Learning both 2D and 3D art problems.

#1

Hey everyone!

My goal is to work in the industry as a 3D modeler with skills in digital painting/drawing.

i’m 20 years old and just about to graduate from a Graphic Design program. A friend of mine who is taking a 3D animation College program recommends that I take this program. I plan to do so, two years from now.

I’ve been drawing for a few years now and I know that I have a lot to learn (anatomy, perspective, lighting) and I just started to learn blender last year.

I just recently started to give myself assignments to better my skills in both 2D and 3D but, not working in blender after some time made me forget certain things that were useful.

So what I want to ask is would it be better to Focus on 2D drawing for a few months and then get back into 3D modeling even though it would mean I would have to re-learn all over again?

Or should I continues to learn both alongside each other until I enroll into college?

Thank You

#2

You can learn both quite comfortably by reducing your Social Life and time spent playing Video Games. :keenly:

#3

lol, :slight_smile: I haven’t touched a video game since the first week on January and because all my friends are busy I see them rarely. I am in my last semester of college and I am doing a co-op position which leads me to be free on weekends.

I don’t expect to be a professional in two years and nor do I expect to be a professional digital painter since my aim is 3D modeling. I just want to get better in both areas.

I give myself assignments to complete by alternating a 2D project with a 3D project every few days. but, I am just having trouble figuring out what is the best way to do this. :sad:

#4

Have you thought about taking a workshop in Becoming a Better Artist ?!?

It just seems to me, although I could be way off base here, but anyway in my opinion at least you’re ATM looking around for an effective way forward self-teaching wise also I’d probably throw in efficient as well whilst I’m at it. So If somewhere close to the mark then check out what’s on offer via this master Art techniques/Theories thread, maybe something worthwhile for you following up.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=166&t=828694

Cheers :wink:

#5

Thank you for the suggestion and the link. :slight_smile:

Although unfortunately the cost for that workshop is currently outside my budget. I’m not exactly looking for an efficient way to be an artist.

I guess to clear my question up even more is that. Would it be ok to learn 3D with gaps in my traditional art knowledge while, learning to improve those gaps at the same time or would it be better to learn more of the traditional drawing knowledge first before getting into 3D?

#6

Yes it is okay to learn 3d with gaps in traditional art. What can happen is that you might not like the results you’re getting. The important thing is to really learn the fundamentals regardless of what medium you’re using. Also, to be completely honest…3d is a vast medium and there is an incredible amount of information to learn. Brace yourself.

Best of Luck!

#7

So, 3D is a medium?

Can I be able to learn and grow and learn more of the fundamentals through 3D?

Thank you for your response :slight_smile:

#8

Efficiency in terms of progression towards your end goal, is respectfully from again an honest personal appraisal, as to what I think sits at the heart of your enquiry. Firstly If I understand correctly via the initial starter post, you’ve a tentative timeline set out, whereby a further course of study might be on the cards in the near future, however for the time being a continued focus upon developing those area’s of interest pertaining too 3D Modelling as a career choice combined with digital drawing/painting?

While in the main, although I agree you can most certainly learn both analogue and digital art media at once or even alternatively not learn traditional 2D Art Foundational Knowledge overall, without which by the way will not necessarily be counterproductive in becoming an accomplished 3D Artist per se, but however from some years experience as an 2D traditional Portraitist myself prior to migrating across to CGI, I’d seriously recommend filling in those “gaps” in your artistic knowledge base before jumping into the digital realm. So to articulate these thoughts with clarity better than I ever could, I’ll strongly suggest reading another *Art Techniques/Theories" sticky on “Why 3D artists want to learn to draw/paint?”

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=166&t=1028244

Plus I’d also recommend browsing this collection of Art Foundational Knowledge resources as well:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=166&t=226083

Now to be honest, like I’ve alluded too its just one possible avenue that’s maybe worth a thought or two in pursuing or not, its entirely up to you, but to reiterate is I think really an efficient pathway forward in attaining a solid grounding generally, considering an example of the work by a seasoned industry vet in the field currently.

Cheers :wink:

#9

I think that you have to go step by step in modeling and the first step is 2D, get practical experience in it rather than theoretical and after that you will be albe to go ahead for 3D.

#10

Yes…some things more than others. But you might find you suck at some things-say character proportions, or lighting and struggle to understand ‘why’ they are wrong.
But some concepts -that apply to 3d-you might learn quicker with a simple 2d approach and comprehension. In other words - learning to draw will never hurt you.

#11

I can only second that. Frankly I never managed to draw as well with wacom as with pencil. It’s just not enough precision for me. My wacom drawings always look just not right, when it’s about drawing the concept - precise lines and forms. But for filling the tone it’s totally good.
But when experimenting with 3d form in zbrush, it’s much better than with clay. You have so much more contriol in zbrush than in real life.

#12

It’s always easier to learn 3d on your own than to learn 2d on your own.Drawing is a physical activity that requires good hand eye coordination plus a good teacher to observe your mistakes.You can gain bad habits from drawing by your own but you cant develop bad habits from doing 3d since the computer generates everything precisely. It’s personal preference but i’d rather have a teacher and an art school teach me drawing/painting than 3d modeling since 3d has unlimited amounts of undo and redo while traditional art does not.

#13

I am, in no way, representative to give you any advice on this subject, but here is my thought: I’ve been doing 3D for about 9-10 years. My current modeling skills is pretty poor, and the reason is: lack of 2D, traditional skills. I believed, that people are just born with 2D skills, and it’s not a hard practice. So, I pretty much, gave up on modeling (though I know to model inorganic stuff), and started practicing effects, animation, and lighting (and all of those subjects, again, suffered because of lack of my 2D traditional skills).
With one year of traditional practice, I would be, after, 2-3 years, on the same skills as I am after 10 years. Recently, I started to draw, and as much as I draw (no matter how awful, I realise, what my mistake were on the first place).

I think: NO WAY!

Let’s take a simple example.
You make a box in 3D. You place camera (and maybe some poor light). You render. And that’s it. You’re happy. And, it’s wrong.
You make a Box in 2D. First, you must learn fundamentals of perspective to draw it in a right way. Second, you must learn composition, to place it where naturally should be. Third, you must handly shade it (render it) so it looks convincing (soft hadows so you show it lay on the ground), and forth, you learn color harmony to represent whatever you want with that box. And there’s many other stuff.

So, in first case (3D), you basically doing a mouse gesture, and let 3D program do the perspective for you (and you ruin it with lighting, materials… etc), but in 2D, you’re just forced to think in the right direction, and learn several, very important subjects, with just drawing a simple box.

Hope that helps a little.

#14

I tend not to agree on the latter. Practising lighting in 2d is not a good way. Either with photography or 3d is a better way.
Many traditional artists are quite bad on lighting, simply ignoring it.
It depends on where you study and who is the teacher. I found the best composition and lighting explanation from photography sources. Not traditional boks, which are mainly about painting, and are quite outdated in mny regards.
It’s no doubt for anatomy you can’t use 3d as a starting point, as you need to draw a lot from references. But for architecture it’s cool experimenting with form in 3d.

#15

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