Before and After

[Jacecr]

Does anyone have some of there old work?Old as in when they first started out and things were rough.For encouragement purposes I would love to see work from years back and where you are now.I'm trying to do that with my art blog so people can see my progression over the years.Right now I'm still at the "first started out" portion.

[Tom Ellis]

Nice idea! I'd be keen to see some of this too.

I would post some of mine when I used to suck, but since I still do, i figured there's little point :D

While great art is very inspiring, it can get somewhat disheartening when everyone else is so incredible and their roots are not on show to find comfort in the fact that everybody sucked at some point.

[Pedro Amorim]

Bro bro bro..
I still suck today as i did back then.. the only this that is diferent is that i hide it better now lol

here are some of the gems!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/renderl.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/dsf.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/rampa.jpg
even my website skills were awesome!!
i was 16 when i made this. i think
so.. 10years ago.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/ScreenShot00362.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/ScreenShot00361.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/ScreenShot00363.jpg

and i even made dices!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/93793/dados.jpg

LOLOL

Oh man.. so awesome..
but if you keep working you end up making cool shit and being vbetter and better.

one of my latest personal works was this..
http://blog.edgesize.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/11.jpg
http://blog.edgesize.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2.jpg

everybody has to start somewhere man!
ROme wasnt made in one day!

[Del]

~ I was once so proud of this...


2008

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/TruthWalker/12-character-2392-1211373029-img.jpg


<insert a fuckload of practice here>

2009

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/TruthWalker/Arcadia_Presentation.jpg

[MagicSugar]

Practicing every day


2D:

2006
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3307/16in5.jpg (http://img100.imageshack.us/i/16in5.jpg/)


2010
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3734/greenbiker.jpg



3D:

2007
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3311/2007tank.jpg


2010
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/373/tank02.jpg

[r_fletch_r]

Just start where ever you are.. so long as you keep improving and being self critical/ open to crits you will get where you want to be.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b27/RogerKnightly/image004.jpg

http://www.robertfletcher.org/portfolio/images/Morgan/morgan_1.jpg

[Adam L. Gray]

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/9218/renderdd6.jpg

Wireframe (http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7068/wirere3.jpg)... oh the lols

I thought people made better art than me cause they had more powerful computers, that were able to handle higher polycounts. Also, they had really good materials, images that they had found. Didn't know about unwrapping or texturing either that is.

But yeah, that was way long ago, before I even knew what game-art was.

Oh, here's another one:

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8940/clocktowertl2.jpg

Wire (http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/587/wirepl4.jpg)

[Pedro Amorim]

Tiros !!!
I tought the same thing!
THey make better art cause they have wacoms! and better pcs!
And big monitors! LOL

Turns out.. a good artist can make awesome shit out of any pc!

[Jacecr]

This is great.lol :) I feel WAY better now!!Practice pays off.This is good shit ..it's like a collage going on.

[Yozora]

All of my "first works" are from uni.
Heres my very first "complete" scene in 3d max;

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1319713/wip/1stwork_room.jpg

Here is my first scene in Maya;

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1319713/wip/1stwork_maya.jpg

And... here is my very first complete character, complete with wannabe-spiderman pose!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1319713/wip/1stwork_character.jpg


None of these are optimized for games of course. They don't even have proper UVs.

[Jacecr]

here's some of mine.The Boxing Gym was a year ago. So was the Unreal scene.It was horrifying.The Subway is a few months ago.

[Zipfinator]

I would post some pictures of my before/after level design/scenes but I've lost most of those 4 or 5 year old images. I do however have images of my progression with modeling through TF2 items over the year though.

