should i learn to code? or just keep "arting"?
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Hey everyone,
I am having an existential crisis lately to the point where I almost enrolled in a computer science masters program, but realized I am getting ahead of myself. A little background of myself, I graduated from a fine art program that encourages experimentation on things like animation, video and sound. I realized during my last semester that I wanted to go into the cg industry, but do not have a lot of formal education on it. I took classes in maya, for environments and lighting and modeling as well as Zbrush. But that is about it. I have been applying to jobs for motion graphics, and basically anything for computer related art. I have noticed ( i really hope i dont sound like douche ) that just about anything that I try out, I seem to get so deeply focused on whatever it is, that I excel and learn it. Such as the Zbrush class, in which my professor told me repeatedly that I had the best model when it was my first character modeling class ever. Anyways, I am not sure if I should continue in that route, and keep pumping out models on my own with the hopes of snagging a modeling job , or should I learn to program? I have always been interested in learning to code, and heard mixed things about artist/programmer hyrbids. I feel like I could really enjoy programming for maya, and maybe just make it easier to do things in those programs in general or even just become a software developer? I have been looking into coding bootcamps, specifically ones that teach c++ and python. What is everyones thoughts on learning to program for this industry and beyond? So sorry for the long post. Anyone that replies would be a real help . Each way I go is a huge commitment, and I dont want to waste too much more time like I already did in my fine art school. also my portfolio website is stephen-kern.com. legit there is no focus on one thing, just a little of a lot as you can see. (not looking for feedback, just so you can see what I mean)
thanks guys,
Steve.
I am having an existential crisis lately to the point where I almost enrolled in a computer science masters program, but realized I am getting ahead of myself. A little background of myself, I graduated from a fine art program that encourages experimentation on things like animation, video and sound. I realized during my last semester that I wanted to go into the cg industry, but do not have a lot of formal education on it. I took classes in maya, for environments and lighting and modeling as well as Zbrush. But that is about it. I have been applying to jobs for motion graphics, and basically anything for computer related art. I have noticed ( i really hope i dont sound like douche ) that just about anything that I try out, I seem to get so deeply focused on whatever it is, that I excel and learn it. Such as the Zbrush class, in which my professor told me repeatedly that I had the best model when it was my first character modeling class ever. Anyways, I am not sure if I should continue in that route, and keep pumping out models on my own with the hopes of snagging a modeling job , or should I learn to program? I have always been interested in learning to code, and heard mixed things about artist/programmer hyrbids. I feel like I could really enjoy programming for maya, and maybe just make it easier to do things in those programs in general or even just become a software developer? I have been looking into coding bootcamps, specifically ones that teach c++ and python. What is everyones thoughts on learning to program for this industry and beyond? So sorry for the long post. Anyone that replies would be a real help . Each way I go is a huge commitment, and I dont want to waste too much more time like I already did in my fine art school. also my portfolio website is stephen-kern.com. legit there is no focus on one thing, just a little of a lot as you can see. (not looking for feedback, just so you can see what I mean)
thanks guys,
Steve.
Replies
If the art side clicks with you strongly, then learning how to business (create and maintain professional relationships, sell your stuff, negotiate prices, customer service, efficient pipeline/workflow) is going to be more important than knowing how to bit shift, optimize computation speed, etc. However understanding conditionals, loops, functions and object oriented programming can help massively in the efficient pipeline/workflow side of things.
I work outside the entertainment industry, although I don't consider myself a software developer knowing how to code has helped me massively. But this is because outside the industry companies don't want to spend a ton of time pushing the aesthetics of something, so coding skills allow you to ask forgiveness rather than permission. That said, if there's a hard technical problem, it is far more efficient for a full on software developer to tackle it than me so it really depends.
Now to reply to sharsein specifically, the art side of things does click with me strongly. I feel like everything I look into when it comes to 3d stuff, simply amazes me. I honestly really enjoy modeling things, and animating things the most. Even lighting is really great as well. I havent even begun to explore fluid and particle simulations yet, but I know I am going to love it. Houdini and Nuke are on my list of things to look into for sure. But anyways with that said, do you think it would be beneficial to attend a coding bootcamp that teaches multiple languages and even software developement? Or just learn the coding languages that are specific to maya. If I learn Java, and Ruby , and python and all these other ones, wouldnt that make you more sellable as a potential employer? And perhaps be a game developer as well as an artist? Would taking an intense coding bootcamp with multiple languages give you an overall better understanding of code, to even help out with things like unity for games and even for vfx?
That link you sent me looks really great. I actually purchased a beginner coding class , python for maya from udemy just to scratch the surface. Anyways, in between working in a very busy annoying restaurant, I guess I need to just continue modeling and begin animating the models? Cause at the moment I have a little bit of a lot on my portfolio and it seems like thats not a good thing from what I read lol.
Thanks again for responding !
Stephen .
Came too my mind as I read your post i.e. Technical Artist (TA)
http://ericchadwick.com/img/techart_guidelines.html
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Technical_Art
...and a CG coding background certainly offers other pipeline pathways a visual artist will normally not walk down.
Thanks again
There's no number of pieces. Over and over again, most employers mention quality of pieces being a higher determinent factor the number of pieces.
If these cool abstract models and animations are relevant to the game that people are making, then yes, they would be beneficial.
Python has a wide variety of applications both in and outside the 3d art world so it's a great place to start if you're not sure.
To give some background. I used to be a portrait painter / drawer, and did commissions and graphite and oil. Then I listened to people saying that I would never be able to do art for a living, and so I went into the military. While there I still wanted to get a degree.. but still had those sayings in my head, so I jumped into computing science because it seemed like the best education for me at the time.
I love programming, find it fun and challenging, and I love learning new languages. But after that, I found a Masters in Games Art. I jumped at the chance to get computer AND my art in the same career.
While studying there, I realised my mind was all over the place. My passion was to learn EVERYTHING. Everything fascinated me, and I am kinda the same as what you mention above. If I focus on something, I initially excel at it, which gives me an extra push to really dig into it, and get over the hard effort and time that I then need to put into it. But. I also realised that I didn't want to be a generalist and that after lots of thinking, my major interest was in characters.
So I focused all my energy on that, instead of programming, scripting, environments, 2d.. or anything else that came up along the way.
I would say; find out what you are most passionate about, and what you want to do.
If it is programming sweet tools for other artists to use, that's great! If you want to do awesome environments for people to run around it, amazing! But find what you want to do. It might be multiple things, that's cool, you might want to become a generalist? if so, learn the basics about the entire workflow. You might want to take it step by step as you work on one model at a time. Or it might be as you take a model through the workflow you find one or more things that fascinate you more than the others.
looking at it like knowing some coding might make it "easier" to get into the industry is not really a good way to approach things, there is no shortcut to getting good/into the industry. it takes time, focus and consistent output.
In an older studio I was looking through potential hires for a junior / entry level 'tech artist', and saw none of this in almost every candidate - what I did see were a bunch of students or folks with not super great looking portfolios (or very basic art work) and no scripts or evidence telling me they had any sort of interest in that kind of thing.
And believe me, you can talk the talk : 'I love helping out artists etc', but you need to walk it, making something that artists can use (and would want to use), that's fool proof, fast and can be built upon, extended and evolved definitely helps. That's harder than just learning some scripting - it does take into account an understanding of creating art