Taking your skills to the next level - or, Planning for a future in 3D

Wordofcurse · April 30, 2020, 5:27pm

As the title suggests, I’ve learned a lot from these courses (with still so much to learn!) but am feeling a bit directionless at the moment. That is, I feel like if you want to truly continue working with modeling/texturing etc and make it become more of your life than just a hobby, you need to narrow your goals down and start turning your skills into $$ to help support your passion. For me, personally, I feel this is a long way off yet . But I would like to start maybe planning in a direction that could help support this passion - even if just a little bit like some contracts etc. I also would like to try out Maya or zBrush as i hear they are more professional… but can’t really afford them yet lol!

However, I have no idea where to even start when trying to consider a future in 3D art! Is it even feasible to consider being a solo contracted 3D artist, or should you seriously consider trying to work for a big AAA company or a small team perhaps? Do you need vastly more education to even begin? Or can you just jump into the industry with say, a year or so of experience and having done all these courses(and some others!)?

I know for myself, I would much prefer solo or working with small indie teams etc. I also know that I absolutely love sculpting now, and feel like it would be immensely fun to have someone hand me some concept work to sculpt and/or paint for them. Is there opportunity in something like that as well?

Also, what skills are the most important to develop for working in something like this? And should you consider a proper education from a recognized art school before even considering working in industry?(No offense GameDev, love all your courses!, but I don’t know how many people would accept your certificate of completion as a valid certification…) Or should you just stick with it as a hobby as its fierce competition and little work??(Not that I would give up that easily lol!)

I know this is a lot of questions in one - and I’m sure I have more that I forgot about for now… but they are all related to the same thing; taking your skills to the next level! I also know that decisions like this can vary greatly depending on your personality, your lifestyle, where you live etc… If you need more info to make a more helpful suggestion, please feel free to ask! I’m mostly trying to create a discussion where perhaps some people who have spent time in the industry or know people who have etc could give their insight to someone with little to no knowledge of this field on where to even begin eh!

Thanks for your time, and especially for any help or suggestions! Also open to suggestions about courses on this topic etc.

Yee · April 30, 2020, 7:14pm

You don’t need a degree or any kind of certificate to enter the industry, you just need a good portfolio, or at least decent one. Most of the AAA companies always put degrees in the “good to have but not necessary” section, and there’s a huge reason as to why, you will get trained for months once you enter a company, Blizzard once took almost a year to train new employees, that’s basically an intense college degree.

Most companies are just looking for talented people unless you are in country with a small game industry, then pretty much everyone will be asking for a degree because they don’t know what to look for since they are pretty much new to the industry.

I highly suggest you take a look at this course:

The first two sections are free, it might help you answer some of those questions, like where and how to start.

Wordofcurse · April 30, 2020, 8:00pm

Wow, I can’t believe I overlooked this course by GameDev! Thanks for sharing!

Well I definitely intend to check that course out, as it does seem to cover almost what I am looking for. I was also wondering more specifically about the 3D art side of things. For example; I really like sculpting and would love to do a lot of work where I sculpt something from some concept work. What skills should I focus on then to even put on a resume and portfolio? Or just to be good enough to contract oneself? I assume a strong understanding of 3D modeling in general, Sculpting tools, possibly Retopo etc?.. should I stick with blender or try and focus on investing into zBrush or Maya if I intend to work in the industry? Does it matter if you’re doing contracts/indie? etc…

Your point about companies mostly looking for talent to train is a very interesting thought that I hadn’t considered. However I still feel like it might be pretty competitive and I’ve heard some horror story’s about large AAA companies screwing over employees lol. Besides, to be honest I’d really much prefer to work with small indie-teams or do contracts and hopefully continue studying more as I was also fascinated with programming… just tried blender and got addicted. Also haven’t found enough time for everything yet lol.

Thanks for replying!

Yee · April 30, 2020, 9:30pm

Let me address that AAA thing first.

I’ve never worked in a AAA gaming company but I’ve met some people that has, their stories are always the same, “it’s really fun but it’s not for everyone”, that’s because there will always be stress, a lot of it, if you can’t handle that I highly suggest you do not pursue a career in gaming, not even in indie studios, that can get much worse because some are literally selling their hourses to finance their projects, there’s too much at stake.

