College and the future of LoMChaos ;P
Hey guys, I've been thinking:
I'm probably known here (Yeah, right..) for being pretty young compared to most of you guys. I mention it alot (But not for sympathy and a scapegoat to my 3D skills or anything like that) But I'm coming up for 16 and well, I'm in my last year of Highschool. I plan to go college after this final year.
I would like to ask you guys if I'm on the right track.
I don't want it to be about me, me, me but hopefully when I say stuff about myself it'll give you experienced 3D artists an indication of whether I am indeed on the right track.
Good qaulities :
Able to learn fast. Very fast.
Determind. When I have a goal I put everything else to the side.
Mature, sensible and serious about things.
Very technical and able.
Can listen well.
3D Skills:
Able to learn 3dsmax at the age of 12-15/16
proficient in 3dsmax and Zbrush.
Able to use engines such as Unreal and can use the Marmoset engine renderer.
Previous and current work :
Worked in around 3 original IP - not sucsseful
Working in a Cod team - Trey arch has their eye on them
My question, to you amazing polycounters is, am I on the right track?
Peace.
I'm probably known here (Yeah, right..) for being pretty young compared to most of you guys. I mention it alot (But not for sympathy and a scapegoat to my 3D skills or anything like that) But I'm coming up for 16 and well, I'm in my last year of Highschool. I plan to go college after this final year.
I would like to ask you guys if I'm on the right track.
I don't want it to be about me, me, me but hopefully when I say stuff about myself it'll give you experienced 3D artists an indication of whether I am indeed on the right track.
Good qaulities :
Able to learn fast. Very fast.
Determind. When I have a goal I put everything else to the side.
Mature, sensible and serious about things.
Very technical and able.
Can listen well.
3D Skills:
Able to learn 3dsmax at the age of 12-15/16
proficient in 3dsmax and Zbrush.
Able to use engines such as Unreal and can use the Marmoset engine renderer.
Previous and current work :
Worked in around 3 original IP - not sucsseful
Working in a Cod team - Trey arch has their eye on them
My question, to you amazing polycounters is, am I on the right track?
Peace.
Replies
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=64195
I'm very much against college for game art, assuming that that is what you are planning to do. In my mind, you probably already have whatever you would learn from there and, in that regard, are on the right track. You're motivated to do the art, to do it better and, as you say, have already taken part in some mod teams. (Am I the only one who misses the mod community? I've been toying with the idea of taking part in one for kicks :P ) Even if the school was Earth shattering with it's amount of awesome talent it employs, you've still got to do tons of personal work because that's what's going to make your portfolio stand out and allow your skills to progress at the rate they need to. I think a few others here will echo, Polycount University has taught me more than any classroom.
No one here should tell you what to do, it's your future. Though, with so many different backgrounds, I don't think there's one "true path", y'know? I went to college, hated it, dropped out..moved to Vancouver, became a tester and worked my way up to where I am now. Some have a fine art background, some went to something like VFS...loved it, for some reason, and got right into the industry.
Indeed, my 3D work isn't that great. But for my age I think it's okay. But then saying that will make people say "It's not age that matters" but you just said the same thing as me
Thanks.
Learn to draw, go to art school, enjoy youth, think about game art when you graduate.
LoM - you mention your age far too much. but you seem to be on the right track.
a college provides you with alot of opportunities tho. may it be equipment like mocap systems, hd cams, 3d printers/scanners, greenscreens, panorama cameras and all that fancy stuff, or software packages and workstations/renderfarms, or simply being around alot of people who share the same interests and keep pushing each others limits and also establishing connections which may be useful in the future.
oh, and it teaches you some social skills, and you get used to present your work in front of people. it gives you valueable life experience and for fucks sake, it's a damn good time in your life - something that i value alot.
honestly, at your age, you should just focus on having fun with what you are currently doing, and also try out everything else that interests you. theres many different fields in the industry. so whenever you end up in a job, it's good to have an understanding of how all the other stuff works, without necessarily being an expert in everything. so i'd advice against focusing on 1 field too early.
but based on what you have told us, yes, you are on the right track.
go to a traditional art college. get very good at that. worry about the technical stuff towards the tail end, or, as you seem to know a good amount about 3d programs already, just stay focused on brushing up traditional skills. they will help so much.
it really depends what you want to end up doing though.
LoM, At some point you won't be able to play off inexperience with youth so don't let yourself get too caught up thinking "this is good enough (for my age)". There are people younger than you that can probably kick your ass, so honestly your behind the curve and need to get crackin. =P
I think your on the right track but don't fall off. Keep goin!
well, then why exactly do you bring it up?
because he's 15
I think you're on a good path. Keep modeling, sculpting, and modding. If you want to go to college, find a school with a decent arts program and work on improving on general art skills while working on modeling stuff on the side. Investigate wisely. If money is an issue or you can't make a decision right away, try going to community college for a year or two and soak up their beginner art classes (and those obnoxious general education credits) then transfer. It saves you a lot of debt.
He told use that he has employed people with ONLY fine art skills and NO 3D but never the other way round, as it only takes a couple of weeks to learn an app whereas it takes years to learn to draw well. Plus by doing a fine arts course you have such a vast amount of careers you can go into.
You dont have to stop modelling but you will find with a fine arts course your 3D skills will gratly improve aswell.
Also you already have everything you can get from a games art course.
Please take this into consideration
Chris
Or perhaps this is just my impression of aussie game art courses.
That's actually pretty funny.
From now on, only people with less than 3 weeks of experience using any particular app are allowed to post for help on this or any other board. After 3 weeks, you should already know it. :poly131:
Use that time to do something you really ENJOY
I will always recommend going to a normal University for a BFA over going to any school specializing in "games design" or whatever else they're peddling. Aside from the obvious and well mentioned fact that a fine art degree will serve you from the ground up in any artistic application you might find interest in I think people neglect to mention how important that type of environment is for social development.
I hate to say it because it sounds...not so nice, and because there definitely are people it doesn't apply to, but 9 times out of 10 you'll find that people that went to college vs people that did not (in art this holds very true) are more rounded, more mature and adaptable people that are far better at taking critique.
College forces you to interact and deal with people on both a casual and professional level. Even something as simple as living in a dormitory is a valuable experience.
Taking that and then combining it with the win of a painting or illustration (personal bias towards) major can make for an extremely rewarding 4 years.
where did i say become a master of an app? no a month or so intensive training can get you up and going most apps
Seconded, if not just for the awesome texturing and concepting skills. Try doing some traditional sculpture too. I wish I did before. I've been doing some super sculpty models lately and it does quickly improve your spatial reasoning.
It normally run like High School > College > University, over here.
I agree that studying fine art will do you more good than the games courses.
I've learnt more on these forums while i've been lurking the past couple of years :poly115: than the time i've spent at college.