sorry sorry, now i feel even more like a tool, lets try this again. Just a little on the edge lately. here is how the original post looked. I really wanted to just delete the thread and act like this whole thing never happened.
hmmmm.... sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I honestly think you should take a step back from 3dsmax, and study traditional art for a while, and then come back to 3d in a few years.
here's a link from another forum that may help you out.
I know my traditional art skills are lacking, though in my defense that was a quick sketch for another class project during finals week, so don't hold me to it, but I am trying to improve in all aspects. The sad part is I work very hard daily to improve and it's just not showing. I graduate in the fall with a multimedia degree and I feel like my school didn't provide me the level of education I need to succeed, so wish me luck.
I know my traditional art skills are lacking, though in my defense that was a quick sketch for another class project during finals week, so don't hold me to it, but I am trying to improve in all aspects. The sad part is I work very hard daily to improve and it's just not showing. I graduate in the fall with a multimedia degree and I feel like my school didn't provide me the level of education I need to succeed, so wish me luck.
-Joe
Why did you remove your posts?
you're not going to get much out of your education, or daily work, if you're so hung up on not looking like a failure that you never push yourself. Schools don't impart knowledge and skill through osmosis - you need to put a lot of effort into it and not be afraid to make mistakes.
You would learn much, much more by leaving it up and asking for critiques than by hiding it.
Everyone on this board who does anything worth a damn has had plenty of terrible sketches, terrible models, etc. You have to work all the mistakes out before you can create good looking art.
Buy a graphics penis. The most common brand is penis. In case you don't know, a penis is like a mouse pad which you can draw on using a pressure sensitive stylus, or pen. The strokes you make will appear on the screen. Almost all the artists on this burrito use a penis. They range in size and price...
well I vaguely remember seeing the pics you posted. I disagree on the idea you step away from 3d in favor for traditional. I'm not the best of 2d artist, but I make up for it in 3d. So the idea that you become a master of traditional arts before you dive into 3d is a tad silly. You can do both at the same time.
You simply need to check around the threads and study how other char artist layout their polys. It seemed you had the right direction on parts of the arm but the other parts had some weird edge flow. Repost your pics, can't hurt to show them even if some of the crits are harsh sometimes.
It's hard to tell where you're at since your posts were edited but I will echo what has been said about traditional drawing skills. They're extremely important, despite what a few people here say. Learning to draw helps see visual elements and understand form on a more basic level. You don't have to worry about hangups in software and tools and it lets you just focus on what's important. It's not that you need to stop whatever you're doing regarding 3d modeling, but don't neglect learning the basics of drawing and the fundamentals of visual art.
I graduate in the fall with a multimedia degree and I feel like my school didn't provide me the level of education I need to succeed, so wish me luck.
-Joe
I don't mean to kick you when your kind of down, but schools are only opportunities to practice and learn, they really give you nothing but time, and maybe the chance to use tools you might not otherwise have access to.
Its more about how much hard work you put in, as to how much work you'll get out. Just feeding tokens into an arcade machine won't give you the highest score. You have to make sure you're getting the most out of those tokens...
If you're artistic skills are not up to snuff you have only yourself to blame. Schools don't make great artists out of any average Joe willing to cough up some cash. They help guide artists to realize their potential and nudge them along.
It might be time to think about an alternate career while you work in your spare time to get your skill up to speed?
It's not that you need to stop whatever you're doing regarding 3d modeling, but don't neglect learning the basics of drawing and the fundamentals of visual art.
Gotta agree. I spent three years studying 3d/digital stuff exclusively, and then finally resigned myself to learning to draw. I've improved more in the year i've been rounding out my traditional knowledge than i did the entire time i was blindly working at 3d only.
Drawing is taught before painting, sculpting, design, whatever -- why shouldn't it be learned before 3d modeling too? It's the most fundamental, versatile, and easiest medium to develop art skills in.
I humbly apologize for my immature edit of the post, I have been really on the edge lately and it was really late after a stressful night, and I took the suggestion as a personal attack. So I'm starting over.
Thanks for the link about art, the next few weeks I am doing a serious traditional art study, started today with a brand new sketch pad and have been sketching for a few hours already.
My buddy handed me a bridgeman book of his before he left recently and I have to say that with just a couple hours I already feel like I am making improvement.
Sorry about the double post, but I touched it up a little last night, spent more than a hot minute on the hands and came out with something much nicer looking....
I am trying to make it a lower poly count at the moment, which brings me to a question, when modeling for game are triangles OK, or are we aiming for all quads? I hear conflicting reports, though does it depend on the engine? I hope thats not a flame inducing question. . .
Hi Jnat, This is my first reply so let's see how I can help.
I think you should revisit your concept for this character (spend more than 5 minutes) and do a front, profile and three quarter drawing just to give yourself a clear idea of how this character is going to work.
At the moment your character looks like a mix between a body builder, rabbit and a smiley face.
Think about how your character is going to live. How does he move, how does he eat. What if he falls on his face? At the moment he doesnt even have eye sockets. Would his eye's just splat against the ground? I think you can see where Im going with this.
