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Seconded. When you get a chance ask me how lovely a school can be.
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Jul 6, 2017 04:03
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tango alpha delta posted:I know that some of you are professionals, so I feel kind of embarrassed posting this here. Is there any way to get better at sculpting without going back to school? Can someone recommend some really good online courses? It seems like you already know how to use the tools so it's more about learning and practicing anatomy and observational skills. You can do that without going to school. Mainly it's just lots of practice though, sculpt things reasonably quickly and put them aside if you start getting bogged down, learn some lessons where you did something wrong and go again.
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Jul 6, 2017 07:32
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Never feel embarrassed about posting here! All of us were hobbyist artists at some point, and I'm sure a handful of the professionals never did schooling for it (I didn't, just lots of practice). That looks better than some of the portfolio work I've seen recently too (note to artists: if your sculpts look like lumpy alien-people hybrids when you're going for "photorealism", leave it off the portfolio...), and you can only get better so I'm excited to see what you can learn. I don't know if you're looking for paid courses, but our very own SVU Fan has been talking about making a sculpting course, and he's incredible. Also, my boss does a lot of work for Lynda so I'll see if he has any recommendations for good guides.
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Jul 6, 2017 15:50
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summer term for cgma is coming up if you want to drop 1000 bucks on an anatomy course. edit: they have a lot of other courses too
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Jul 6, 2017 21:17
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EoinCannon posted:Yep Zbrush using dynamesh You're not eof3D are you? Even if not, you're still p. cool and really talented. tango alpha delta posted:I know that some of you are professionals, so I feel kind of embarrassed posting this here. Is there any way to get better at sculpting without going back to school? Can someone recommend some really good online courses? So I was going to recommend Digital Tutors but then I got this message : quote:On July 31st, 2017 the Digital-Tutors library will be retired along with Digital-Tutors concurrent licensing. Effective August 1, 2017 any active group plans will be redirected to https://www.pluralsight.com. Each group plan will receive one individual user license on Pluralsight for each paid Digital-Tutors license. Please contact your account representative for any additional questions. I just called them, and they said that the videos will still be available, just through the pluralsight website instead (PluralSight bought Digital Tutors a while back, PluralSight is more programming focused tutorials). So, I will still recommend Digital Tutors because they have some really good tutorials for nearly EVERY 3D application. Specifically there are some great sculpting tutorials for zbrush You have to pay for it, but it's totally worth it, and I think if you're diligent you can consume most of the content you need within a month or two, they also include project files if you'd like to see how the tutor was doing things, or if you gently caress up and need to start fresh somewhere along the line. I know I've recommended them here before, I swear to god I don't work for them, I just really learned a lot from their courses and it's really well done. Other than that, look at actual anatomy references with muscle groups and try to sculpt the human form as it was built naturally. Also, I kind of just assumed you were going for humans/anatomy, but they have stuff for hard-surface as well, and if you're using zbrush pixologic has some great tutorials on their website, for free, and they make new ones covering all the new tools(magic tricks) that they've created. https://pixologic.com/zclassroom/
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Jul 6, 2017 23:06
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 i just started working on a stylized island lighthouse environment in unreal engine 4, this is my second game environment so far it's style is inspired by games like rime, firewatch, tf2, the witness, etc. this is a really early screenshot and ive gotten the terrain and some shaders/textures/vegetation put down but this is all subject to a heck of a lot of change here's my moodboard if you want to see some of my inspiration 
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Jul 8, 2017 04:56
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Looking good, check out Gigantic's art style as well. I'd recommend throwing a character or some more unique assets in there to make it a cohesive scene and to add more contrast, doing good so far man  I'm glad you put in the effort to paint a little custom backdrop/environment map.
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Jul 8, 2017 10:24
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ceebee posted:Looking good, check out Gigantic's art style as well. I'd recommend throwing a character or some more unique assets in there to make it a cohesive scene and to add more contrast, doing good so far man aw dang i'd never head of that game! the style is really cool and has a lot of good reference for me! thanks!
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Jul 8, 2017 23:07
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I will second Pluralsight. After acquiring Digital Tutors, they are a one stop shop for 3D, development, and IT tutorials.
