Can I get into the Industry without knowing any other 3D package than Blender
polycounter lvl 4
I've been learning 3D modeling and stuffs in Blender for about a year now, I'm still not very good. I've started to get this fearful thought because of some forums that 'What if all my effort and time put in learning Blender is a waste' not modeling wise but workflow wise. So I've come to ya'll for some advice. I want to get into the game dev Industry as a guy who models hard surface stuffs. I just love hard surface modeling and I'm trying hard every day to get good at it.
So I'm very comfortable with Blender. My question is I read in lot of places that if you wanna get into the Industry you definitely have to know 3ds Max or Maya. Is this true ? I even have the student version of 3ds max but its just so hard to do the transition. Will the Industries hire if the artist is talented regardless of the software he uses or the knowing autodesk softwares a necessary, If yes I will focus to learn 3ds max from the basics if not i'll just focus on improving my modeling skills in Blender! But anyway I know that I have a long way to go.
Cheers and Thank you.
So I'm very comfortable with Blender. My question is I read in lot of places that if you wanna get into the Industry you definitely have to know 3ds Max or Maya. Is this true ? I even have the student version of 3ds max but its just so hard to do the transition. Will the Industries hire if the artist is talented regardless of the software he uses or the knowing autodesk softwares a necessary, If yes I will focus to learn 3ds max from the basics if not i'll just focus on improving my modeling skills in Blender! But anyway I know that I have a long way to go.
Cheers and Thank you.
Replies
If you can't find 10 studios who openly advertise or put in their job description Blender skills are necessary, then that's your first red flag you're at a disadvantage if you only have one software expertise.
Now if you're interested in hardsurface and finding the crossover too Max a grind, there's plenty of pro authored paid workflows that'll hand hold the beginner through the entire asset creation process, from blockout to final off/online render, in fact they've been an absolute godsend in terms of my own progression jumping back & forth between the two. So checkout Tim Bergholz over on Gumroad, his user friendly tutorial narration makes following along step by step a breeze.
https://gumroad.com/timb
My active core toolset:
ZBrush (for organic sculpting, as I'm a character artist)
Blender (my main 3D modeling app for HP hard surface (subsurface modeling) and LP optimization, retopology and UVs)
Marmoset Toolbag 3 (for baking & rendering)
Substance Painter (for texturing [obviously, lol] and sometimes for Iray rendering, but not often though)
My extra toolset:
Marvelous Designer (still learning to fit it into my core toolset pipeline)
Unreal Engine 4 (MT3 is 85% of the time all I need for rendering my real-time assets, but sometimes I'd like to get a bit more advanced with materials)
Wrap3 (for shrinkwrapping an existing topology to accelerate manual retopology)
GIMP/Ps (for creating more complex masks and converting 16-bit images to 8-bit to get a nice dithering)
My rare/occasional toolset:
handplane (great tool for converting tangent spaces to another, but it's in a rare use since nowadays everything is starting to be synced to Mikktspace)
Maya 2017 (for skinning rigs, since it has a multi-color feedback for weights)
Summa summarum, in general I don't know Max or Maya too much, except I'm going to learn Maya's rigging/weight painting tools. If I just don't happen to know how to use Max or Maya at the moment while writing this, I don't think it doesn't make me handicapped, since I have all these tools around my precious Blender. I started with Blender and all these other tools just came along.
So, my advice is: Start learning other addivitve softwares around Blender, and you're not so handicapped anymore. Take a peek at Max and/or Maya, but IMO it's not mandatory. (;
My question is why? What parts of Maya and Max are important to working with an art team? If I'm going to spend a couple weeks of my free time learning them I'd like to be able to focus on the important bits. I appreciate any input.
Ticking the box of programs you are familiar with can help with the HR filter, where they are not judging applicants on artistic ability, but more on a list of relevant skills. Those people are still often gatekeepers at studios, so do whatever you can to make their descisions easier and actually have them hand over your portfolio to art leads for the artistic validation.
Spending a couple weeks to get familair with the autodesk suite isnt that much of a sacrifice. A lot of studios value hiring people that have a quick ramp up time, especially when they are in panic mode and hiring mid production. Stubbornly sticking to blender is like swimming upstream for junior artists, you are just putting obstacles in your own way.
Some people at our studio use Modo, but overall we're a mixed bag. But animation is in Maya.
Paul's generally right with his assertion. So much of the pipeline on the rigging and animation end is Maya and Max preferred by a lot of technical artists and animators that it is likely you will be using either in the completion of asset creation on the latter end of the production cycle. Blender has been used before, just not as often comparatively.