Can a one-handed man dream to be a professional 3D artist come true?

kemeral

Hi;

 

My dream since I was 10 years old that I would like to be a 3D artist.

I tried to work in the Maya, 3DS max, ZBrush & so on. However, I have one problem that made employers not to take my under their companies:

 

I am a one-handed person. I can't use my whole right palm & fingers  so I'm slower than the other internship members since I can't press Ctrl, Alt & Shift while using the mouse at the same time.

 

So I am asking if there is a work around I can do so I can be accepted to work as graphics designer & Follow my dreams?

RoseC

It will take some work, possibly getting help from a friend to set up custom keymapping. I know that Blender has a lot of customization for the controls but as for making it fully accessible for one handed people will take time. Always look for software that allows detailed custom keymapping. Software marketed at power users where you can forgo clicks for shortcuts or hotkeys, ideally what you'd be looking for.

carvuliero

What about this crazy stuff :

https://www.hitechreview.com/uploads/2009/12/WarMouse-Meta.jpg

https://assets.hardwarezone.com/img/2015/08/nyth_buttons_covers.jpg

https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Dux-MMO-Gaming-Mouse.jpg

or graphic table with touch functionality , or virtual keyboard or program that create macros ,have you tried any of those ?

You can use pretty easy zbrush and photoshop with 1 hand I do sometimes

Alex_J

not a total solution, but much of my work in Maya is done only with the mouse. It's nothing fancy, just a logitech mouse with like 4 programmable buttons, but I set them to ctrl, ctrl+shift, space, undo. This gives access to most of your marking menus on just one hand. So much of the work is done with one-handed gestures.

I find that speed in production isn't as much from fast clicking as it is from not making mistakes that require do-overs in your workflow. And that just comes from experience. Even if you hypothetically need 2 seconds to do a common command that others only need 0.5 seconds for, I don't think that's going to make or break you as an artist.

I'm sure with experimentation you can devise a complete solution for yourself. Just a personal obstacle you have to overcome.

jStins

Maybe something like this would help?

https://polycount.com/discussion/189535/faster-workflow-using-voice-activated-macros

sacboi

Another artist with an akin disability, very inspiring well worth a read.

OneArmedGraphics 

poopipe

You can get programmable foot keyboards/buttons etc.  that should cover the ctrl etc. keys. 
eg.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DecentGadget%C2%AE-Control-Keyboard-Action-Fu%C3%9Fpedal/dp/B00O055QB4

That particular set is cheap enough that I'm suspicious but if you look around you can find specialist companies that cater to various physical needs and build industrial grade kit

Ashervisalis

As well as what everybody else said, what about getting some foot pedals? Like the ones that come with video game steering wheels, and then mapping them so the pedals are ctr, shft, and space bar or something?

arnov

I remember a guy that had no hands and used his feet to write a code.

m_asher

I can vouch for using foot pedals, with the caveats that configuring them can be a pain and the price mark-up is a bit insane. If you go for a cheap 3-switch setup (from PCsensor, DecentGadget, etc), don't expect it to last too long — the ones I've had experience with have all used cheap IR sensors that struggle with interference and general durability.

On the software end, I've found that AHK pie menus can help you do a lot of things without changing your keymap. You can run it off a flash drive, too, which can be helpful when you're using someone else's hardware.

Eric Chadwick

I Love Polycount.

Brian "Panda" Choi

@Eric Chadwick are you just looking at things on the internet and saying that you love them?

Zi0

Maybe you can write (or pay someone to write) a custom UI tool for maya for all the tools that are harder to reach with two hands. Also use the shelve a lot. Only problem is that as a 3D artist you need to use a lot of software so you have to find some creative solutions to use other software with one arm but it should be possible. You could teach yourself how to texture in substance designer, you dont need two hands to create amazing materials with nodes.