hey jordan :P as someone said before, "welcome to polycount" xD the place where crits are harsh, and people say what they think ^^
dont worry, we've all been there. nobody is born knowing shit. you just need dedication, and lots of patience.
now that i saw your bus model (aga22 might even remember that, since he was in this project with me), it made me remember myself. i had to model a school bus for a game. i made the first model. i was very happy with it at the time, and all. then, comes a vehicle artist to the team. looks at it (looking back at the model now, you dont need to be an artist to say it really sucked lol), he told me "dude, it stinks. do it again."
i went thru it 4 times, since i had never modelled a vehicle in my life, go figure a school bus, inside and outside.
anyway, point is: model. model, model, model model model. and if youre not happy with the result, model again. until youre not happy (REAL HAPPY) with thre result. make sure its not only YOU the one who likes it, show the results to the most people you can, ask for opinions, show the results here at polycount, we-ll be more than happy to give feedback.
some advice here might have sounded way too harsh, but one important thing is to learn to take advantage of criticism. filter the good things someone has to say to you. learn what is important. and dont give up. eventually youll reach your goals.
btw: learn to use booleans to get your wholes for the wheel. supporting edges help loads too
I'm surprised by the amount of unprofessional-ism from participants on this thread. Industry professionals should be providing feedback, realistic criticism, and advice with respect to their roles as professional artists. No matter how blunt, all you do is degrade the respect and integrity of the amount of work and practice invested as an artist yourself, and community as whole.
Sometimes it's better to say nothing at all if it doesn't contributes to the higher learning of an individual looking to practice or jump into the industry. If an aspiring game artist wants to jump straight into building complex objects, than boxes and barrels, so be it. It would be better to explain to them the clear issues of their results after they've completed their pipeline and to critique, professionally, than to simply say they are going about it all wrong. Throwing in a few choice words in there, really doesn't contribute to anything.
The "holier than thou" attitudes need to stop.
On that note, and not to continue derailing the thread. I'd like to see more shots and results from the op
I agree with Shogun3d, and a few others that have already said it. You shouldn't use polycounts reputation for harsh criticism as a crutch for being an ass hole.
I checked on this thread simply because I saw it the other day and I was wondering how on earth did it reach 3 pages already. It would be nice if more comments were made to others who are looking for honest feedback, rather than jumping on the "you suck" band wagon.
JordanN: Your doing fine man, I think your biggest hurdle is better time management. You are probably getting distracted by a lot of other stuff, and really you need to hunker down and make some art. If you don't have other obligations, working 12 hours straight shouldn't be that difficult if this is something you love. I was doing 12-16 hour days for almost 2 years before I broke into the industry.
If you don't have other obligations, working 12 hours straight shouldn't be that difficult if this is something you love. I was doing 12-16 hour days for almost 2 years before I broke into the industry.
I think your biggest hurdle is better time management. You are probably getting distracted by a lot of other stuff, and really you need to hunker down and make some art. If you don't have other obligations, working 12 hours straight shouldn't be that difficult if this is something you love. I was doing 12-16 hour days for almost 2 years before I broke into the industry.
That's exactly it. If there are no other obligations, its a great idea to focus on taking an asset from start to finish. Get to an end result, until you find it satisfactory, get feedback, and make a pass. No matter how much, when said and done, as long as you've learned something from it. It's a repeated process and nobody in this industry finishes a project, and says "Hey, I think this looks perfect, and I learned absolutely nothing. On to the next."
From the perspective of a practicing artist who knows very little of game art pipeline, if there is nothing in the way, and you can focus without distraction, 12-16 hours to hammer out a personal project is a great way to learn and if you love it, even better.
JordanN: Your doing fine man, I think your biggest hurdle is better time management. You are probably getting distracted by a lot of other stuff, and really you need to hunker down and make some art. If you don't have other obligations, working 12 hours straight shouldn't be that difficult if this is something you love. I was doing 12-16 hour days for almost 2 years before I broke into the industry.
Even a solid 5 hours is enough, if it's well spent. I never had a job during college, and I had a huge shock at my very first job, where I had to create stuff for 8 hours straight (with lunch break, of course). It was mind-blowing, because I did more sketches and things in that first day than stuff I had in my portfolio gathered in a year! I'm not sure how or what I worked in college, but I was never really productive and didn't understand what actually sitting down and doing something meant.
I guess I started something, spent half an hour on it until I said screw it, good enough, then some more time on the Internet, go back hours later and lazily work another 15 minutes then completely abandon it. If I had to make a sketch of a character, hm, let's say, a goblin, I'd make a quick sketch of a single pose, have another pass fixing some minor things and be done in under half an hour.
I know some students, barely years younger than me who are very proud of the sketch they did in an hour while their mind wandered off, even post it online like it's their finest work. It's just a study sketch. You need to make hundreds of those in a day, not one!
