Becoming Character Artist... Kinda

r343guiltyspark

Hey all, 2nd year average college joe here. I'd like to eventually land a job in the industry along the lines of character design (I have an obsession with Zbrush) in anything I can get any hands on. Movies. Games. Whatever. I have a decent understanding of Zbrush being self-taught, but I'm overall a pretty mediocre artist. Are there any jobs that realistically exist where I can work on Zbrush for characters of any sort? If so, do i need to adhere to a concept artist's specific designs and drawings? What steps need to be taken besides taking a ton of online courses and networking? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks y'all.

Kwramm

There are low end character jobs, but they aren't very fulfilling, and this stuff is increasingly outsourced. Example: tons of clothing for MMOs. Retopo and refinement of stuff from marvelous designer. Of course, there are also non AAA jobs in mobile. Here and there you'll need some ZB. But the games you work on may be less about originality than about monetization. It pays the bill but there's a good chance it's not very rewarding work.

I would recommend working on your art skills. Practice, practice, practice in every free minute. Focus your practice on attention to details, on efficient workflows, on translating drawn shapes into 3-dimensional volumes and on anatomy.

In a studio setting your creative freedom, especially as junior, will be very little to none, and adhering to feedback and to concepts is very important. But you must be clever enough to fill in the blanks if the concept is vague, ask questions, and eventually do your own research to find reference. Original designs can help your folio to get hired, but in general, people hire for skill and not originality when it comes to modelers. i.e. a perfectly executed 3D piece of someone else's concept will get you further than a mediocre adaption of your own design.

PyrZern

I think you will get more tailored answers if you post your portfolio.

Alemja

Zbrush alone will not get you a job, the number of portfolios I see where there are artists who want to make art for production but only have zbrush sculpts is staggering. There are very few Zbrush only positions. Something I also recommend for students is to also have a target for where you want to go. While there is some overlap between movies and games, they have different requirements for the final product. Games also have a wide range of styles from stylized to realistic, AAA quality to mobile and everything in-between.

Biomag

Alemja said:

Something I also recommend for students is to also have a target for where you want to go.

That. People should simple take a look at what companies require for certain postions. Its out there - just take a look at the job sections of companies or sites like artstation. Or polycount's wiki. There is very little mystery in what is needed and actually helps you focus on a style or quality level or needed skills.

JacqueChoi

Quite a few movie jobs are zbrush only.

But it's a lot of zbrushing on pre made models or cleaning up scans or creating blend shapes.