Learning material suggestions?

Fayrek

I went to a college for 3d art, my program got messed with so I didn't get a chance to learn stuff later in the pipeline and substance. After that I got caught in the tide of debt and making ends meet. Now its roughly 5 years later, with limited modeling in between, so my knowledge set is oddly patchy. I know enough that absolute beginner courses over UI and stuff doesn't quite feel like a good fit. I've started 5 times as many projects as I have finished, sculpting feeling fun and breezy, but sadly never textured or ready for export.

At this point I know its going to be lots of leg work and practice, but I'm worried about developing weird janky habits self teaching. Retop wasn't even covered in class, it was something I started doing on my own. I later found out my cool clever topology solution was actually a 3 point pole, and that if possible I should be avoiding it.

I'm a little uncertain about my direction right now, but I'd say my long term end goal would be working as a 3d character artist with a focus on animals and monsters. Hearing about how competitive character art can be does make me wonder about dipping my feet deeper into rigging or effects animation to see if I like it well enough.

Any input on learning resources you like using, or just any thoughts about character/creature modeling would be appreciated!

Eric Chadwick

Start by posting your work in progress shots in 3D Showcase, and keep posting updates as you progress along. 

Tons of good resources out there for self-directed study. For example: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Roguedevelopmentdiary

sacboi

imo, there's none better than Michael Pavlovich, for making creature stuff end to end when starting out and not necessarily with the tools he uses:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DExvR

https://pavlovich.gumroad.com/?sort=page_layout#sRlZ

carvuliero

Id say just make something dont worry about all the things you do right now .Can you for example make one of those ?

You just need to learn a few things to start making finish pieces so just watch any free tutorial that run the whole pipeline

Basically what you need is to :

-create form -> modeling or sculpting software

-retopo -> most modeling program has some way to do that or specialized software [optional if high res sculpts with polypaint ]

-UVs - same as above

-bakes - same as above

-texturing ....

-rendering and presentation it will depends on what the end goal is but usually you need render engine and image manipulating software for the final comp [or just screen grab and some paint over what ever works }

To recap you have to be able to control form and to cover them with color can ignore tech stuff for a while or learn the short pipeline above if you like to make things for games/animation and so on If you stuck watch some free tutorials or ask here and post your progress you will get the most of it

Fayrek

@Eric Chadwick

Thanks! I'll give that a shot and start one up

@sacboi

Oh that's perfect! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

@carvuliero

Thanks!