New to 3D - 5 months to become job ready
Hello everyone, my name is Carl McHenry. I have quite the odd situation that I have been explaining to numerous people I have found around the internet and my school. I currently attend Full Sail University, I arrived at the school with the dream to be a freelance graphic designer ( commercial art like branding and advertising ). About 14 months into the program I was introduced to 3D, now this 3D was more along the lines for motion graphics using "cinema 4D" . The next 3 months involved learning this program, after the last month of this amazing program I learned that this was what I was happy doing, I wanted to do this as a job instead of branding. That was a difficult thing for me to decide, so now I have been asking my 3D teachers ( who have experience with real 3D game art ) as well as the other degree program students who are learning 3D for games. I also began to talk to other designers online via twitch creative section. So I was told to visit this site from my old teacher and was amazed at what was being posted and the community behind it. So I thought that this would be the best place to ask for advice and help me spend my time wisely.
So with all of that explained, basically I have 5 months ( I graduate in June ) were I need to keep my classes up ( 8 hours a day minus 2 days a week ) as well as learn as much as other degree programs take around 20 + months on. So I have 5 months to learn like 5 programs and to become at least entry level ready for any game type of game company that will be willing to take me. Ive been looking at 3dmotive, lynda.com, and some various gumroad tutorials but have really only completed like 3. So what do you guys think, should i just complete as many as i can? I had a plan to make a single 3D object everyday, and hopefully by the time i graduate I will have enough assets to persuade someone to hire more or give me an internship.
Where else should I look? will making a single 3d object everyday work? Tell me what you guys think.
p.s. i would post an example of my current ability but i have literally done 1 thing in 3ds max, so ill post my behance but please note, its all done in cinema 4d. https://www.behance.net/mchenry95
So with all of that explained, basically I have 5 months ( I graduate in June ) were I need to keep my classes up ( 8 hours a day minus 2 days a week ) as well as learn as much as other degree programs take around 20 + months on. So I have 5 months to learn like 5 programs and to become at least entry level ready for any game type of game company that will be willing to take me. Ive been looking at 3dmotive, lynda.com, and some various gumroad tutorials but have really only completed like 3. So what do you guys think, should i just complete as many as i can? I had a plan to make a single 3D object everyday, and hopefully by the time i graduate I will have enough assets to persuade someone to hire more or give me an internship.
Where else should I look? will making a single 3d object everyday work? Tell me what you guys think.
p.s. i would post an example of my current ability but i have literally done 1 thing in 3ds max, so ill post my behance but please note, its all done in cinema 4d. https://www.behance.net/mchenry95
Replies
First thing first - If they tell you that you'll land your first job in games after only 5 months of training, that is so wrong, so bull-shit I don't even know where to begin.
Don't pick a career because someone else tell you so. If you like motion graphics, stick to that. Whatever you choose, ALL are going to be difficult. You're going to have to work at it with every single drop of energy you have so it's important to stick to what you, yourself, have passion for.
Learn AS NARROW as you can. Trying to take as many courses as you can is another bullshit advice. You won't have enough time to come up with quality work. Besides it's better to become the best at 1 single thing instead of knowing a little of everything. For motion graphics, you'll want strong foundation of animation skill. I don't know what your school offer, my personal recommendation is this course.
Once you have the foundation, the rest is all about coming up with ideas and execute them. You want to make sure you finish what you start. Don't jump shift between projects, you won't learn anything and has nothing to show. And most importantly, TAKE YOUR TIME. Quality over quantity. 1 beautifully executed piece is 10000 times better than 500 crappy pieces. Forget about 1 piece a day. Some pieces can take you weeks, or even months. Some hero game characters can take up to 2-3 months to complete a single character, working full time, to give you some idea. While I have no idea how long a good motion graphic piece should take, I'm betting the same idea applies. But maybe someone else in the field can shed us a better understanding.
Also read some interviews. They're really helpful. I did a quick search and found this.
https://www.thepixellab.net/interview-motion-designer-jake-mathew
There are many types of jobs when it comes to 3DCG as you've noticed. Hone in on the job you want, learn the relevant skills and programs of that discipline.
If the answer to that question is they're all appealing to you, focus on what you're currently best at and work on advancing those skills into something that will get you noticed and hired.
Also some relevant reading for portfolio websites.
http://polycount.com/discussion/39516/general-discussion-your-portfolio-repels-jobs
What types of 3d jobs are there? I know there are a ton but I would love to know what a lot of them are so I can narrow down what I want to do myself.
Whats a good way to narrow my speciality down? like are the categories like - weapon design, rocks, sci-fi environments. Like whats a good way to describe a speciality
@ryswick Thank you, I feel like the whole "specialize" is going to be a common answer here, so I need to start focusing on that. I will check out the portfolio site, but im quite behind in my current classes. Do you have any recommendations for what i should focus in, i.e. if a 3D company needed someone what would they look for first.
Thank you guys again for the quick response and reading my ply for help.
Environment Artist (Sets/Environments, Assets/Props, Textures)
Character Artist (Sometimes split into character and creature modelers, textures)
Lighting Artist (Dealing with map lighting for games or raytrace render lighting and maybe compositing for film/tv)
Riggers (make the rigs, much more technical but still very important)
FX Artist (Game FX, movie FX)
Animators
Then there's stuff like motion graphics, architectural visualization, level designers, UI artists, ect.
There's a crossover of skills between the different jobs, all artists need a basic understanding of lighting for example. Furthermore, depending on the studio you may be more of a generalist, but overall focusing in a single role is recommended.
That's something you just need to decide on your own, find out what you enjoy the most and can stay passionate about.