Actually working 8 hours on a goblin character means gathering like 50 references, doing a bunch of anatomy sketches, making 50 thumbnails, 3 full body poses and a rendered drawing.
That being said, JordanN, you need to show a significantly larger volume of work. All pieces you posted so far here (and I mean all) can be churned out easily in a day by a working pro (with a good part just in a lunch break). It isn't exactly portfolio material by industry standards. Which is okay, you're not in a phase where everything you do goes straight to your portofolio, you're in a learning and studying phase, and it's most important to get everything right, don't even think about your portfolio, but solely on how can I improve this piece, and how does it stack up against what pros are doing. The most important thing is to look objectively at your work! MY 2 CENTS!
You can join the Weekly Hard Surface challenge, that's a cool way to create small things and focus on finishing them (you can start from week 1).
Yeah that's what I was going to suggest. Just join the weekly hard surface challenge or even the monthly environment challenge. It forces a hard deadline and you learn a ton in the process.
Replies
dont worry, we've all been there. nobody is born knowing shit. you just need dedication, and lots of patience.
now that i saw your bus model (aga22 might even remember that, since he was in this project with me), it made me remember myself. i had to model a school bus for a game. i made the first model. i was very happy with it at the time, and all. then, comes a vehicle artist to the team. looks at it (looking back at the model now, you dont need to be an artist to say it really sucked lol), he told me "dude, it stinks. do it again."
i went thru it 4 times, since i had never modelled a vehicle in my life, go figure a school bus, inside and outside.
anyway, point is: model. model, model, model model model. and if youre not happy with the result, model again. until youre not happy (REAL HAPPY) with thre result. make sure its not only YOU the one who likes it, show the results to the most people you can, ask for opinions, show the results here at polycount, we-ll be more than happy to give feedback.
some advice here might have sounded way too harsh, but one important thing is to learn to take advantage of criticism. filter the good things someone has to say to you. learn what is important. and dont give up. eventually youll reach your goals.
btw: learn to use booleans to get your wholes for the wheel. supporting edges help loads too
Sometimes it's better to say nothing at all if it doesn't contributes to the higher learning of an individual looking to practice or jump into the industry. If an aspiring game artist wants to jump straight into building complex objects, than boxes and barrels, so be it. It would be better to explain to them the clear issues of their results after they've completed their pipeline and to critique, professionally, than to simply say they are going about it all wrong. Throwing in a few choice words in there, really doesn't contribute to anything.
The "holier than thou" attitudes need to stop.
On that note, and not to continue derailing the thread. I'd like to see more shots and results from the op
I checked on this thread simply because I saw it the other day and I was wondering how on earth did it reach 3 pages already. It would be nice if more comments were made to others who are looking for honest feedback, rather than jumping on the "you suck" band wagon.
JordanN: Your doing fine man, I think your biggest hurdle is better time management. You are probably getting distracted by a lot of other stuff, and really you need to hunker down and make some art. If you don't have other obligations, working 12 hours straight shouldn't be that difficult if this is something you love. I was doing 12-16 hour days for almost 2 years before I broke into the industry.
this.
That's exactly it. If there are no other obligations, its a great idea to focus on taking an asset from start to finish. Get to an end result, until you find it satisfactory, get feedback, and make a pass. No matter how much, when said and done, as long as you've learned something from it. It's a repeated process and nobody in this industry finishes a project, and says "Hey, I think this looks perfect, and I learned absolutely nothing. On to the next."
From the perspective of a practicing artist who knows very little of game art pipeline, if there is nothing in the way, and you can focus without distraction, 12-16 hours to hammer out a personal project is a great way to learn and if you love it, even better.
I guess I started something, spent half an hour on it until I said screw it, good enough, then some more time on the Internet, go back hours later and lazily work another 15 minutes then completely abandon it. If I had to make a sketch of a character, hm, let's say, a goblin, I'd make a quick sketch of a single pose, have another pass fixing some minor things and be done in under half an hour.
I know some students, barely years younger than me who are very proud of the sketch they did in an hour while their mind wandered off, even post it online like it's their finest work. It's just a study sketch. You need to make hundreds of those in a day, not one!
Actually working 8 hours on a goblin character means gathering like 50 references, doing a bunch of anatomy sketches, making 50 thumbnails, 3 full body poses and a rendered drawing.
That being said, JordanN, you need to show a significantly larger volume of work. All pieces you posted so far here (and I mean all) can be churned out easily in a day by a working pro (with a good part just in a lunch break). It isn't exactly portfolio material by industry standards. Which is okay, you're not in a phase where everything you do goes straight to your portofolio, you're in a learning and studying phase, and it's most important to get everything right, don't even think about your portfolio, but solely on how can I improve this piece, and how does it stack up against what pros are doing. The most important thing is to look objectively at your work! MY 2 CENTS!
You can join the Weekly Hard Surface challenge, that's a cool way to create small things and focus on finishing them (you can start from week 1).