So, you saw Toy Story and you thought “YES! This is what I want to do for the rest of my life!” … welcome to the world of 3D! I am a self taught CG Artist who started 8 years ago and today, I want to share with you a couple of tips of things that I have learned along the way.
1. The emotion
Then you have learned your first modeling technique. Well done! Keep learning! I say this because the first thing I wanted to do at that stage was to model something on my own. I felt like I could model anything in that moment and my mind was flowing with ideas and inspiration was pouring out of anything and everything. The mistake I made was that I strayed from the tutorials too early, went ahead and started modeling a car. Of course, unsurprisingly, it failed a lot and the results were very unmotivating for me. So try to avoid the temptation to create something from scratch too early, make sure your emotion doesn’t get the best of you. By no means am I saying not to be creative, of course! Just make sure you have the right skills for the job to avoid demotivating results.
2. Too fast
One technique at a time. Don’t rush to learn everything at once. When learning a technique, make sure you understand how it works, have tried to try it, and understand its flaws. As with anything else, learning too many things in one go will end in poor understanding of each.
3. Specialize
Think engineering for a second. Is there a “general engineer”? One who can do anything and everything? No. You have Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, etc. Like engineering, 3D art works the same way. Once you get the hang of it and understand many of the tools and techniques, focus your time and effort on something specific. It can be anything from character creation to vehicle creation to environment creation.
4. Don’t forget the rendering!
3D modeling is amazing for sure, but at the same time, you want to be able to show off your work. This was a mistake I made on my way. I ignored learning about texturing and setting the environment until the very end. Of course, I got a good grip on modeling, but I ended up with a lot of clay renders until I had to sit back and diverge to learn the proper rendering techniques.
5. Beware of inner beauty!
Not seriously! Sooner or later you will experience that you will be working on a 3D model for a long time and you will have lost all sense of what looks good or bad. You’ll walk away from your computer after long hours of work and come back the next day and yell, “Yuck!” To avoid that, take short breaks every now and then to rest your eyes and brain from the image you’ve been looking at for the past few hours.
6. Burnout leads to hasty results
Feel like you’ve spent too much time on a one-time model? Do you feel like you are getting bored? Drop that mouse immediately! You will find that sometimes you get so immersed in the model and you get carried away by time. It’s not until you’re faced with a challenge that you realize how long you’ve been staring at your monitor. This is the point where you are mentally drained, frustrated, and may start to become unmotivated. Rather than trying to find a “simple solution” to your problem or muttering the words “this will do for now,” simply drop the model and return to it when you are in a more focused state of mind. You won’t believe what a good night’s sleep will do. Don’t try to create something temporary and mediocre; it will just ruin everything you’ve done so far.
7. Don’t lose sight of your goal
As with anything, the scope of a 3D modeling project grows wider and wider with the excitement of new ideas that have come your way. If you have decided to start working on a project, describe your objectives and expected results and meet them. Amusing yourself with different ideas and adding snippets here and there will usually end in the project being erased.