i know that drawing is very important for animation…but i want to know what is the extent of skills required in drawing to be good in 3d…
i know that i should be able to simply put down a charector (of my own imagination) with pen or pencil. Do i need to know how to draw that figure in perspective as well?
Proportions are important as far as i know…
i want to know wat else are the skills required in field of drawing??
This is because most major artists ask us to focus on drawing part but then, i cant understand as to what is the limit required…
i cant draw but i cant model either…but i can model better then i can draw
so i dont think it matters to me…
hey i would say it is pretty importent to be able to draw to be a good modeler.
To get a 2d image of your idea,
and to get the proportions of char/models of any kind rigth.
And it is a lot faster to draw a idea then to moldel it and yeah discard it.
bedst regard leif
It matters. I am someone who learnt to draw before I learnt any 3D. Note, its not a ‘requirement’, but it goes a long way to help. The best example I can give is with anatomy. My human characters before I started studying anatomy drawings/images and trying more of them myself - sure you could tell they were people, but compare them to the work I can do now that I put the 2D study (looking at other works and trying my own) and they arent worth rendering.
Also - concept art. I ignored this to a large extent for too long as well. ‘I have the character in my head - that will work’… but when you try it on paper you can check whether it works in 5 minutes before you spend 5 hours in 3D making it happen, such a welcome saftey net! Work on the 2D sketch for 20 minutes instead and suddenly you have a far more refined character (or whatever) than you would by just opening Blender and going hard at it. Trust me, you think differently when not constricted to extruding, edge loops and the like.
As for how good you need to be - depends on what you are doing. If doing stylised work, a rough sketch would be fine because your style will probably come out in the modelling anyway. Recreating a ‘realistic’ beast character for example, you will need to know something about drawing a good concept, otherwise the muscles wont look right, the whole thing will probably lack convincing detail like skin folds and the end result might look like a squidgy attempt at a large cat than a sleek saber toothed killing machine - or whatever.
(That being said, toon art can also be improved by a strong drawing style too - not saying its easier because its toon, dont flame me!)
To stop my rambling:
Drawing necessary - no, but it helps a lot
Good drawing necessary - not in all cases, but can often help a lot
Fully fledged gallery type artworks - generally overkill as a concept unless you work at ILM and are desperate to keep your sweet as job.
Hope that helps. Even just doing some (more?) simple observation stuff like drawing trees, bowls of fruit, buildings and working your way up from there to animals, human faces and so on. I did two years of basically just portraits at one point (after doing simpler stuff first) and heaps glad I did! Proportions do get easier over time.
(Edit - Welcome to the forums leifdk and congrats for saying what I tried to in three sentences…) 
I’m a strong believer in the ability to be able to draw to execute some strong modelling/animations. To be able to study the human anatomy and understand the physics of motion help creating a convincing piece of artwork. When i was in college we went to a place called the college of surgeons in dublin and had to draw dead bodies - thats how intensive the course was and recognised the world over - the brother of the animation course in LA or france. In one year it brought my drawing levels to a different plane as i was drawing every day - as they said - ‘draw what you can see, not what you think you can see’.
I just think it help in being more creative when it comes to 3D
To expand on BenDansie - bring a sketch pad with you wherever you go - obseve people, catch them on a bus, in a pub in various poses and try to knock out the pose on you pad - it helps and build up speed and accuracy of you observations
Now my waffle is over
I think it helps a lot with modelling but if you can model without it then there’s no problem :).
If you want to animate drawing skills are really valuable for creating story boards. Drawing different poses from different camera angles could need perspective. I tend to use stick men but it gets very confusing so i need to practice my drawing.
Learning how to draw teaches you how to see. Most people think that statement doesn’t make any sense, because they already “know” how to “see.” Problem is, our brains are lazy, symbol manipulating devices. Brain takes in what the eye perceives, and quickly changes it into some recognizable symbol, and the job’s done. But, try to draw that symbol, and you wind up with balloon heads, CBS eyes, and chairs where all four legs are always visible, no matter what angle you’re looking from.
