The best way to learn 3d?

#1

Hi, i have a bit of exp with color, light, after effects and video editing. but i realise that 3d looks way more intersting to me. I like zbrush, but almost everywhere studios require maya or max, not a zbrush. My first goal is to join studio as a junior or to be in able to complete a freelance job. I guess direction of 3d for the first time will be general, untill i realize which destination i like more. But there is so much tutorials, courses etc that i need advice, how to better start to learn and how to prioritize all of it.

#2

3D may look more interesting. However, make no mistake. It’s not easy. The “10,000 Hour Rule” is very much still in effect. As a complete newbie, you’re going to be unemployable in this capacity for a few years. It’s a journey. If that doesn’t scare you, read on.

The idea that every studio requires Maya or 3dsmax isn’t quite accurate, but also not far from the truth. If you’re looking at working in a major game or film studio then, yes, extensive knowledge of one of Autodesk’s packages is a must. It’s not because Maya or 3dsmax are the best, but because they’re among the oldest.

As such, they’re what you might call “entrenched” in the industry. Schools and training services teach them. Plugin developers, predictably, follow the money and cater to them. Entire pipelines and in-house tools are built around them. IOW, being first (or close to first) has its advantages.

Having said that, this only speaks for a few industries and not even the entirety of them. There are other industries beyond film and games. Advertising. Motion Graphics. Manufacturing. Television & Web. These industries are often more flexible when it comes to app choice and have different priorities (eg. budgets). It’s not uncommon to see one of these industries dominated far more by Cinema4D or Rhino3D than Maya and 3dsmax because the tools therein are better suited to the task.

If you’re into TV or web VFX, results at a sensible price are often going to matter far more than app choice. Get it done now, fast, and cheap. Maya or 3dsmax might still be the app of choice, but they might not be the only one.

It’s also important to note that not every player within the film or game industries is big. Beyond indies and startups, there are numerous smaller studios and subcontractors. Their core priority is often the end product, the deliverables. Because of that, they’re far more flexible. If you can import/export to the proper formats, get your work done efficiently and expeditiously, and nothing you do upsets the apple cart, use whatever works - or what your manager will approve.

Okay then…

Being that you’re in virgin territory, I would be hard pressed to recommend a pricey piece of commercial software that you may not like and may not be any good with.

Autodesk, like many other companies these days, is a service provider. Their software is available by subscription only. Said subscription can set you back by up to $4k+ for a 3yr contract; Don’t fall for the $195/month scam because that’ll set you back by $7k in that same 3yr period. Autodesk also offers a stripped down version (Maya LT), but it’s so crippled that it’s hardly worth the $675 for a 3yr contract. It’s competent, but not feature rich or big on interoperability. It tries to be an island unto itself and that doesn’t really pan out so well.

Please be aware that Autodesk offers a free EDU version which is functionally identical to its expensive commercial brother. However, it is NOT for you - unless you’re a matriculating student at an accredited university or certified mentor. While they don’t strictly enforce this policy, they DO have a license compliance department that reserves the right. Users (big and small) HAVE gotten busted and charged full license rates before. It’s pretty much an honor system thing, atm. Let’s just not abuse a system designed for enrolled students. Plus, even if you were a student, commercial use is prohibited. Freelance would be a no go.

Maxon offers Cinema4D on both a subscription and perpetual license basis. However, that can set you back by $720/yr or $3,500 for the non-expiring version. It’s a great app to be sure. I was a user for about 10 years. However, it’s a lot of money to spend if you’ve got no experience doing 3D. (I obtained my first version for free as part of a product review I was writing at the time.) Also, if you end up falling in love with C4D, your job choices will be more limited. It is often the app of choice for motion graphics and pre-production artists. Other industries use it too, but these artists favor it for a variety of reasons. If the prospect of limiting your job options turns you off then steer clear.

Newtek offers a perpetual license of its LightWave 2019.1 at reasonable $995. The app itself is feature rich and competitive. A talented LightWave artist can get results comparable to those in any of the other apps, Maya and 3dsmax included. On initial inspection, it would appear that LightWave’s biggest flaw is its split UI design that sometimes makes it feel like a leftover from 1997. However, with enough patience, you might be able to get used to the split between the Modeler and Layout modules.

