Setting up a learning plan and which programs to focus on?
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Hi, I'm im need of a little bit advice here.
I'm studying in Germany (media informatics) and I have about a year or 1,5 to go. I have not really thought about what to do afterwards until recently. I have discovered my passion for 3d art and I'm now trying as hard as I can to learn everything needed in a short amount of time.
Now I'm not really certain yet into which direction I want to specialize in because I just don't have enough experience to know what I'm best in. Also, here in Germany it is not that easy to get into the business because there are not so many e. G. Game studios or generally digital art studios.
Im currently getting into Maya and I'm thinking about how to set up my learning schedule so that I can get the most out of it. I am currently learning the basics and working with tutorials on Pluralsight.
I also asked myself what other tools I should learn simultaneously. The Adobe creative suite would be one option as it gives me opportunities to enhance my 2d and texturing skills. Would that be a good idea and if yes which programs Specifically, or should I jump ahead and get into more specific programs like Substance painter or zbrush, or even game engines.
At the moment I feel like my favorite is the gaming industry, but also product visualization, environment design or 3d video animation would also be areas I'm interested in.
I'm a little lost because it is so much at once but I am willing to put a lot of effort into it, I'm just looking for the perfect way to organize myself.
Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks!
I'm studying in Germany (media informatics) and I have about a year or 1,5 to go. I have not really thought about what to do afterwards until recently. I have discovered my passion for 3d art and I'm now trying as hard as I can to learn everything needed in a short amount of time.
Now I'm not really certain yet into which direction I want to specialize in because I just don't have enough experience to know what I'm best in. Also, here in Germany it is not that easy to get into the business because there are not so many e. G. Game studios or generally digital art studios.
Im currently getting into Maya and I'm thinking about how to set up my learning schedule so that I can get the most out of it. I am currently learning the basics and working with tutorials on Pluralsight.
I also asked myself what other tools I should learn simultaneously. The Adobe creative suite would be one option as it gives me opportunities to enhance my 2d and texturing skills. Would that be a good idea and if yes which programs Specifically, or should I jump ahead and get into more specific programs like Substance painter or zbrush, or even game engines.
At the moment I feel like my favorite is the gaming industry, but also product visualization, environment design or 3d video animation would also be areas I'm interested in.
I'm a little lost because it is so much at once but I am willing to put a lot of effort into it, I'm just looking for the perfect way to organize myself.
Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks!
Replies
Here's some programs you should look into learning;
Maya (as you've already started) for modeling, rigging, animation
ZBrush for sculpting (the sooner you start this, the better)
Substance Designer & Substance Painter for texturing realism OR Photoshop if you're not going to be focused on realism
Spend time learning those. Try focusing on creating single props, and create them well. During this time, try to figure out what you want to end up in, because the end products always vary greatly. Also, get really good at something... Don't try to be the best modeler, rigger, animator, effects artist all in one. It'll take you way longer to get really really good if you do it that way. If you want to be an environment artist for games, eventually pick up a game engine like UE4 or Unity.
I've been told that you should either focus on character art or environment art, and try to get as good as possible in one of these (in order to get a job).
If you're focused on modeling, here's some skills for you to figure out;
-Hard surface modeling
-Sculpting
-UV Mapping
-Baking
-Re-topologizing
-Material creation
-Texturing
These are the base skills that a modeler has, and once you've figured out all these skills, you'll be able to wander off and create your own art. If you learn texturing in Substance Painter, it has a built in rendering engine to pump out a really sick final image of your 3D art. Pluralsight has a ton of courses for each of these.
Remember to post your work up all the time, and get as much critique as you can. The more critique you get, the better your art will be. Post in here, on 3D subreddits, in the Facebook group Ten Thousand Hours, and any other forums you're interested in.
Here's some random tips I've picked up myself;
- One object usually should be made of multiple meshes. Think about how the object would be made in real life. Don't try to build complex objects out of a single mesh.
- Find friends who you can talk to that do this sort of thing. Go to meetups or look out for people in your city who do this; they can give you great direction.
Tutorials;
Check out Pixelbahn's youtube tutorial on modeling a Rolex, that really helped me understand Maya modeling a lot. It's the closest tutorial I've done to product visualization.
Animation Methods on YouTube has a good rigging tutorial. I wouldn't suggest watching his texturing tutorial because it's kind of old school. He also models a ninja but doesn't really use modern practices.
Simply Maya (on their own website) has some cool tutorials for environment modeling, but it's pretty far from video game art.
If you're new too CG, then personally the most effective and efficient route I would suggest is learning to become competent with the DCC (Digital Content Creation) industry spec package of choice first, before paralleling a further exploration in terms of speciality software options involved in the games oriented asset production pipeline.
That's if indeed an end goal to begin with you've of a mind adopting?!...and usually primarily dependant upon the individual's innate, be it artistic and/or technical aptitude how quickly he/she progresses, basically.
As for a self tailored app training schedule, well that's a 64$$$ question wholly based on to what degree of investment in time and effort you're willing too commit?!
It’s tempting to try and dive into it all at once but I think that’s a mistake. Yes, you need to learn many things, but doing it all at once could get you into a bit of a spin.
You say it yourself…
‘I’m a little lost because it is so much at once’
And you’re right, it is. Or it can seem that way at least.
To may this more manageable, I would focus on learning some bite-size chunks and building up from there.
To make a game model you need to tackle 3 core components:
Model
UV unwrap (to tell the textures how they should sit on the model)
Textures
You can first achieve all of this this using Maya (or 3dsmax) plus Photoshop. That’s all you need to start with. You can forget about everything else.
