H A M + question

Jacobodding_design

Ham

Concept: Betty Jiang
My Artstation

Render

Sketchfab
model

Question:

I have a question for you guys. I've always heard that a 3D modeler should not waste time creating own concepts and that in a studio you should be able to replicate the concept your give as close as possible. But I'm sometimes worried that I'm missing out by not creating my own concepts. What do you guys think? Do you think it's bad or good to spend time making your own concepts and then basing your models on that if your goal is working in a studio.

OviØne

Take my words with a grain of salt, as I am a newbie and I lack the experience in the industry, but from what I've read online and from what some friends that work in the industry told me, the answer is "it depends".

If you want to work in a indie company, specially for companies that make mobile phone games, they love to have people like you. A lot of  mobile phone companies also does 2D Games so they always looking for generalists that can cover more than one job. For example if they want to make a 2D game and in the company they have 2 artists, one for 3D and one for 2D, the 3D artist won't have anything to do, so a 2D game would be unviable for the company, but if they have a generalist like you who knows to do both things it wouldn't be a problem.

But on the other hand if you want to work in a bigger studio then forget about it, most of them if not all want specialised persons, even in the 3D World they want an artist for the Environment, another for Hard Surface, another for Characters, etc.

Hope it helps! 

BagelHero

Love this, looks tasty!

For your question... You can do what you'd like. If you're making a portfolio piece, 9/10 its better to go with something that you can verify in some way is "good", though, which is why you choose a concept. But if you also have interest in 2D work and maybe a couple of friends who will be honest with you if what you're making doesn't make sense/is ugly, then you've no reason not to. Make sure you show the concept you make alongside the final piece. Even if the concept is your own, seeing the idea vs execution is important!

The only thing currently that you have that's from you is the altar, and it does stand out as being obviously not to the same standards as your other work. It's hard to tell if you've learned a lot in a year, if your concepts aren't that good, if you can't make your own details up to the level that you're capable of painting them from a concept, or if you're not as familiar with lighting and environments because so much of your other work is solo hand-painted props. Make sure you get active feedback to avoid similar issues in the future, basically.

Jacobodding_design

@BagelHero

I actually studied concept art before I went into 3D so the interest is still there. But I totally agree with you that the concept has a lot of potential but the execution is not unique enough. I actually started doing a revision of this piece a while back where I have some more elements in the scene that will stand out. 

One issue with my self teaching has been isolation. It’s not until now where I've been active on forums. Therefore currently i don’t have one or two go-to people to show my stuff to and get critique. But hopefully I’ll eventually find someone to reach out to. I don’t wanna come off as nonchalant but i don’t wanna get critique from the wrong person. Giving good critique is a craft in itself and it’s hard finding someone who gives effective criticism. .