... we know, it's not a small part after modeling.

This was all spoken for character modeling.

For assets and environments: UV + texture work: NO way around it (Exception again: If you are REALLY (VERY!) good in modeling, they let someone else do the lowpoly, UV and etc.)

just my opinion. Fellow Polycounters, if I'm wrong please (!) feel free to correct me!

bblotus

Thank you for the response. My passion is based more on wanting to be a great 3D artist who can work on some interesting game titles in the indy game business. From the amount of effort that goes into perfecting high end meshes I should just get this over with and figure out where my hang ups are.

I'm really struggling with normal maps and feel that my painting skills could use a bump, like when you see a game asset up close and it looks more real than real life.

PolyHertz

Unless you're practically a living legend when it comes to modeling you'll need to be able to texture as well, there's no getting around that. It varies between studios if you'll be doing more photo sourced or hand painted texturing, but if you're interested in Indies know that their budgets are often relatively low so they're more likely to forgo high poly work in favor of quick/cheap lowpolys with hand painted textures.

HitmonInfinity

Specialize. Get job. Then learn everything.

VeeJayZee

For me Modeling have a pretty robust sets of disciplines. An yes, you SHOULD know how to UV and Texture. For now I'm concentrating into Hard-Surface, Non-Organic modeling into my career to be even better, but I will sure be studying Organic and Character Modeling since Modeling is my chosen specialized craft.