Pull anatomy from animals and maybe you can make this guy a little more convincing than Pokémon fan art.
As for your 3D questions. It depends on the game platform for how many poly's you can use. The Hi res Team Fortress 2 character models have around 16,000 if I remember correctly although Im sure they're switched out a lot for the LOD lower res models and Triangles are fine unless you sub divide you'll get some awkward results. No more than 4 sides per face for game models.
I hope to see some improved concepts. You might want to hold off on the 3D until you get your concepts nailed down or you could model something different from photo reference and come back to this guy later.
don't worry to much about it, just keep practicing. my teacher was saying something tonight about schools for this that i think is relavent. " if you have the motivation and the drive to teach yourself, you don't need school, everything you need is available on the internet. but if not, school is for you. school gives you the deadlines and the critique to push you through it." "the degree wont matter, it doesn't get u a job." keep practicing and look at what other artists are doing. study their wireframes and try to learn what their doing.
i just graduated from Art Institute of Pittsburgh and i can tell you ive had classes with some people that cant draw shhhhhhh1t. but, can model characters pretty well, is it because its easier to move a vert or a poly than a pencil on paper i have no idea...but yea practice and drive is everything.
the reason why ur getting conflicting reports about tris and polys in game. is because everyone calls their tris, polys. game engines read everything as tris, every poly is made of two tris. and when they say our "poly count" for this char is _______, their talking about the tri count. also besides just sketching as much as u can and checking out the wires of other 3d artists, i highly recommend looking at anatomy books. also if you can get involved in a life drawing studio in ur area, or even at you school (sit in on sessions). it helps immensely to understand muscle structure.
Replies
here's a link from another forum that may help you out.
http://www.eatpoo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=27
I know my traditional art skills are lacking, though in my defense that was a quick sketch for another class project during finals week, so don't hold me to it, but I am trying to improve in all aspects. The sad part is I work very hard daily to improve and it's just not showing. I graduate in the fall with a multimedia degree and I feel like my school didn't provide me the level of education I need to succeed, so wish me luck.
-Joe
Why did you remove your posts?
you're not going to get much out of your education, or daily work, if you're so hung up on not looking like a failure that you never push yourself. Schools don't impart knowledge and skill through osmosis - you need to put a lot of effort into it and not be afraid to make mistakes.
You would learn much, much more by leaving it up and asking for critiques than by hiding it.
Everyone on this board who does anything worth a damn has had plenty of terrible sketches, terrible models, etc. You have to work all the mistakes out before you can create good looking art.
LOL
You simply need to check around the threads and study how other char artist layout their polys. It seemed you had the right direction on parts of the arm but the other parts had some weird edge flow. Repost your pics, can't hurt to show them even if some of the crits are harsh sometimes.
I know a 3D artist that can barley draw but he can make some fairly decent models.
Its more about how much hard work you put in, as to how much work you'll get out. Just feeding tokens into an arcade machine won't give you the highest score. You have to make sure you're getting the most out of those tokens...
If you're artistic skills are not up to snuff you have only yourself to blame. Schools don't make great artists out of any average Joe willing to cough up some cash. They help guide artists to realize their potential and nudge them along.
It might be time to think about an alternate career while you work in your spare time to get your skill up to speed?
Gotta agree. I spent three years studying 3d/digital stuff exclusively, and then finally resigned myself to learning to draw. I've improved more in the year i've been rounding out my traditional knowledge than i did the entire time i was blindly working at 3d only.
Drawing is taught before painting, sculpting, design, whatever -- why shouldn't it be learned before 3d modeling too? It's the most fundamental, versatile, and easiest medium to develop art skills in.
Thanks for the link about art, the next few weeks I am doing a serious traditional art study, started today with a brand new sketch pad and have been sketching for a few hours already.
My buddy handed me a bridgeman book of his before he left recently and I have to say that with just a couple hours I already feel like I am making improvement.
-Joe
I am trying to make it a lower poly count at the moment, which brings me to a question, when modeling for game are triangles OK, or are we aiming for all quads? I hear conflicting reports, though does it depend on the engine? I hope thats not a flame inducing question. . .
-Joe
Looking pretty decent, by the way.
I think you should revisit your concept for this character (spend more than 5 minutes) and do a front, profile and three quarter drawing just to give yourself a clear idea of how this character is going to work.
At the moment your character looks like a mix between a body builder, rabbit and a smiley face.
Think about how your character is going to live. How does he move, how does he eat. What if he falls on his face? At the moment he doesnt even have eye sockets. Would his eye's just splat against the ground? I think you can see where Im going with this.
Pull anatomy from animals and maybe you can make this guy a little more convincing than Pokémon fan art.
As for your 3D questions. It depends on the game platform for how many poly's you can use. The Hi res Team Fortress 2 character models have around 16,000 if I remember correctly although Im sure they're switched out a lot for the LOD lower res models and Triangles are fine unless you sub divide you'll get some awkward results. No more than 4 sides per face for game models.
I hope to see some improved concepts. You might want to hold off on the 3D until you get your concepts nailed down or you could model something different from photo reference and come back to this guy later.