Take a look at these four 3D Artists from the Talent Platform community who talked about their dream jobs, their ways to become a better artist, and what software is their favorite.
What is Your Dream Job?
My dream job would be where I get the creative freedom to make awesome games and technically strong art pieces. I always wanted to start my own studio sometime in the future, so I want to work towards that and improve my skills, learn as much as I can from the job roles that I am assigned to.
How Do You Upgrade Your Skills?
I am always open to learn new things and improve my skills. To collaborate with a team and work on a project is usually my preferred method to get better at what I do. I believe that learning from practical implementation is better than trying to attend a course or focus on one particular skill at a time.
If You Could Choose 3 Software for the Production, What Would Those Be?
It is hard to choose only 3 but here I go Unreal Engine, Blender, and Quixel Mixer. Unreal Engine is a very versatile and quite powerful tool that I am very comfortable with. I like how easy it is to use blueprints and node-based material coding.
And coming to Blender it is easily one of the best open-source free modeling software in the market. It has powerful tools and a very good community to build plugins etc. to make the life of a modeler easier.
Quixel Mixer is very convenient to use and has a huge library from Megascans to use for all sorts of texturing and materials. These tools give me a great and simple pipeline for basically any type of project I work on.
What is Your Dream Job?
My dream job would be to work at a studio like Rosh Studios (Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Onesal (Tokyo, Japan), Tendril (Toronto, Canada). These studios are a huge inspiration to me for working in the 3D Design industry. I'd love to work on projects that involve branding for commercials or general marketing.
How Do You Upgrade Your Skills?
Practice makes perfect. I spend at least a few hours every day just playing around in Cinema4D. As soon as I find a new project to dive into I have the habit of not stopping until it's done. I watch a lot of courses to get better at what I do, but I do feel like you're just copying things you see.
It is great to learn new techniques that you can apply to your own personal projects. All of what I do is in my free time. If I'm not working I'm busy getting better at what I love.
If You Could Choose 3 Software for the Production, What Would Those Be?
Cinema4D is my staple software at the moment. In combination with Octane Renderer, you can create stunning renders for all kinds of purposes. I work the most with these two. If I had to choose another software to work in it would be a toss-up between Blender of Unreal Engine (for real-time rendering). Although I don't have much experience in Blender or Unreal Engine I'm eager the learn about them.
What is Your Dream Job?
First of all, I would like to be able to maintain a healthy rapport between personal life and work. Then, having a job where I can always learn new things and/or improve my work, where I can keep up with the changes in the industry would be awesome. I would also like to be able to help build interesting worlds.
How Do You Upgrade Your Skills?
I decided to make a career change after I turned 30 years old. And I chose a self-taught approach this time. I used tutorials to get to know my way with certain software and pipelines. Then I would build something myself: starting small with props. When I need to learn something new, I either search for solutions to a very specific problem, or if I am dealing with something completely new I turn to tutorials again. Lucky for me, we now live in an age where so many artists share their knowledge on so many platforms.
Free time is a weird concept for me right now. I am a beginner who is putting her portfolio together and is just getting confident enough to apply for jobs. I don't spend time working at a job, so one would say I've got all the free time in the world. On the other hand, because I don't go to a job, I can work all day long to improve myself and my workflow. There is no difference between weekdays or weekends and no after-work free time. It's just time I can use wisely and with purpose.
As I didn't enroll in any courses, I can only talk about my experience with working on projects, my personal ones. I've only worked on one more complex project: a small real-time environment that I have recently finished. It was a great learning experience and an even more satisfying one, once I got to finish it. I believe only actually working on your own stuff you get to consolidate the things you can learn from tutorials/courses. At least this is how it goes for me.
If You Could Choose 3 Software for the Production, What Would Those Be?
My go-to modeling software is Maya. I find its tools to be handy, easy to use, and even enjoyable.
For texturing, I'd choose the Substance Painter and Designer pack. Painter in itself would be enough for dealing with everything relating to baking and texturing. And Designer comes as a powerful tool to make your workflow faster, better. Also, the things one can do with Substance Designer are amazing.
I'd absolutely need a game engine in which I can put together my work. Until now I have only worked in Unreal Engine 4. I am quite satisfied with the tools at hand for the type of work I am using them for.
What is Your Dream Job?
My dream is just to work on stylized, fantasy games. Or a stylized sci-fi game like Wildstar. My career has had a lot of twists and turns! I mostly focused on realism back in college, I've worked on both realistic and stylized games and even spent some time working for an orthodontic company. I've spent the past few years refocusing my portfolio on handpainted textures and am hoping to land a position with a studio working in that style. It's definitely been an interesting journey so far!
How Do You Upgrade Your Skills?
I try to work on my art at least a little bit every day, even if it's just sketching out some ideas or doing some material studies. I really like taking classes and participating in challenges, I feel like the external deadlines and structure help me focus better and I noodle around less than I do on personal projects.
If You Could Choose 3 Software for the Production, What Would Those Be?
Maya, my preferred modeling software. I love the radial menus and I've been using them for so long I have really good muscle memory.
3DCoat is great for painting directly on the model and painting out any UV seams.
Photoshop because it has such a great brush engine, plus layer effects and masks. I do the bulk of my painting in Photoshop and it's so easy to go back and forth between it and 3DCoat.
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