3D After 30
First reaction 
My name is Andrew, I'm 33 years old, and I've been a 3D character artist for about 2 years. In this thread, I want to document my journey of learning and, hopefully, finding the job I'm aiming for. I'm doing this mainly for my own growth, but I'd be very happy if my story interests someone—or even better, inspires someone. 
My journey in 3D started with Blender. I was trying to find my path, so in a short period of time I experimented with stylized characters, simple cartoons with basic animations, and props in different art styles.
Naturally, most of it was pretty average because I was trying a little bit of everything. But there was also a big advantage to that—I found the field I really want to grow in.
And now I'd like to show you my conscious journey in 3D, which began with studying anatomy.
I can already create characters through the entire pipeline, but I've mostly worked with indie developers through 3D marketplaces. I'd really like to work at a good studio on large AAA projects, so please don't judge me too harshly.
I know the technical side of character creation quite well, relatively speaking, but recently I decided to fill in all the gaps I still have.
So I started with anatomy
My portfolio:
https://www.artstation.com/andyhey
Feel free to throw tomatoes at me. I'll be happy to hear from everyone.
Replies
After that, I finally understood the skeleton. For some reason, the parts that had always been the hardest for me to understand were the clavicle, the scapula, and how they connect.
At that point, I moved on with anatomy. The next step was to build the muscles on top of the entire skeleton.
Then I made my first anatomy sculpt of the main body parts. I didn't sculpt the hands, forearms, or feet yet - that will come later.
I was in a hurry, absorbing tons of information, and I wanted to finish studying anatomy as soon as possible. After that, I planned to learn Marvelous Designer and XGen properly, and then start a complete character project based on a concept.
My second anatomy sculpt.
What I realized is that anatomy is an art you can study forever. The important thing is to find the right balance - to be an artist, not a surgeon.
I think I finished studying anatomy not long ago. I finally closed that chapter for myself, so now I understand how the anatomy of humans, animals, and creatures is put together in general. Now it's all about practice. I'll try to sculpt every day to keep improving
By the way, I’m also making characters for the FAB marketplace by Unreal Engine in parallel, so I can learn more freely. One of my characters was selected by FAB for a free giveaway in August 2025. Thanks to Epic Games for this opportunity.
PS: the model has been downloaded more than 160,000 times.
PS: I also think you should choose your profession around 16 years old. For that, you probably need to move out from your parents as soon as possible, at least partially, and stop listening to everyone. Just lock yourself in for half a year and focus. And one more thing - good friends (or at least one good friend) are important, people who actually want something from life besides just wasting it.
At that point I had to pause my studies for a bit. I was making all kinds of monsters. I was in a rush because I wanted to go back to focusing on my “gaps” (studies) again.
I put my studies on hold so I wouldn’t starve and started making characters for 3D stock marketplaces instead.
Then I ended up at a fork in the road: texturing / animation. This comes after high-poly baking. Both paths don’t really interfere with each other, so I just switched depending on my mood.
The colors in Maya are just placeholder colors so I can see during animation when the body passes through clothing. It makes it easier to read the motion.
And recently I decided it’s time to make a strong piece that will improve the quality of my portfolio, so I took a concept by Stanislav Lunin as a base.
My goal of getting into a game dev studio and working on large AAA projects feels quite realistic right now (at least there might be a chance?
)
Maybe I missed a good opportunity so that an even better one can come along in the end?
Thanks for the kind words!
As for anatomy, now it's all about practicing consistently. I hope that one day I'll be able to create sculpts like the top artists do.
Thank you for the great advices!
I've been thinking that maybe I should remove all of my older works and keep only one fully polished character (the one I'm working on right now) with a complete breakdown of the entire creation process.
I've seen quite a few artists with portfolios like that. What do you think about that?
The high poly for the weapon and the lantern is finished!
Yeah, I'm not a weapon artist, so don't judge me too harshly.
I may have mentioned this before, but I've never worked at a 3D gamedev studio, even though I'd really like to.
What do you think my current skill level is? Do you think I'd be able to work at a studio on an AAA game?
Thanks for the support!
I made the pistol based on a reference, matching its proportions as closely as I could. As for the shotgun, I used several different models as references and designed it to fit my own taste.
And you're right about the iron sight. Since it's a sawed-off shotgun, it probably shouldn't have one
but for some reason it's present in the concept. I might remove it.
I think so. Judging by the zbrush render, I think you can make it as a AAA character artist. Naturally the state of gamedev industry is crazy, so it may take a while to land a job. If it took you 2 years to reach this level in character art, then you're a quick learner. It also depends on how sucessfull you are in texturing this character too because it has to be another big jump in quality compared to your previous works. Because the sculpt of this character is nice and you have to support it with equally nice textures.