Yes, modern games may require more than this but it’s a good place to start.
I’d recommend doing some simple models to get going and build an understanding of these core components.
Phase 1: Fundamentals
Learn how to create a game res model. Keep it simple. Don’t add a ton of edges if they are not actually contributing anything to the form. Its inefficient and also means more to move around and more to deal with when you do the unwrap.
Learn how to UV unwrap the model
Learn how to create some simple textures and get them onto your model.
Maya (or 3dsmax) can handle the model and UVs, Photoshop for the textures.
This should be about the process more than the result so don’t worry too much about how it compares to the best stuff you’ve seen on Polycount or Artstation.
By all means first spend some time only modelling stuff and don’t even worry about UVs and texturing. Then when you’re ready, add in the unwrap and textures.
Start simple and from there you can tackle progressively more complicated models with more complex forms and more details.
Yes, you will later need to look at creating high poly models or sculpts that you bake down onto your game model to help create additional texture detail.
But don’t dive straight into thinking you should be doing this from the off.
Walk before you run.
If you can have the patience to develop a strong understanding of the fundamentals at each stage, you will find it easier to build on that knowledge.
Phase 2: High Poly
Once you're confident with the general process of modelling, unwrapping and texturing, I would next take on some high poly models and get an understanding of how to bake this information onto your game mesh to create normal maps, etc.
This phase involves these tasks...
Game res modelling
High Poly modelling
UV Unwrapping
Baking
Texturing
I would look at hard-surface stuff first just to get an understanding of the process.
At this point you can still continue to work inside Maya (or 3dsmax) plus Photoshop if you wish. Maya can be used for your bakes.
Or you could pick up xNormal and use this for the bakes.
Alternatively, you may at this point want to add in Substance Painter to speed up your texturing workflow plus handle the baking side of things.
If you’ve taken the time to understand texture creation in Photoshop, you should find picking up Painter much easier, and appreciate the benefits all the more.
You will still find the occasional need to dip into Photoshop. For example, creating custom alphas or creating colour maps and masks. Painter is amazing, but lacks some useful features for precision like marquee selections and vector shapes.
You can also use Painter for smaller details on your normal maps, or even try out NDO inside of Photoshop.
Phase 3: Sculpting
By now you should have a good understanding of how to do the following:
Game modelling
High poly modelling
UV unwrapping
Baking
Texture work
The next thing to layer on would be sculpting as an alternative to the high poly Maya work.
Enter ZBrush.
ZBrush does have a bit of a learning curve and, depending on what you do, it’s still not a complete requirement to have. For Character Art it’s essential, environments and vehicles, etc. you can get by without it.
If you do want to get into it I recommend the excellent Intro to ZBrush series from Michael Pavlovich…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2B0x9TkFuA&list=PLkzopwqcFevYqrk_0MKIaUwrWYILzYsp6
When you bring ZBrush into your workflow you have a further choice…
Do you go high first and then re-topologize, or low first and add the detail. This can be argued from both sides depending on people’s preference.
For me, I generally prefer low first and then add high for a number of reasons. But try both approaches and find what works for you.
If you follow these general phases you will hopefully build a solid understanding of the fundamentals of game art.
Accept now that it will take time and try to avoid the pressures of feeling like you need to be doing everything at once. That’s why so many students feel overwhelmed and lost.
You won’t be creating amazing work from the off but with each project you should see improvements and build on your knowledge.
Game Engine
The one part I’ve failed to mention here is the game engine.
You absolutely should learn how to get your work into an engine like Unreal or Unity. Whether you choose to do this at Phase 1, 2 or 3 is up to you.
You don’t need to learn everything in the engine but enough to show that you can get your assets in, apply materials, light the scene and generally present the work well.
When it comes to presenting a folio to employers, you should really be showing work in-engine.
Hope this helps.
The overview of the most important skills and the programs I should first concentrate on are very helpful for the start.
I think that I will start with just Maya and Photoshop and add Substance and Zbrush to my list for when I have a solid foundation of the two programs above.
As for game engine, Im not sure yet when I will start to get into this but I think it should be in the middle of your phase 2, where I have created my first more serious models. Unreal is my favorite there, but with Crytek just around the corner of my hometown, I'm thinking of whether it might be a better idea to try CryEngine, just in case..?
Anyway, thanks for the replies.
I did not know that people tend to concentrate on one specific field when it comes to 3D, until very recently. I come from 2D background and you need to have a generalist approach in building your portfolio. Not quite like that in 3D, I think. Come to think of it I've never seen a 3D artist who does cartoony characters and sophisticated hard surface props at the same time.
As for me, I have two different interests: Hard Surface vehicle & mechs AND stylized character modeling. And I came to suspect that not many artists pursue those two things together. Well, I am from the 2D background and it's not so unusual for an artist to do both character and vehicles, stylized or not.
I use Modo, and I gotta admit I played with Modo for alm ost two years with bare minimum progress. The one biggest reason why I chose Modo over everything was that Scott Robertson has been using Modo, and not much else. In fact, I've been thinking about taking a nighttime Modo class at Art Center College of Design, since outside inputs from an instructor can help immensely.
Here's the relevant part of the issue you are facing: I do not agree that you can learn 3D without good, steady advices from others. You need mentoring, and at least some people agree with me. Especially in case of 3D, despite of the abundance of learning materials, you definitely need some solid guidance because learning one tool alone can be a herculean task without proper guidance. Some people will agree with me, but I honestly believe that purely self-taught path is not for everyone.
Lastly, I will bring some examples from 2D background. Even those fantastic artists who did not have degrees in art have had some good mentors, without exceptions.