How to develop my work further
node
Hi all,
I'm a graduating student and I've been working on 3d game art for a year and half now.
I'm kind of lost at this stage.
When I see my work, it's not there yet and it still looks like a student's work and I don't think I can just apply for a junior position yet.
I know I should keep practicing, but it's just that there's not enough advice/source that I can establish my workflow or develop my work.
Like, there are so many questions that I cannot quite answer myself such as, "does the model that I create have enough polygons or is it too many", or "how much extent it is considered enough for an asset to be optimised?".
The questions are quite small but I feel like those minor questions are a bit of a hindrance in process of work since I want to make my work better, not creating the stuff at the same level.
I watch many tutorials from youtube/artstation and other sources but I'm not sure if I'm doing things right.
Any advice on this stage of being stuck would be really helpful for me.
Thank you!
I'm a graduating student and I've been working on 3d game art for a year and half now.
I'm kind of lost at this stage.
When I see my work, it's not there yet and it still looks like a student's work and I don't think I can just apply for a junior position yet.
I know I should keep practicing, but it's just that there's not enough advice/source that I can establish my workflow or develop my work.
Like, there are so many questions that I cannot quite answer myself such as, "does the model that I create have enough polygons or is it too many", or "how much extent it is considered enough for an asset to be optimised?".
The questions are quite small but I feel like those minor questions are a bit of a hindrance in process of work since I want to make my work better, not creating the stuff at the same level.
I watch many tutorials from youtube/artstation and other sources but I'm not sure if I'm doing things right.
Any advice on this stage of being stuck would be really helpful for me.
Thank you!
Replies
So, you could learn how to make a game and make one...but that takes a long time and divides your attention. So then, if your goal is to get a job as a 3d artist, I think it's better not to worry too hard about those questions, just make an effort to be as efficient as possible, and put 99% of the worry on "is my art appealing?"
You don't have to know squat about the technical requirements of making art for this or that platform to work efficiently. If you are using more memory (in the form of textures or vertices) to render a model than is needed, you aren't being efficient. That's all.
If you make a model and lets say your style is copying Uncharted, maybe you finish it and get some feedback. People tell you that your textures are bigger than they need to be, or your UV layout is inefficient. It's no big deal. The great benefit of digital work is you can go back and revise things pretty quick and easy. Nothing is set in stone. If you feel like you can't go back and make edits easy, then you know that you need to work on adjusting your pipeline so that you can have that flexibility.
Iterating liek this will make you faster, which means you'll be able to make more art, get more feedback... improve faster.
As a baseline, you can start out your new projects by first finding professionally made models that are similar in style and scope. As long as you aren't dramatically more than them, I wouldn't worry about it. For instance, if you download a model from sketchfab and in total it's like, 200mb for example (including textures and the model file), you're probably good to be plus or minus 50% of that.
You can also look at how and when they are using different materials, and what size the texture images are. If you see something and can't deduce why a decision might have been made, just post images and ask other people what they think.
In short, you just got to get paint on canvas to work with. Once you do, whether its beautiful or ugly doesn't matter. Because you can redo it as many times as you need until it's right. Just don't get hung up on questions you can't answer, keep outputting finished work and the rest just comes with time.
I did check your comment and went back into planning my work, that was extremely helpful.
The problem was that I am the kind of person who needs the plans before trying anything else, even the trying bit should be included in my plan.
But your comment was really reassuring and I could feel that I was quite on the right track.
Thank you again and have a great day!
Wait, what ??
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount
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"Like, there are so many questions that I cannot quite answer myself such as, "does the model that I create have enough polygons or is it too many", or "how much extent it is considered enough for an asset to be optimised?"."
Pick a game to mod or a game that has a solid Steam Workshop toolset, and match the technical specs of the models you replace. That's litterally all there is to it.
I wouldn't get too hung up on it though, I can assure you plenty people get hired without them even showing wireframes in their portfolios. First step is getting modelling and texturing on a decent level and working from references. THAT is what I don't want to worry about when I work with a junior. If optimizing is making you frustrated, just try to refocus on other parts of the asset without worrying about it too much.