trying to get a job or atleast be an intern or trainee as a 3D artist
polycounter lvl 2
hey there everyone!
i've been 3D art for quite some time now. and i wanna get a job as a 3D modeler/ digital sculptor.....
i would like to hear everyones opinion, if im good enough to be a full-time 3D artist..... comment or critique as you see fit guys!
oh! and also if anyone knows of any studio wanting a 3D modeler, please help me out!
or even if one of you people are in the field professionally and want to hire a 3D artist... I'm all open for work people!
check out my work at https://mohdmistry.artstation.com/
and here are only a few of my work
i've been 3D art for quite some time now. and i wanna get a job as a 3D modeler/ digital sculptor.....
i would like to hear everyones opinion, if im good enough to be a full-time 3D artist..... comment or critique as you see fit guys!
oh! and also if anyone knows of any studio wanting a 3D modeler, please help me out!
or even if one of you people are in the field professionally and want to hire a 3D artist... I'm all open for work people! check out my work at https://mohdmistry.artstation.com/
and here are only a few of my work
Replies
Your work shows improvement, yet you really don't demonstrate a large enough body of work. It's too heavy on weighted to marvel characters at the moment and even those are not executed at a quality level to work on those IP. They are at an acceptable PS2 quality level but the industry is shifting to PS5/XNext development and these characters don't work for mobile either.
You should make effort to demonstrate an understanding of proper anatomy, if your trying to be a character artist. You should spend less time taking models to completion in terms of high/low bakes and really spend more time sculpting. Show you can create characters with appeal. Demonstrate different styles or be able to nail your own.
Let's take a looksy at Kratos.
Making comparisons; your mouth is cartoony, and his facial features are not defined or executed with confidence (blobbyness to his features).
This video illustrates well what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAVGcCuSjxA (HIGHLY recommend watching all their sculpting vids). The weapons and armor don't have the details or correct material definition. His skin is supposed to be ash attached to his body, but your character just looks gray. The chin hair looks modeled and unnatural. There are countless other distinctions between yours and theirs, but unless you can see them and somehow emulate or exceed them (or stylize to make your own) your going to fall short of the bar, and opportunities for employment.
All this said. your model is last gen, and even below the bar for those standards.....
This is where the bar is. (And yet the industry is about to shift again!)
I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about getting stuff game ready since you haven't perfected the fundamentals. CREATE!!! Make a ton of models, Attempt to execute at a level of quality matching high end film or AAA studios like Naughty Dog, Rockstar, Insomniac, Santa Monica. More and more studios have specialized people for modeling/re-top/materials/textures. It'll be great if you can do all three. Yet I'd argue the most important is the model (foundation). Not to say the others are less important, just a flashy paint job does not make the car any better mentality.
Entry level or not, studios won't consider someone unless they can see potential or possibly getting someone higher quality for cheaper. Fact is you're up against higher caliber competition and unless you can execute at that level your not likely to find work.
Good luck.
While it is great to work towards hitting that bar of realism (like with kratos in the post above), its more important to know if that's the direction you want to go.
like there is a difference between a character artist with a job, and a character artist working in a specific company like naughty dog.
Not all character artists with jobs can achieve that level of realism or care to, everyone has different priorities and its not like achieving that level of realism is the only way you're getting a job.
Not every company that hires a character artist is looking for that level of realism or rather many of them don't have the budget/time to afford that level of quality and account for all the other work in the mix (animation/integration)
One challenge you may be facing with regards to your selection of pieces is the inevitable comparison that people will make, however this doesn't not equal to an instant rejection, perhaps form Naughty Dog but not from every company that's looking for a character artist and doesn't necessarily have their budget.
I do notice a mix of quality, so you could streamline your portfolio a bit more, like your strongest pieces are deadpool and scorpion (there's some posing issues with deadpool)
Also your tricount (quad count) and topology seems higher on some models than others, higher than needed for the detail you want to capture. (like spiderman)
And I notice that you are modeling for film rather than games (having subdivision levels) so perhaps that is the likely direction you want to focus on. (Blur studio would be your target since they outsource a lot)
You could get a job with your current body of work, I think your location is probably going to be a bigger issue at this time, though you can get freelance work.
To work this out, you could post on the freelance postings on this site, write to companies that outsource work.
You may find more prop work than character work, (check out dekogon) and this isn't just because of the quality of your characters, its also about budgets and a place like Virtuous for instance has multiple people working simultaneous to finish projects at a competitive rate, and a proven track record so many companies may run to them instead. There are several factors but you can work to even the odds to your favor somewhat.
Again I know of several artists that got to work on characters, i.e they made the characters backpack/boots.etc
So not Hossein Diba level yet, but they are integral to the pipeline either way and more affordable to boot.
So if you do want to push the quality of your work to current gen, you certainly can with the resources available online, while at the same time looking for opportunities more suited to your current portfolio.
And continue to push the quality of your work which you certainly can do while networking where you can.
