Going from 3D Env. artist to 2D
polycounter lvl 10
Hey guys,
I've been working as an Environment artist for a few years, worked on a few AAA titles, really enjoyed myself. But I've come to realize I have a strong passion for creating a scene, an object, or a character, but the slow, tedious technical work that comes with 3D is driving me mad.
So! I'm working hard on moving over to 2D, I know I need to improve a ton and here's the progress so far:
I really started on 2D in 2012:
2014 was a year of improving my design skills, creating things from my mind tend to look very boring:
But now in 2015 I really want to push myself, started it off with some lighting studies:
I feel like such a newbie, but I'm working hard on getting my skills up to par, lots of work to do still!
I've been working as an Environment artist for a few years, worked on a few AAA titles, really enjoyed myself. But I've come to realize I have a strong passion for creating a scene, an object, or a character, but the slow, tedious technical work that comes with 3D is driving me mad.
So! I'm working hard on moving over to 2D, I know I need to improve a ton and here's the progress so far:
I really started on 2D in 2012:
Much improvement in 2013:
2014 was a year of improving my design skills, creating things from my mind tend to look very boring:
But now in 2015 I really want to push myself, started it off with some lighting studies:
I feel like such a newbie, but I'm working hard on getting my skills up to par, lots of work to do still!
Replies
Thanks for sharing with us what you've done so far in 2D. You're on the right track.
I'am also a 3D environment artist, practicing my 2D skills at night. I find that the most difficult thing is to draw from the imagination. Even with references and careful subject studying, that requires strong fundamentals. Keep us posted on your progress!
How did you went about that light study? Where you color picking or by eye?
@DanielR17, Yeah, drawing from reference ends up being easy, but just coming up with something off the top of my head is usually what nets me my worst pieces. I think I need to do some major work on my fundamentals soon. I need to expand my visual library to get my designs better as well.
@ Marcus Aseth, Thanks! I never color pick, always trying to build up my color/value skill.
Before 2014 I just put down color and tried to match the ref like a traditional artist would, creating shapes of value that matches what I see. Now I try to approach it as if I had to come up with it myself, doing a rough line drawing, building up forms and colors, and just using the ref to make sure I wasn't being too much of an idiot.
I want to start using ref in a different way, using ref as an idea, but drawing it from a different angle, or drawing it with a different lighting scheme. I'll do one or two tonight to show what I mean.
I think this will be the next step, this was not color picked, on a 30-minute timer. I want to get the initial color and feel down quicker and start to be able to implement my own ideas into each study I do. Hard, hard, hard.
Again, no color picking from the photo plate, and it's probably a touch off because of it but I want to gain the ability to instinctively know what color to use and be able to just paint things into a scene without photos or going from greyscale, etc.
Be careful what photos you pick. This is a badly done HDR photo. It's colours are not true to life and it kinda looks bad. https://www.reddit.com/r/shittyhdr
But good work and keep it up!
About this,the other day I was actually thinking "what if I start to copy all bad photos without even realizing it and I end up painting stuff from imagination like if it was a bad photo?! :poly122:"
So...there is something like..."a site" made by artists and for artists which is a basically a database of proper looking photos to use as references? :poly141:
@Avanthera : doing great with your color studies,I think now is all about repetition and internalizing those colors patterns
Pintrest!!! It's like a curated imaged search. You still should learn a bit about photography to understand what is a good photo or not. Afterall developing your artistic taste is also a skill! Work out what you like and trying and push your tastes to work out what you REALLY like.
http://www.pinterest.com/lovelyclusters/nature/
Thx,didn't know about it,I was just using goole search until now
Though even there,I wonder why people feel the need of ruining an awesome place by doing THIS shit...
@ Marcus : Thanks! Putting in those 10,000 hours!
Have you tried the abstract route? e.g. when you was a kid looking for shapes in the clouds or 3d underpainting. I'm playing around with this way of working at present and it really get the create juices flowing from imagination. It's pretty enjoyable also.
I recommend watching Scott Robertson's youtube video : Inspiration and Techniques - www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ7aaUVhGUo
Creating Sources of Inspiration
www.youtube.com/watch?v=diMDoFkN73s
and
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuH3LZs9rwI to get ideas and inspiration for 3d underpainting.
This one also gave me ideas for other techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHVIlIWT93s
I think Feng Zhu's videos (FZDSCHOOL) on Youtube also need to be mentioned. Definitely my place to go. I think Ctrl+Paint needs a mention also for the fundamentals.
Anyway... Good luck and hope it helps.
1. Use more reference
2. Do more thumbnails
3. Spend more time on the piece
4. Drawing is very important, and a solid drawing is a very good foundation for a painting
5. Fundamentals (Anatomy, perspective, values, etc...) are crucial
This:
seems like a great idea, and you've essentially done just that on the lighthouse piece, using the photo as place to start but also changing it in some way so that it's not just a direct copy.
Directly copying/making a reproduction of a photo (of which I have done maaany) seems to be a dead end in terms of actually training your brain to make things, since it kind of hamstrings you when it comes time to make something that isn't a direct reproduction. At least that's what I've experienced. Of course, studies, figure drawing, etc... are crazy important, but the important part of them seems to be what you learn while doing them and how you can apply that to something else, as opposed to just recreating a photo as accurately as possible.
