Starting The Journey onto more Advanced 3D

Asteric

Hey guys, im brand new to polycount so sorry if tis is the wrong place to post(Mostly i have been using the TGC forums) and i really want to up my game, so i though a better place was to come to polycount, i have been doing 3d for a small time now, got my basic knowledge in 3ds max and i have made a selection of game ready assets. Now my question is regarding advanced or intermediate mechanics and/or organics, where would be a good place to improve my undertsanding and skills, maybe a good tutorial or even just a person or website that can really help me get my grips with more advanced 3D.

Thanks for reading.

SnowGhost

I'll do the inevitable...

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=53002



It depends on what your definition of "intermediate" is.
Have you learned normal maps yet? Texturing? Or just wish to continue modeling instead of learning all the disciplines you would need to be a successful artist yet?

Also, free only or will you pay. While there are a lot of free tutorials around there are a few VERY useful ones that are not.

renderhjs

jeez, first show what you have, what you can...

then you might be able to get some feedback on what might be wise to learn next depending on your interests.
Don' ask for work ( work = if someone has to put more effort into his writing as opposed to your time writing the vague question). If you want help try at least to provide the needed variables and information so that people actually can help you well and easier.

Asteric

Sorry guys, im new here and a bit lost, here is my portfolio pieces, not great, but they vary from my growing skills.

Portfolio

And yes, i know my way around texturing, normals, baking, spec maps and some others.

renderhjs

some areas/ stuff I see you lack or perhaps could improve on:
- anatomy
- wacom/ painting
- colors / composition
- high poly modeling
- architecture
- characters
- animation

Asteric

Yes you are very much correct, by Wacom do you mean the GFX tablet?

I probably want to improve my character/anatomy the most, which i think is one of my weaker spots.

renderhjs

personally I would also go a little bit more strategic around it:
perhaps improve or work hard on what most general 3d artists suck at, which are often:
- anatomy
- presentation (MentalRay, rendering, shaders, composition,..)
- UV
- skinning

That way you can put yourself somewhat aside from other competitors. And beeing original is what counts if you want to be a good artist - so finding the right spot for you is essential.

Everyone does modeling these days, and often those are cars, babes with deformed bodies, orcs, sci-fi sets.
Maybe pick something instead you are strong with, something that moves you and that is not clich

Asteric

Right, thanks for that post, i see what you are saying, so you think my best course is to keep on practising those 4 categories, and build up my skills for them?

Thanks.

renderhjs

for example, not exactly those. There are many special things the majority often skips at first because making high density orcs foe example in zBrush is more appealing to them as lets say learning and studying the human anatomy or develop a good taste.

Asteric

Yes, you are very much right, so i should specialize down into one specific topic of my liking and work from the ground up.