My question is the title, I need to spend at least one year drawing, and then another year making 3D models. Will my time be justified? Will I have had developed the skills needed to make good looking game assets for my own projects?
Will the time passed learning this cause me to waste my time, as it will no longer be done this way? This fear and uncertainty has caused me to not develop my artwork for a peroid of more than 15 years. As a result I still need to learn to draw, and have never developed any of the games I dreamed of making. All because of the lack of artwork.
I am angry that I did not develop my artwork skills, believing that it would be too late.
Now that I know this and am aware of my problem. What do I do now, will it be too late if I practice drawing and then practice 3d models? (I could have been very successful if I had only practice artwork.)
What makes me run out of time, is the fact that games continue being innovated, and their technology and graphics continue to get better. So much better that it would be impossible for a one man team.
Yes i believe that it will continue to always need a graphics artist. Unless intel’s AI chips become advanced enough that we no longer develop our own creativity.
I’ve learned something interesting in accounting. I’m not sure what the translated term is in english, but I’ll explain the concept.
Say you spend 30k to buy a new van to raise the amount of potential deliveries of your business. Basically you could say you traded 30k for a new van. But in reality, what you traded is what you could of bought with 30k.
Let’s say with the van, you’re pulling off an additional 15k/year. Now, possibly, if you spent 30k on production equipment instead, you’d be pulling off an additional 25k/year. So clearly, if your objective is to be as lucrative as possible, you’ve made a mistake.
Translate that to game dev. For indies, sure money is a constraint, but time is also crucial. Figure out your objective.
Quality takes time. The artists in the top tier games that you see are not ******* around when they work. If your goal is to compete with artists that do this for a living, 40+ hours a week, you’re not going to learn that in a year or 2.
If you want to see your projects come to completion within the next 2 years, while retaining a high level of quality, perhaps it is better that you do more of whatever it is that you do for a living and use the money to hire professional artists.
My opinion is that if you want to learn a new set of skills and see it profitable, you should think long term, 5+ years.
Note, this whole post is based on my assumption that your objective is to release games with high quality assets within the next few years.
Financially if you have some capital I think hiring an artist is the way to go. Being realistic, even if you spend the next few years training to draw/model great art do you think you’ll be as good as a professional artist? When you look at the time investment(not to mention skill/aptitude) hiring someone is a much better deal. I hate to say it but art is cheap, relatively, which sucks for the artists but good for me. My time is worth way more.
The programming side seems easier to develop/learn as messy code still runs - messy/amateur art can tank your game before the player is 60 seconds in or in the game trailer.
Nobody knows. Your life, your choices to make. Do you want to do that? If yes, go ahead.
In just two years you could reach the level where you’ll be able to make “okay” models/drawings, but most likely will not reach the level of people who dedicated a lot of time to it. Basically, you’ll have significant improvement in both skills, but will not reach level of a pro/master. (Then again, while mastering a skill, there’s a matter of diminishing returns…)
Both drawing and modeling are massive subjects.
You will not ever “catch up” with them, so stop worrying about it. Find a project you’d like to do, work on it, and ignore the “technolgoical advances” noise. There are too many things happening for you to be able to “catch up” or even utilize all of them. So, decide on a project, art style, and ignore distractions.
Never let the industry scare you off based on its “high tech” ways and people with decades of experience…
One day those devs are gonna retire, who will take the role they filled? It could be you!
Everybody as an individual started from knowing jack squat, and learned the absolute basics, then learned some slightly more advanced stuff… and they worked up to being able to use those industry leading tools and techniques, and you can do the exact same thing, and the learning curve is getting easier all the time as more and more tutorials and documentation and just plain better software come out…
Also, you don’t need to learn how to draw to move on to 3D modeling, if your end goal is to produce 3D artwork. Depending on the person, it does help, but it’s definitely not a prerequisite.
If you really enjoyed art, you would have begun a long time ago. And if you don’t enjoy it, spending a couple of years getting to a decent level is not going to be worth the hassle. Just do whatever it is you’re compelled toward and hire out the work that you’re not interested in.
A someone who have always been around artist up to a very recent time, 1 years is enough to get at top level, past that point you will evolve sideways (developing personality and flair, there is no formula for that) so there is no point comparing yourself to everyone else. You must understand that any advance technique and art technology are only update on a few fundamental.
Now you might come across a lot of short term tutorial (they are less efficient in that they focus on “feeling good loop” for motivation), if you want to be REALLY™ good, forget about them, to get to the top level you need to go through the harsh swamp, and it’s not hard either, it’s just tedious and a huge grind. Also forget about motivation, what you want is to develop habit, habit is stronger than motivation, once the routine kicks in, the grind become automatic, don’t have any expectation just do it. In art, skills isn’t about creativity, that’s another field entirely, focus on execution first, creativity can wait because without skills you are stuck.
