Hi I am new! Where to start?

President

Hi all! I am new to Polycount and 3d art in general.

I am 18 years old and I have been gaming a long part of my life already and I love game development for a few years already. I got programming school but I'd rather learn the artist side of the game development. I recently started of with Maya and I was hoping that some of you can give me some tips on how to start and learn. I am folowing a course on pluralsight and on another website. Do you guys have other tips for me on how to learn it?

I would like to learn a lot about the making of 3d objects for environments. So modeling, sculpting and texturing, things like that.

Software that I own right now:

Maya

Mudbox

Substance painter

I am using student licensing for the softwares.

Ashervisalis

Yo yo yo, welcome to game art!!! It'll provide you with feelings of fulfillment and frustration at the same time. Your skill level will benefit from the amount of time you invest, so if you want to become really good, be prepared to invest a lot of time!

On top of those programs you're using, I would download UE4, which is a free game engine. You can throw whatever you make into UE4 and run around the worlds you've created! I've not used Mudbox, but the majority of professionals use ZBrush for sculpting (though there is no student license like Autodesk Mudbox). Speaking of professionalism: Do you want to be a professional game artist at a studio, or do you want to just work on your own stuff? If you're wanting to be professional, people usually branch off into either character art or environment art. You can do both, but it'll be really hard to become good enough in order to land a job. Speaking of which, don't spread yourself too thin! Make sure to learn;

Sub-D modeling + Sculpting (spend some time in these disciplines to get really good at them)

Retopology + UV mapping

Texturing

Lighting + rendering

My biggest piece of advice though... Become ingrained in a community. Surround yourself (on the internet) with artists who will pick apart your work and tell you what you can do better. Keep threads on your work here on Polycount. Get an ArtStation account and post all your completed work on it! There are also the Polycount Discord and Greentooth Slack;

https://polycount.com/discussion/170535/polycount-discord-slack-skype-hangout-etc#latest

What kind of video game art do you like? Stylized? Realistic?

President

Ashervisalis said:

Yo yo yo, welcome to game art!!! It'll provide you with feelings of fulfillment and frustration at the same time. Your skill level will benefit from the amount of time you invest, so if you want to become really good, be prepared to invest a lot of time!

On top of those programs you're using, I would download UE4, which is a free game engine. You can throw whatever you make into UE4 and run around the worlds you've created! I've not used Mudbox, but the majority of professionals use ZBrush for sculpting (though there is no student license like Autodesk Mudbox). Speaking of professionalism: Do you want to be a professional game artist at a studio, or do you want to just work on your own stuff? If you're wanting to be professional, people usually branch off into either character art or environment art. You can do both, but it'll be really hard to become good enough in order to land a job. Speaking of which, don't spread yourself too thin! Make sure to learn;

Sub-D modeling + Sculpting (spend some time in these disciplines to get really good at them)

Retopology + UV mapping

Texturing

Lighting + rendering

My biggest piece of advice though... Become ingrained in a community. Surround yourself (on the internet) with artists who will pick apart your work and tell you what you can do better. Keep threads on your work here on Polycount. Get an ArtStation account and post all your completed work on it! There are also the Polycount Discord and Greentooth Slack;

https://polycount.com/discussion/170535/polycount-discord-slack-skype-hangout-etc#latest

What kind of video game art do you like? Stylized? Realistic?

Thank you for the big answer! I probably want a job in the future inside the game industry, I am only 18 years old so upcoming years I can practice a lot and then try to start somewhere. I like environment art over character art a lot.  I will go look into all the subjects you addressed and I will also make an artstation account, thanks!

Alex_J

I highly recommend to look into some modding community or maybe if you find a group of friends with varied skills/interest you can make a student project. You'll learn practical skills that way, plus have a lot of fun and end up with something greater to show than just solo portfolio work.

President

Alex Javor said:

I highly recommend to look into some modding community or maybe if you find a group of friends with varied skills/interest you can make a student project. You'll learn practical skills that way, plus have a lot of fun and end up with something greater to show than just solo portfolio work.

I thought that this is a good community for me to get on. I don't know if you know other community's I can join too? Maybe some smaller ones? I find it hard finding a group of people inside the 3d art community. In the programming community it is easy for me but that is because I am doing that already for quite some years now.

Alex_J

This is good community for 3d in general. I meant like a specific community focused on modding some games.

Ashervisalis

@President This is a great community here, you're right. I'd highly suggest joining a chat group though, like I posted above. Just start chatting to people about the art they're posting and you'll make some good friends really quickly!

President

Alex Javor said:

This is good community for 3d in general. I meant like a specific community focused on modding some games.

I will go look into that, thanks!

Ashervisalis said:

@President This is a great community here, you're right. I'd highly suggest joining a chat group though, like I posted above. Just start chatting to people about the art they're posting and you'll make some good friends really quickly!

I joined the Discord server from Polycount now and 1 other server so lets hope I can make some buddies!

Taylor Brown

Glad you came across PC  

Here's a few treasure troves of information for you. Don't feel intimidated by the sheer depth of knowledge that you'll have to take in while learning game art to a professional level. Just start small, research when you hit a topic or issue you can't comprehend and don't give up. Starting with tutorials is great but the hard part as a beginner is determining which ones have actual value. There's a lot of misinformation passed off as indepth knowledge.

https://scrapbox.io/Dinustydiscord/
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount
https://www.beyondextent.com/

Enjoy the journey, it's gonna be a bumpy one!

President

Taylor Brown said:

Glad you came across PC  

Here's a few treasure troves of information for you. Don't feel intimidated by the sheer depth of knowledge that you'll have to take in while learning game art to a professional level. Just start small, research when you hit a topic or issue you can't comprehend and don't give up. Starting with tutorials is great but the hard part as a beginner is determining which ones have actual value. There's a lot of misinformation passed off as indepth knowledge.

https://scrapbox.io/Dinustydiscord/
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount
https://www.beyondextent.com/

Enjoy the journey, it's gonna be a bumpy one!

Thanks!