New guy scared and alone :(

Zeonidas

Hello Polycount,

I just joined today and it is very overwhelming. I have just enrolled in a college game design course and was just looking for pointers. I would also love some direction for using this site if anyone thinks that there is anything I should know. The skill on here is unbelievable and I hope to get good enough someday to post something of my own. I am 23 and have dabbled in art all of my life but now I would like to see if I have what it takes to model. It is ALOT harder than I initially thought that it would be.

Also I would love to know how to upload pictures of my models and artwork to the forums. I am using Maya 2011 and focusing on character modeling. Just trying to start over and change my life by doing something that I would love to do and thanks for any help!

JR

Hi Zeonidas, welcome aboard. All you need to know is here:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63361

To upload images, use a Image hosting service, like www.photobucket.com, and post here, using the landscape icon, on the same box you type your messages. And don't be affraid to post, people here are like your parents, they are hard, but it's for your own good

Blaisoid

gee, that's exactly what they talked about in latest crunchcast.
Should i quote you the litany against fear or something?

it's good that you do intend to post your stuff. it's a crucial thing to do if you want to take advantage of this place.
but why post it "someday"? post it now so that you can improve faster.

you're hardly the only person who came here and felt like crap because of average quality of works being so high.
but hey, it's definitely more educational to stick with badasses rather than people who are worse than yourself. that's why i came here at least.

crazyfingers

It's easy to get overwhelmed at the start, there are so many methods and tools out there it's easy to choose the path of most resistance and think you need to figure out everything at once to make it.

Just take it one step at a time, If you're into sci fi, learn hard edge modeling and baking. If you're a fantasy sort of guy, learn how to make very modular assets but with beautifully hand crafted textures. You don't need to be a 3d god to make great 3d scenes, this is a great route to go if you're into painting.

Also use reference, tons of it! So much has been done before you can get caught up reinventing the wheel trying to make your art "yours". Studios don't want unique art, they want solid well crafted assets that fit with everything else they have. Find something cool and make it, compare yourself against others online and not your classmates. Find tutorials online with amazing art and copy them step by step. No one gets better in a vacuum and no one teaches themselves the best techniques.

Long story short, the best advice i can give is find your passion in the area of 3d art as soon as you can and just start putting your hours in. Sometimes the grass can always be greener, but it's so vital to get good footing from the start, to know that you have what it takes to be capable at a professional level in some discipline. School may pull you in multiple directions, but try your best to turn your projects into something you can take something from as you see it benefiting you proffesionally. Teachers generally love to see students who are driven and know how to use the course to better themselves, and sometimes they aren't and you just have to deal .

Ghostscape

The polycount forums have an attachment function in the advanced post thinger, but it's easier just to save out your screenshot or whatever as a jpg in Photoshop and upload it to imgur.com or a similar image host and link it in your thread. imgur will even generate the proper tags for you so you can just cut/paste them.

As far as tips for a brand new guy getting into things in college, I'd say post your work often, listen to criticism, ask more questions, and never be afraid to do any of those things.

WarrenM

Sign up for a dropbox account. It's super easy to host your own images that way and you get, like, 2GB for free.

Joshua Stubbles

Good place to start: http://wiki.polycount.com/

Zeonidas

Thanks so much to all of you, you have already made me feel very welcome here and from your comments it looks like I first need to find an image hosting website and start posting some of my work. Im sure you will see me post some stupid questions but we havnt covered alot in my modeling class so im trying to do some stuff on my on to learn faster. First question is how do I get the image of my model? I know of a button on the top right corner in Maya that says render image and Im thinking maybe something along the lines of clicking it and saving it?

Also on photoshop and the beautiful artwork in these forums. Are these beautiful paintings done in photoshop? Im sure photoshop isnt free but is there any similar program that is?
What about the old paint program usually installed on all computers?

JR

Yeah, Photoshop is the best. But theres GIMP, very good and similar to PS, totaly free. http://www.gimp.org/ And Artrage, not free, but really good and cheap. http://www.artrage.com/

Blaisoid

i don't know maya, but you can always use print screen for WIP shots.

Eric Chadwick

More software ideas here
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryTools#Main_2D_Software

Welcome to Polycount!

Zeonidas

Thanks everyone!
When I get home tonight I'm going to get a photobucket account and hopefully post some pics of my WIP (which I think stands for work in progress correct me if im wrong), I used the Render Image buttom and then saved the image that it brought up as a jpeg. My plan is to get these jpegs on photobucket and then get them on here. So if any more experienced guys here see a problem with that plan let me know. The only reason I saved them as jpegs is because it's the only thing I recognized. Thanks
Oh and btw thanks for GIMP tip jramauri I will be using this for sure