So learn the fundamental, even pro don’t stop practicing them, things like drawing line, circle, shapes, volumes and composition, that’s all. Learn about color theory and color space, gestalt, copy master, do observation study. Focus on replicating exactly thing until it’s indistinguishable. I have seen people from all age become master in month, that’s not impossible, the only skill you need is persistence.
Here is someone who did just that, he was a programmer:
In English the concept is called opportunity cost. Basically the cost of every decision can be measured in terms of things you can no longer do because of the choice you have made. Its an important concept. Any many people often miss it in game development.
Sure, you can make all the art yourself. But every minute you spend on art is an minute you can’t spend on code or sound or business or whatever.
Honestly? Sounds like you are likely to die of old age before you accomplish anything useful.
If you want to be an artist, go make art. If you want to be a game developer, go make games. If you want to be a coder, go make code. However most of these disciplines belong to people who are driven. I am a coder, I always end up making code. Even when I’m not coding I’m frequently making mathematical toys. My wife is an artist, she is always painting or coloring or making costumes. Its just part of who we are.
If you’ve done nothing for 15 years, its not likely you will do anything over the next 15. Or the 15 after that. And so on until it really is too late.
I think your scope is too high for your skill set, I was also going towards learning 3D modelling and all that and took forever. I naturally had drawing skills but the scope of 3D modelling and everything that comes with it is beyond my limitations and time constraints. Switched to pixel art, got up and running doing decent work in a few weeks, next I was completing every aspect of my game for graphical asset wise. Can learn to 3D model, still doesn’t solve the art needed for UI, and everything else.
Hey, I worked for years as a geologist. Later decided to be a writer for a game development company. Then after that company folded, we started our own company. I could write lore and I wasn’t bad at design. While I have two coders so didn’t need to learn programming, we had only 2d artists. So I taught myself how to make 3d models. At first, it was so hard, I just couldn’t get it. I gave up several times, but then picked it up again. Blender was confusing so switched to Maya and lo and behold, I can now model. It took me 2 years to learn it all, with UVs and texturing being last on the list, but I feel completely comfortable with most projects. I have not done character models but I don’t need them so I am concentrating on improving on what I can do.
The point is, we never stop learning and we can develop new skills all through our lives. I have grown children so I am no spring chicken. I don’t feel my years wasted but I do envy those of you getting into the game development field as young people. I definitely do not plan to waste my time NOT learning new things and NOT making games. It is so much fun.
If you want to draw, just do it! Keep at it. A great site two of my daughters use (talented artists) is http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ They have videos on traditional, digital and 3d art from beginner to advanced.
As usual, you provide sound advice. This is true, clear and perfect advice.
Sadly, I think you’re advice may be off-topic. ;). At no point does the OP express any want, desire or even mild interest in wanting to draw. Just a “need”. Like a chore that must be accomplished, “passing time” as he said. Learning to draw is skill that requires virtually nothing other than desire to achieve. Effort is required to get good at it, but with no effort in 15 years, and no desire to actually do it, it is a completely pointless endeavor.
People dedicate their lives to it, some to a lesser degree, and just for fun. Even the most driven and passionate will fall short, those who are good at it usually still have the drive to improve. I remember consoling my niece when she was about 9 and in tears because she couldn’t get hands to look the way she wanted. (She is phenomenal now).
My advice to the OP is just to forget about it. If after 15 years they can’t find enough desire to even start, and post on an Internet forum asking if they should… welll. They don’t have what is required to start, they don’t have what is needed to finish. Spend that time doing what you want, and get good at that. Life is to short to waste time on stuff you can’t or don’t want to do.
One of the best pieces of career advice I was given was to focus on getting good at the stuff I was good at and wanted to do, and to surround myself with people who did the other bits.
Collaboration is the key to getting any great work done.
I have no idea how old the OP is or whatever challenges he has in life. While I agree that coming to a forum to ask for help with something he has not been motivated to do for 15 years does not bode well for him, I am a mother. I have a young adult son right now who is on the verge of a great career after he finishes school…if he can stop his compulsion to play video games all the time and miss college assignments. An inability to motivate yourself to do something that could be good for you is very sad. In my head I want to tell him to quit school and go work at a menial job where he makes enough to pay rent and buy games. In my heart, I want him to finish and have that chance for something better.
So…while it might be a waste of time, I would rather give the OP something that may help, even if it doesn’t. You never know when it might work and it certainly doesn’t help to throw water on his idea. He did have the courage to speak up, now whether that was to find people to tell him to give up so he didn’t have to do anything or if he was hoping for some magic words to inspire him…who knows.
It is so much fun.