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The Education of Cat Banjo

Cat Banjo
polycounter lvl 2
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Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
I am so new to 3d sculpting/painting that I am still clunky and ackward in the land of hotkeys and workflow.

i just started school in the cyber world and I have challenged myself via the urging of those who love me to expose my successes,failures, triumphs and questionable attempts. All are valid in the persuit of excellence and I will trust the good people here to guide me in the ways of the initiated.

Thanks for your patience in advance.
Chances are I'll make blazingly bright gaffes along the way.

Replies

  • Mr.Moose
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    Mr.Moose polycounter lvl 7
    The best advice I can give you starting out is to separate your artwork and your feelings. Critiques can be hard and frustrating, but if you defend and yell and kick when people try to give you helpful critiques...no one will want to anymore! It also really helps to look at those critiques as carefully as you can, not blurred out by emotion of a sculpt or model you love :)

    Also, Welcome. Should post something soon so its not an empty Critique thread ^.^
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Thanks Mr. M
    I believe that a thick skin should come with the artist suit.
    Sometimes it can be missing but I'll do my best to grow one.
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Post art. Get feedback. Implement feedback. Finish projects.

    Gogogo!
  • GrungyStudios
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    GrungyStudios polycounter lvl 8
    came here to see a model of a cat playing a banjo
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Images moved to 2-d thread....
    thnx
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Post art. Get feedback. Implement feedback. Finish projects.

    Gogogo!

    Panda!
    Excellent advice!
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    2D stuff will most likely find a better home in the 2D section. 3D in 3D, etc.
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    2D stuff will most likely find a better home in the 2D section. 3D in 3D, etc.

    I am grateful for gentle guidance, Panda.
    Please stay tuned for some Zbrush soon!
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Finally, a 3-d project I can share.
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Posting all I do Is not an easy practice when I am not especially pleased with the out come, but I committed.
    So here....
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Hey there Banjo playing Cat! Or... cat shaped like a banjo... Anyways! Welcome! My first bit of advice is to make an account on a 3rd party image sharing site like imgur. It is much easier for critiquers to see the full sized pic instead of clicking on something that either opens in a new tab or takes them away from your thread. You can post the links to your pics from a site like that with the Insert Image option, and they will show up fairly large on the screen.

    Do not be afraid to scrap a project! Especially if you feel like you aren't making meaningful progress, or you get bored with it. It is one thing to see a project through, it's another to just pick at something you no longer care about, especially when you're learning! Being bored on a project is like staying up really late to keep working on something. Eventually you will spend hours making as much progress as you could in a fraction of the time if you were feeling fresh or inspired, and you just hinder your own progress and growth. Maybe you get inspired to take a new direction on a piece, or maybe you find something better you would rather work on; this is not a bad thing! Don't think you HAVE to finish everything you start. Or maybe just take a step away and come back to it later. It could end up being something you don't yet have the skill to fully accomplish.

    If you do end up scrapping a project, start a new one immediately, or very soon after. Especially when you are just starting out or learning something new, you need to keep that muscle memory, or you will lose the skills you worked so hard to gain. On every new project, try to use every single technique you used on previous projects. Try and use every brush, even if it's just a little, so you constantly have that feel for what it can do. Later down the road, you will know instinctively what tools you will need, and how far you can go with each.

    Keep old projects! I do game effects work, and I have recently been revisiting a lot of my beginner projects. I've ended up scrapping 3/4 of my assets for each one With the skills I've learned after I made those, I've been able to not only make my effects look better, but re work them even faster than it took to make the original effect.

    Even if you model/sculpt yourself into a corner, again, don't be afraid to scrap it and start over. You will be able to make what you originally had in a fraction of the time.

    As for the art itself, REFERENCE IS KEY!! Reference, reference, then reference some more. Keep gathering more reference even as you work on stuff. Tons of artists end up with a whole page full of things like just eyebrows, or wrinkles. Make mood and inspiration boards for your project. Take a ton of relevant images and smash them together in photoshop. Add color pallets you like, clothing references, skin, even poses or other full works of art. One of the best things an artist can do is to make something from someone else's concept. It is polite to ask the artist if you can use there work, or if you can't reach them, at least give credit to them, or the link where you found it.
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Well...
    first and foremost....
    THANK YOU!

    This information is not only useful and encouraging but mighty kind of you to invest such a great deal of time to respond to these wobbly first attempts.

    Scrapping projects is and will continue to be no problem. Many years of being a traditional sculptor has toughened my ability to not get too attached to a project. That said, I think the idea of letting the project be is maybe a better course of action at this time, maybe storing them in a file to be approached some time later so I can look back and see the progress I have made. it is nice to reference the path, no?