Learning how to draw means learning how to get beyond that automatic make-a-symbol routine and actually draw what is there, what is really visible to the eye, rather than as interpreted by the brain. How does this relate to 3D modeling? Well, quite simply: how do you know where to put the damn verts? If you know how to see, in the learned how to draw artistic sense, then knowing where to put the verts when you’re tweaking a model is much less of a problem. It’s much easier to tell when a line is off, when a shape is off, if you can see the line or the shape and not an interpretation of that line or shape interposed by your brain.
Of course you don’t NEED to draw. If you HAD to draw to do 3d – for whatever strange reason – nobody that didn’t draw would be able to make anything with blender.
Will drawing skills help you a lot? Yep.
Edit: Orinoco, that was an excellent post.
There are some nice posts popping up in this thread, I hope aspiring Blenderheads are taking notice.
Dundaglan - Are you trying to tell us that you’ve sat in the middle of a pub in Ireland and sketched random people? Kudos! Thats dedication. Try that here and someone is bound to kick up a fuss at least, depending on the pub…
thanks for your help folks…now i dun get bored when i want to draw something…u see…when someone does something he feels is of no use, the person tends to get bored.
now…drawing seems more interesting to me…
@ BenDansie, Dundaglan and Orinoco
thanks for your valuable opinion…
Well I learned to draw LONG before learning to model and it does help to communicate your ideas and prevent from going off track to much.
Ha ha - yep i’ve actually done it. My college animation course was really intense - so it meant pub time was even drawing time - it was so constant. Although i was with my college buddys at the time so had a bit of back up in case someone felt they were being stared at for a uncomfortably long period ha ha! But now i do find myself just sketching people on the back of beer mats!!! Try it - its fun - keeps the drawing hand active
Tracing is an artform all unto itself.
There are several rules that you should follow at this point to ensure you get the most traced lines possible.
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Sketch as lightly as possible. The truth is, no matter how lightly you sketch, as soon as that paper leaves the window and goes to your working surface, the lines will look about 3 times as dark as you thought you drew them. Experience will correct this.
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Sketch any “meaningful” landmarks or contour you can see in your original. This includes outlines, major value changes, or anywhere you can see a clearly defined border between a lighter or a darker area. You ever see a topographical map? That is what your drawing should look like once it comes off the window. With a very detailed road map sketched out, filling in the details is about as difficult as doing a coloring book.
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Don’t take the paper down off the window until you are done tracing. Trust me on this. Once that paper comes down, if you see a detailed area you forgot to trace, you will never be able to “line it back up” on the master. Once it is down, it is down. You will have to run with it.
Further details from this web http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-an-awesome-pencil-sketch-of-any-photog/
The author who wrote the article with the name Joe. Check it out !
Your quote …
"This is because most major artists ask us to focus on drawing part but then, i cant understand as to what is the limit required… "
The answer is no limit for creativity, stylized, tweening etc …
on the basis start with tracing like this article:
And there are those of us who view 3D and animation (generally) as a test of our drawing skills. I like to see it that way at least. 3D is just another medium I’ve adopted (and currently my favorite at that).
That said, not everyone wants to be a master draftsman (although I would love to be). For those people, you should at the very least make thumbnail sketches of your compositions. Nice, small pics (4 by 6 inches max.) and study value and color.
Or not. Do what you feel and love it.
One thing for the ones that start in 3d you must know the perspective even you lack forms and other things…
So read first an perspective book like Ernest R, Norling - Perspective made easy…or other that has perspective well explained…
The it is your choice to learn form …or do it on your own…but it is better to learn and do it more and more.
Try to imagine you are only a craft man where others have the “talent” why ? be just one craft … when you can be the talented one ? with big skills.
Remember that Pixar and others ask about 2D very seriously when they give a job…audience