What Quality should my work be at?

CarlK3D

I've been doing 3D art for about 1.5 Years and I'm coming up to the end of my University Course. I've been noticed my quality of work slowly getting better but I'm unsure if I'm behind what is normal for the time I've been learning.

Its hard to tell since most of the work I see on polycount are extremely high detail pieces but don't mention how long it took or how long they've been working in 3D. any critiques would be great. however most of my environment & Character work are 1/2 a year old so I know they look bad now.

Portfolio: http://carlk3d.paspartout.com/
Website: http://www.carlk3d.com/

David Wakelin

I've just graduated, and to be honest your works probably average for where your at. All I can suggest is don't rush yourself; University merely touches upon the 3D world because the courses are so broad.

Ideally you should spend your spare time practicing and realistically find what your good at/passionate about and stick to one area; by that i mean character or environment.

Uni is more about learning then anything else; I know your comparing yourself to others on here and yes - thats good you should be, as their your competition in industry but its unlikely you'll land a role upon graduating and will still be practicing!

CarlK3D

Thanks for letting me know, I'm going to stick to Envoirments & Props (Weapons, Vehicles) as I dont enjoy characters all that much.

chrisradsby

Well you can always compare yourself with other students and their portfolios. That's where your competitions at.

Here is the class of 2011 from The Game Assembly in Sweden,
these guys graduate soon I think or at least they're soon heading off to their internships.

http://www.thegameassembly.com/?page_id=374#

There is a lot of competition for the internships in Sweden, so the students tend to be at a pretty good level by the time they graduate.

CarlK3D

@chrisradsby
Thanks for the link! I've looked at your work before and it's breath taking, I loved FarCry 3 and its inspiring to hear from a 3D Artist who working on it, may I ask how long you've been in the Gaming Industry for?

Also if there class of 2011 does that mean they've been learning for 3 years? Might be a silly question but no harm in asking

chrisradsby

@CarlK3D

Hey man, thanks I've been in the industry for 3 years now. Class of 2011 means that they started their education in 2011, so right now they're are on their second year and will go on internships for 6 months as well soon. As far as I know ^^

CarlK3D

ok cool, when you say 3 year does that include learning? :<

David Wakelin

CarlK3D wrote: »

ok cool, when you say 3 year does that include learning? :<

I was about to ask the same question. 3 years in industry, how long was practice?

chrisradsby

To answer both of your questions, I trained for 1 year , 8 hours at least a day before I got my first job in the industry.

So I've spent in total 4 years working with 3D.

And yes, like my friend Dustin says here, you never stop learning.

See your journey with 3d art as a mountain piercing the clouds. And each time you break though those clouds you realize there is another layer of clouds and that the mountain extends even higher.

Us a little bit more experienced folks are the ones who plants flags for you guys on the way to the top. Tutorials, articles and just general advice. To help you reach those peaks but we are all climbing the same mountain, reaching for the top.

Twotents

Inspiring words Chris, with your permission I would like to quote and post that onto my facebook group for my fellow students to see.

fifftyframes

So that's 1 year of self training after three years of school?

serriffe

chrisradsby wrote: »

To answer both of your questions, I trained for 1 year , 8 hours at least a day before I got my first job in the industry.

So I've spent in total 4 years working with 3D.

And yes, like my friend Dustin says here, you never stop learning.

See your journey with 3d art as a mountain piercing the clouds. And each time you break though those clouds you realize there is another layer of clouds and that the mountain extends even higher.

Us a little bit more experienced folks are the ones who plants flags for you guys on the way to the top. Tutorials, articles and just general advice. To help you reach those peaks but we are all climbing the same mountain, reaching for the top.

That's really well said.

chrisradsby

Twotents wrote: »

Inspiring words Chris, with your permission I would like to quote and post that onto my facebook group for my fellow students to see.

Sure, go ahead haha ^^

fifftyframes wrote: »

So that's 1 year of self training after three years of school?

Wait...no, I spent 1 year of self-training, then I got a job. Now I've been working professionally as an environment artist for 3 years.

serriffe wrote: »

That's really well said.

Thanks man