No. LightWave’s real flaw is its timing. 15-20 years ago, LightWave was everywhere. It was a major industry player. You could see LightWave work on display in a number of high profile film/TV and game projects including: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, Star Trek DS9, 300, Ghost Rider, Terminator 3, X-Men, Deus Ex, Quake 4, Super Mario Sunshine, Kingdom Hearts, and so on.

HOWEVER, internal disagreement at Newtek in 2001 led to a splintering of the development team. Core members working on LightWave departed to found Luxology, which would go on to develop LightWave’s spiritual successor - MODO. LightWave’s development has continued relatively unabated, but team shakeup and a rewrite misstep cost it its standing in the community. Newtek lost a lot of ground to the already mega powerful Autodesk. As such, use of LightWave is not nearly a prevalent as it once was. It DOES still pop up in modern projects though, including: Star Wars VII, The Orville, Big Bang Theory, Walking Dead, Batman Ninja, Family Guy, and a number of other projects.

On the topic of MODO, it’s a solid app. As I said, it’s the spiritual successor to LightWave. The look is different (and integrated), but the mindset is quite similar. I’m reluctant to recommend it for a few reasons.

First off, MODO’s gotten a bit bloated in recent years. What once felt streamlined now feels a bit clunky in places. It’s in need of a refreshing.

Second, MODO is now owned by The Foundry, having originally been developed by Luxology. Foundry’s license compliance is, historically, notoriously aggressive. Search CG Talk. A few legitimate license holders have complained about being sent messages claiming that they were using pirated copies. Obviously, this was not the case, but the claim is still troubling. Blocking Foundry in your firewall doesn’t work either because, apparently, their apps circumvent usual blocking.

Finally, as with the other commercial apps, price is going to be a concern when you don’t even know whether you’re going to like or be any good at 3D. MODO can be had at a reasonable $600/yr subscription or $1,800 perpetual, but that’s still a lot when you’re still exploring your options.

There are numerous other apps out there. They just about all offer 30-day trials. Give them a whirl. See if you’re any good and they’re worth more of your time and your money.

Personally, I would recommend Blender. It’s 100% free. It’s super robust. It plays well with other apps. The results are comparable to anything a similarly skilled Maya artist might produce. Using Blender alone, you can: Sculpt, Model, 3D Animate, Render, Composite, Texture Paint, & 2D animate. It’s a veritable Swiss Army knife.

Blender’s numbering convention is a bit odd. At v2.80, one might think that it’s a fairly young product. It’s not. Blender has been around for about 25 years now. Blender v2.80 is considered version 80 of the v2 series - if that makes any sense. Many within the community (rightfully) feel that the numbering convention is outdated. The v2.80 rewrite was so thorough and significant that it should’ve been named Blender v3.0 instead. Ignore that silliness though. Just enjoy it for what it is - awesomeness at a zero dollar price. :slight_smile:

Blender’s #1 failing is not its feature set. Like every app, it has its pros and cons. It lags in some areas, but excels in others. Maya is no different. It has its own (major) shortcomings and strengths. All told, however, Blender is as feature rich as anything out there. Blender’s biggest failing is, well, Autodesk. Being that apps like Maya and 3dsmax are de facto standards, widespread adoption by other apps is unlikely. Also, Blender is open source and that’s a model that doesn’t always fit well with how big studio productions work.

That’s not to say that Blender is dead in the water though. Not even close. Its popularity is on the rise. As recently as a few months ago, the Blender Foudation received millions of dollars in grants from Ubisoft and Epic Games. It would seem that these to giants are looking to influence and further Blender’s development for use in the games industry - perhaps as a response to Autodesk’s increasingly heavy handed approach to licensing and pricing. Either way, the jobs might not be there in force (yet), but Blender’s getting some major attention from serious industry players these days. A major anime studio also recently dumped Autodesk products in favor of Blender too.