About those horror stories, if you notice those are usually stories that one guy says, not 20 or 10, it’s one (unless it’s Naught Dog), those are usually freelancers, I’ve met some of those complainers and they usually get into the gaming industry without knowing what is waiting for them; that’s loads of work, loads of pain and loads of extra hours, but if you manage to get a semi-good position then there’s also a great pay waiting and also working in what you love to do.

Now unto the skills. If you want a career in a triple A company you should specialize, if you like to sculpt I suggest character modeling, make a portfolio with tons of humanoids, animals, mythical creatures, aliens and things like that, of course add texture to make them look better. Make your models efficient, that’s the hardest thing to pull off, with that I mean make your characters as low poly as possible, I’m not saying go for the low poly style, I’m saying don’t use two quads where you could’ve used one, that’s the tricky part.

If you want a job in an Indie company then be generalist, make models of whatever you’d like and also try to learn a thing or two on other areas like basic programming, rigging, how to animate in Unity and Unreal, character design, things like that.

Finally the tools: The most used modeling software are Maya and 3DS Max for AAA gaming companies, if you are going indie then Blender is more than enough because indies usually don’t have the money to pay for Maya.

I hope this helps!

Wordofcurse · April 30, 2020, 11:21pm

Awesome reply!, I’m well aware of the stress and pressure with tight deadlines and having to make concessions and cut parts of your work if necessary etc. Never was there a doubt in my mind that the work environments could be intensely stressful - but also amazingly awesome if you make it so! Long hours mean nothing to me as long as I have a passion for what I’m doing. In-fact, I prefer working long hours if what I’m doing is what I want to do! Its hard to stop sometimes lol.

What I had heard was that, unless, like you said, you get a better position possibly specializing in an area of the pipeline. That most of the work can be unreliable as well as the pay. Apparently a lot of the work is ‘Freelance’ in a sense that you get hired on for a term like a year or two until the project is done, you get a low(ish) pay with the prospect of a very high bonus on completion of the game, depending upon sales etc… and after the game is released they dont need as much ‘junior’ staff so they downsize until the next project. And there aren’t many protections from this because its not unionized… Don’t quote me on this as I also have not worked for a game company, so my point is merely an opinion at this point…

Either way, I do not wish to limit myself by saying I only wish to work in indie! I think it could be an amazing opportunity to work at some really high-end studios with all the amazing new equipment and all the new things to learn! I just feel like that path is more for if you specialize in a particular part of the pipeline. Which I might do at some point for sure! But I’ve always been more of a generalist - and gamedev appears to not be any different haha. I love the modeling, sculpting, animation, rigging was meh but can do it lol, texturing/painting, playing with VFX etc etc. But I also loved working with unity to make animations and program games! (REALLY loved programming games and the challenge it presented was probably the most rewarding thing I ever did, 4AM cheering that I finally found a bug (and resolved it!) with a movement code for a parallax scrolling background I was working on for a 2D sidescrolling rpg was almost better than sex lmao!).

AAA company vs Indie talk aside, I like your idea of sculpting a whole bunch of humanoids and creatures for a portfolio! In a sense that’s what I’ve been doing the last few weeks without knowing it lol. I learned about metaballs and the basics and fell in love right away. Cant put blender down and each project is progressively better as I become familiar with the tools! I’ve got about 5 different projects on the go atm, next step is painting and doing re-topology to remove unnecessary geometry and preferably bake it down to a lower poly version - which is something I still need practice with to retain the colors diffuse values and when to use emissions instead etc etc… I agree the hardest part is trying to make your models efficient as possible lmao!

I suppose my main issue when you boil it down is; Do I want to specialize in something and commit to that and working for a large company, or do I want to try my hand at pushing myself even further and learn more to perhaps discover a whole new horizon? And can I afford it? lol - which is a whole different topic what with the world in lockdown due to COVID-19 or NCov-19 or whatever they are calling it now…

On a side note as you seem quite a bit more knowledgeable than me on this; If I were to self-contract myself to people by taking their requests and creating it for them for a small fee or something similar. Is there any good websites for this, or what would be a good way to try and break into that scene? And is there possibly a niche where you could do things that others don’t have the time for like some re-topology etc as I think that might be some good practice too eh.

