I just watched an episode of Ice Age Gigants from BBC2. The animals look amazingly realistic, though they are purely CG.
I can barely create a house that looks realistic, let alone creating a dinosaur (which I attempt to do so).
My question is: How did skilled CG artists become so good in such a short amount of time?
They claim they only used weeks creating the models in this demo of how they created the series:
I’ve now spend 2 years learning Blender and CG and I can’t create such amazing stuff
Is there something I need to do to improve myself and become a better CG artist? I’m not good at drawing or painting, but I know how to model and I have a very good learning intuition of the technical aspects (or so I think).
They may have taken weeks to do something, but do not forget, they spend many many hard years perfecting their craft.
As with anything else, practice, practice, practice, then practice some more. There is no short cut for developing skills and even if someone is blessed with inate talent, trust me, they put a huge deal of time and effort into reaching their level.
In terms of becoming better generally, try to improve your observational and perception skills. Look at photographs and artwork, try to determine what it is you are seeing and why. Just because you may not be able to draw well, (I’m in the same boat), doesn’t mean you cannot learn from traditional art methods.
I’ve been dabbling in 3D now for about a decade, but I am still very much a “learner” as I do not have time to devote anything other than a couple of hours a week to it. If I could do it for several hours a day, I would improve rapidly I’m sure.
Thanks. I was also thinking about the fact that, so far, I haven’t been able to send a political message through art. To be a good artist means to send a political or religious signal through your artwork. So did all the great artists.
Not strictly true, good art simply needs to “speak” to someone. It doesn’t have to have a hard message as such.
One can be moved by art that is simple and beautiful, a stunning sunset says nothing politically, but boy, it makes for lovely art.
Likewise a still life can be very dramatic and yet is nought more than a bowl of fruit. Religion and politics may elicit response, but more likely because of the subject and NOT the quality of the art.
That maybe is another question, do you wish to produce art, or simply use your art as a stage for your personal opinions? The two do not automatically go together.
If I had the choice, I’d rather go for producing my own artworks.
I just felt that since I have never been able to make art that speaks of a certain political issue, I am a poor artist.
Practice, practice, practice is very good advice. No one improves without practice. And the practice, in art, must be informed by observation.
In addition to practice and observation, I would add study and experimentation. There are so many things to learn, both about CG and its supporting software, but also about human perception and how we respond to images, light and color. Do tutorials, read artists comments on their own work, follow threads of projects you like here at BlenderArtists, don’t be afraid to read articles and techniques about other 3D software, and always take notes when you learn something new, even if you never refer to them again. Just writing things down will help you remember.
There’s a theory that goes that you need 10,000 hrs to be adapt at the desired skill.
I noted the author of this thread has spent 2 yrs at it.
Personally I have been at it over five years . . . . but in that time maybe spent around 400 hours on blender, maybe 20 of it on tutorials, rest of the time just messing with the software.
Still some 10,000 - 400[or 20] hours to go . . . .
If only the day had 10,000 hours every day. Then we all could awesome in blender over a weekend.