Also, one thing that I think really easily gets lost in the transition from 3D is perspective, since it's never an issue when using a modelling program or working in-engine, but can quickly turn into a shitstorm when it has to be drawn/painted correctly by hand. A lot of other 3D stuff like color theory and silhouettes seem to transfer over to 2D easier, since those are still areas that have to be actively thought over when doing 3D, but perspective never gets a lot of thought in 3D but is often the first problem people notice in a 2D work.
Of course all of this could be wrong, and I'm still learning a lot myself and consider myself a complete beginner, so take everything with a ramen noodle disposable cup of salt. But hopefully something in there is useful.
@JamesArk Yeah, I've really noticed a few of my shortcomings over the past few years, but recently I've noticed exactly the things you say need to be worked on. When I just start banging away at a painting I tend to just try and put what's in my head down as quickly as possible, which can be good sometimes, but it usually causes me to fail.
Here's a few failures from the past few days:
I'm thinking of taking classes to work on my fundamentals, I've been slowly learning over the past few years but I'd love to have some accelerated growth.
Have you considered "Level Up!" course over conceptart.org?
I think I'm going to join it next month,if you do too,then see you there!
Nice work with that girl,though with the train the illumination feels wrong,especially in the face where it is getting too much light!
Keep it up
keep it up
I've signed up for a course over at CGMA:
http://2d.cgmasteracademy.com/dynamic-sketching.html
I hope to really build up my foundations and draftsmanship, I draw a lot but I never scan it. If things go well with this first CGMA class I'll take more, as I don't know yet how worth it it will be.
Good luck with the Level up course! If it turns out amazing let me know!
@Ayoub44:
Thanks! I actually disliked the train painting, I couldn't see why at first but now I can see the values are way off. I'll paint plenty more, as long as you do too.
Today's Paint stuff:
I wanted to paint a small, simple scene to get my painting process down, I painted this first to establish the style I wanted to paint in:
I then started painting this scene:
I'll work on it some more tomorrow, might just redo it a few times. It feels really saturated, but its less saturated than the practice piece above.... I really need to work on my scene cohesiveness.
This is all I got done after work today, lots to do tomorrow though!
Was actually thinking of doing a small environment that was 100% hand painted, even the lighting. So I'd model everything out, projection paint on top, and then bring it into 3d coat for that final polish.
But If I can't get a scene to work in 2d, I'll just do bunches of studies instead.
For instance,in this case the perspective,the scale of the throne and the single step you need to reach it make the room looks the size of a common bedroom,which for what I saw so far from movies and games,is not the case :poly141:
And even filling it with cool looking stuff and decoration,would still have the size of a bedroom right?
So I would suggest you to start with an image like THIS, then on a top layer draw the perpective line of this image and locate the horizon line and the vanishing points. And then,you delete the layer with that image but keep that perspective grid,and start working from it to achieve the right depht and spaces
Another study, tried to just drop down blotches of color and rendered them from there. I noticed the perspective was off halfway through and just went with it.. maybe not so good for a study.
I tried painting a design of a robot that's in medieval armor, but I couldn't get it looking right, so I did some studies on the right. Will probably do loads of design studies tonight so i can design more believable armor.
Also, I'm getting a scanner to pull my drawings better, I'll try to post more drawings too.
How long did this took ?
That last study was very quick, I think 20 minutes? I was trying to be all fast and loose, but I missed a few things lighting and color wise.
On the whole color thing, first off, thanks! I think I've just failed enough with colors to finally start seeing some results.
So what I'm working on:
I've been drawing a lot, I want to paint some of my own creations, but I keep disappointing myself, especially when it comes to design.
Some sketches from tonight:
I had a few more sheets, but I have no clue where they went off to. But right now I think I just need mileage.
Also, I'll get a scanner eventually, these photos aren't turning out so well.
Just trying to make things look like they belong, which was very difficult for me. I repainted the first one 4 or 5 times using various references and techniques. Once it started working out I just moved onto the other two to practice what I just learned.
I'll do some more focused pics tomorrow, maybe do a series of busts, but now, it's time for bed.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to start thinking about hard and soft edges, but I think I've failed with this last piece:
I kept repainting bits and was adjusting colors since I couldn't get them right., but that ruined any hard edges I had already, so I tried to hold off until I had the colors better, but I never did.
I'll try harder tomorrow!
good luck mate
Cstlmode: Thanks for the kind words!
I didn't get a lot done last night, but I started on this:
Based off of the spitpaint theme of 'kings guard'
I spent a lot of time checking out other peoples work and seeing how they pull off hard/soft edges and color. Now I'm super tired and the work I'm doing isn't making me too happy, making bad decisions. Time to sleep! I'm starting classes later today as well, should be good.
Was only supposed to spend an hour on it, but got in an extra 30 minutes after work to add some touch-ups.
Two sketches from tonight, both really quick, just tried to get a solid feeling of light and color down, they kind of made it there, the second a bit better than the first.
Theme was 'Derpy'
I'm still super busy with my class, but it's helping a ton. I can already see a lot of improvements, and at least building things has gotten a lot easier/quicker.
I'd like to take some anatomy, design, and light/color courses soon, but we'll see.
Oh wow oh wow oh wow.
It's hard to believe it's been over a year since I updated this. Mostly because I've been taking classes, doing studies, and working as a 3d artist. I have some updates for you guys, I'll wrap up this section with some of the things I did in 2015, I have a couple hundred paintings after I stopped updating for 2015 alone, so I'll just upload a few, haha.
Oh god, so old,