I would say, starting off, learn with Blender. The tools and terminology are all pretty much industry standard. Nothing odd. Learn as much as you can. Produce as much as you can. Pick up some freelance assignments once you reach that level. If you still want to move onto Maya then the money will now be there; Thank you, freelance. Once you do move on, if you choose to take that path, your core concern will then just be UI. The skills you learn in Blender will translate. Technique is program agnostic. All you need to learn is who moved your damn buttons and menus. :stuck_out_tongue:

Beyond app choice…

  1. Technique is king. As I just said, technique is portable. Apps come and go. Trust me. That app that you love today might be dust in 2 years. Nothing lasts forever and no app is truly safe, Maya included. Should your favorite app get phased out, at least you have your core knowledge to fall back on.

  2. Never ignore traditional skills. Color. Composition. Anatomy. Lighting. Design. ETC. You don’t have to be a great (or even good) traditional artist, but having the associate skills and knowledge in your back pocket can greatly advance your 3D. Learning the app is just a start. The rest is art. A great 3D artist isn’t a mere button pusher.

  3. Start from the beginning. I know that it’s tempting to jump to the last page of the book and read the ending. However, that robs you of the journey. A lot of aspiring 3D artists want to jump directly into character modeling or animation. However, those are considered to be “advanced” topics. Nobody’s stopping you if you want to try your hand at it. You’re welcome to. Just know that it’ll be like attending a 4th year Calculus class at college when you’re still struggling with high school Algebra.

    IOW, there’s a lot of foundation material leading up to character work. CSG. Extrude. Lathe Edge spinning. Retopology. When to use quads over triangle and why ngons are bad. Edge loops and rings. The pitfalls of non-manifold topology. UV mapping. Blend shapes. Rigging. Foot/toe/heel rolls. Constraints. Nodes. ETC ETC ETC. You can just jump to character work and learn this stuff along the way, but you might be making your self-education harder. Again, start at the beginning.

  4. Start small. Manageable projects that each teach new skills. Don’t just look to replicate somebody else’s work. Figure out what they’re trying to teach and apply that to your own stuff. Knowledge is additive. You learn skills to make a crate. Those skills can be applied to making a sofa. The new skills you learn working on the sofa can be parlayed into making a simple lamp or game controller. The new skills that you learn there can be applied to… blah blah blah.

  5. Solicit critiques, but not from friends or family. They might always be available, but they are usually not honest enough. Even when they are, it’s unlikely that they will know what’s wrong or how to fix it. Soliciting the advice of trained/seasoned artists is important. We’ll tell you what’s wrong. We’ll tell you what (we think) is good. We’ll point you in the right direction when you’re off course. We’ve all been there. Criticism sometimes hurts, but a critical opinion is better than praise. You’ll learn nothing by people constantly telling you how good you are or being too nice.

  6. You suck. You’ll always suck. Get used to it. It’s true. When you’re a newbie, all of your shortcomings are on display for the world to see. Everybody will be critical of you. Once you hit that pro level, your harshest critic will be you and your shortcomings will always be all that you can see. The best you can ever hope for is to abandon a piece at a point where nobody else will see what you do. In truth, art is never TRULY finished. It’s the experienced artist who knows when to call it quits. A newbie calls it a day when they should be pushing forward. How much you suck (to others) all depends on how well you can hide your flaws.

  7. Mastery is an illusion. They say that it takes 10k hours to master any skill. That’s bullsh** though. Consider those 10k hours a deposit. 10k hours is about the equivalent of getting your 4 year college diploma. That BS in Biology is that starting point. You’re nowhere near where you should be if you wanted to be a doctor. That requires even more school and even more hands on experience beyond that. Learning CG is no different. The stuff you learn in those first 10k hours is essential, but your journey doesn’t end there. You’ll never stop learning new techniques, especially since CG is constantly evolving. You’ll never run out of creative avenues to explore or ways to grow. Nobody ever becomes a master. Not really. The moment you stop learning is the moment that you’re dead in the water.

  8. Make connections. Forums. Social media. Conventions. Be seen. Press flesh. Get your work and name out there. Once you’re actually worth hiring, you might find that clients find you instead of the other way around. If you’re not visible then you’re invisible.

  9. You can’t escape your reputation. The industry as a whole is big. It’s just not so big that you can hide. Be humble. Be helpful. Be honest.

