Okay, so how many of you cannot draw to save your life? Does it effect your 3D work in a noticeable way?
THEN! How many of you CAN draw to save your life but started out not being able to draw at all and does that increase your 3D skill?
My problem is that I have these ideas in my head but I cannot get them onto paper because.. well I cannot draw.
Replies
Work on it, turn that weakness into a strength. It will make everything better.
Have shit perspective and shading which makes drawing fairly difficult for me, would love to practice though!
If you can't draw in perspective, it won't matter because that shit gets solved for you in 3D.
If you can't render lighting or materials well, you'll probably be fine unless you have to hand paint textures in which case you'll be royally fucked.
If you can't design for shit, you'll probably be alright if you follow someone elses designs.
If you have a terrible sense of form or image composition, your work is going to suffer.
I can see it being hugeley beneficial if working from little reference or concept to be able to sketch out designs and get ideas down on paper but for me I find it quicker to rough it out in 3d to get all the basic shapes/perspective and then just paintover it.
Now I have moved into a strictly lighting role, I find myself doing lighting paintovers a lot more and that just usually comes down to knowing good color theroy and hwo light works, rather than the acutal drawing ablility.
so I would say in a production capacity it doesn't really effect me at all, but I am sure if I had better 2d skills I would be a more rounded artist and probably more creative, but I have never really had a situation where I found myself thinking if I could draw better I would know how to produce better 3d.
I wouldn't expect spending a ton of time learning to draw would suddenly increase your 3d skills by 10x, doing more 3d studies and translating concept art to 3d as closely as possible would probably be more beneficial. it really comes down to studying composition, form and proportions, in 2d or 3d that will help you make more appealing art in general.
If you are into characters and stuff you can always do quick sketches in zbrush.
I think when I have the time I will just randomly start drawing something for practice but most of my time will be spent on 3D.. Also I think if I have an idea I will just get a whole bunch of different reference images and put them together in a scene.
But I'm scared! =[
Once you understand the 3d tools 90% of the work is observation, the same as drawing. learning to draw and sketching will inform your work.
I feel your pain T-T
How many sulking incidents does it take to become pro?
another quote I heard for creative endeavors "Fail early, fail often"
If you are not very young, 20+ years, then... it will be more difficult but not impossible. Just practice and dedicate at least 4 HOURS a day, all the days for too many years!. STUDY, LEARN, and the most important thing... PRACTICE (the more, the better... so kill yourself with the pencil haha).
If at the end you can't stay more than 5 minutes... dude, then this is not something you like and that's the reason behind all . We can't be good at something we dislike.
I mean OBVIOUSLY it is different.. but how much?
That stuff doesn't have to be amazing, for a 3D artist, the idea is to be able to break it down into shapes and get perspective as it'll help you conceptualize more complicated meshes (at least in my opinion).
And yeah I guess it doesn't have to be amazing.. Just good enough to portray a vision.
EDIT: Unless of course you want to become a 2D artist
I would recommend you a led lightbox. It helps a lot for tracing and improving our skills
Unless you mean tracing your rough, chicken scratch work to smooth lines
It's one of the fastest ways to train our skills with a pencil.
BTW, tracing is not something all people can do very well, and more using paper of 100gr.
Honestly my drawing is not the worst in the world.. but It is not good enough to be usable.. I don't think I have talent for it.. but then again talent is just advanced practice
Every good 3D teacher will tell you that you need to practice 2D as much as possible. Practising 2D feeds back into 3D and greatly improves all aspects of any artwork imo. Also being able to draw out concepts and ideas before jumping to modelling is a very important stage in developing ideas.
I don't do nearly as much 2D as I would like.
I think it helps me quite a bit. It makes me think a little more. Since lighting, texture, colors, etc...have to be done by hand, it tends to make you think more, which can result in more creative 3d work.
Since I've been getting a little more comfortable with painting in photoshop, I've really learned to lean on photosourcing textures a lot less, since I can handpaint details.
Nothing wrong with using pen and paper, but I like using my tablet. If you are thinking about getting one anyways, it would be a good investment. Takes some getting used to though.
I scraped the idea of university in place of studying at LARA, couldnt be more excited
http://www.drawpaintsculpt.com/
So don't be scared, just do it! (And show no one lol)
It's all up to you in the end : do you want to be an "assembly line" 3D artist blindly executing tasks in a below average way (and therefore getting less and less cool stuff assigned to you), or do you want to evolve and be recognized for your artistic eye ?
(Good) modeling requires a good eye, and drawing develops exactly this.
BTW, to all those who think they are not good at it : it's all about being smart about it. Don't try to start from a blank page in the hope of imitating maestros like Joe Mad or Frazetta - there are just too many hard to grasp factors in their art. (composition, line weight, anatomy, lighting...)
Instead, think of the simplest ways to achieve something. In my opinion, that's silhouette drawing. So pick up some sharpies and white correcttion pens and just do it! Or pick up Alchemy, same thing. The irony is that most masterful pieces are started that way anyways. (strong composition)
Do it!
It doesnt have to be fair or anything, but it should be good enough for you to understand how the concept goes in 3d so you will have less problems in 3d modeling.
Besides, it doesnt hurt to draw a thing or two on daily basis.
and yes, all this I agree with.
I do draw, but I think there is other way :
it called
Photography , save $ grab some cam and have fun studying composition and colors