The money you get out of it is another matter and depends on negotiations and the needs of the company. A cheap company can lowball even the greatest artist, so know what you're worth.
This might help,
thank you guys for the response and advices. i understand what you mean
i'm constantly working on getting better and better... i know the above made comparison shows mine at a lower level.. i made that comparison too and i know i fall short... but that doesnt mean i should stop trying
i hope to get at that level.
companies here in the UAE usually just do advertisement work... so becoming a character artist is a far stretch haha
i'll keep posting here as this is the only site i found that gives me honest and constructive feedback.
i just need to get my foot in the door... i know i can improve faster and better if i get to do this in a production where i would be able to work full time... unlike now where i get a couple of hours every day
the images are rendered at highest subdiv
Another thing I would advise is to go to life drawing classes. You get a real understanding of anatomy while drawing the human form. It really does help you understand the anatomical form really well. I'd also say in ZBrush, do an exercise with an ecorche sculpt, which can showcase your understanding of the anatomical form, doing one every year should showcase your progression as a character artist and can catch the eye of recruiters from game companies.
Also have a browse through ArtStation. Look at the character artists that are showcasing the kind of art style you want to go for (in this case photorealism) and take a look at what they're doing and what you can apply to your own work, it can help you learn a lot about what you need to do. Using the example of Kratos again, I'm going to direct you to the character model within the latest God of War by Raf Grasetti, it even shows off how the muscles are working within the character, which can easily help you about the understanding of the anatomy: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ygeNO
One more piece of advice: get your work to AAA quality and studios will notice you. Game art is a competitive job sector so you will need to work hard to get a job. Once you're creating consistent AAA artwork, you can then try applying to studios that want junior character artists. (But what about experience?) Yes, studios want experience but if you're making consistently fantastic artwork that's up to industry standards, they'll be more likely to hire you. I've got this advice from a blog written by Tim Simpson: https://80.lv/articles/10-insider-tips-for-artists-applying-to-game-studios/
Otherwise, you're doing a really good job there. Keep it up and I wish you the best of luck!
thanks for all the great advices! yes i am following Raf and saw his work... kratos was done by me years ago and i know now i can do it better
and i also gotta do all this whilst keeping my day boring job lol
i keep hearing about AAA ... whats that?!
If yiu are iming for the game industry, than i have to ask the others here: isnt it important to show in his portfolio m, game ready characters, instead of "only" highpoly sculpts?
well right now with the sparsity either game or movie productions in my country i'd just take on any kind of it (i wouldn't mind if a company from another country were to hire me... i wont have a problem moving) .... i just wanna get in and get this done as a full time.... if someone from the game industry were to hire me, i could definitely learn the low poly baking and other things that are necessary for it
Isnt that the case? Or is that super unique?
also i am courious if you can get a sculptor-only job (is that job called modeller?) with only decent-perfect highpoly-sculpts.
If you're meaning to get into games, you ought to learn to make a low poly version of the likeness, as well as using SSS in your shader and also an understanding of game res hair, while rendering in realtime engines.
With film, id say pick up Arnold, red shift and using displacement maps with mari, and ornatrix for hair.
Vimal Kerketta is one artist I know who got his job as a facial modeler mainly because of his very realistic head sculpts. (as far as I know)
Marlon Nunez is another great example
Then again, I have seen the one off situation of artists hired for role they were less than qualified for because of other factors. (many of these factors are controversial)
That said, as an artist always great to learn the best ways to get your work looking the best it can.
Yeah its somehow crazy how much you have to do as an character artist no?
I miss sculpting so hard when i stuck on painting/retopo/rigging....and because everything is so complex, to get barely good at something you have to spend SO much time in all of it, so i wish i could just sculpt highpoly without worring to retopo later ;-(
xD
While some artists simply power through the count spamming the detail, decimating and then tossing the work to a printer, it does help to know proper edgeflow for more consistency in detail, the appropriate way to break down a model for modularity, preventing overhangs and understanding model thickness, escape holes and other good habits for 3d printing and injection moulding.
But for many of these studios that do this sort of work, the criteria is a strong body of pure sculpts, posed and rendered in zbrush (basic material shader), the more detailed the better.
Example HazardousArts, Weta workshop, Hot toys digital sculptors.
Another area is pure sculpting for compositing. Meaning you do an artistic piece, that is then either painted over or touched up for a graphic art print.
Well really what your doing is creating art, not game art, just art for appreciation, hopefully it gets a following and you could maybe earn with a patreon, teaching your craft when you have a hook?
One artist that does this (abstract/stylized), https://www.artstation.com/mccabe86/albums/92519
or
Hossein Diba (for realsitic style) (while this work can be used as hi res for retopo into game res model, sometimes its just for marketing purposes and branding.)
The key is to know what you're good at and be consistent with it.
i get your point
i think since i can't develop a game by myself and there isnt any companies here that do that, i'd just have to stick with hi-res stuff and try to better myself with likeness