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Jul 10, 2017 16:39
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Dammit. My old login info for Digital Tutors is no longer stored and now I have to see if my school can retrieve it or give me a new log in. Here is another pose for that demon character. Gotta stop being lazy about rigging the bastard. Making new poses would be MUCH faster if I just spent a night rigging him vs. posing him with masking and transpose tools. I could make a rig out of zspheres but I will have to animate him him in Maya at some point.  Elsa posted:Seconded. When you get a chance ask me how lovely a school can be. How lovely a school can be? I could go on and on... Heheh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiARsQSlzDc Marc Brunet makes a lot of good points here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1rmP-xDiSQ Unfortunately a lot of schools (especially state schools) are really out of touch with what is necessary for a successful career in 3d. Trade shools like Full Sail may be marginally better but that is also debatable. Schools like VFS and Sheridan have good reps but it is very easy for any school to fall behind industry standards and rest on laurels. I feel lucky now that I am finally teaching for a department which values work / skills vs. just being a diploma mill. So much depends on whether or not your boss comes from a similar background and/or appreciates the workload. Luckily for me my current boss has vast experience, ranging from the first Jurassic Park, to Hellboy, and even designed the villain's exoskeleton in Avatar. The program I worked for previously has been focusing on 70's style experimental animation since... well... the 70's. Experimental video / animation at a state funded fine art school where no one fails and everyone wants to be David Lynch or work for Adult Swim. I was actually told that a "FINE ART" school had no obligation to teach animation techniques common at "Animation Trade Schools". As if attending a pretentious art school really mattered over the work itself. *Ugh* END RANT. sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Jul 11, 2017 |
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Jul 11, 2017 06:22
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sigma 6 posted:Schools like VFS and Sheridan have good reps but it is very easy for any school to fall behind industry standards and rest on laurels.
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Jul 11, 2017 08:38
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lol at that loving thumbnail
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Jul 11, 2017 09:30
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Oats Studios, I  you.Even if your rigs sometimes look like this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKWB-MVJ4sQ sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Jul 13, 2017 |
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Jul 13, 2017 10:27
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sigma 6 posted:Oats Studios, I I like that they now refer to it as "Jazz Hands".
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Jul 13, 2017 23:37
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sigma 6 posted:Oats Studios, I I was just going to come here and post this. Oats Studios on Steam has paid "DLC" where you can get real production ready rigs and sculpts and all sorts of neat production poo poo. Like the 13GB River Demon archive looks sooooooo worth it but then they released the loving Zygote files?? And THAT'S it's rig? loving christ that must be so valuable to people who want to seriously learn this stuff. Overwhelming as hell at the same time, but you can see it in motion in the Zygote short so someone was able to use it. I wonder how many people animated that, and if the hands did little pose loops or what? Sooooooo much rigging...... bring back old gbs fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jul 14, 2017 |
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Jul 14, 2017 02:04
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 im really unsure if i want to continue this environment as an island lighthouse or as a small cottage in some studio ghibli type hills. 
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Jul 16, 2017 00:28
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Whatever you do, it definitely needs a Point of Interest for sure. Give the viewer a reason to wish they could jump in and check it out. If it were me, I'd try to come up with a little mixture of something expected mixed with something unexpected. A cozy-looking cottage with a cozy-looking helipad next to it or some other such nonsense. It's looking like a fantastic base though.
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Jul 16, 2017 01:15
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So... uhh... turns out we were nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for our work on High Castle for the 2017 Emmys. While it would've been cool to have my name on the list, we all know how that goes - luckily, my boss @ Theory and 7(!) artists from Barnstorm were listed, so it's a pretty drat huge acknowledgment of the talent that was involved in making this happen. And we're not up against Game of Thrones! Just the same series we were up against at the VES awards +1 (Black Sails, Vikings, Westworld, and one other I can't recall). What a crazy past 12 months this has been...
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Jul 16, 2017 15:27
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The Gasmask posted:So... uhh... turns out we were nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for our work on High Castle for the 2017 Emmys. It's always interesting seeing people's faces when you mention High Castle was done with Blender, like some mixture of incredulity followed by astonishment. Glad to see Blender is getting the reputation it deserves as a legit production tool. Of course, glad to see you getting the recognition (however indirectly  ) as well, congrats!Here's a shot I've been playing with atmosphere on. 
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Jul 16, 2017 16:00
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The Gasmask posted:So... uhh... turns out we were nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for our work on High Castle for the 2017 Emmys. Wow. Congratulations!! My student worked on the Westworld opening credits. Did you mean Man in the High Castle, or am I misunderstanding?
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Jul 16, 2017 20:02
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sigma 6 posted:Wow. Congratulations!! My student worked on the Westworld opening credits. Did you mean Man in the High Castle, or am I misunderstanding? Thanks! Yeah, Man in the High Castle. Congrats to your student! Westworld looks to potentially take big, there's gonna be some healthy competition this year. No matter what, just having the two studios involved recognized for our work is amazing, and has really solidified how much the whole process is a team effort. Both our houses (Theory and Barnstorm) are small shops, and being able to collaborate so close was integral to pulling off something of that scope.
