/3/ - 3DCG

>>505599
Average freelancers charges 10-30 USD in the west, when a poor indian is willing to do it for 5-10 USD per hour.

In 2007 I could easily charge 80 USD per hour for a few simple environments at Liquid development.

The market for freelance work is so extremely saturated nowadays.

>>505582
I used a example from the internet. This work is not done by me. I think it's from polycunt environment contest. If you look closely, you see it is still using old tradional specular/gloss/diffuse maps, probally UDK. Probally made 2-3 years ago.
Since 2014, we have been extensively using PBR in our pipelines.

During crunch periods, we do make environments that look crappy like that. 2/3 days for a environment like that will burn out most newcomers.

Where I work. http://i.imgur.com/6F73Wza.png
I am required to finish this scene in less then a week. I wrote a few scripts in the past to automate tedious repetitive tasks such as 1 second boxmapping + retaining texel ratio.
With quixel you can build a scene like this in less then 3.

Question.
How can a artist like that who commits fraud, theft, still manage to survive?
I thought this industry is small and tight, people gossip, you know.
How the hell does he still get paid clients?
He is not even that good. Digital tutors tier, mostly recycled basemeshes.

That ''noisy technojunk model'' was build by Tor Frick. Your implying that most of your modelling students can do that in 1 term.
Then you just wasted 20 K on shitty college diploma, which won't guarantee you a position in this industry.
If your teachers hasn't taught you anything about Subdivision modelling and hardsurface baking. Then you won't stand a chance making it in this industry as a asset artist.

This noisy technojunk model wasn't build in low poly with normals generated from Quixel suite.
The base normals were captured from a highpoly subdivision model. The details that you see like rivets are blended on top of the existing normal layer.
If you comprehend the complexity of this model, then you just wasted 20k on a shitty education.

If your not planning to work 12 hours a day to build up your portfolio after graduation. You won't stand a chance. Your competing against artists from all over the world. We have guys from India, Europe, Canada, China.
For new fags thinking working in the games is fun. This is a sausage factory.

My noob card just got pulled?
I am not sure what you mean.

For those who say modular environment art is easy.
Many variables.
Hardsurface baking follows complex procedures. Tangent normals, smoothing groups, seams, degree angles.
Making it modular and seams while retaining textures that don't show repetition is a complex art form.
Character artist have alot easier time baking high poly source data to normal.

The workflow for cinematic CGI and Game Art is different.
Adapting to cinematic cgi will takes perhaps months or years. Why take that risk?
Within 10 years, games will reach cinematic quality.

If you cannot tell the difference between adam fisher style and this copy cat, then good luck becoming a artist.

tools that I use in my current workflow.
Maya
3dsmax


Substance designer
Substance painter
Photoshop
knald
quixel suite
Headus UV
meshlab

Zbrush


Xnormal
Handplane
World machine


PureRef

It is true. You can cut down a tree with a axe but a chainsaw is faster.
For me it is all about speed and efficiency.
Investing time in tools is my strategy for not becoming redundant.

This is a very sensitive subject among industry artist. Artists know damn well that competition is getting insane. In order to cope with the demands. 1/ efficiency 2/ speed 3/ productivity. You gotta stay up to date with the latest techniques, workflows or become redundant.
Redundant due to speed. If you keep up missing out on milestones you will be laid off.
Average production time of a next-gen character is 1 up to 3 months. This is a business, if you can get shit done within a faster timeframe and you can pass down that knowledge to your team. You become a valueable asset to the company.

When I first entered the industry. You needed to know 2 tools. max and photoshop.

Now you have 6 different tools that perform the same operation. Knald, Crazybump, Substance designer, Substance Painter, 3dCoat, Quixel suite.

Composition, color theory is pretty irrelevant if you produce assets based on 2D concepts.
But for environment artist, level designers composition, color and lighting is key.

I put in 2 extra hours on top of my existing 9. So 11 hours per day. I plan on keeping this up till I am 30

2080 hours was spent on working on a non disclosed project. Full time.
Around 1000 hours of my free-time was invested on new workflows (PBR)
tools : substance painter, designer, ndo, Unreal 4.

For those who seek employment in the game industry. You either sacrifice or become redundant.

I have a question for my fellow artists who are currently working in the game industry.


Competition in this industry is getting insane. Gotta stay on top or become redundant.
How much time do you dedicate per week on personal improvement?

I dedicate on average 1-3 hour per day up to 20 hours per week.

Soup, /3/. I pose to you a question regarding the fine art of game design, more specifically the nitty-gritty of getting animations to blend.

So how would one go about doing animation blending? Is there a 'best' way to go at it? I would be using UDK.