what are the most important basic skills and styles any "digital" artist should know?

monkey_T

hi, 
i thought it might be a good idea to get myself familiarized with a range of different techniques and styles, to be able to better express myself, and also draw inspiration from. probably one of the things a college program is good for, but that is not a practical option for me. 
i would love to hear what do you think are the most important basic skills, tools and techniques, 
and also the most important styles to study for reference and inspiration,  
for anyone in the visual digital fields (2d, 3d, illustration, anything else...)
thanks!

DavidCruz

Guess this falls under, "Techniques"
Make starter base meshes, I never did this but kind of wished i had.
^depending on your desired area, Tidal mentioned props so think of say a street cone base mesh then with that create a damaged street cone crushed, melted, ect.  to give you a better idea of what i mean, do that with other objects. (Not a prop artist so i wouldn't know many.)

Kevin Albers

Realism, using high-poly to low-poly baking. Other than that, that are endless sorts of styles, and it's pointless to learn all of them. Learning a couple that you really like and that are used frequently in the industry makes a lot of sense (e.g. mainstream sci-fi realism is something I like and is also pretty common).

Add3r

Kind of bouncing off of what Dustin said, learn to absorb and learn from other artist's work (no matter the style or medium) but at the same time see that they are now the quality bar you have to be above to be competitive.  A lot of artists, especially starting out, will see great work and immediately see them as "so good, there is no way you could even begin to compete with someone of that skill level".  Taking that away, is never productive.  Learning to seeing great art and digging deep to find the discipline to make "even better" art, is what will help you grow into a master of the craft.  

A more tangible piece of advice in comparison would be to not generalize to start, but rather find a style that you enjoy immensely and work through every single step to make a game or film ready asset (depending on what you want to get into).  This would be working on making or finding concepts and reference, working out blockout, highpoly to lowpoly modeling, baking, texturing, and a full presentation.  Do not get stuck, or stop at any step.  Keep pushing until your asset is presentable, and it will help you become a really solid artist, fast.  

Discipline > "Inspiration".  

Amaury

dustinbrown said:

Training yourself to observe and internalize rather than just look, which is what most people do.

This.

And using this to analyze all sorts of visual arts, drawing, sculpture, movie, photography, etc. Building a visual library and culture.

Joopson

dustinbrown said:

Training yourself to observe and internalize rather than just look

Yep, this. I think it's very important to learn how things function so that you can make informed design decisions. So things can look cool AND believable, as opposed to just looking cool.
For example, if you're making a chair in 3D for a game, it better be put together in a way a chair really would be, or else I'll be ripped right out of my immersion.

noodlemantra

When to call it a day.  

daVinci once said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned." There's a temptation to work on something until it is absolutely perfect. There is no such thing as perfection. You'll always want that extra moment to polish something that is "wrong" - a certain something that only you can see. This sort of creative hell can keep you from tackling the next project. You need to find it in yourself to say, "It's not perfect. It's never going to be perfect, but that's okay. It's just good and, well, good is enough. Time to move on."

Ironically, it's the sort of thing that (imo) gets harder to practice the longer you've been doing CG. As a newbie, you don't notice the many flaws in your work. However, with experience comes a critical eye that you just can't turn off. Ever. You're always going to find something wrong even when nobody else will. Exacting this sort of self-restraint is tough. The best you can do is remind yourself that life is short and your idea book is big.

Kwramm

dustinbrown said:

Training yourself to observe and internalize rather than just look, which is what most people do.

Amen to that. Some of the best artists (but also writers, comedians, etc.) are people who are really good at observing their surroundings.