Research Project: Handpainting

 Originally I was going to research using Substance Designer but I had to swap to hand painting last minute because I was unable to find time to use Designer for any of my projects. 

What I learned most is that the hand painting process takes a lot of time and practice. Something that is not a luxury I have. You need to do a lot of material painting studies to better understand how light and color interacts between things like metal, wood, stone, etc.

I didn't really get to create something of quality due to the fact that I just do not have the skills at the time of writing or the time to actually practice. I would also practice more with just painting to get materials correct and study more fundamentals on light and color.  

 I would recommend looking at these outube channels for more information on techniques. These will show you how to set things up in 3DCoat to get the easiest experience with hand painting.

 

 

I would also recommend looking at Jeff Parrott's (Associate Art Director of World of Warcraft) LinkedIn as he posts a lot of good advice about hand painting and how to get better at it.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/artofjeffp/

There are also two communities that I think would be good to join to get feedback, and those are The Handpainter's Guild and the discord of the Youtuber I posted above ZugZug.

https://discord.gg/zugzug-studio 

https://handpaintersguild.com/

Artist Roadmap

 

Questions:

1. If you could project out past graduation, what is your overall career goal? 

 

 My overall career goal is to get into a company where I can do 3D art as my career. My top priority would be in the game industry. Be it a AAA studio, indie, big team, small team, it would not matter to me. Contributing to the next generation of games that people can enjoy is my top goal. However I am not opposed to working for a simulation company, as I have applied to Mass Virtual before. I just prefer my job to involve 3D modeling as that is what I enjoy the most. That could include the theme park industry as well.

 

2. If you could project out into starting your career, what sounds the most appealing to you? 

 

If I could start out as an environment artist from that start that would be my ideal. However I would not be opposed to being a hard surface artist or a weapon/prop artist. I was originally interested in being a weapon artist after doing a tutorial with 3Dex and really enjoyed the process. I feel a vehicle artist may not be to dissimilar to being a hard surface artist but much more detailed and with many literal moving parts. At this point in my studies I do not see myself every becoming a character or lighting artist as a career choice. But I would like to learn some more lighting tricks to help show off my actual interests the best I can.

3. What are some of the top companies that you are interested in working for? 

 

 My top company would be Blizzard working on the WoW team. That has been a life-long dream. The art team at Blizzard has never failed to amaze me and I would like to work along side them and learn from them. However I think I would need to improve my hand painting skills to be considered. But I would also love to work for a company like Santa Monica Studios or Naughty Dog. Their foliage work has always amazed me and that workflow is known to me. But I need to improve my quality of work. I could honestly see myself working at most studios because I feel my skill set is very versatile so I haven't really thought of any major big names. I just enjoy making foliage and every studio needs foliage in their game in one form or another.

Artist Vision Board

Studies and Research

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Bradford Smith - material artist. What is expected for students coming out of school for an entry level position.

Talk to Leah Augustine from Cohort 13

Substance Designer - research, need to give a mini project to work on to keep skills sharp

Daily exercise in Zbrush - 15mins - 30mins

Think of the environment project for the third semester now - so that it can be planned out.

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