Can any students out there share your school curriculum? (independent student learning on my own)
polycounter lvl 5
Hi, are there any (former) students here who would be willing to share their curriculum for your school terms? Or just share what a general school term entails?
i.e. topics you cover, deadline assignments (how many projects? thesis?)
i.e. topics you cover, deadline assignments (how many projects? thesis?)
I can't afford a game art school, so I'm learning on my own, so it gets difficult to know what I should learn and how fast I should learn it. Any resources that could help structure my learning would be appreciated! 
Replies
I actually still have some of my old assignments saved but I'm going to be honest: anything you find in a school course can be found online.
Especially as some assignments can be incredibly vague or generic. For example, my first week assignment, we had to model an everyday object. I went with a door knob... and it was bleh.
Modeling (Maya or 3DS Max)
Texturing (Substance Painter or Photoshop)
Baking
Sculpting (ZBrush) (Maybe put this aside for now)
You'll most likely want to become specialized, so you should play around and decide what you want to do specifically. If you enjoy the art side of things, here's some possible specializations: environment, character, VFX, rigging, animation. Don't try to learn all these, at least not in the beginning of your journey.
My biggest piece of advice is to stay on boards such as Polycount and Facebook's Ten Thousand Hours. Post your art and take critique to heart, but don't let it wear you down.
Would you spend 3 months focusing on modeling then 3 months on sculpting or are there daily classes like 3 hrs maya/3 hrs zbrush/3 hrs photoshop+substance (with homework for each one)?
Do you work on bigger projects throughout a season?
I just want to try to emulate a school-structured experience as much as possible on my own.
Deadlines seem like a great way to motivate myself but I don't have any.
Just because they say an assignment is due the next day, doesn't quite reflect the quality or actual experience needed to make it good.
The goal should be to take as much time needed to make your first prop or character look as accurate as possible. Once you mastered that, set a new goal to make it in less time.
When school expected me to hand in an assignment nearly everyday, I didn't actually feel like I was learning. You hand stuff in so you got the checkmark, but the work was never something I felt satisfied with.
There weren't any real "big" projects issued in school. They were just mini assignments followed by one big assignment which was meant to be our final portfolios. The problem was again, the length to work on these projects were too short. Everything was rushed, so I decided to start again once school was over.
Also, you've already said you've been at this 3D thing for 1+ years, with no art posted to here on Polycount. You're not gonna get anything from Polycount if you don't post art.
The course plan I had for the 1 year of basics was somewhere like this:
It had 2-3 classes of 3 hours each week. Typically 2-3 courses in parallel, for 3 months.
1. Module
Basic drawing (mainly anatomy and character design)
Basic Maya (basic modelling, going into hard surface basics, basic rendering)
Basic Photoshop (basic functions, photo editing)
Project was a high poly render and presentation
2. Module
Maya character modelling, UVs and texturing
Basic rigging
Project was a low poly character + presentation
3. Module
Concept art basic (Photoshop)
Animation basics (Maya)
Unity basics
Projects were a game prototype & a set of animations
4. Module
ZBrush basics
Advanced hard surface modelling
Environment art
Project were a character sculpt and a level (only art & lighting)
Final Project was based on preferences, but basically a portfolio either character, environment or animation based.
But as I said that was just to get the basics. To really learn the stuff it was far more hours and work. Just looking at the schedule does nothing for someone who knows nothing about the process of game art. Also if you already have preferences you can focus on a specific specialization instead of going the generalist approach, since generalist don't get hired among juniors.
That is all you can do.
Make games.
Seriously, just attempt to make a game. The challenges that will occur as you attempt to make and ship a game will be your cirriculum.
So much of the "job" is project oriented.
Strictly art wise, any fine arts general education should generally be a good start. Specialize as you get your foundations cleared out.
However... I did waste some time working on a couple doomed to fail wanna-be rev share projects before I found a good one where actual work was being done daily. My advice then would be to steer towards mod-teams, rather than kids with stars in the eyes. Of course you can work on your own, but if you can find a solid programmer who knows a bit about working in engine, that will give you a lot of leverage.It's really awesome to see your works come to life in a game. Very motivational, and you'll learn all kinds of things you'll never learn from tutorials and portfolio projects.
My main method so far is creating game levels on my own which is sort of similar to a project? --but the main issue I found is just how slowed the learning feels because it's more about repetitive tasks than actually challenging myself technically and creatively (i.e. large portion of my game level is wood assets for buildings, essentially just boxes with substances slapped on).
I'll make an effort to post more for hero assets and specific scenes.
As some of you mentioned, I think I really need to start participating in art challenges. I need some kind of directions to keep a fire under my ass, because after a year of this, I realized I am an irresponsible teacher/undisciplined student.
There are many places to look for tutorials and advise but be very cautious of not learning bad habits, now days everyone claims to be experts but a person that has truly mastered the art of modeling is few. A school is not meant to make you an expert , it is meant to give you a foundation on what it is to get started, the rest is up to you. Same as for a degree, many say this “ you do not need a degree in this field to make it” that is very true in fact, but the degree is to fall back on as a plan B if plan A fails. You want to be in this field you will notice that you will need to always have a plan B ready, specially when a studio decides to drop the team to a skeleton crew at the end of a project.
Do your research and always think of plan B , never expect to be number one but strive to do your best , and always keep your head up no matter how hard the road is, modeling is a process that is learned evrey time you start that program and make your scene, evrey day there is something new to learn and master.
Check my channel out, I started this to help my students , but decided to offer the help to others as well. Maybe you might learn a few new things.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbE-XljsZULQ3pdACtl-Kaw