So I'm a shit artist...(Mentor Wanted)
polycounter lvl 9
So I'm a shit artist...But I feel like I could really make it somewhere with just a little push. I would like to find someone who could give the direction I need to really polish myself to a point to where someone would consider hiring me. I've worked on my art for my entire life, and have worked on my 3D art for roughly 3 years, but the last year I have really worked my ass off. I work a shit job at a restaurant and can't stand it anymore, I want to walk out and quit almost everyday. So I have spent every free moment that I have working on this, going without sleep, and neglecting friends. I send out a ton of applications, and I get back a ton of rejection letters =P. So I feel that I have hit a wall where the view of someone from inside the industry could really help out. I live in an area where there are not many artist's and sometimes polycount can be a lonely place waiting for responses o.O, and it has been hard for me to make any real friendships on here. So I am willing to pay (within reason) for a mentor. I want to be a Prop/ Environment Artist. My dream job would be Naughty Dog, but I also love Bioware, Bethesda, and Infinity Ward/Treyarch/Sledgehammer games. I would like to work in a more realistic style. So I hope this will help someone determine if they would be a good fit to help me out. Also would be cool if the mentor would be someone who has either been a mentor before, or has been mentored so that the process could be a little smoother and we could go into this with a plan in place because I honestly have no idea how this should work. Whelp thanks for anyone checking this out and I hope to hear from someone who is interested =] Also if this is all just a rubbish idea continue on and forget you ever saw this =D
Replies
Jeff is doing a mentorship on patreon. Maybe that's your guy...not sure if he has any open spots left though.
Hell yes, I would be right behind you
Mike your work looks solid. You just don't have that much work. I don't think a mentorship with me would help you at all for the style you're working in. It seems like you have the skills and understanding down. Just need more samples and larger samples.
Maybe try setting a schedule for 1-2 months. Like I'll complete 1 gun a week (or 2 weeks) for the next 8 weeks. That will increase the amount of work in your folio, your speed, streamline your workflow, and overall just improve your artistic eye.
Also try getting a small sketch pad and carry it around with you. I draw every day at lunch, sometimes after dinner, waiting in a store for my Wife, etc. Those small bits help with ideas and understanding art basics. Draw the stuff you want to make. It'll help eventually.
Don't waste the money on classes and mentorships would be my advice. Just make a schedule and tell people your schedule so you have to stick to it. And then execute on the schedule.
Anyways that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps.
its not like you are a shitty artist, i see there is a lot of things to improve with your work(sorry :P) and i see you have rather not awesome situation(like me) but few of your guns you have posted were almost the same (in terms of texture quality) how you want to improve your art then? you used the same (non improved over time) technique for most of stuff you have posted so dont expect to make your art somehow looking better if you are not going to do more research and trying to understand what you want to achieve with every piece, every time you do something new. Maybe that sounds harsh, but saying "dont worry just practice more" isnt going to help much more right?, your models are not bad, they just dont have that wow effect that is sometimes needed when you want to be hired. Also i cant understand when people post one picture and ask for crits, i mean if you are not satisfied with your work explain it well, create album with a lot of pictures visualising the problem, explain your technique and i'm sure if you do it well someone will help you. My work isnt better then yours, but you have my help on slack (and i'm sure others as well there). Mentorship will propably help you, but dont forget you can get a lof of stuff for free, like getting in touch with other artist can benefit a lot, thats my solution and some random thoughts, lets hope it helps
I think you just need to have MORE work, and start pushing complexity that will get you noticed.
I googled 'Gun 3D Model' and got back thousands of search results.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=gun+model&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI3qbnxPX7xwIVhokaCh2WCQOv&biw=2133&bih=1238&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=gun+3d+model
Make things that are waay more ambitious.
A Radial Helicopter Engine will get you noticed:
Every artist I've known runs into a wall at some point and there are many ways to deal with it. In your case, I think your work is being let down by the presentation. What is going on in the background of the E11 pistol? Are there 2 pistols there? The HP image with the LP wireframe looks great but there is so much going on in the image that it's difficult to figure out where to look.
I'd say focus on the presentation: you need to make it easy for employers to look at your work.
Good luck!
Also @Jeff Parrot for your patron courses, may i ask how that works? Because i might be interested in it.
@stromberg I don't see it, but I might be over looking it. If you want you can PM me with the name or just add me on skype my name is noosence on there as well.
@Jeff Parrott/ Slosh, I kind of felt like the style didn't really mesh to well but thanks for being honest and not taking my money =D and I agree I need to have more stuff. I like the idea of setting up a schedule and making x amount of items in x amount of time.
@dustinbrown I will definitely hit him up, he is a huge influence for me next to the likes of tor frick and Paul Pepera. Thanks for the idea =]
@Micaki yeah I have gotten distracted working on the mod, that's the main reason I haven't been on slack that much. I will be on there more definitely. And I guess I have gotten lazy with experimenting with textures and should get back on it!
@JacqueChoi this is pretty sweet advice. I really need to spice up my work in a way to get myself noticed. I just felt that not doing the standard barrel/crate/brick wall, and doing some guns which aren't super simple assets but are used frequently would be a good idea, but I was not looking at it in the light of really wanting to impress someone even if it might not be such a game friendly model. I just need to up the complexity and push for something outside of my comfort zone to bring that extra little bit of wow to my pieces, thanks for that =D
@Gonzo yeah I have been experimenting with different ways to do my presentations, and this one was terrible =P I need to reset them up and try again =D
Thanks for all the solutions from everyone, I will probably still look for a mentor, I'm probably going to go the route of just asking some awesome artists that I look up to if they would have the time to mentor me. I just feel alot of the rough edges everyone has been pointing out are problems I seem to have pretty frequently and just haven't been able to nail down. Also with posting on here besides the wait for responses , it may not always be someone with tons of experience with whatever it is your trying to accomplish. So hopefully this will work out, but thank you all again the advice is all golden, and will work my ass off to make sure I put it to good use =D you guys rawk!
I would also probably use a 3-point lighting setup in your renders to add some more pop to the images. One dominant light creating shadows and visual interest, another on the opposite angle slightly less bright and perhaps a subtly different color (warm versus cold, but still keep your lights almost basically white as having too much color on a light will also kill your texture's color work), and a fill /ambient light so nothing is too dark to see.
Just my 2 cents anyways!
Also feel free to look at jobs in arch viz, advertising agencies, and "serious games"/simulations if you haven't as well. Sometimes there might be more opportunities for 3D work nearby with openings that you might of never known about before.
Best of luck!
Oh and networking helps too (All my jobs have been recommendations basically). If you have any 3D artists nearby or game meetups like I think Boston has the monthly Bostom Postmorteum meetup I'd try going to them at least once. Connect your work to a real face, show people you're not crazy/they'd actually like to work with you/etc. You could potentially hear about a job opening or someone might recommend you for one, or you can make new friends!
[EDIT]
Oh and you don't necessarily have to do this, but you might want to consider putting your name and a link to your portfolio website as a footer on the bottom of each of your images. Some studios like to just download a bunch of photos from applicants that they like to compare them, and the easier it is for them to remember your name and how to get to your site to contact you is potentially bettering your chances slightly.
Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MachinePorn/. They have a ton of reference images for machines and other hard surface stuff. It's a good place to get ideas to do ambitious models.
Let's both keep out eyes open for mentorship and at the same time motivate each other do a scene together, how does that sound?
Here is my portfolio, you can take a look at it:
3dbunnyz.blogspot.com