Oh sorry if I misunderstood! I will probably start learning PBR soon, I'll just give the schools a call and see what they think. If they want me to learn the old ways I guess I have no choice!
For hyper-realistic(aka 'photoreal') artwork PBR seems to be the way to go, and it's not especially difficult to get your head around. This is a good primer on how it works. It's not going to be the solution for every project, but it is certainly popular for realistic art styles.
I have about 6-7 weeks until deadline for my work samples for my school application. So far I have gotten a pretty good understanding of modeling in Maya, sculpting in ZB, retopo in Maya, baking normal maps in Maya and xNormal and AO, Cavity and Curvature in nDo2. My next step is of course making a diffuse, spec and so…
I would def learn PBR...its going to become industry standard soon. Understanding those principles is vital because it is a more realistic interpretation of lighting in next gen engines. That being said, though I understand the tech, I haven't used it on a character yet so I'm in the same boat!
I would say for companies (-ESPECIALLY- AAA studios) that are not working on mobile or last gen spec games, that it is already an industry standard. There are definitely a good handful of studios not using it for games where it is not needed or the stylized feel does not benefit from the updated tech (Blizzard and…