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Jul 16, 2017 21:09
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quick question for everyone in this thread currently employed in a digital art field, does your employer discourage you from discussing your wages with your coworkers or actively discourage the concept of unions/organizing? Kanine fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Jul 18, 2017 |
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Jul 18, 2017 03:54
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Kanine posted:qucik question for everyone in this thread currently employed in a digital art field, does your employer discourage you from discussing your wages with your coworkers or actively discourage the concept of unions/organizing? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH
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Jul 18, 2017 04:01
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Kanine posted:quick question for everyone in this thread currently employed in a digital art field, does your employer discourage you from discussing your wages with your coworkers or actively discourage the concept of unions/organizing? Yes. Just go ahead and apply this answer to everyone in this thread. And really most non-public companies.
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Jul 18, 2017 04:06
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Have there been any successful attempts at employees of a games/vfx company in the united states unionizing?
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Jul 18, 2017 04:51
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Kanine posted:Have there been any successful attempts at employees of a games/vfx company in the united states unionizing? Hasn't ever happened in games as far as I know. There was a Dreamworks studio that unionized a while back but I don't know whats up with it currently. You can talk about wages with your colleages that are also friends but with others it might be risky, although everyone should as it's one of the best ways to know if you're getting shafted by management in regards to others doing the same work.
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Jul 18, 2017 05:11
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Anyone here can PM me and I'll tell you the salaries I've had as a 3d environment artist in the games industry (along with where I was living at the time). It is literally counter to your interests to not learn about other professionals' salaries and there's nothing legally preventing you from sharing yours. Employers will not like you talking about it because it exclusively serves their interests to keep you in the dark but there's no law or anything against it. Do it in secret with people you trust but please do it.
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Jul 18, 2017 08:21
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Also checking out glassdoor you can get a pretty accurate idea of salaries depending on how many people have submitted to it. I definitely use it as a baseline for my negotiating if there's a point of reference.
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Jul 18, 2017 09:04
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Yeah, people in these industries get screwed over pretty severely sometimes, so having an idea of pay can help to at least understand what you're getting into. This is actually a pretty topical conversation for me right now - can't go into specifics, but being a very small vfx house means we don't often have the budgets to get some of the A+ level talent. We pay decently imo, I'm about a year in and making close to double what I was pulling after 6 years at my previous career; but it's not gently caress you money, and if I had 5 years of professional experience and a family to support I'd probably re-approach the income. It's also why I'll never be upset about an artist turning down the job because of pay. Everyone has different circumstances and needs, and it's not my place to try to convince people to take less than they feel they're worth. I'd rather work with someone who feels they're being paid fairly, than have a talented artist who is constantly struggling to make ends meet and is overloaded with financial stress. And that's sort of the crux of it - it's far too common to have artists compromise to a dangerous level, both in pay and in job responsibilities. Breaking into the industry can be brutal, and I keep on hearing stories of artists that worked for a year on TV and movies as a lighting TD or modeler or shader, totally unpaid, all with the hope of some future employment. Or the guys that are working for near-minimum wage on gigs that the freaking runners are making more. In lieu of unions and wage discussions, treat yourself with respect, don't be afraid to do something non-industry related if you need $ (I did pizza delivery after leaving my surveying job, it gave me the time I needed to work on my skills), and set a floor for income. Sure, it can suck being offered a job that's what you want, minus the pay. But you'll feel a lot better about yourself if you're not constantly wondering if the new guy is making more than you (or worse, finding out in a work group scenario that he is).
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Jul 18, 2017 16:50
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Hey thread, modeling question. I have a part of a space ship I want to 3d print. This part has panel lines on it already. The panel lines are so small as to be basically unprintable - they just don't show up on the final part because they're too fine.   I've been trying to figure out how to make them more pronounced in a way that makes sense. My first thought was to trace them out with splines, then sweep along them with a cylinder or some other similar shape, then boolean that shape out to cut the panel lines out thicker and deeper. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in 3d Studio Max, as panel line splines have multiple overlapping intersections (like the 4-way joins) that the sweep modifier can't do anything useful with.  Any ideas about how to best accomplish what I'm after here? I've been trying to avoid totally remaking this thing.
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Jul 18, 2017 23:27
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The spline/boolean method sounds ok, providing your ship mesh is watertight/non overlapping. You might just have to hand weld the spline joins together, or use a metaball/mesher/union type operation to get a watertight mesh. Or ZBrush dynamesh.