January 2010
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p232/Zipfinator/comichat.jpg
July 2010
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3360480/Zip%27s%20TF2%20Items/Demoman%20Stuntman%20Hat/stuntmanshelmet_final_2.jpg

October 2010
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3360480/Zip%27s%20TF2%20Items/Scuba%20Goggles/scuba_final_1.jpg

[Ferg]

2003
http://www.olypen.com/advent/Smiley/temp/3dsupport1.jpg

2004
http://www.olypen.com/advent/Smiley/temp/mouthmonster.jpg

2007
http://www.olypen.com/advent/Smiley/temp/hexwip5.jpg

2009
http://www.olypen.com/advent/Smiley/temp/FinalRenders.jpg

[arrangemonk]

WACOM DECREASED MY PRODUCTIVITY! especially the bamboo,
the only thing im able to do now is things like this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1484680/chilli.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1484680/dickphant.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1484680/pc-chick.jpg



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1484680/jgs_galerie_bild.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1484680/dan.bmp
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1484680/papagei.jpg


and really old work from... i dont know
http://home.arcor.de/arrangemonk/portfolio/original/rose.jpg
http://home.arcor.de/arrangemonk/portfolio/original/1.jpg

[Habboi]

In this link (click maps tab) (http://www.twhl.co.za/user.php?id=1240&journals) you can see some of my very first experiments with Half Life 1 and 2. After that I stopped releasing and just worked on my own personal projects, most were not finished but were some of my best work back then.

So as a comparison is required:

http://www.twhl.co.za/mapvault/1890.jpg http://www.twhl.co.za/mapvault/2037.jpghttp://www.twhl.co.za/mapvault/4084.jpghttp://www.twhl.co.za/mapvault/3076.jpg
(You can see my progression in these pictures above over the years. I have more but I cba to search.)

http://www.habboi.co.uk/uploaded_images/udk_aztec_large_01.jpg

http://upload.habboi.co.uk/sci_fi_06.png
(Current scene I'm working on.)

[shotgun]

http://shotgun-graphics.com/postage/before-after.JPG

[EzMeow]

1998

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7139/tourg.jpg

2009 (Not my last work but my last finished environment at the moment)


http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7228/uc2009beauty01.jpg


Funny to think that the first is a Render while the 2nd is real time XD

[bounchfx]

2005 (learning to draw)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17615/slfpt.jpg
2008 (learning to paint/color)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s14/bounchfx/1p.jpg
2010 (still practicing color)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17615/Art/Self101010_2.jpg

[Jackwhat]

2004 my first study with my tablet :/

>

2010 - with over a year of actual time spent playing games since 04!


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/5100750866_1aac9f32b8_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5029111187_402536fd8b_b.jpg

[kwakkie]

http://decentdesign.nl/old.jpg
soooooooo many things wrong with this haha, my first game model... his face kind of looks like greentooths retarded brother :p
:poly102::poly102::poly102:

Unfortunately all my latest work is under NDA for at least another year :(

[cholden]

Oldest thing I can still dig up on the internet is Quake 2 player model, Hayden, which I modeled and textured. Here's the model (real low quality image from some site) and the skin (in all it's quake palette glory). This was in 1998
http://chrisholden.net/q2hayden98.jpg http://chrisholden.net/hayden.gif


Some Gore textures dating from 1999-2001-ish
http://chrisholden.net/gallery/images/gore_text.jpg


Here's just a dump of old work if you're really excited. It varies from max 5 and maya 5 stuff from 2000 up to more modern things. I should update it with some more recent years.
http://chrisholden.net/gallery

[Mark Dygert]

Not sure how old, but it was for a HL1 mod so between 98 and 2002?
http://www.vigville.com/forum_images/Old/bg_091201_1.jpg
http://www.vigville.com/forum_images/Old/Warboss_Large_.jpg



Now I animate 9-5 (should really put some animation up sometime) and do environments on the side
http://www.vigville.com/wip/ctf_decker/images/ctf_deckerWIP_0007.jpg

[Slum]

Ah man this thread is great. I must post my first model/texture ever when I get home. It's fantastically bad.

