COncept artist and 3D skills
interpolator
Hello lovely people of Polycount!
Directly to the question: How much 3D skills do you expect from a concept artist? Or how much 3D skills do you possess as a concept artist?
To put a disclaimer that will hopefully save me I do not intend this question as a lazy getaway of "ugh dont wanna learn 3D, I just wanna do concept" because I understand how significant the entire 3D workflow is in the entertainment industry. ALthough I'm mainly aiming to perfect my 2D skills I've been (trying to) actively learn Zbrush and Maya and familiarize myself with modelling and texturing and real-time rendering.
I just got curious because recently it seems like a lot of concept people are using 3D in their work and a lot of 3D people are working on concepts too, and the boundary between "I'm a 2D concept art dude!" and "I'm a 3D modeller" is slowly fading away.
But then 3D workflow is a massive, massive field from modelling, texturing and even to rigging and as a student who wants to be a concept artist it seemed absurd that one person would know literally how to do all these things (unless, you're one of those people who make it to the main page everyday
) Even Feng Zhu mentioned in one of his videos, (sorry if I sound like I'm hiding behind his fame) that he doesn't teach much 3D to his pupils in FZD.
So, yeah, basically that I guess. I have a feeling that most answers are gonna be "if youre good at both then it's better", but I was just curious... I never worked for a game studio and it's driving me crazy TO TAKE A PEEAAK at you guys
Directly to the question: How much 3D skills do you expect from a concept artist? Or how much 3D skills do you possess as a concept artist?
To put a disclaimer that will hopefully save me I do not intend this question as a lazy getaway of "ugh dont wanna learn 3D, I just wanna do concept" because I understand how significant the entire 3D workflow is in the entertainment industry. ALthough I'm mainly aiming to perfect my 2D skills I've been (trying to) actively learn Zbrush and Maya and familiarize myself with modelling and texturing and real-time rendering.
I just got curious because recently it seems like a lot of concept people are using 3D in their work and a lot of 3D people are working on concepts too, and the boundary between "I'm a 2D concept art dude!" and "I'm a 3D modeller" is slowly fading away.
But then 3D workflow is a massive, massive field from modelling, texturing and even to rigging and as a student who wants to be a concept artist it seemed absurd that one person would know literally how to do all these things (unless, you're one of those people who make it to the main page everyday
) Even Feng Zhu mentioned in one of his videos, (sorry if I sound like I'm hiding behind his fame) that he doesn't teach much 3D to his pupils in FZD. So, yeah, basically that I guess. I have a feeling that most answers are gonna be "if youre good at both then it's better", but I was just curious... I never worked for a game studio and it's driving me crazy TO TAKE A PEEAAK at you guys
Replies
3d can help with this, but mostly it's to solve perspective quickly, so the 3d is mostly or entirely painted over. Sketchup for example.
Some concept artists work almost exclusively in 3d, but that's fairly rare, as it's just not as fast as 2d sketching.
Almost no concept artists are working within the limits of making 3d art that would work in realtime like a game engine. It's an unnecessary burden, since the 3d is just being used as the source for a still image.
Some info here that might help
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/PortfolioContents#Concept_Artist
Thank you so much for your thorough insight! It all comes down to becoming an efficient member of production pipeline, I see. It would definitely help me if I continue learning zbrush and maya trying to fasten up my works.
The more 3d you know the better but as a concept artist you are more than ok just sticking to being awesome in 2d. It also depends on what you are going for. If you want to do just concept art, 2d is just fine. If you want to get into matte painting and doing some background work then 3d would help a lot.
Cheers!
Thank you so much for your input! I'll continue to hone my 2D skills but will still practice 3D, it's been tremendous help in many ways.
Also, I LOVE YOUR MASS RELAY WORK IN YOUR PORTFOLIO! So much appreciation coming from a huge ME fan.