So, I’m interested in improving my skills in 3D art, and I’m looking for advice. If you were interested in learning how to make 3D art (with a stylized, cartoony feel - something like Draconica/Dragon Saga), what would you do? Are there specific places where you would do coursework, companies/people you would try to intern with, etc.? (My goal would be to develop my own skills in order to produce artwork for our next video game project.)
If you’re interested in making cartoony style art models, try to learn low-poly modelling, since cartoons are not as graphically intensive as the photorealistic counterparts, and most casual cartoony game resides in (bleh) iOS gaming, so model optimization is priority to making optimal cartoon models. Also consider accurate UV texturing as your second priority, since cartoon models do not contain complex details into their textures, it would be easier for you to pick up the basics to produce simple decals for you to learn more about UV texturing in the long run.
If you don’t have a graphical tablet buy one,then create a low poly object like barrel,UV map it and start texturing.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68601
Thanks for the tips! Are there particular books, (sites), or classes that you’ve found useful?
Google the gnomon workshop, eat3d, 3dbuzz. They all have game modeling tutorials for a lot of apps.
- Checkout http://forums.cgsociety.org/.
- If modeling characters for animation, your mesh/edge loops are extremely important… especially on the face.
- If you can afford it, look into Zbrush. It is an amazing tool that lets you maintain creative/artistic flow while modeling.
Thanks for the links!: it would have taken me awhile to find these kinds of resources. I assume (based on the responses so far) that most people who have responded so far have not used formal classes/experiences (or don’t think they are necessary) for developing their art skills.
I’m not going to say formal classes/education aren’t necessary! But you can make it by self training! Learning the tools take time but that’s the easy part, becoming a better artist is mostly about you.
You asked for general 3D art training, where to start, right? Well, start with the tool you’re going to use. If it’s blender, start at blender tutorials, learn the tool for a while. Then move on to what you want to do. If it’s characters, start doing characters, each one better than the next; if it’s hard surface modelling, do that! Post your work on polycount.com, cgtalk, accept critique!
Then, you might want to expand to other tools, Zbrush is a great tool to combine with other 3d packages! Do zbrush tutorials! Never stop learning.
Advice can speed things up, especially at the beginning, but as you get better, only your perception and love for what you do can improve your current status!
Always try to keep things on the fun side. Think about what you want to do in 3d, you have to be inspired! If feels like work, don’t force it… unless you’re actually working, then you gotta do it anyway, hah! But until then, HAVE FUN!
Some good tips there are hear, I also recommend you to check out 3dm3.com there you can find as well a lot of tutorials and a great community.
Check out http://www.digitaltutors.com
A lot of their tutorials focuses on people who make movies and games.
You could start here for your stylized characters: Digital Tutors is now Pluralsight | Pluralsight
I would also advice to not only look at specific tutorials but most importantly look at other people’s art that you enjoy.
For example www.polycount.com and all the other wonderful resources these people have posted already.
See what stuff you enjoy, often people are kind enough to share wireframes, textureflats or even more insightful tips in their worfklows.
But most MOST MOST importantly: Just do stuff.
Don’t take too much time on getting your first project right. You won’t get better from just relying on finding the perfect tutorial or mentorship. You’ll get better over time eventually, because practise makes perfect. Choose your tool and then just get into it. Know how to create basic stuff and take things further. Ask for crits, accept these, don’t say something like “but it’s my first blabla…why don’t you praise me” and move forward.
If you’re looking for specific stuff/reference from other games, you’ll be surprised how many rundowns or art/tech side of games are available for free online. Soo awesome to see how others do stuff and alone from studying these pieces, you’ll learn a few tips and tricks 
You will never find anyone on the planet that can deny that a good formal art course helps inwhatever artistic direction you’re trying to get.
Problem is, you didn’t even mention what kind of stuff you want to do 
Environment, characters, both, everything else too ? For each field you’ll pick and decide on, there’s more indepth resources to find.
http://wiki.polycount.com/
Thanks again for the tips! The games I make are part of my research (as a psychology professor). I’m interested in how people learn new skills (like playing a video game), and the storyline for any game is usually irrelevant (to the research project). But, the artwork/storyline are important for getting people interested in playing the game.
For my next projects (which I won’t really get started on until next summer/fall), I’m planning to do something like a tower defense game (or tower attack) built around our last storyline (a space explorer, trapped on a alien planet). As I think about the artwork for those projects, I’m starting to lean towards 2D art in a 3D world (like Battleheart, which I’ve spent a lot of time playing recently, and I love the look and feel of the game).