Artist's Depression and pointers
polycounter lvl 2
Hello!
Long time lurker, first time poster and all that.
I've been in a creative drought for the last few months. I don't really feel like my skills as an artist are progressing, and I feel directionless as to where I want to take my art. I try out handpainted stuff for a couple of weeks, gets bored of it and falls back to what I know.
I'm hoping some good critique and a few pointers on some of my work will help me, or maybe some of you have been through this before and have some tips in general on how to be more happy with my art.
You can check out some renders I made: https://www.artstation.com/andersbrynildsen
Some of the main points I'm struggling with:
- I feel directionless and don't know where I want to put my focus. Handpainted, stylized, PBR, realistic?
- General unhappines with my art
- I feel like I'm not progressing
- Unhappy with my textures, they're made in Substance Painter and I feel like they have very "Substance Painter-look" to them. No personality.
Any and all tips, critique and feedback is welcome!
Long time lurker, first time poster and all that.
I've been in a creative drought for the last few months. I don't really feel like my skills as an artist are progressing, and I feel directionless as to where I want to take my art. I try out handpainted stuff for a couple of weeks, gets bored of it and falls back to what I know.
I'm hoping some good critique and a few pointers on some of my work will help me, or maybe some of you have been through this before and have some tips in general on how to be more happy with my art.
You can check out some renders I made: https://www.artstation.com/andersbrynildsen
Some of the main points I'm struggling with:
- I feel directionless and don't know where I want to put my focus. Handpainted, stylized, PBR, realistic?
- General unhappines with my art
- I feel like I'm not progressing
- Unhappy with my textures, they're made in Substance Painter and I feel like they have very "Substance Painter-look" to them. No personality.
Any and all tips, critique and feedback is welcome!
Replies
The way I got out of it was I had a change of scenery (I moved my desk to another room), opened Maya and just played with a cube for a while. I had no aim or ideas to follow, I just had to get out of the funk.
I made some of the basic meshes like a barrel, a crate, some basic buildings and so on. The momentum gathered and I could feel my creative brain coming back into action.
I heard somewhere before that the hardest part of a project is starting it. You gotta brute-force through that stage, and the momentum will carry you through the rest.
I will test out the idea of changing rooms, and just seeing where it takes me!
And I find it to be very true that the hardest part is actually starting a project. Once you get the feel for it and the motivation going it's quite easy to see it all the way through.
I replaced my link, you should be able to view it now, if you want to!
And yeah, fox's tip sounds quite good, simply changing rooms and my environment might be a big help. I've also considered what you're saying, simply taking a small break for a week or two, that way I might be able to get some mental distance from the frustrations and worries I have about all of this.
If you're not that into guns, try something else. Try a different kind of prop, or an environment, character or creature. Look around Artstation for a concept that takes your breath away and try it out.
Other thoughts:
Getting feedback, support, and attention can help with motivation. Post work in progress updates on here.
Make a project for yourself that has an emotional/personal connection. Being emotionally invested in a project can help with staying motivated. Model a childhood toy or something from your youth. Make something for a loved one. Do some fan art for your favorite thing (game, tv show, band, comic book, etc.).
Get back to your artistic roots. Take a break from digital art, and make something the way you used to when you were younger. Draw, paint, sculpt, lego, whatever. Reconnect with why you liked creating in the first place.
Challenge yourself (maybe). Try to make something a little outside of your comfort zone. Having a challenge to overcome can motivate some people, but not everyone is motivated this way.
Finish what you start. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing something you've worked on for so long finally come together, then posting it and and getting those likes. On that note, lighting is your best friend. Learn all you can about lighting for your favorite software, and in general (like cinematography). Lighting has become one of my favorite parts of the process, because that's the point when it really comes to life.
I hope some of my ramblings help. Good luck.
To be honest, in real life I'm not much of a gun person, I do however love fps games and find them (used to at least) incredibly fun to model. I would really love to be a weapon's artist someday, and I think that's why I'm kind of "stuck" modelling weapons. Like most people I have way too little freetime, I feel like I started 3D-modelling a little late age-wise and I'm also stuck thinking I'm not using my time modelling as efficient as I could if I don't practice hardsurface techniques and weapons.
Starting on a fan-project that isn't a weapon is probably not a bad idea, so I can flex my creative muscles and try something different. Weapons are 90% of what I've done the two years I've been doing this, and when thinking about it, I guess most people would feel burnt out and a little sick only modelling the same thing for two years.
Go ahead and choose some 2D artwork from other artists and try recreating them in 3D. Then, after doing that a bit, use the insight gained to make your own designs. I recommend going this route if you're frustrated with your own designs right now. This way you still get modeling practice and portfolio pieces, but you also gain insight into what makes a good design/concept and how to design for 3D.
The second handgun looks good but there are problems with your normal maps. For example the bullet chamber. The highlights look wrong. That could be your poly distribution (too low where it is needed like on curved surfaces. The trigger guard and trigger look pretty low poly.
The fourth plate shows hard edges that look unnatural, like the magazine and the back part of the hand grip. With game modeling you would want to show the best version of a piece in a hero shot. Here is a great method for making weapons in combination with a standard modeller and zBrush to achieve high quality high poly models for baking:https://polycount.com/discussion/168610/3ds-max-zbrush-proboolean-dynamesh-hardsurface-workflow-tutorial/p1
My attempt is here: https://polycount.com/discussion/168610/3ds-max-zbrush-proboolean-dynamesh-hardsurface-workflow-tutorial/p4 This is a fantastic way to model awkward details and get an almost flawless result.
Check out the best weapon work on artstation (under the products category). Download the pics you think are inspiring and put them in an inspiration folder for fuel and reference. Not just 3d game models but also the real thing. Ask yourself what it is about the image that interests and excites you and try incorporate those elements into your own work. Take a break from standard and model a few concept weapon art pieces as a break and to stretch yourself.
The best of luck.