Best secondary skill for hard surface artist ?

Peksio

Hello. I would like to ask you about your opinion on what is the best secondary skill for hard surface artist that will make me more hireable ?

Right now I am mainly doing weapons/guns, I am talking about full process (hp, lp, uvs, baking, textures). But I would like to gain some additional skills.

And this time, I would like to teach myself new skill in proper way. I wanted to start from deciding which skill should I pick. I was thinking about two things:

- Zbrush and sculpting: A lot of my friends went to the companies that demands from 3d hard surface artists skill to also sculpt some things, not only 100% organic stuff, but some damages on for example vehicles or just some shapes that are too complex to model with standard techniques.

- design / hardsurface design - Obvious names pops to head like Vitaly Bulgarov and Alex Senechal I suppose I don't need to explain further :P

To be honest, right now I think that zbrush and sculpting would be better. I kinda think that I can pick up some design basics from tutorial on the way and I should invest in some good zbrush scultping/hard surface course but I would really like to know your opinion. Or maybe there is something better that I didn't think of ?

Thanks

Alex_J

Professionals will give a better answer than me, but here is my speculation : each studio and individual project will have it's own demands. Anybodies guess if your specific skillset will match perfectly with those specific needs. So the best thing to do is work at what you are passionate about. Certainly there is some other type of artwork you are just itching to make, right? 

Purely judging from what I see on artstation, there is a lot of weapons artist. And a lot of really, really good weapons artist. People who can model an ar-15 faster than I can field strip and clean one, and it will look better too. So maybe you have interest in some other type of art which is a little less mainstream? Something you don't find as many people doing. I really don't know what that could be. Personally I like animals a lot so that's what I do, and I don't see a ton of people doing them for games so fingers crossed that may help me out in getting a job. But who knows. I am more focused on enjoying my work, so my perspective may be less utilitarian.

Secondarily, if you have some studios in mind who you would like to work for, reach out to the artist or management working there directly and ask what their typical division of labor is. I don't imagine that could possibly bother or offend anybody, and it does show some degree of initiative which is admirable.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Zbrush.

Without seeing your ability to concept designs, it'll be conceptually straightforward if you just learn a software package that will immediately help your ability to model other things you see.

poopipe

I'm responsible for surfacing and materials now so priorities have shifted but even back  when I was leading asset art creation I  absolutely would not hire anyone who couldn't texture properly.

Modelling is a basic skill and I expect even juniors to be capable of building pretty much anything to a decent standard. Telling a story with materials is a much more nuanced and complex process and is where the bulk of the artistry lives when creating game ready assets. 

If your goal is to get into concept art then the technicalities are different but the same mental process of storytelling applies. 

That said,  if you're asking about software,  Zbrush is a good shout.  Nobody regrets learning Zbrush 

garcellano

I would agree with using Zbrush. That, or any major sculpting tool, but ZBrush is commonly used.

Zi0

Sculpting, a lot of Hard-Surface models have parts made from cloth for instance.