[vofff]

What a genious thread:)
One of my oldest work started at 2008
http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv345/vofff/n558564400_419590_3853.jpg

One of my latest work at beginning of 2010
http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv345/vofff/Hurricanecopy.jpg

[HonkyPunch]

Oh man. I was like 12 when I joined this site so if I can find mine, it oughta be good.
BEFORE;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v660/PieSpelunker/Soapy%20vs%20the%20thief/ This is about as bad as it gets, a 'comic' made in Garry's mod, ages ago. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/PieSpelunker/Soapy%20vs%20the%20thief/untitled.jpg This is a 'Cremator' model i started on based off of the valve concept, there is even worse THREEDEE somewhere that is entirely primitives. I'll look on my other computer sometime. (If you remember a user named 'Poochy' that was me.)
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v660/PieSpelunker/ Pretty much if you work backwards through my photobucket account, it should paint a picture of where I came from.
AFTER:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7869/mintar.png This is a more recent drawing, lesson learned is that my art hasn't improved that much in 6 years but at the very least, my attitude/sense of humor has.

[Zwebbie]

I believe I started modeling in early 2004, but I've somehow lost all the really old stuff I made. This is the oldest I could find - from a hilariously (in hindsight) ramshackle C&C Generals mod. Mid 2006:

http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/3/2918/46490.jpg

An old head, from mid 2007. I was afraid of making hair back then:

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/3430/dudekopield2.png

Lastly, my first sculpt, early 2009.

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/4241/sculptytestke2.jpg

Nowadays:

http://www.joeyspijkers.com/misc_img/G2.jpg

[Habboi]

Oh yeah. Funny enough I came across a really old character model...my first actually today.

http://www.habboi.co.uk/moleman.jpg

[Justin Meisse]

1997-ish: back when I did skins, this was for a Quake 2 mod (model by cyclopsX)
http://artbyjustin.com/images/screamer.gif

2000-2003 college a bunch of bullshit bad 3d

2005: for an added bonus here's the original polycount thread (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39044) ugh, what a goofball
http://artbyjustin.com/images/tower.jpg

2009: I believe this is the last thing I did at Mythic that isn't under NDA.
http://www.artbyjustin.com/highslide/images/large/altar01.jpg

[cholden]

Justin: if anybody is an example of how much someone can improve in such a short amount of time, it's you after you were surrounded by talent at Mythic. A lot of which I place on Rhinokey (Tracy) since you guys sat so close for so long, and he can paint the shit out of textures.



Here's a stupid anicdote related to my previous post. I just had to get home to dig up the image.

In pre-2004, Hayden appeared in a Game Developer magazine advertisement for a localization company. Back then, I contacted them concerning this, and they agreed to give me free localization for anything I was doing. I never cashed this check, but it was a very humorous experience for me. Also extremely flattering to see a Quake 2 player model I made in GD mag. I made that weapon he's holding too.

http://chrisholden.net/hayden-in-gamedeveloper.jpg

Originally distibuted on Q2PMP, the origins of Polycount! <gasp!>.

[[HP]]

2003
http://i51.tinypic.com/hthe69.jpg

2009
Not the only one who worked on this but here it goes:
http://www.helderpinto.com/ssp_director/albums/album-1/lg/Aliens_SFAM_screenshot_2.jpg

[d1ver]

Wow, thanks for creating this thread. It made me go through to all of my old stuff and it brought up a lot of warm memories.


2004. Here's the first thing I ever did in 3ds max. I had no idea how do do anything and had nowhere to learn from, so it was pure experiment.)
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7473/diver.png

2005. A bowl of fruits. I tried to be artistic.)
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/204/nres2.jpg

2005. This I was so damn proud of, that it was my desktop for almost a year=)
http://artisaverb.info/Memories/Sunset.jpg


2006. I worked on my modeling skills a bit. Here the chess set I did. Everyone probably made one of those.)

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3466/chessgfin1.jpg

2007. But as you can see I still couldn't lowpoly, UV or texture to save my life. It's some Vice City modding that I was very fond of at that time. The building is a pet barbershop called "Miss Bitch" =)

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8783/creschentkeyweb.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/420/webzo.jpg

2008.
The last piece of arch vis stuff I did. I was trying to freelance doing those things back then.
http://artisaverb.info/Misc/Casino.jpg

But of course all this time I was trying to get a game job, so here it is, the art test that got me my first job!

http://artisaverb.info/Memories/Web.jpg

Although I think it could be the fact the I applied 3 times and the last time I wrote the dumbest cover letter, that I later found out was read out loud to the people and they all cranked out laughing and plead to hire me. =)


