3D/VFX Student confused about career choices: should I focus on 2D or 3D if I want creative freedom?
Hi all,
I'll try my absolute best to keep this short,
- I'm a generalist 3D art / 3D animation / VFX student who is worried about losing conceptual creative freedom in the video game industry - or film industry as I'm Australian and the video game industry is small here, if I continue with those career options.
- I also don't mean to sound entitled in any way, I'm totally okay with working off other people's concepts for years as long as it isn't for my entire career.
- I've been doing 3D related art for a couple years now and it's definitely my most confident artistic skill - I'm not too bad at drawing/painting but not incredible.
- My degree is a bit broad, offering classes in 2D animation, environment design, character design, 3D animation, modelling, sculpting, texturing / VFX / motion design, but the main focus is on 3D animation / VFX.
- I'm really interested in potentially becoming a concept artist, but it seems daunting to improve my 2D skills to an employable level - when I could just become a 3D artist / VFX artist and have a better chance right away.
- My main interest is really in the design, conceptualisation, and creation of visual ideas in video games (or films) and then bringing them to 3D form.
- I enjoy the 3D medium maybe slightly more than 2D at the moment, but not by that much, and I'm sure that's just due to the fact I've spent more time on 3D. I'm sure I'll enjoy them both equally if I continue practicing 2D - and I've read/heard that concept artists do a lot of 3D anyway.
I guess I have two main questions:
- Should I direct my efforts to 3D art / VFX or 2D concept art? Or a mixture of both?
- Would it be a better idea for me to change my degree to something more focused on conceptualisation rather than 3D animation/VFX?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this if you did.
Replies
You can have creative freedom, or a career in art. Pick one.
If you stay in it long enough, you might get to a director/lead level where you have creative control, but you'll be delegating most of the actual work to others.
Having said that, you will probably have some creative input once you've worked with a team for a while and prove yourself. In my case, that typically involves discussing something with my lead and/or the concept artist I'm working with. If they disagree, I do what I'm told... Because I'm being paid for my time and expertise, not my feelings.
Sorry if that sounds harsh or discouraging, but if you think the lack of creative control is something you'll resent I'd suggest finding a different career.
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply :)
Sorry I don't mean to sound like some starry eyed student with big dreams of unlimited creative freedom, I know the industry isn't like that and I'm totally fine with that, I just want to make sure I make the right career choices. I'm really totally okay with the idea that I'll always be working under someone, I'm not looking to be some big shot creative genius in charge of the whole vision of video games or films from the ground up, just possibly an art director for a tiny team in charge of one creative aspect of a film or video game if possible. I understand in the end, it's a job and it's food on the table, and jobs aren't always meant to be fun, and I'm okay with that. I really do love the actual 3D process itself - and the drawing/painting process, and I know I'll still be happy even if I don't have much creative agency for a lot of my career.
I guess my misunderstanding lies with the workflow of the industry itself, I'm aware that a concept artist has to stick to a certain style given the project and the art director's vision, or extend reality, but I sort of gathered that they did the drawings / developed the concepts based on that vision/style, then the 3D artists did their best to recreate it as precisely as possible - most of the time at least. I guess my concern lied more between the creative differences between concept artists and those in 3D/VFX.
Hey, I was a starry eyed student once. 🤣😂
You have the right understanding. There's not a lot of "creative differences" between teams in my experience, because everyone is a professional. You can certainly have personality clashes, but that's just people being people.
I don't know how things work in really big studios, but in my case there's constant dialog between myself and the artist whose concept I'm working from. Fairly often something has to be adjusted because it doesn't look right and/or work in 3D.