Advice on my accomplishments
Hello polycount community.
Ive been lurking around in large amounts. And I am now coming to you for advice on something.
I am now a junior in college. I go to a college where in that dept (and really only that department) a lot is expected, they want professional results only and tend to treat skill improvement with little value, the course curriculum is quite fast on teaching technical aspects of 3d (good or bad thing I dont know), and we learn most of our knowledge from tutorials found online. But apparently works for many students because many many graduates have been successful right out college. Many of whom you know in this forum. After barely surviving 2 and a half years, at this point I feel like a 3rd grader who got accepted to college and is now freaking out.
I feel like the necessary skills to call myself a junior is not there. I feel like I've been struggling at the self learning thing, and getting help from other students/or the teacher hasn't really been enough. We dont get much time either to get good at it before needing to turn it in. Im doing what i can to improve myself during the holiday vacation, but I feel it won't be enough. By the time school starts up again, I'll still be behind.
I am pretty determined to get better and graduate. There is no room for failure. But being a graduated subpar student worries me.
Am I freaking out too much by going into a junior year mid life crisis? Or is this a normal college reaction?
Ive been lurking around in large amounts. And I am now coming to you for advice on something.
I am now a junior in college. I go to a college where in that dept (and really only that department) a lot is expected, they want professional results only and tend to treat skill improvement with little value, the course curriculum is quite fast on teaching technical aspects of 3d (good or bad thing I dont know), and we learn most of our knowledge from tutorials found online. But apparently works for many students because many many graduates have been successful right out college. Many of whom you know in this forum. After barely surviving 2 and a half years, at this point I feel like a 3rd grader who got accepted to college and is now freaking out.
I feel like the necessary skills to call myself a junior is not there. I feel like I've been struggling at the self learning thing, and getting help from other students/or the teacher hasn't really been enough. We dont get much time either to get good at it before needing to turn it in. Im doing what i can to improve myself during the holiday vacation, but I feel it won't be enough. By the time school starts up again, I'll still be behind.
I am pretty determined to get better and graduate. There is no room for failure. But being a graduated subpar student worries me.
Am I freaking out too much by going into a junior year mid life crisis? Or is this a normal college reaction?
Replies
This. Times a thousand.
If you are in the opposite position where the school is expecting professional level work and telling you when you don't measure up, that sounds like a good thing. The fact is that skill improvement is meaningless when you are competing for jobs, it just boils down to who has the best work.
Need to see your work to give you specific advice though.
If you need help on how to improve, getting feedback on others is the best way to learn. If you aren't getting it from your teachers, polycount is a great place to get feedback.
Without knowing what your portfolio looks like, I would also worry about you being a subpar student, since many schools and student portfolios are not up to professional snuff.
So post your stuff!
It's also possible that you are not able to accurately judge your progress, getting some grounding from other folks will help you get a handle on things.
I suggest you just start working your ass off even more so than you are now, and be proud of what you do. If you arent proud, or dont see improvement, chances are, you are half assing it.
also, post your work here, poly count probably has the most game industry professionals out of anywhere on the net who can give you great no bullshit feedback that will help you improve much faster than what your fellow students or in most cases your teacher are telling you.
I spend maybe about 15mins on any program. The rest of my 36 hours teaching, I try to emphasize theory. After that point, the students are left on their own.
Truth is, programs are ALWAYS changing. Heck the programs that are widely used at the START of your program and the ones you use at the end will likely have changed. Art pipelines are hardly standardized between studios, so learning them is just something you'll have to naturally be good at, and is not usually heavily emphasized. Actual Artistic 'Theory' is something that transcends knowledge of program.
Knowledge of how material properties actually work, is a LOT more useful to you than how to adjust a bunch of sliders in max.
Knowing anatomy is a LOT more important than knowing how to use Zbrush.
Showing that you understand lighting theory, is a LOT more important than knowing how to setup a light in UDK.
I know I'm not here to impress others, but when you are faced with a situation where, getting Cs is threatening what little scholarship i'm getting, C=non professional level work, and getting Ds will kick you out of the dept, and you would have to either restart the year or not go back. Risking more tuition debt. It's a bit unnerving. By all means, I don't think I'm a slacker, because I am full aware of what I will lose.
I am a big believer in teaching students theory over just technical skills, but when you leave the students to their own, wouldn't you give them enough time to figure out the the technical skills? I know we couldn't possibly be given too much time, or the semester would be a waste, but if you taught me the theory of how to fish, then "left me to be on my own" and expected me to be an really really good fisher in a week (exaggeration), isn't that...a little much? I know the industry is a fast paced environment, but I'm starting to feel like I didn't come to school to learn, but I came to show how I good i'm suppose to be.
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The school I went to was a lot like what you described. The students are taught the basics of a software and the rest is up to them. Often the only way to get real critique or learn new skills was from other students or online.
Most of what I have learned is from tutorials, trial and error, and practice. Most of the work that has gotten me interviews has been made in the last few months, since I graduated. The same can be said for most of the people who graduated with me. I only know of 5 people from the last 2 graduating classes who got jobs in their field straight out. For the rest, it took time and practice after school.
I've gotten close, but I haven't gotten into the industry yet, so take my advice for what you will. You're close to graduating, so if this is what you love, stick with it and do your best. No one cares about your GPA, just the quality of your work. Get the degree and keep working after to improve and eventually you will get there, but know that it will take time. Keep posting your work, get feedback, learn from it, and keep going because your portfolio is never finished. Go to conferences and job fairs if you can. The best critiques I've gotten were at ECGC and GDC.
Also, decide exactly what you want to do (characters, environments, etc) and focus on that. I know that's hard to do with school projects, but don't look at it that way. When you graduate, get rid of the school work one piece at a time and replace it with the best work you can do until you have a professional portfolio.
As for the work you posted, it's not bad, but I do have a few suggestions. I think your environments/props are the strongest pieces. Your modeling looks fairly good (hard to say much without wireframes), but your texturing and lighting need the most work. Focus on how things age and wear. For example, the plaster wall with the wood behind it. The normals look good, but there should be some plaster left on the wood, particularly in crevices and the wood should have different levels of wear depending on how long it's been exposed, where it's located, etc. Right now they look like two different objects from different places, shoved together. Also, if this is near the ground, there might be dirt transfer at the base, or if it's exposed to weather, there would be run-off, etc. Look into AO maps too, because I don't really see any AO on your meshes and you would be amazed at how much that simple step can add.
For lighting, I'll use the office as an example, under the assumption that it is rendered in a game engine. You're shadows are kind of practically nonexistent. It looks like you might only be using vertex lighting, so look into light mapping. Over all, everything is very washed out and evenly lit. Use the lights to create areas of interest. Bad lighting can make even the best model/texture look bad.
I did a quick paint over to show you what I mean. It's not the best thing ever, but hopefully you get the idea.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I hope it helps.
Heres a paintover I made during that project. And due to time, didn't get to make it look that awesome. I wish I could work on it now, but I am on vacation and without my proper hardware.
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