  10. Work incrementally and progressively. My first reaction to any big project is, “Holy crap! How the hell am I supposed to make THAT?!?” Break it down. Think big, but act small. It seems obvious, but newbies often try to tackle the whole when they should be looking at the parts instead. For example, your character sculpt might end up being a whopping 25mil polygons large. Detail everywhere. Real fancy. However, it might start off far more basic and as simple as a sphere. Never add new details or layers of detail until you’ve exhausted the current one(s). You don’t work on the engraving of a gun handle when you haven’t even nailed the basic shape.

  11. YouTube is a good start for training material, but that’s all it is - a start. You can learn a lot, but how much you learn all depends on the video. Not everybody who puts a tutorial out there should be. They may make great art, but suck as teachers. They may make great videos, but are terrible artists. That’s life, right? Invest in some paid training material if you can afford it. The quality can also vary, but the standard is usually higher. You don’t see that many 12y kids selling tons of $75 training videos.

  12. Don’t rely on plugins. A good plugin can save your skin a thousand times over. It can do in minutes what might take you hours to do by hand. However, plugin developers are ephemera. They come and go, taking their support with them. There’s no guarantee that your favorite plugin will be updated to the next version of your app. If you rely on a few plugins and they suddenly disappear, you’re screwed. Master ways to do without in case you have to. Better yet, learn to write your own helper scripts or plugins - if you can.

  13. Books. Yep. Those paper things that sometimes smell of grandma. Buy some. Design. Anatomy. Fine art. Photo journals. Anything that can inspire your or further your knowledge of the traditional. A good book can sometimes save you in a way that not even the internet can.

  14. Get a camera. Your cell’s camera is okay, but it’s only a starting point. A good digital camera and tripod are essential parts of any 3D artist’s toolbox. You’ll use that camera for inspiration. You’ll use it to capture reference material. You’ll use it to photo materials for future textures. As a 3D artist, you’ll have to wear a lot of hats including amateur photographer.

  15. You’re only as good as your last project. Keep creating. Even a small speed piece during lunch can help you hone your skills to a fine point and keep you from getting rusty.

  16. Always check your model from different angles and under different lighting and material conditions. Switching things up can help you identify problems quickly.

  17. A failure to plan is a plan for failure, as they say. It’s okay to improv when you’re jamming for fun. However, you never want to just wing it when the project is complicated. You might have a cool idea for a character or object in your head, but it’s always better and more helpful to see it on screen or on paper first. Get as many angles as necessary. Create studies if need be. The time you spend on preproduction is the time you save having to do something over.

  18. Invest in a good digital tablet. You won’t need it for everyday modeling work, but it’s an essential part of the sculpting and texturing process. Cheaper options such as those from Huion will do the job just fine, but I prefer the better known Wacom brand. The construction is more solid, the drivers are more robust, and the actual designs are more feature rich. I actually use 2 different tablets: a Wacom Intuos Pro for day to day retouching and quick concept work and a Wacom Cintiq 22HD for digital sculpting and texturing. On a tablet, depending on the brand and make, you can easily spend anywhere from $20 to $3k.

  19. Invest in a good computer. If your PC gets laggy when you have a big Excel spreadsheet then you definitely need an upgrade. The same sort of computer that you’ll use for CG is the same that you’ll use for high end gaming. IOW, lots of RAM, a speedy multicore CPU, a beefy GPU, tons of storage, a big vibrant monitor, and so on.

    You might be able to get away with a cheap $700 PC, but not for along. It’ll get old REAL quick. Ideally, you want a computer that’ll last you at least 2-3 years before you have to dig in and upgrade components or outright replace.

    Just to give you an example, my PC is configured as follows: 64GB RAM, Intel Core i9-7920x (12-core), GeForce GTX 1080ti 11GB, 18.5TB SATA 6GB/s Storage, 512GB Samsung EVO 980 NVMe SSD, 32" 4K LG monitor, about 16 USB 2/3 ports, easy swap drive bays, liquid cooling, etc. The PC alone weighs 75bs and cost me about $6k. (I bought it this time last year, btw.) Tack on the monitor, Intuos, Cintiq, G13 gameboard (for macros), Cherry MX Green keyboard, VESA arms, and so on. The entire setup set me back by about $10k. That’s before loading it with software.

