Advice needed! Please Help!

aibato97

Hello! My name is Nathan, I’m a recent graduate and frankly a little lost right now on where my career is heading. I’ve applied to several jobs already and have gotten no responses so far. I’d like to get any kind of feedback on my portfolio to see whether I’m wasting my time applying for jobs and should instead focus on improving my skills. I specifically love both 3D modelling characters(Stylised or photo realistic) and animation. My passion is making animated films.

However, as an entry level artist like myself I’m unsure whether It’s a good idea to try and get a job as a 3D character modeller as these are usually given to more senior artists and may take years. I just want experience in the field so should I go for jobs that are more in demand like architectural visualisation or product design for marketing and focus my practice on that? Maybe animation is a better option to get a job? Any other highly in demand positions as a 3D artist? Any help and feedback would be highly appreciated!

Here is a link to my ArtStation http://www.artstation.com/nathanbeguin

Thanks.

Carabiner

Hey there, I'll leave the advice to character artists -- but your concept for the sculpt can be found here: http://conceptartworld.com/artists/hethe-srodawa/

I found this in under a minute using a reverse Google image search. Don't forget to do this going forward; it's important to credit your concept artist.

Brian "Panda" Choi

You're not ready for entry level art almost anywhere, but you can fix this.

In short, as Satoshi Arakawa has said to me in the past, nothing in your portfolio communicates you could produce Senior Artist level quality in a reasonable amount of longer time that would be expected of a junior artist.  This is because none of your art looks done or polished.

Strongest character is the black sci fi character, but that needs more love and needs to be brought to completion to be worth anything.

That's honestly your first baby step if you're serious about being a character artist: finish a character.

I'm somewhat concerned as to the quality of your uni/college education and now that you're presumably out of that circle, what you're doing these days to practice and get better without that environment around you.

TheGabmeister

aibato97 said:

However, as an entry level artist like myself I’m unsure whether It’s a good idea to try and get a job as a 3D character modeller as these are usually given to more senior artists and may take years. I just want experience in the field so should I go for jobs that are more in demand like architectural visualisation or product design for marketing and focus my practice on that? Maybe animation is a better option to get a job? Any other highly in demand positions as a 3D artist? Any help and feedback would be highly appreciated!

I recommend sticking to character modelling if that's what keeps your fire burning.

Since you're a recent graduate, you can spend the next 3-6 months to improve your portfolio to increase your chances of landing a job. Perhaps convince your relatives to let you stay with them for the time being. I recommend creating 1 polished piece per month, around 50-100 hours of work for each.

Zi0

What Panda and TheGabmeister said. You need more practice in anatomy so thats where I would start, get yourself some nice tutorials and keep working on getting the right body proportions.

aibato97

Carabiner said:

Hey there, I'll leave the advice to character artists -- but your concept for the sculpt can be found here: http://conceptartworld.com/artists/hethe-srodawa/

I found this in under a minute using a reverse Google image search. Don't forget to do this going forward; it's important to credit your concept artist.

Yes your right thanks for finding it!

aibato97

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

You're not ready for entry level art almost anywhere, but you can fix this.

In short, as Satoshi Arakawa has said to me in the past, nothing in your portfolio communicates you could produce Senior Artist level quality in a reasonable amount of longer time that would be expected of a junior artist.  This is because none of your art looks done or polished.

Strongest character is the black sci fi character, but that needs more love and needs to be brought to completion to be worth anything.

That's honestly your first baby step if you're serious about being a character artist: finish a character.

I'm somewhat concerned as to the quality of your uni/college education and now that you're presumably out of that circle, what you're doing these days to practice and get better without that environment around you.

Thanks for your opinion. The main reason I went to uni was to figure out what exactly I wanted to do because initially I didn't know I wanted to specifically get into 3D Characters. I think my best option now is to to do everything to try and improve my portfolio online.  

aibato97

TheGabmeister said:

aibato97 said:

However, as an entry level artist like myself I’m unsure whether It’s a good idea to try and get a job as a 3D character modeller as these are usually given to more senior artists and may take years. I just want experience in the field so should I go for jobs that are more in demand like architectural visualisation or product design for marketing and focus my practice on that? Maybe animation is a better option to get a job? Any other highly in demand positions as a 3D artist? Any help and feedback would be highly appreciated!

I recommend sticking to character modelling if that's what keeps your fire burning.

Since you're a recent graduate, you can spend the next 3-6 months to improve your portfolio to increase your chances of landing a job. Perhaps convince your relatives to let you stay with them for the time being. I recommend creating 1 polished piece per month, around 50-100 hours of work for each.

Ok thanks for the advice!

aibato97

Zi0 said:

What Panda and TheGabmeister said. You need more practice in anatomy so thats where I would start, get yourself some nice tutorials and keep working on getting the right body proportions.

Noted!

StephLee

Easy ways to get the practice you need are to participate in the monthly character art forum here on polycount.  Its and easy excuse to learn how to match a concept and improve your art.