    The poking at something while not inspired or tired...yeah...that is a plate of dumb with a side of stupid sauce. I agree, while learning, keeping the hands moving and re-enfiorcing "muscle memory" will be my best ally.

    Oh reference...I love you so much. My teacher is asking us to work from our minds and I am frustrated because, well you know, reference.
    'Nuff said.

    I appreciate the suggestion to utilize a 3rd pty. I prefer Flickr. Being rather new to this, the "insert image" option is found where on which, PF or Flickr? (Total newb, remember?)

    I hope I responded fully to your post. I want to respect your efforts to guide me along the learning curve.
    It leads me to want to extend myself to others as I go along!

    I look forward to your perspective on my next submission.
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    All you need is the image posted somewhere, then you click Insert Image (little picture of mountain with a sun) in the forum message posting, then just copy the full url from your image and past it into the box for Insert Image.

    KrnBxlG.jpg?1
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    and now you can see the full image without leaving the page! ^

    Makes it easier for people to type out a response while still looking at your stuff in the same window, and gives a decent preview. Hope that helps!
  • pangaea
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    pangaea polycounter lvl 5
    Cat Banjo wrote: »
    Well...
    first and foremost....
    THANK YOU!

    This information is not only useful and encouraging but mighty kind of you to invest such a great deal of time to respond to these wobbly first attempts.

    Scrapping projects is and will continue to be no problem. Many years of being a traditional sculptor has toughened my ability to not get too attached to a project. That said, I think the idea of letting the project be is maybe a better course of action at this time, maybe storing them in a file to be approached some time later so I can look back and see the progress I have made. it is nice to reference the path, no?

    I'm curious can you post some of your traditional sculpts?
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Hey Pangaea...
    Thanks for asking to see my "analogue" sculpting.
    Here's a few samples...9246791155_df8dcb40cf_b.jpg

    I'm particularly fornd of smaller work like these maquettes for Disneyland Tokyo...

    9246798673_fd15999531_o.jpg

    9249584014_0d2478237c_b.jpg
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    THendersonVFX :

    The above suggestions as how to present my imagery was very welcome, Sir!
    I hope that I will continue to progress swiftly with your other salient and well received thoughts!
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    And for the record, though I love the little work, I have had a hand in some rather monumental works too.....
    9249545788_e19f6df0be_b.jpg

    18351102231_3f2cf3baec_b.jpg
    17727386024_f1eb50faf8_b.jpg

    17728933793_a593796b18_b.jpg
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    The challenge in the last class was to modify the super average man model into something else.
    So, here is my baby.


    man18604625055_a2e1779783_b.jpg
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Again with the new project coming out of my first class. We are finalizing 8 weeks of introduction and I appreciate the input you all have offered up to this point.

    This is clearly not finished (where's her tail???) and I have not broken symetry yet but as promised, each week, I'll show what I'm working on.

    Thanks for the feed back.

    18676998918_15d0593b49_b.jpg

    18676999198_f018bda71b_b.jpg
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    I don't know if it's a good thing the class is bulldozing through so many models like this. I recognize these as speed, rough sculpts, but hard to present well.

    Is there any opportunity at all to just sit down and make one nice sculpt?
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    The class is feeding small doses of information and technique each week.
    It is truly a basics class.

    Because I am not familiar with work flow, hotkeys and the magic of meshs. I am ultra slow.
    Ive never used any digital programme before 6 weeks ago.
    I mean zero.
    I apologize for the rudimentary nature of these sculpts.

    I will endeavor to execute a bit more time to refining them.
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    wake up and sculpt!

    21575189333_0c79e8401f_b.jpg
  • pixelpatron
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    pixelpatron polycounter
    Since your new to sculpting (digitally) and looks like you got the chops to do this stuff for real. It seems your just struggling with the interface, what does what and what tools translate to their real life counterparts.

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ICCbu2XfWk"]I'd strongly recommend going through this tutorial. It's not terribly expensive and I think you'd get a lot out it. [/ame] $25 bucks to pay your way out of weeks or months of frustration. Sound good?

    Good luck, and welcome to the club!
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    Thanks pixelpatron! I'm sucking up as much learnin' I can.
  • Cat Banjo
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    Cat Banjo polycounter lvl 2
    model
    A Year and a half later.....
    So much has happened and  wish I could say it has been fun, but like most, 2016 was wicked hard on too many fronts.
    My Digital development suffered and now, 18 months after my last posting, I am feeling strong enough to reassert myself into this very challenging community. 

    It is a gentle process, here in my 'blanket fort" as I slowly and surely integrate the lessons I was gifted when I first started out. 

    I will continue to be open to supportive and helpful critiques as I move along.

    Thanks, Cat

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