Help...Getting started in 3D modeling
So, I am just 19 y.o. guy who wants to start his career as 3D artist,
especially in character creation. But I have many questions that really
make me confused and little depressed:)
First, I have never drew some complicated things in my life, just some ordinary stuff, and right now I have no strong skill to earn money or whatever, is it a point not to get started? Or maybe I should try, even If I am new in this. I drew some pictures on these days, and I feel that I have passion and some little talent especially in illustration.
Okay, If I have started from the very begining, I think it will take a lot of time to develop a good skill, maybe a year or something, maybe even more. So in this year, for me it's not possible to create something really good in 3Ds Max right? Because I don't have this skill of drawing and modeling and it's just in developing stage.
After one year or even more I will only take a start in good 3d modeling process, and the other question appears - competition between others. So, because I have very poor skill and I am in very begging, how should I earn the money? Through the freelance? Nobody will take me this young in a good company, no companies need newbies in their work. On the freelance there are many people too who do their jobs at decent level. If I will take a position straight as they have taken, same quality of projects, fast creation and etc, how much money will I earn on the beggining stages? This question bothers me most, because I live in a poor european country called Moldova and I am at his point in my life when I should take a strong decision, where I should go next and how my life should look like in future, what is my profession and goal. In my country I will earn very little money, maximum 300 $ each month. So I got stuck:)
And about the competition again, there are many people who may take my job at freelance and I will be left without anything:). Of course there is a way to lie to customers by making a fake portfolio, but at the point when I can handle many project by myself this probably can increase the possibility to take project.
And in future, how much money will I earn If I will be doing this over the years, If I will grow in my skills and talent? Okay, if cannot answer this question say about yourself, about your past, how much time did you spend earning some stable amount of money, how much time did you spend developing some skill?
By the end I want to say, If you can answer all my question and give me the answers I will be really happy, because I am very confused right now what to do in my life, and I will appriciate any useful answers that you will send me or give me some information that I didn't mention in my questions!
Thanks in advance Polycount community!
First, I have never drew some complicated things in my life, just some ordinary stuff, and right now I have no strong skill to earn money or whatever, is it a point not to get started? Or maybe I should try, even If I am new in this. I drew some pictures on these days, and I feel that I have passion and some little talent especially in illustration.
Okay, If I have started from the very begining, I think it will take a lot of time to develop a good skill, maybe a year or something, maybe even more. So in this year, for me it's not possible to create something really good in 3Ds Max right? Because I don't have this skill of drawing and modeling and it's just in developing stage.
After one year or even more I will only take a start in good 3d modeling process, and the other question appears - competition between others. So, because I have very poor skill and I am in very begging, how should I earn the money? Through the freelance? Nobody will take me this young in a good company, no companies need newbies in their work. On the freelance there are many people too who do their jobs at decent level. If I will take a position straight as they have taken, same quality of projects, fast creation and etc, how much money will I earn on the beggining stages? This question bothers me most, because I live in a poor european country called Moldova and I am at his point in my life when I should take a strong decision, where I should go next and how my life should look like in future, what is my profession and goal. In my country I will earn very little money, maximum 300 $ each month. So I got stuck:)
And about the competition again, there are many people who may take my job at freelance and I will be left without anything:). Of course there is a way to lie to customers by making a fake portfolio, but at the point when I can handle many project by myself this probably can increase the possibility to take project.
And in future, how much money will I earn If I will be doing this over the years, If I will grow in my skills and talent? Okay, if cannot answer this question say about yourself, about your past, how much time did you spend earning some stable amount of money, how much time did you spend developing some skill?
By the end I want to say, If you can answer all my question and give me the answers I will be really happy, because I am very confused right now what to do in my life, and I will appriciate any useful answers that you will send me or give me some information that I didn't mention in my questions!
Thanks in advance Polycount community!
