Beginner 3D Character Artist Path
Hello, I have a few questions about where I should start if I want to become a 3D character artist. I'll give everyone some background I was 22 at the time when graduated from an Art school for Game Art & Design back in Fall 2013. The school pretty much left me high and dry after I graduated and was forced to fend for myself. I tried improving the skills I've learned by continuing to make characters. I attended different networking events in my area as well. I slowly improved but I hit a wall and didn't really have a sense of direction. Also life issues came into play and completely threw me off of my focus. In 2016 I then completely lost all motivation to continue creating and its been like that for years. I regretted "giving up" for awhile now because had I not I would've improved so much and to be honest I really missed creating. At 32 years old I've decided on giving this another go at it (giving up is not an option). I'm pretty sure a lot has changed in those years as far the 3D character pipeline and even the programs being used.
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Just make something , simple cute cartoony even if thats not your thing You need something as a base to judge how much you suck so then you can look for path foreword other wise there are too many things to pick from. Completing few basic project will also show you the ropes and boost your motivation to push forward
Honestly - the only things that have changed significantly in the last decade are substance painter getting released and computers getting faster.
apart from that it's business as usual except there's more detail
That is basically it. The software has gotten better, the number of software you need to know to land a job may have increased as well. Getting a job in game art is still incredibly competitive (arguably more than ever with how popular/ how much money the video game industry makes) but if you have the portfolio for it you can still land the job.
The simple answer is to make art. Find someone on ArtStation that has the job you want, and keep making art until your work doesn't look out of place next to theirs. Finish your work. You won't like any of it at first. You'll think you're falling short of your aspirations. That's totally normal. I've been doing this professionally for about seven years now, and I still feel this way all the time. It is your superpower. Evaluate your work to determine its shortcomings, post it here to get feedback from other artists, and then apply those insight to your next project. Rinse and repeat. You'll get better with each finished project, and eventually you'll have a body of work that will land you a job.
This interview with Ira Glass lays it all out, and is applicable to any creative work. It really helped me push through the early stages, and is worth a watch:
Start with simple projects that you can finish, and build up the complexity as you master the fundamentals.
As far as pipeline goes, I think the others have already covered it. Not a whole lot has changed. As far as character art goes, Maya (or Blender) for modeling, Zbrush for sculpting, Substance Painter for baking and texturing. Those will be your bread and butter, so start there. I also like Marmoset Toolbag for baking and presentation. Depending on the kind of work you're targeting, you'll probably want to familiarize yourself with Marvelous Designer at some point.
I do not suggest trying to design your own characters and make them in 3D to start with, unless you're great at character design already, which your post indicates not. Instead, by finding good designs and trying to create those, you run into problems and difficulties that you learn more by solving them, than by fighting your own design skills. Then, in the process of working with those professional concepts, you learn better design skills.
Remember that the great masters of art got started by copying the masters before them.