Noobs: Starting from the ground up.
Noobs. It sounds like boobs, and rightfully so. They're cute to laugh at but next to useless.
I concider myself a new.
Although, I've been doing concept and design since my teenage years, I've just begun 'pulling my head out of rear'.
Before we go any further let me make something known:
This is my first forum post(outside of college classes) ever.
I looked around a little at the available threads and wasn't sure where to start, so I decided to start here.
Now, I've been living a drifters life for a long while. From early on family members would say things like: "Youre worthless. You need to get your head out of the clouds, and forget about all that dreaming." "Sorry MFer, Dead beat".
A year and a half ago, my wife and I moved from "Boondocks" Texas to the Seattle area. Here there are people of common interests. There are people with more open minds.
It's just now, taking Game Art & Design part-time whiler working, that I feeling 'natural'. For once in my life, I don't feel like I have to justify my existance in the universe. I am moving toward justifying my existance if for no other reason than making a living off of what I love.
But, I digress.
In the stretch of things one can have talent or natural ability all day long. Though it means nothing if one lacks the culture and technical knowledge.
So, here I am. My first forum ever.
My name is Richard Lee Westbrook, and this is my journey toward the future.
-Soulsteady
I concider myself a new.
Although, I've been doing concept and design since my teenage years, I've just begun 'pulling my head out of rear'.
Before we go any further let me make something known:
This is my first forum post(outside of college classes) ever.
I looked around a little at the available threads and wasn't sure where to start, so I decided to start here.
Now, I've been living a drifters life for a long while. From early on family members would say things like: "Youre worthless. You need to get your head out of the clouds, and forget about all that dreaming." "Sorry MFer, Dead beat".
A year and a half ago, my wife and I moved from "Boondocks" Texas to the Seattle area. Here there are people of common interests. There are people with more open minds.
It's just now, taking Game Art & Design part-time whiler working, that I feeling 'natural'. For once in my life, I don't feel like I have to justify my existance in the universe. I am moving toward justifying my existance if for no other reason than making a living off of what I love.
But, I digress.
In the stretch of things one can have talent or natural ability all day long. Though it means nothing if one lacks the culture and technical knowledge.
So, here I am. My first forum ever.
My name is Richard Lee Westbrook, and this is my journey toward the future.
-Soulsteady
Replies
On the art site of things, you may consider the following:
1) http://wiki.polycount.net/
2) http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=373024
3) While anime is enjoyable and a nice art style, consider branching out into other styles ( often "newbies" spam with anime inspired artwork and never graduate beyond it; which is something I think you can and should avoid.
4) Lots of great artists and mini-tutorials exist on this board, so take advantage of the expertise of the people here.
On the forum side of things, please consider the following:
1) Generally posting with 1-2 word responses is almost universally considered lame/annoying.
2) Don't bash people.
___2a) No racism
___2a) Foul language if you must, retain more self respect if you don't.
3) Post things where they belong.
___3a) "Fanboy"ing to a minimum.
4) The ops are helpful, so contact them if you're having issues.
5) The technical talk forum is a great place to learn and post technical questions.
6) pimping and previous is a great place to get info and feedback. (You will almost always get information that will help improve your art)
7) In accordance with #6, and what nobody will probably say out loud , please look at who is giving you the criticism, as someone without much ability may not provide the most useful feedback (exceptions abound no doubt).
8 ) Don't be obnoxious with huge images and retarded sig images that make people lose respect for you. Thankfully this is not a big issue on this forum
9) try to have a good time, and hopefully you can learn a lot from the people who are here and contributing.
Regarding your family's harsh encouragement: If your head is in fact still in the clouds or in your ass, you will need to eventually remove it, because it will be required, even in the video game industry.
2) Pliang will probably reply to this thread with "Hello friend, I also like cheese toast..."
3) Generic anime/manga heads are for the DeviantArt account nobody will ever look at...unless to say "thnx fo da fav+ lol ^_^"
4) You're in for a long bumpy ride.
5) No one cares.
6) Welcome.
oh, and contrary to the belief of many : swearing IS big, and it IS clever
Welcome
So far I've learned that 'noob' is not an accepted expression anymore (even though I was trying being cheeky), and anime is not that much respected.
This instant induction of Game Art culture has been shocking.
It's a good thing I suppose. In years past, I've had so many portfolio's lost, damaged, or stolen it would make one cry.
It's important for me to rebuild a viable 2D, and eventually 3D, portfolio.
To do that I need 20 to 30 pieces covering a wide range.
So, here I am looking toward a future in game art and design. To tell you the truth the only real experience I have in 3D render is the time when I friend had a free triel of 3D Studio Max.
Beyond that, the programs needed are still in transit.
The Art Institute is sending me Adobe Creative Suit 3.3, and my son-in-law is getting me a rip of a 3d program, the name of which I can't remember.
When I say 'starting from the ground up' I really mean it.
To even the casual observer it's obvious that there is a massive different from 2d concept and design to 3d.