I appreciate the conversation, you’ve been very helpful and have given me a lot to think about. You’ve also given me something to work on while I think on it! (Portfolio of humanoids and animals and aliens and whatever else I can come up with lol!)

P.S sorry if my comment ran a bit long lol, this whole conversation has got me thinking quite abit about this now…

Yee · May 1, 2020, 3:30am

It’s ok, that’s what this community is for to help and learn from each other.

The gamedev community has a discord channel, I actually got a very small job just this past week there, you can try looking for something in that place. Also, in a few hours the Gamedev.tv jam will start on Itch, try finding someone to work with, you might find a team and then do great things with them after the jam ends!

What I suggest, go to events (obviously not now because evil viruses, but when possible) like game jams, conferences, and things like that, if you’d like to go online try itch, there’s a huge community always active, try joining multiple discord servers, show your work and talk to people, linkedin is another option, facebooks groups are great too. If you don’t feel like working with a team then sell your models in the Unity’s Asset Store or other type of sites where you can sell this kind of stuff, like, again, itch.

There are endless possibilities out there, it’s just a matter of choice. I went for the solo route, you can do that too, but if you need the social interaction I don’t suggest that at all, specially if you try to make a big project, that consumes so much time.

You probably just need to clear your mind first, make a choice and then go for it! But from what you’ve told me I can see you making great things out there!

FedPete · May 1, 2020, 8:22am

I agree to this.

I worked as a freelancer (web development). I did everything, hard core programming, technical documentation, design, concept. UI. Fun stuff and less fun stuff. But a broad set of skills. That’s why I’m learning blender. To create other type of graphical stuff. From 2D to 3D of 4D (animation)

But now I’m working at a company. Every day doing the same boring (none creative) stuff. That also the case at big companies. One or two design leads, concept artist, etc. But also teams, who do only mesh work, other teams lighting, color design, shading themes, animations, etc.
Okay, you will be part of a great project. But also one of the hundreds of people.

Look at the end movie credentials. how many people and specialized tasks.

But if you wanna have a career in this. Go for it!. really! What do you have to loose.
But you need to have a portfolio. Where you can show your skills in design, concept art. Mesh work, animation, project you did etc.

I did this also in my freelance days. A paper portfolio and even CD-ROM (who’s knows this?). But those where the methods of the old days.
It’s now twitter, snapchat, blender.org, facebook, linked in, your website, etc. … you need to promote yourself. Have fun and start building your portfolio and update it regularly.

Wordofcurse · May 1, 2020, 5:16pm

Right on, thanks! And thanks both of you guys for sharing some of your experiences and knowledge! Its extremely helpful to hear how others have gone about finding work and finding what they want out of the gamedev world. Just reading other peoples journeys is really helping to paint a clearer picture of what to expect, so im not just a free-lancer complaining because I didnt know what to expect lol.

I’ve been checking out itch.io and that community seems awesome! I might even try making a simple little game for the community jam just to get back into unity. Originally, my hope was to become familiar enough with blender/making game assets that I could jump back and forth between the 2 programs and be very familiar with all the tools and the software. And this seems like a great opportunity! Even if it turns out sloppy haha! - I’ve always felt that at some point I will have to make a whole bunch of “Throwaway” projects that are just used for learning and practicing. Seems like now’s the time to get started eh!

Well, now I’ve got loads to do and a bit more of a direction! Thank you guys again for sharing your stories and what you use! If anyone else would like to share, I would love to read about your journey and how you put yourself out there. It’s really inspiring and motivating!

P.S FedPete, I just beat Borderlands 3 not long ago and decided to watch the end credits to see how many people worked on the project and what software was used etc… man that was a long list!!! For someone with little experience in this type of industry it can be hard to even imagine the actual scope of projects put out by large AAA titles. Even after seeing the amount of people who worked on it! Makes me think of one of my favorite proverbs… “A thousand mile journey begins with the first step.”

FedPete · May 1, 2020, 6:42pm

Nice closing quote… good luck.