2009. A year later here's my tank=)

http://artisaverb.info/WG/KV_Render.jpg

2010. Here's some Vice City
http://artisaverb.info/VC/3.jpg

I hope it was helpfull!

or funny at least.
cheers)

[s0id3]

lol here's stuff from 2007 when I started 3D.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a157/phantomile/PropOfS0id3/humanmale.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a157/phantomile/PropOfS0id3/THIS_IS_SPARTA.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a157/phantomile/PropOfS0id3/maserati_bituro_1992_compressed.jpg

And stuff from 2009/2010
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a157/phantomile/PropOfS0id3/rikkubeuatysculpt.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a157/phantomile/PropOfS0id3/Thunderbolt_WIP05.jpg

[Rurouni Strife]

Holy shit, I love how far everyone has come! All gota start somewhere right? I'll upload some of mine later once I'm off of work.

[moose]

oold UT99 character skin, first two! I didnt even bother to redo the backpack on the chick lol...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/bb/omgfirstskin.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/bb/witchblade%20(1).jpg

new:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/bb/gob_wip04.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/112/1126271/gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-preview-20101006065152315.jpg

[Ex-Ray]

I thought I'll join in on the fun.

2000 - Some Cinema 4D action (notice the wine glasses learnt from Uni lesson 1 'how to lathe a spline')
http://www.rayshumdesign.co.uk/PC/jeez02.jpg

http://www.rayshumdesign.co.uk/PC/jeez01.jpg

2003
http://www.rayshumdesign.co.uk/PC/jeez03.jpg

2010http://www.rayshumdesign.co.uk/Images/Burt/Burt01_High.jpg

http://www.rayshumdesign.co.uk/Images/props/DroidHigh.jpg

Can't believe its been 10 years already :(

[alexl]

Started in 2006, I loved the skylight clay render tutorial back then, made everything cool! (I dont think these were my first, but pretty close, after a few tutorials and uni lectures)
http://alexluong.co.uk/blog/uniarchive/full/3.jpg

2007
Getting into games...
http://alexluong.co.uk/blog/uniarchive/full/16.jpg

2010
http://alexluong.co.uk/blog/images/alexluong_ttalley_01.jpg

Its amazing to see how far everyone has progressed

[shotgun]

News arts from teh moose! w00t!

[Slipstream]

I've been at this for awhile now that I think about it :)
I think my progress was pretty slow until I learned some of the basics (from school :O holy crap). Color theory, and life drawing pretty much. Everything before that was me being lazy and going from the pinhead of knowledge I was working from (mostly anime). Now I'm working from a thimble
At some point I'd like to go back over some of my old work and ideas. Or destroy them so that no one will ever know they existed . . .

2004
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/temetry/zaku4.jpg

2005 I think
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/temetry/as_w_render2.jpg

2006

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/temetry/ren6.jpg

[2007]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/temetry/sakuraModel018.jpg

2010
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/temetry/rael22.jpg

[sampson]

i swear i made a thread like this like a year ago. maybe it was on a different forum.

Learnt whilst in highschool so if i had more time i could've learnt alot faster
late 2006
http://samroberts3d.com/images/veryoldSword.jpg

now
http://samroberts3d.com/images/udkfinal.jpg

[seth.]

April 2009, my first head !

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v3810/189/105/528157990/n528157990_1693649_713914.jpg

now:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QS6WO_XZe7Q/TIqUt45OvwI/AAAAAAAABWA/tXb-2RJZlgA/s1600/mean+wip+11.jpg

i stalled at getting the tri's down to 12K but I will finish him at 15K I think

[SimonT]

cool thread :D

[JohnnyRaptor]

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101922

[StephenVyas]

As soon as I opened this thread, my browser keeps redirecting me to a page that says:



Warning: Something's Not Right Here!
www.polycount.com contains content from decentdesign.nl, a site known to distribute malware. Your computer might catch a virus if you visit this site.

-Just incase anyone cares to visit that site.

[D4V1DC]

From the past and present thread from a few months back. (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1679022&postcount=60)