    Nobody’s saying that you have to spend that much, or should at this level, but you don’t want to spend 59 minutes screaming at your PC and 1 minute actually working. Get a PC that’ll grow with you and will still get the job done. No less than a 4-6 core CPU (at least i7 level), 16GB RAM, a GeForce 1060, 3TB storage, a monitor capable of at least 1080p, and a decent graphics tablet. You can get away with spending $1,500, but $2k is probably more reasonable when you factor in the monitor and tablet.

  20. Rest. Burnout is VERY real. You can and probably will spend 60-80+ hour weeks and it won’t always be doing what you love, especially when you’re getting paid to do it. Taking care of your health, physical and mental, is of vital importance. Nobody wants to die at their desk or flee from something they once loved.

  21. Be flexible. If you eventually intend on working in a studio, be prepared for the studio artist’s life. Keep your options open and be prepared to move to another country. Be prepared to move on too. Studios, like apps and plugins, come and go. That project that you’ve been working on for 2 years might flop and you might see yourself on the end of a pink slip, out the door and looking for employment thanks to studio closure. It happens. The massive studios can survive a flop (or three), but most small to mid sized ones can’t. The life of a studio artist is sometimes a nomadic one. I’ve got a few friends who’ve been at 4 or 5 studios in nearly 10 years. It happens to good and bad artists alike.

  22. Credit where credit is due. NEVER borrow elements from somebody else’s work without attribution or permission. Same with using somebody else’s concept. Too much hassle afterwards if you forget or neglect to get or give credit.

  23. Do something new. When you’re past the tutorial phase of your education, don’t rely on the tropes. Robots. Superheroes. Muscle cars. Sexy girls. Those are all fun to do and might well pad your portfolio, but they’re hardly original. You see one Spider-Man model, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Ordinary is actually sometimes more interesting. In some cases, it shows that you’re capable of doing very practical work.

  24. Diversify. Even if you’re specializing, it pays to show some range and that you can fit into any style or pipeline. If you’re a generalist, an employer might be as pleased to know that you can execute as beautiful classroom as you can a gothic fantasy set or warrior princess. Nobody is indispensable, but it pays to show that you’re hard to replace. :slight_smile:

  25. Be inoffensive. Everybody has some NSFW stuff in their portfolio, but you don’t want it to make up the bulk of your work. Unless you’re applying to some company that just loves porn or hentai, try to keep your work PG or PG-13. Don’t overdo the flesh, sex, or gore. Stay away from cultural stereotypes too. Keep the material that you’ll (eventually) work on accessible. You don’t know your audience. Best not to offend that devout Christian woman from Guatemala who may be in charge of hiring you. :wink:

  26. An app is just a tool. Anybody with experience can learn a new app in the span of hours or days. A newbie might take months or up to a year plus. However, don’t mistake that time invested as being the end itself. A great artist can make masterpieces with a $0 app, but no $4k app will make a crap artist the next da Vinci. As much time as you’re investing in learning the buttons, spend time learning the language of 3D - and there’s a lot to learn. One of the reasons why you don’t start with the hard stuff is because you might not know how to dig yourself out of a hole - sometimes one of your own making. That’s why it might seem silly to learn “z” approach to creating a goblet or head when you already know “y” and “x”, but the smart escape artist is the one who knows more than one way out of the straight jacket. A good CG artist is also flexible. Give 30 artists here the same one topic and I guarantee you that they’ll each find a different way to execute and interpret.

  27. Freelance is feast or famine. Some months, you’ll make lots of money. Others, you might earn nothing. Save like a squirrel. Also, take on a few freelance clients BEFORE looking for a studio job. It takes experience to get experience, as they say. Silly, but true.

#3

FWIW, ZBrush is an essential tool if you’re doing any sort of modeling, characters especially. You’re going to find that, if you’re interested in 3D, you’ll have to master a lot of skills and tons of apps. Not just Maya and ZBrush.

#4

ty for very detailed answer) ill stick to this.

#5

I’ll just state that for most 3d pipelines modelers use both ZBrush and the studio’s core app.
Usually a model asset has to be made ‘pipeline ready’ and not stop at raw Zbrush output. Thats why something like Max or Maya comes into play. And so hoping that this work will be done by somebody else may be an incorrect assumption in making yourself employable.

As to which app to learn you can confirm which by looking at job postings for your current ‘dream job’ studio/s and see what they expect from their junior modelers. Thats what you should match or better.