Advice for Beginner Artist
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Hello Polycount!
I am Jason, a brand new fresh-out-of-the-box game artist here starting from Level 1, I am a noob, fresh meat, etc. you get the gist. I am looking for advice on where to start as an Environment Artist. What skills or program knowledge is absolutely fundamental? Can anyone give me an example on how you started in the field, what got you interested in doing it to begin with? Beginner tutorials?
I downloaded a few programs like Unity and Blender. And have started to mess around with them. I'm trying to read as many books as I can on the subject matter. And I am going into a Computer Science program at my university. My actual artistic ability is alright but definitely needs work.
I appreciate all the advice anyone is willing to give me.
I am Jason, a brand new fresh-out-of-the-box game artist here starting from Level 1, I am a noob, fresh meat, etc. you get the gist. I am looking for advice on where to start as an Environment Artist. What skills or program knowledge is absolutely fundamental? Can anyone give me an example on how you started in the field, what got you interested in doing it to begin with? Beginner tutorials?
I downloaded a few programs like Unity and Blender. And have started to mess around with them. I'm trying to read as many books as I can on the subject matter. And I am going into a Computer Science program at my university. My actual artistic ability is alright but definitely needs work.
I appreciate all the advice anyone is willing to give me.
Replies
2) Learn about Physically Based Rendering and how it applies and is used in Unity.
3) Invest in and plan to get Zbrush or Mudbox.
4) Look into Substance Designer and Painter, Quixel Suite, and/or Mari. These programs are being heavily used by a lot of the working and hobbyist artists here on PC, and you should be abreast of what they do.
1. Don't be afraid to have a messy sketch book to get your ideas out, you don't always have to show ideas to everyone and not every sketch has to perfect.
2. Draw constantly, and do circles as warm up sketches loosens up the arm
3.Invest in a tablet. 12x12 or larger if you can (seriously you will need one)
4. When drawing on the computer use paint tool sai for line art and finish up painting in photoshop
5. Don't be afraid to copy to master the craft.
6. Do low poly, hand-painted objects as well, I thought that doing such wasn't helpful, but it turned out that it was.
7. When modeling start with simple objects and work your way up
8. Teachers don't always know best, go out of your way to find the necessary information
9. Don't compare yourself to your classmates, instead compare yourself to industry fellows on this site and other places
10. Know your topology and how it works before going into zbrush
11. Don't fall victim to, "the wrong advises"' I have been there and done that
12. There are no absolutes
13. You can't appease everyone, be true to yourself and keep to your goals
14. Don't be afraid to appose what teachers say, in the long run you have to stick to what you want to do and not let anyone sway you in another direction.
15. Always do more than what is required of you, that means making things outside of classwork to get an edge
That's all I can think of at the moment, good luck.
And I have started looking over your Wiki Eric, that's where I started
Blender is fine for learning fundamentals, 3dsmax would be better if you can get hold of it as its arguably the most commonly used in games studios (Maya a close second but I'd not advise learning this now). However, learning an interface is totally secondary to learning the fundamentals, don't use the quest for software as an excuse not to just start now. If Blender is what you have you can learn them there.
To aid with this I'd set yourself some constraints. You want to do environments, so why not build up to creating a simple prop (say a lamppost or road sign) and set some limits on how many polys you will use (maybe 1000 polys), what texture size (lets say a single 1024) and how long you intend to take (1 week). Could you do it with more? Yes of course, but having constraints is part of working in the industry and good practice for efficient asset creation. It also helps you to actually finish something. Without them, you could keep going on with a piece indefinitely, unsure when to call one part done and move onto the next phase.
Once you finish that first model move onto a more complex prop, then maybe a building, then a modular set of parts, etc.
Get into the habit of finishing work now. So model, UV, texture, present. Rinse, repeat and up the complexity as you go. By finishing work, you will be developing your folio as you go. Once you have those basics down then you can start exploring other packages and because you understand the fundamentals, you will have a better understanding of what those new packages and techniques offer you beyond your now established workflow.
And finally, don't compare yourself to the amazing work you see on forums like this. The top images are normally created by people that have been working with CG Art for some time. Instead, simply compare your work to your last piece and watch how you improve.
You need to walk before you can run.
People mention learning PBR and unity. But, some post seem to suggest unity doesn't even have PBR or you need to do some heavy stuff just to make it look somewhat worse than unreal out of the box
You could argue pros and cons forever. The main thing here is to just pick one and go with it. By all means go ahead and pickup Unreal but as Unity is already downloaded, I'd say just use that.
You need to have good fundamental knowledge of core techniques and a strong, carefully tailored folio of work that shows prospective employers what they will get by hiring you. Those things will guarantee success. Learning Unreal 4 when the studio you are applying to uses Unity, or its own engine, shows nothing more than a familiarity with game engines. Its a choice right now, and a means to an end. 1. it helps to present your work using actual game art tools and 2. shows a knowledge and understanding of game engines. Chances are you will learn and use all manner of game engines during your career.
I'd also caution against a newbie environment artist diving straight into Substance, ZBrush, etc. All amazing tools, but if you are just starting out, get that fundamental knowledge first - polygon modelling, UV mapping, texturing. As extra strings to your bow, brilliant, but a more tactical approach to learning will yield better results.
ie. Hard surface modeling, guns, vechicles, Props, Environments
Character modeling,
Concept Art,
Animation and Rigging
Generally you want to focus on something and get super beast in your chosen skillset,
just know that every skillset requires different areas of techinical knowledge.
I would then look up what tools the best artists who specialise in your chosen area use, then learn the crap out of them.
Do lots of tutorials and then start project utilising what you have learned from said tutorials.
always start with small things before taking on massive projects, if you start too big you will burn out and never finish anything.
If you don't do something great the first time, you are sometimes better to move on and try and improve next time round, but make it a focus point in your next study.
Know where your weaknesses are and target them, as this will make your improve faster.
lastly and most importantly, I can suggest is find people who are better than you as you will learn more from them.
I hope this will help you in your journey