Looking for a mentor

Notey

Hello fellow artists! I'm an aspiring character/texture artist. I am looking for a mentor to help me understand the industry as well as provide feedback on my work as I prepare it for my portfolio. Getting the opinion of students who tell me my work "look nice" is not constructive. If you feel you could spare a little time to be a mentor please contact me at kiten_le_blanc@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Notey

artquest

I've found this entire site to be a great mentor. Just post wips in the pimping and previews section and you'll get a good amount of feedback. The more you post and get involved around here the more people will see you are serious and put more time into posting feedback on your work. Just dive in man. Pc is an amazing community!

chrisradsby

Requesting it like this is just way too official, sounds like one ought to get paid for such a service. You're better off hanging around the forums, joining the different chats & skype-groups happening around the interwebz.

Befriend someone experienced and just ask them questions , it's not much harder than that.

Fwap

I found that private messaging people and asking them certain tips or tricks on a piece they did helps, people are usually more than happy to give a few words of advice if you don't feel like opening a new thread or want to keep your WIPS discrete.

Michael Knubben

Fwap: i don't agree.
Don't keeps your work-in-progress to yourself, and don't randomly bother people in PM.

Torch

Well I'd say don't hide your WIPs, why would you? If you want to improve its best to get as much feedback as you can.

However, I don't think PMing other artists for a few tips can be seen as 'bothering' them, if they're happy to answer and give some feedback then great, the worst thing that'll happen is they will just ignore the message. Although if you're asking the same person questions over and over again... that could get irritating.

Anyway back to topic - hate to sound negative but no self respecting artist is going to mentor you, if they have good enough knowledge to pass down to someone else then they might as well be being paid for their services or teaching, its not very likely that they'd have loads of free time to share with people hoping to learn about character design and improving skills in that field. There's no fast way to 'being good', you just have to do the hard graft and put the time in, self teach, trial and error, etc.

Yozora

I feel that PMing people directly for something like this can be considered as "bothering" them.
Yes some people will gladly reply, but the ones who don't, will still likely read the message and go through with the decision of not replying, regardless of how nice the message was.

They might feel guilty for ignoring someone, like they're the "bad guy". It creates unnecessary pressure, some might just reply out of that guilt.

I'd hate to force anyone into that kind of situation.

rino

definitely agree with Yozora. here is the solution, make a thread, eventually someone is going to reply there. if not, bump it frequently - still better solution than pming people.

Eric Chadwick

To PMs like this, I typically reply by asking the person to open a new thread, and point me there. That way the OP gets feedback from others too, and other people get the benefit of seeing those answers.

But hey, it's a free internet.

EarthQuake

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

To PMs like this, I typically reply by asking the person to open a new thread, and point me there. That way the OP gets feedback from others too, and other people get the benefit of seeing those answers.

But hey, it's a free internet.

Yep, no/very few people will be interested in tutoring random people for free. I am always disappointed when I get PMs asking for help, because I know that when I answer them, nobody else benefits but the person who PM'd me. If you create a thread, more often then not you will share information and help many others.

Polycount as a whole is an excellent place to learn, and also network. Being shy and hiding your work will do nothing for your development personally or professionally. You need to put yourself out there.

Start a thread in pimping, comment on other artist's work, ask technical questions in tech talk when you have them, answer other's questions when you can. Do these simple things and you will start to build relationships. You'll get contacts that you know you can trust to give honest feedback eventually, however, there are no shortcuts to this point. You just have to do it.

BradMyers82

I would consider helping someone out over pm or something, but Eric Chadwick and EQ are right. Its better to start a thread where everyone can benefit from input. I'll probably keep that in mind for next time.

However... I would NOT consider helping someone that didn't have a portfolio or something to show me there current skill level. Personally, I would want to help someone that shows potential and strong work ethic. After all, if you are going to put the time in you want them to be successful, and its incredibly competitive right now.

Not that I have a lot of people bugging me for help though. lol.

fearian

I disagree about never bugging people on PM - if you have a very specific problem, that you have seen solved by someone else, PM them. If they have the time they will probably respond in some way, or even post the information in a thread for everyone. I've specifically done this when I wanted to know how to achieve an affect in a UDK shader that I have seen before.

However this advice does not particularly apply to general crits, paintovers or advice. For this you are better off jsut making friends. If you get to know people in hangouts, on skype or IRL, you will end up helping each other. Branch out!

bugo

Here's your best mentor: http://wiki.polycount.com/

Tairii

I had a lot of trouble finding a mentor when I felt I needed one. Ironically, my mentor found me. I had this one professor for two of my foundations class, and one day after a disappointing assignment he told me to stay after class. He said that he's so tough on me because he sees so much potential in me and that he will take the time to invest into me because he believe it's worth doing. We sort of built that bond and now I talk to him on a daily basis, and it's super useful to speak with someone who's been through it already and to ask questions that pertain more to your situation. If you go to a university/college, you can try there. I also had a mentor like figure in high school and it was a similar situation. A teacher saw a lot of potential in me, and decided it was worth their time.

chrisradsby

bugo wrote: »

Here's your best mentor: http://wiki.polycount.com/

A mentor is more than just knowledge on a paper though. They teach you about game-dev culture, mind-set and how to tackle problems more dynamically. :thumbup:

I wouldn't want to be replaced with a library of books xD I really hope that some of the guys that I usually teach stuff and befriends sees me as a human rather than a container of knowledge and experience :poly142:

skankerzero

Notey wrote: »

Hello fellow artists! I'm an aspiring character/texture artist. I am looking for a mentor to help me understand the industry as well as provide feedback on my work as I prepare it for my portfolio. Getting the opinion of students who tell me my work "look nice" is not constructive. If you feel you could spare a little time to be a mentor please contact me at kiten_le_blanc@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Notey

link to your work?

skankerzero

so much for this?

shotgun

Saman Mahmoudi is someone I've seen follow advice (personal, among others) to great length and has improved a lot