I graduated from college with a degree in math-computer science and have been working in the subd/cad industry for 1 year. My company attends siggraph every year and after going this year, I was fascinated by a demonstration that created a creature using zbrush. Seeing the demo made me want to dabble in the field of 3d design for games.
I’ve looked around this Q&A site and looked around some of the job opportunities as a graphics person in indeed/monster and came to the conclusion that a BA or MA from an arts academy is probably not required. However I have no training, and am not particularly artsy. So my question is:
1) What is a good way to see if I have a passion for this field? I am very interested in the field right now but I’m not sure if I am willing to do this for a living yet. Are getting certificates a good way to see if I enjoy this field?
2) Out of the many 3d modeling programs out there, which ones are used heavily in the industry?
Answer
Knowing if you enjoy 3D art is something you’ll just have to see for yourself. If you still like learning about it and doing it a year or two down the line, it’s likely you’ll keep doing it for a while.
When your getting started, I would not recommend going out and buying a ton of expensive software and training material. You can learn the majority of 3D for little or no money. Learn Blender which is a very powerful opensource 3D application that covers a ton of 3D features:
- A full set of tools for:
- Modeling and Sculpting
- Texturing
- Rigging
- Animation
- A game engine
- A powerful raytrace render engine called Cycles
- Physical simulations for:
- Water
- Smoke and Fire
- Particles
- Cloth
- Rigid and Softbodies
- Compositor
- Motion Tracking
- Camera Tracking (for VFX)
As for good Blender training resources there are:
- Blender Cookie
- Blender Guru
- A whole list of tutorials on the Blender.org site
There are also tons of Blender tutorials on YouTube (and for some shameless self promotion, I make free Blender tutorials as well :P).
There are also some good books you can buy. Before you do, make sure they teach about latest version of Blender. Many times people buy books which use outdated versions of Blender which causes crazy amounts of confusion. At the time of writing, Blender is in version 2.6. Many Blender 2.5 books are also usable.
After you learn how to use Blender’s tools, you can use tutorials for other software and just learn the concepts. There’s a wealth of ideas/concepts/techniques you can learn from non-Blender tutorials.
I have been using Blender for 3+ years and don’t plan to switch to other software (except for maybe incorporating ZBrush into my sculpting workflow). However, the most popular (full feature) 3D software used is 3DSMax, Maya or Cinema 4D. You may want to switch over to one of these if you get into the industry.
Overall, I would just say: learn Blender. If you really like it and get into the industry, then switch over to an expensive piece of software.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : masotann , Answer Author : CharlesL