How much is rigging and animating a requirement for a 3D Artist?

MMKH

Hello, this is a question I've been wanting to ask and I am interested to hear what most people on the forum will say. Right now I am the type of artist where I feel more comfortable sticking to creating concept art, low-poly modeling, UV mapping and texturing. It's not to say that I won't refresh my rigging and animation knowledge and I actually plan to do that in the near future to round out my portfolio. My goal would be to develop a basic rigging/animating pipeline into my existing workflow, to include animations like simple walking, attacking, idle or jumping animations for low-poly characters. However, as a freelance artist on the search for new and better jobs, I usually prefer to stick to my strengths and I consider time spent doing rigging and animation, time I'm not spending doing the other things I'm better at. Fortunately the previous freelance jobs I've had allowed me to focus on my strengths because the clients had specialist Riggers/Animators to work on the models I've done. I like to create character models that are ready to be rigged, and sometimes ships, props, weapons, or things that don't usually need rigging.

If most people recommend I pick up rigging/animating, what would be the best or easiest way for me (any useful scripts or plugins)? I use Maya.

I appreciate some honest comments from professionals with good experience doing freelancing or in-house work. Thanks.

EarthQuake

It's good for a 3D artist to have an understanding of rigging an animation, mostly so you understand how those phases apply to your work, for instance where to place edge loops on your character's knee to give your rigger/animator good geometry to work with.

At most studios, modeling/uving/texture work and rigging/animating are usually specialized roles performed by at least two people, medium to larger studios usually have dedicated rigger(s) as well, so I wouldn't say it's essential if you intend to focus on modeling work.

If you want to get into animation/rigging work, then yes, by all means, you should devote some time to learning current techniques. However, it's unlike that you'll get turned down for modeling jobs just because you don't show professional grade rigging/animating skills in your portfolio.

Dylan Brady

I would say its probably worth having a running knowledge of rigging.
Its a huge area of study but at least how to setup skeletons, maybe a simple IK/FK switch. the funtamentals.
I went thought this whole video and followed along with each step on my own project to get a good feel for what actually goes into it: http://3dmotive.com/series/the-bipedal-rigging-series.html

nowadays theres loads of auto-rigging scripts that do this way faster but I found it useful.

monster

Let's separate Rigging from Skinning (Mesh Deformation). Many people consider both of those tasks as Rigging.

I think a good knowledge of Skinning is a great idea especially someone interested in modeling characters. When in doubt keep it quads. You'll get models sent back to your for revisions the less you know about this. I had a guy send me a model with a long thin beard that was fused to the characters chest. I need him to seperate the beard, and he had to retexture a large area of the chest as well.

Animation and Rigging bones to controllers I don't think you need to learn. These are skills that take years to master. Focus on your portfolio and your interests instead.

MMKH

Thanks for the comments so far. For skinning, rigging or animating, I would focus those on low-poly characters only. I imagine dealing with moving the main joints in a body rather than many intricate parts. Basically I just want to do enough to give some life to my characters and that's about as far as I'd like to go.

The other question I was going to ask was, how important would it be to know high-poly skills (e.g. ZBrush) as a 3D Artist? Would it be a viable career path to specialize in strictly low-poly modeling, and how would it affect my rate compared to 3D Artists who specialize in high-poly? I understand that ZBrush can be used to create bakes which can help make models look better in low-poly, but I'm deciding if learning it will be worth it. Thanks.

PolyHertz

Is lowpoly specialization a viable career path? Yes, but keep in mind your job opportunities will be very different then someone who focuses on highpoly art. Lowpoly artists mostly work on smaller indie/mobile type games, whether it be via freelance or in small studios. Lowpoly artists are also more often expected to wear many hats, ie. know how to rig and animate (you don't need to be great at it, but should at least be somewhat competent).

Highpoly artists have far more work opportunities, and aren't expected to know much beyond the core asset creation process + basic shader setup (of course knowing more is good, but rarely necessary unless applying for a senior position). However they also have a lot more competition. If you want to go down that road, ZBrush is a must unless you want to stick to a VERY specific niche (Guns, cars, etc.)

EarthQuake

I would not recommend focusing solely on lowpoly art, as hardware gets better and better even low end devices are capable of using normal maps and other advanced shaders, so understanding the high-low poly workflow is essential for any game artist.

PolyHertz

Low-spec art these days is rarely about technical limitations, and almost always about budget/time/style choices.
Of course, if you can do both low/high spec art you're going to have way more opportunities then if you can only do one.

MMKH

I was thinking that although it's true that technology is getting better which allows artists to push the limits of 3D graphics, there will always be a place for low-spec art. For example, pixel art is probably the earliest and oldest form of digital art but there are still many people who practice it, and there will always be demand for that kind of style in indie games. I believe that there will always be a need for people doing a specialization of art in order to keep it alive over the years so that future generations may discover and enjoy them.

Indeed, for me it is about budgeting my time and resources to stick with low-poly art for now. Currently I enjoy doing the hand-painted style and it fits my strengths, and I wish to churn out a lot more art than to invest a great deal of time on a single project. I feel that if I make the leap to learn ZBrush and all the other latest-gen tools, I would forget my current workflow and techniques for low-poly art. I'll probably not have much time to do both as I have other interests offline. Also, I will still be competing with all the experts who already have lots of experience doing high-poly stuff.

For the past several years, I've developed a well-rounded skill set in both 2D and 3D art, but now have less time and desire to keep up everything to a competitive proficiency. It's been a dilemma of mine for a long time. I've thought that being well-rounded would get me more job opportunities but it feels like clients would just hire a specialist if they want a particular role fulfilled. It also affects my rates, for example I can't ask for very much if somebody approached me to create very detailed concept art or illustrations because I don't invest as much of my time in either compared to someone who does.

What are your thoughts?

EarthQuake

While lowpoly style stuff continues to be prevalent to a degree, and isn't always related to hardware specs, you're severely limiting your marketability to potential employers by ignoring current generation content creation techniques.

Getting a job in the industry is hard enough without putting artificial limits on what you're willing to learn, especially when it means ignoring industry standard art content creation workflows. I'm gonna be perfectly honest/blunt with you here, it's 2015, almost 2016, if you're a game artist that doesn't know how to make high poly meshes or bake normal maps, you're not in a good spot, unless you've already established yourself as one of the leading artists in a particular, specialized, style/field.

At this point it's hard to give you much advice beyond that, unless you post your work/portfolio for people to look at.