As far as the 'head in rear' thing, it was more about letting other people hold me down.
I could be so much further along as an artist if I hadn't been so weak as the let other people hold back.
But I win.
Being born in middle-of-nowhere Texas, but now just north of Seattle following my dreams.
This is a pencil of a photograph.
A Character design began in 95, but finished this year.
Later appears as a character in Double X.
Some lighttable work.
Anyways, please be gentle with me.
I hate to admit it, but I may have set myself up to look up to the people here as peers.
Even though I may not agree with you, I'll sincerely concider your input.
-Soulsteady
but we are also quite cheeky from time to time as you have probably noticed, just don't let it get to ya :P
Amen, I can't stress this enough. Anime is not a shortcut to escape the rules of basic anatomy, despite what anyone on deviantArt would tell you.
So people don't mean give it up for good, but you're going to have to shift focus and acknowledge that real anatomy study is where it's at, if you want to get anywhere.
that goal is a whole different ball game, and if you seek out the people who excel at figure drawing it's humbling, but inspiring.
heres a blog I just came across now, but plan to continue reading; some great stuff in there:
http://artisticanatomy.blogspot.com/
If you're serious, you'll need to work on your draftsmanship and the basics:
Line, Shading, Perspective, Color, Composition
The majority of polycount isn't going to go easy on you, so put on your armor and keep your cool.
Then theres drawing from imagination - something ive overlooked - to apply the things youve been observing.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=114449
^ Look at the progress he's made in a year and that should be more than enough to inspire. Hell, I still dont take it seriously enough.
Inspiration for anyone to learn to draw.
Also, I"ll concide to the still life thing.
My 'happy spot' is anime. Sometimes I have trouble just believing in myself. So when I can draw something for fun and pull it off well its a thrill.
It's a whole different ballgame here. I acknowledge that.
So with that I will start posting things that people in this thread have guided towards.
By the way, everything that has been posted so far has merely been art samples left out of what as been lost. Let no one piece of art here be an example of my over all ability.
I plan on posting something inspired by this thread by Monday night.
For now, here is something I drew back in '05 when I was addicted to Final Fantasy XI Online.
Thanks again.
-Soulsteady
If you study the classical methods, you can always stylize it into anything you want, that includes anime, but if anime's all you do, the anatomy, structure and posing can suffer greatly. It's a bit of a one way street...
It's not so much that anime isn't respected... it's that people don't take the time to study where anime comes from and most anime people see is just junk.
Even a lot of the stuff from japan is very generic, and junky. It's an art style that has it's own nuance, strengths and weaknesses, study it, find out why it works and what people don't like about it and correct it for yourself, don't just stick with the method.
My animation peers always said that my style is no longer anime, but some weird 60/40 split of anime and disney since I can animate to disney's standards and 'rules' but apply it to a visual style that relies heavily on anime in design - that was my goal through animation school, it sorta worked, but here I am... having worked in the tv animation industry and opened the door into the game industry with a very heavy anime portfolio.
My next post (tomorrow or monday) will be a good ol' fashioned still-life of... something.
Even before starting this thread I had begun reviewing the fundementals of art, but I now have a renewed interest in getting 'back to basics'.
Like Kusanagi said in Ghost in the Shell,"Over-specialization breeds in slow death".
-Soulsteady
Oh no, you didn't. Does that actually imply that you consider boobs to be useless?
Exactly. I barely graduated high school and never went to college. In most regards, I'm a pretty stupid person. I spent many years teaching myself 3d art in my spare time, sacrificing a lot along the way. Making games is the one and only profession I ever really wanted to be in, and I made it happen. I'm the only member of my family to get the job they wanted and that makes me feel great about myself. Coming from a very poor childhood, it's quite an achievement, imo.
It doesn't matter what your family or friends say about you, negatively. Go out there and prove them wrong, simple as that. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
"your oldest brother, see... he was born with a lot of talent... but no ambition, he's lazy... your older brother... he wasn't born with the most talent, but he makes up for it in hard work.... you... you have no talent and you don't work hard."
HA. I think I've proven them all wrong this past couple years as i've been holding 2 decent jobs in my industry and take care of the house.. while my oldest brother is nearing 34 and living with my parents, somewhat unemployed after 6 years of post secondary. My older brother is a hard working workaholic that stresses out over not having enough time because he makes his own schedule so busy, he totally ignores the house ( that we share) and is the laziest slob you have ever met. Where I basically singlehandedly painted the entire first floor and manage the property while he is out working or hanging out with his friends.
So... who's a talentless, lazy hack?
Prove em wrong, boyo, you can only go up.
omg, we could be twins, apart from the poor background thing and that I haven't ever had a job I liked, yet!
*Edit Soulsteady - I think your doing the right thing learning 2d first, I did it the other way round so you could have a big head start. Feel free to challenge me on this but I firmly believe that 2d art is more important than the 3d mesh you are painting it on.
This is a still life of most pocket stuff.
It took about 45 minutes.
-Soulsteady