Replies
if your already doubting yourself and havnt even started yet you might not be cut out for this. you are gonna need to work on your skills every day for years if you wanna be good. and when I say every day I really mean EVERY DAY, or else its not gonna be a year or two, its gonna be maybe 5 or more.
but with that said, here are some positives things to:
a "good" thing about living in a poor country is that you can freelance and earn "american money". I have a friend from Brazil that pretty much only works a few months a year, because the money he earns from just a few months of freelance is worth a lot there.
you can also earn some extra cash by uploading your stuff to 3D asset stores. a professional unity asset store publishers can earn 3-7k $ a month just cashing in on assets they made, and then freelance on top of that. so there is definitely money there, but as you said yourself, there's also competition. you wont get that cash in the beginning, but even 5 dollars for something you did for practice is better then nothing in the beginning.
I would say you would need atleast 1-2 years before you can get reliable income, so you have to figurine out a way to survive that long =P but after that it should get better.
So it is the work for minimum 1.5 years right? Till I get a decent amount of the money, to say the truth I can really give all myself to some job, I've started to be confused in many things, because I've worked in different areas and one thing that really bothers me in my country that it's poor, and If I like the work It will give me really small money with them I cannot even pay for my food:) So that's why I want to choose something I like and to get money from this too.
How about you try it first before deciding?
No one can really tell you one way or another. All we can say is that it is very difficult and very competitive. If you have never done 3D before. It's probably going to take you several years. There is a lot to learn and to master. You won't make it by barely scraping by or by doing the bare minimum either.
If you're wanting to do characters you're going to have to study a great deal of anatomy as well.
The work is pretty volatile as well. This seemed like one of your concerns in your original post.
If you go the freelance route, you will constantly be looking for new work. There may be weeks or months at a time where you may not have work. Even with studio gigs teams get laid off frequently.
We're not trying to scare you off, but we are trying to be honest with you.
One guy from other forum told me that professionals from you sometimes make 3d models and sell them at the 3D stores where everyone from people can do that. What about this? I understand one thing, that even these models cannot be sold fast, because of these simple things like:
1) Quality of my works aren't so good, because I am just a begginer
2) Competition between professionals and me is very high, even between just professionals
3) Client always will put his eyes on those who is a lot of time on these 3D stores and who has a good rating
So, even I work with some studio, some times I can get the delay with my salary, right?
Thank you really that you are honest with me, because I try to find only real information regarding my concern.
So on the freelance projects it is hard too from the beggining to get some good job right? And there there's just a little chanse to get even anything, right?=\
What are the other paths in this job?
Can you tell me from which point or year of practise you have started earning a stable 1000$ month?
And what salary you had from the start doing this job?
What details can you tell me more?
There are...
- character artist : mainly making people characters and their clothing or equipment. Sometimes including monsters.
- hardsurface artist : making cars, robots, spaceships, guns, power armors, etc etc.
- environment artist : making scenery, trees, buildings, so on and so forth.
Each path focuses on different skills and knowledge. There are also more demand/supply in some paths more than others.
It's not so easy to start freelancing though, because...
- You need to be known. This usually comes after you start making really good arts.
- You need to be fast. Or someone else faster will get the gigs instead. (I can do it in just 1 week! if paid by days, it would be cheaper too.)
- You need to be of quality. Crappy freelancing gig pays worse than a minimum wage. You need to be good to get offers that pay well.
Game Industry
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry#How_to_Get_In
Environments
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Character
Props
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Category:Props
Anything else
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount
Well, I been doing 3d art for about a year and a half now. No, I haven't made money yet. I'm self-taught, and I learn online. I haven't done selling asset on online stores yet. No, I haven't really networked with programmers who might want my skills. I mostly network with better artists who can help me improve myself. My portfolio is linked at the bottom of this post. Take a look and see; that you probably have to get better than this to make money.
You don't have to be good at drawing to do 3d modeling. Though good at drawing would help. Ryan Kingslien said many programmers are good at digital sculpting (Zbrush) because it's about understanding the shape/volume. If you can wrap your head around that concept, you will be fine.
So, to answer your question; at beginning stage, the amount of money you will be making is ........... most likely zero. Nothing. Nada. $0.00 However, if you work hard, and connect with the right people, it might not take you as long as it has taken me (thus far).