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Jul 18, 2017 23:50
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Have been working on a diorama setpiece for my portfolio involving a dolphin in a tank serving as the brain of a spaceship. Got as far as retopoing and UVing this dolphin and its associated metally bits before I decided I hated it and wanted to start over, Old and Busted   New Hotness The bakedown above is pretty OK I think. She comes in at 9055 Tri. Revisiting the headset and doohickies design. Hardsurface stuff isn't my strength so I'm spidering around Pinterest collecting ideas still as the designs I have I'm not mega crazy about :  I was hoping maybe I could pay someone for an hour of their time to sketch through some ideas for clothing/armour for the dolphin and I could pick some design ideas to go with.
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Jul 19, 2017 01:11
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Kanine posted:quick question for everyone in this thread currently employed in a digital art field, does your employer discourage you from discussing your wages with your coworkers or actively discourage the concept of unions/organizing? Yes but you can check glassdoor for that stuff. As for unions, yeah California's animation industry is the only place where there's a union. Which is part of why companies want to send to the work elsewhere. In the past all the talent there prevented them doing that, but Dreamworks in making movies in Canada and China now, so... Kanine posted:Have there been any successful attempts at employees of a games/vfx company in the united states unionizing? People are trying. In the UK a lot of VFX artists joined BECTU. But then a bunch of them got laid off from MPC. For "unrelated" reasons, but who knows. Ccs fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 01:16
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a new thingy I've just completed... a conceptual office building design. http://ajrosales.com/aeon-office-building 
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Jul 19, 2017 18:09
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If you are American working for a big enough US company that hires foreign workers, their salaries/titles/visa dates are public information [particularly H1B workers] This works for most industries but here's a few game/post/vfx listings. You'll see VFX taper off on visas from 2013 on because of Canada/Uk subsidies and to push workers there since its way easier to get Canadian visas than US visas. Example game studio salaries: Sony Computer Entertainment [you can figure out the particular studio by the city/state] http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Sony+Computer+Entertainment+America+Llc&job=&city=&year=All+Years Blizzard Games: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Blizzard+Entertainment+Inc&job=&city=&year=All+Years Naughty Dog: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Naughty+Dog+Inc&job=&city=&year=All+Years Riot Games: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Riot+Games+Inc&job=&city=&year=All+Years Example feature animation or VFX salaries: [Gee guess which salary is Rob "I ain't moving to Vancouver" Bredow] Some ILM Data: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Industrial+Light+%26+Magic+A+Div+Of+Lucasfilm+Enter&job=&city=&year=All+Years The mouse: It's in there somewhere.. I gave up looking after 10 zillion disney company listings. DWA: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Dreamworks+Animation+Llc&job=&city=&year=All+Years Digital Domain: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Digital+Domain+30+&job=&city=&year=All+Years Other places: The Mill: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=The+Mill+Group+Inc&job=&city=&year=All+Years Blur: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Blur+Studio+Inc&job=&city=&year=All+Years The thing to keep in mind here is that these salaries tend to trend lower than US citizens [it can cost $10,000+ to secure these visas, so that usually takes a bit off the top of salaries]. Plus H1B staff tend to be.. well less competitive on wages since the visa locks them to that one company and many don't know its fairly easy to transfer visas/jobs to another facility. It's a useful base to see if you are getting screwed or not. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Jul 20, 2017 |
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Jul 20, 2017 08:14
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Ccs posted:As for unions, yeah California's animation industry is the only place where there's a union. Which is part of why companies want to send to the work elsewhere. In the past all the talent there prevented them doing that, but Dreamworks in making movies in Canada and China now, so... Dreamworks China failed spectacularly. As did DWA India [the big secret was they had to send a lot of the work back to the mothership]. A few china only projects are now fully transferred back to DWA. Captain Underpants showed that Canada is a better deal [highest subsidies in the world], but there's still a severe shortage of enough qualified backend people [comp/light/fx] to fill seats. DWA hand to send up whole lighting teams from Glendale to Montreal to help finish that show. So it'll remain to be seen how things will pan out.
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Jul 20, 2017 08:25
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Big K of Justice posted:If you are American working for a big enough US company that hires foreign workers, their salaries/titles/visa dates are public information [particularly H1B workers] Whoa this is awesome.
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Jul 20, 2017 10:10
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Biggest shock in there is: Riot Games - Head of Player Support Discipline- $179,982 Almost $180k/yr to swing the banhammer. Where do I sign up for that job? Gearman fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Jul 20, 2017 |
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Jul 20, 2017 12:08
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Living in Santa Monica that $180k/year is more like $80k/year in other regions heh
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Jul 20, 2017 15:46
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ceebee posted:Living in Santa Monica that $180k/year is more like $80k/year in other regions heh Yeah, $80k/year in other regions is trash for idiots
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Jul 20, 2017 15:48
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