Does it still make sense to learn character modelling?

Deniell

First of all, sorry for not ideal title but I cannot think of better one with my English... Today I watched new Unreal technology Metahuman. It's said it's going to be game changer and I'm thinking if it still make sense to learn the workflow that today's artist uses. Do you think that Zbrush will be valid in 5 years? Is it still good reason to attend some bootcamp like Vertexschool or Think Tank and learn their current techniques? Or the softwares will be that powerful that we won't need the other ones like Zbrush, Maya, Substance etc? Thank you.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yes, it makes sense.

People will always attempt to make something that they think doesn't exist yet.

You really need to think about Metahuman as a tool in a larger pipeline.

imagine eliminating a lionshare of the NPC character work in a game like Cyberpunk by relatively randomizing valid, game ready heads from it so you can focus on tertiary and primary character models.  Instead of using a large chunk of that time making NPCs.

poopipe

Has photography made illustrators obsolete? 

There's your answer

Deniell

Thanks Brian for answer. Yeah, that makes sense. So you don't think that this software won't be used for main characters in the game but just only for the basic ones?

Tiles

It will surely be used for games where you need realistic characters. But not in all of them. And the tool is limited to humans. And it has another drawback. What if you need a dog or a horse to fit to that look? What about the environment?

Tools like Character Creator or MakeHuman exists since a long time. But the knowledge how to model your own character is still not obsolete.

Deniell

Thanks guys for answers!

pior

"Today I watched [...]"
"It's said it's going to be [...]"
 "Do you think [...]"

Well ... what about installing the actual sample project and seeing all that for yourself ? It's all there, available for anyone to mess around with.