I highly highly recommend you listen to this podcast series. It's made by top of the line artists. They talk about stuff they did to overcome obstacles they faced. and they talk about the industry. And so on. Very valuable information you should know.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpcWwr2EcJjaR_a1zGOXPw
If you want to get started now; go here and follow that tutorial. Use Blender (it's free) to get started.
http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.asp
This has been talked a lot on polycount but in my opinion being able to draw well is essential to making a good model, in particular character models. All those people who say they don't draw well but churn out amazing models, well if you look at their drawings, they are pretty good. They are comparing themselves to people who professionally draw (concept artists) or just being modest. So while they are not the best draftsman in the world they can draw pretty well. Also if you look at all the people who can model well, they all paint and draw. So dismissing drawing as something you don't need to learn will only harm yourself.
This is why I think it's important. When you draw you become more aware of the principles said in this video (the Zac Petroc part), and much faster than you would if you learnt it through sculpting alone.
I highly recommend saving up and getting this course by Hai Phan. He goes through the whole pipeline and explains fundamentals real well. It doesnt cover Pbr texturing but alot of the stuff he talks about are principles that can be transfered over.
http://www.cgcircuit.com/instructor/hai.phan
(new polycount where has thou put the quote feature?)
" Ryan Kingslien said many programmers are good at digital sculpting (Zbrush) because it's about understanding the shape/volume. If you can wrap your head around that concept, you will be fine"
What. I would find it baffling if a programmer who did not study art or even doodle in his/her spare time would be good at sculpting. That's like saying a dentist just needs to think about pistons and hydraulics and they can make a crane.
I'm not saying drawing is useless to 3d modeling. Though I wouldn't say it's essential either. I think drawing develops/requires certain skills. And (some/all of) those certain skills are useful to 3d modeling. If one can develop those skills via drawing, some can develop some of skills directly in sculpting too. Or from other means.
Read: There are many paths to Mordor. If you are to succeed, you would have to develop certain skills required. How you acquire those skills, is up to you.
But hey, this is from a guy who hasn't made money from 3d yet.
2 cent
So just like Mordor there are many paths to Art. There's sculpting, painting, drawing, animating, rendering, etc. Each is a different experience but they all teach you how to art. So I concede that if you want to be a good modeler, then you don't need to learn to draw. but if you want to be a good artist you need to learn how to draw, sculpt, paint, etc. Which would you want to hire or want to be. A modeller or an artist?
If you only take the path of modeling, you wont know about the other paths that could be faster. You can learn to be a good modeler in 10 years or you can be a good artist in 4 years.
here's an analogy. We are going to Mordor.
Sculpting = a rocky path. It improves your climbing and not a lot of your swimming.
Drawing = a lake. It improves your swimming but not a lot of your climbing.
Sculpting improves your form and construction but not a lot of your gesture.
Drawing improves your gesture but not a lot of your form and construction.
Combine the two and you become a badass swimber
(these are just examples, dont take them literally but each medium has strengths and weaknesses. and by learning more mediums you can develop you're strengths.)
Again, thats just how I see it
Yup. Totally agree with this TL:DR. Think that's the truth behind it all.
Ps. OMG, I find out how to use quote.
Right now at the start of your journey just play around with it. You don't know what you don't know except that there is a lot you dont know and have no idea where to start. Just do it is the best advice you will get right now as if you don't have th enthusiasm to just have a go now then you will really struggle later on as that experimental childlike mentality is the only thing that keeps most of us going.
I lost my industry job when the studio was canned after 2 years of work without getting paid (the boss paid the staff out of his own pocket) and for various reasons I had had enough of the industry and now work in an unrelated industry where work is much easier and the job is more secure with better pay and benefits. But after a few months of no art I found my fingers itching and now I work on art again in my free time. I started out like you but am now learning to forget the end goal of job or even portfolio and am just creating and learning for its own sake and I have never had so much fun with it.
As for the questions you had about money and stuff. Dude if you are sh*t hot then this industry will take care of you but if your anything less then great you have some hard times ahead. Yeah you can earn enough to get by and live comfortably but if cash is a priority this is the wrong job and maybe even the wrong industry for you. There are a ton of jobs out there that pay more and have better benefits.