Need advice need structure being self taught or considering an online course but not sure what to do

lockey1995

Hey, 

I'm back again and I as the title suggests I think the hardest thing with me currently trying to self teach my self is staying on target and needing a structured approach pretty much bullet points written down  on what to learn without getting distracted by everything else and constantly switching between various different things. In terms of what i actually want to do I really don't know as of yet i do enjoy the environment stuff allot not tried any characters or anything like that as of yet.

I would like to have a go at modeling a car for example being a big time car enthusiast but don't think I'd be able to as of yet. I'm guessing I just need to try it all career wise I'd have no clue either way yet but not too worried about that. I was debating looking into an online course was looking at CG spectrum and the Think tank foundation course 1 semester is 2000 pound though and the full one for think tank is 15k cad which i obviously couldn't do and cg spectrum is around the 2k mark as well. Also I highly doubt you'd get any student loan funding or anything for it as it's an online course that's basically international not in the UK.

I totally decided against university because I hear it can be hit and miss and didn't want to end up paying off student loans for most of my life, I think the big issue would be career opportunities though i'd say right now I'm stuck in my comfort zone in terms of living at home and not travelling incredibly far or moving away from family for a career. But when the time comes I guess that might change and I've heard on here if you really want to do it then more than likely you are going to end up relocating somewhere at some point in time. 

To put it straight definitely don't want to be doing retail lets say 3-5 years time that's for damn sure, what other career opportunities is there out there for 3D other than your standard games and film It be interesting to hear what every one has to say. If i did the above I'm guessing even if i didn't act on it straight away I'd still have allot more confidence in my work and I'd be able to keep progressing it was just a thought and a decision but at the moment I'm really not sure how to go about it. 

Sorry if it seems like a bit of ramble aha, not the best at putting things into words at times. 

Here is what i sort of have so far I've only got 2 things on there at the moment but started uploading things to SketchFab, I currently have a w i p I probably should post up which is Gatherers Garden from Bioshock.

Cheers, Jack  

https://sketchfab.com/Lockeness

Alex_J

Prioritize finishing work above all else. No matter the emotions and insecurities involved, if you don't get out there and hunt you aren't gonna eat, are you?

Like cars? Make cars. Don't think you know how to build an entire car? Just do one piece at a time. Take as much time as you need to research ways to build each piece. If you can make a really convincing wheel, that's a lot of modeling techniques right there that will serve you down the road. Lots of great hard surface modelers in the technical talk forums -- no way you couldn't make a nice car if you just prioritize beginning and finishing one above all else.

Easiest way to begin is do every tutorial you can find about cars or things similar to cars. Exposure and repetition are two things you want to maximize. 

Switching between things before finishing is oftentimes a form of procrastinating. It's self-defense mechanism of the mind to avoid fear of failure. Find your Bodhi tree and sit beneath it until you reach your artistic enlightenment.

Zi0

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Like cars? Make cars

Agreed, there are a lot of good car modeling tutorials out there, pick one of even a couple and start practicing. Look at artstations of other vehicle artists that specialize in cars to see what quality level you need to achieve.

lockey1995

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Prioritize finishing work above all else. No matter the emotions and insecurities involved, if you don't get out there and hunt you aren't gonna eat, are you?

Like cars? Make cars. Don't think you know how to build an entire car? Just do one piece at a time. Take as much time as you need to research ways to build each piece. If you can make a really convincing wheel, that's a lot of modeling techniques right there that will serve you down the road. Lots of great hard surface modelers in the technical talk forums -- no way you couldn't make a nice car if you just prioritize beginning and finishing one above all else.

Easiest way to begin is do every tutorial you can find about cars or things similar to cars. Exposure and repetition are two things you want to maximize. 

Switching between things before finishing is oftentimes a form of procrastinating. It's self-defense mechanism of the mind to avoid fear of failure. Find your Bodhi tree and sit beneath it until you reach your artistic enlightenment.

Ok I'm back now, thanks for the response yeah i see what you mean about the procrastination thing most definitely and I think for now I've decided against the online courses as I just don't have the funding available to do any of them . I did however find this it popped up this morning and I was skeptical at first but it seems to be legit and there's a you tube channel a discord and all sorts of reviews and it's free. 

https://beta.gameschoolonline.com/courses/ea-101-introduction-to-modeling-with-maya I enrolled on this it doesn't start untill May but the apparently the people who are teaching are in industry or have been in industry according to the website. 

Only thing I did forget to mention i did actually apply for one 3d position after friends who do 3d were telling me to do it I just didn't believe in my self  2 weeks ago, it was mainly product viz i think about 15 mins away from me but didn't get through the second stage.  More than likeyl most of the other people most likely did have studio experience etc so I'm not bummed about it all. However i did actually miss out on a trainee position there because it took me days to get a CV together and courage and it went.

lockey1995

Zi0 said:

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Like cars? Make cars

Agreed, there are a lot of good car modeling tutorials out there, pick one of even a couple and start practicing. Look at artstations of other vehicle artists that specialize in cars to see what quality level you need to achieve.

I will take a look, is there much out there specific to Maya for the car modeling? 

Alex_J

haven't done them all but i've seen a few tutorials covering cars for maya on pluralsight. Pluralsights pretty cheap -- $30 a month I think. also some intro to maya tutorials that show you how to build drones, spaceships -- same skill set. good thing about pluralsight or one of those other big video libraries like 3dmotive or lynda is that you get access to hundreds of tutorials for one price. maybe not the absolute best videos or completely up to date, but probably the best way to get familiar with your tools cheaply and in a relatively painless way.

sacboi

You can also utilise non-orthodox CG instructional hubs, basically dedicated sites for 3D industrial design, automotive design/engineering etc. so for professional and personal work, Car Body Design has long been my go to resource with an added bonus that most if not all tutorials, be it YT or another platform are 100% free pro authored content. Now although I might be a little biased towards more recognised 'Modelling Apps'...still, Maya is capable of generating optimised output despite it's quirky unintuitive hard surface workflow O_o

Published 2018 - Modelling a Jaguar Exterior and Interior in Maya

I'd suggest in conjunction with whatever self teaching rout decided upon, that you familiarise yourself with the fundamentals as well:

Hard Surface Guidelines  
Polygonal Modelling Basics
Modelling Cars In Polygons
Modelling Artifacts - Flow Check Reflection Map

Ex-Ray

lockey1995 said:

..... I think the hardest thing with me currently trying to self teach my self is staying on target and needing a structured approach pretty much bullet points written down  on what to learn without getting distracted by everything else and constantly switching between various different things.

What's your routine or self learning itinerary at the moment?

lockey1995

Ex-Ray said:

lockey1995 said:

..... I think the hardest thing with me currently trying to self teach my self is staying on target and needing a structured approach pretty much bullet points written down  on what to learn without getting distracted by everything else and constantly switching between various different things.

What's your routine or self learning itinerary at the moment?

A bit chaotic I have a few things written down on a word document but I keep jumping around so I'm never spending long enough on one particular subject, what are the main fundamentals of cg I should be learning so i can get those mastered?