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The wrong advices

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valuemeal
polycounter lvl 6
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valuemeal polycounter lvl 6
In contrast to the thread I made about things that weren't apparent that could have made life a tad easier in the past. I want to highlight something regarding bad advice you folks have received in the past, that made things difficult; so that we as fellows can learn from the errors others have made and improve upon them.

Here is some no good advice I received in the past.

1. I was told in the past that zbrush was used solely for texture and nothing else, and that one could not import models in or out. Also I was told one should never change the shape of the model.

2. I was also told that lines were for losers by a certain website and I gave
up on lines for 2 years; that was a no good decision.

3. Someone once told me that an imageboard based website was a good place for critique.....Um, yeah.

4. Before going to a school someone told me that picking one major over another was the best decision. I am not sure if it was in the long run

5. One person said using a layer based method was better than putting things in engine based software, that was also no good.

6. I was told texturing heavy texturing was for people who couldn't do any of the other skills and it was to be avoided if possible.

7. I was also told that low poly was no good at all and was for people who relied solely on textures, and that it was for people living in the past.

8. I was also told to never use pencils when a tablet was acquired

9. I was also told that doing muscular fellows was no good, and doing very simple characters was the way to go, and that such fellows turned away employers making one believe you were solely that kind of fellow.

10. Someone also told me that people on the internet also gave the wrong advises, in order to sabotage the competition.

I stopped being reliable, and realized that I had to listen to my gut, with each passing situation, and many folks were full of it.

That's all I can think of for the time being, what were some of the wrong advises that you received and how did you correct yourself?

Replies

  • WarrenM
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    i think i said you should give up on LIONS they make terrible pets
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    Haha, who told you all of this? You're definitely hanging around with the wrong people.
    On Polycount the usual bad advice I've seen is usually squashed a few posts later by someone more experienced or sensible.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    valuemeal wrote: »
    I want to highlight something regarding bad advice you folks have received in the past, that made things difficult; so that we as fellows can learn from the errors others have made and improve upon them.

    "Save your virginity for that SPECIAL SOMEONE ONLY MEANT FOR YOU"

    If hot cougar tells you she wants to "bring you home" even when your apartment is only a walkable bloc away...DON'T THINK...JUST DO IT :poly136:
  • valuemeal
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    valuemeal polycounter lvl 6
    Bal
    Various teachers,other students, people on other websites, someone who was professional told me that people here were trying to sabotage others. Mainly just people I have run into in life and the internet. This was no good at all, I never even saw engine people till I came here, but many folks told me it was no good.
  • Drav
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    Drav polycounter lvl 9
    Heres some advice....stop using the word fellows, every damn sentence it is making me want to stab kittens.


    In fact, sorry to be a bit negging, but this whole thread is rubbish.....
  • SveinY
  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    The thing is you actually need to use your brain and logical thinking don't just blindly listen to what others say.
  • JohnnyRaptor
  • low odor
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    low odor polycounter lvl 17
    "In 5 years everybody is going to be modeling with NURBS."
  • JonathanLambert
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    JonathanLambert polycounter lvl 6
    The pixel is a thing of the past. Vector or bust!
  • DEElekgolo
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    DEElekgolo interpolator
    "There's no such thing as colored specular"
    "Scale down your image by x2 and scale it back to make sure the important details get the most noticeable"
    "if an engine doesn't support normal maps just overlay the normal map over the diffuse texture"
  • gsokol
    You sir, have been getting advice from the wrong fellows.
  • WarrenM
    "if an engine doesn't support normal maps just overlay the normal map over the diffuse texture"
    WTF is this? I don't even see where that could work ... unless they meant bump maps?
  • Equanim
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    Equanim polycounter lvl 11
    Most bad advice I've received either stemmed from a "rule of thumb" or the adviser's own shortcomings. Valuemeal, it sounds like most of yours came from the latter. I wouldn't call it sabotage so much as people trying to give advice on fields they have little/no experience with. Advice is not law and it never applies all the time, if ever.

    My favorites are:
    "Oddly shaped business cards and mini CDs are a great way to get noticed!"
    "Don't scale 12 characters up when you can just scale the whole level down."
    "Look in the back of magazines for job openings."
    "If a modular asset doesn't tile correctly, just weld it to the surrounding assets in Maya and import it as one big mesh."
    "Unlockables are lame."

    Most of those were from graphic designers who don't work in the 3D industry, let along know anything about modeling.
  • LRoy
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    LRoy polycounter lvl 10
    DEElekgolo wrote: »
    "if an engine doesn't support normal maps just overlay the normal map over the diffuse texture"

    pretty sure they meant after you run it through crazybump or the like.

    similar to how striker does it here. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1953507&postcount=78
  • Mark Dygert
    Oh I get it now, that's a fro pick not a syringe. Huh, I learn something new everyday (its a slow day today).

    Advice is a game of catch, you could have the best pitcher in the world and if the guy behind the plate can't catch the game will end badly.
    Beware if someone says "ALWAYS do...", they are a crappy pitcher. Know the reason why, not just the rule.
  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    I was told by a wankstain dss officer that I would never get a job in games/3d as I did not own a mac. A pox on him and all his kind.
    Obviously I ignored his absurd advice.

    I have some good advice on how to unstick sash windows though:)
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Try pissing into the wind
  • rino
  • ScudzAlmighty
    2. I was also told that lines were for losers by a certain website and I gave
    up on lines for 2 years; that was a no good decision.

    What lines? Movie lines? Coke lines?!? Johnny Cash I Walk the Lines?!? Arrrgh!
  • Minos
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    Minos polycounter lvl 16
    Always set your lowpoly meshes to 1 smoothing group before baking normal maps... never understood this one lol
  • WarrenM
    Normal maps are a never ending cornucopia of bad advice.
  • JedTheKrampus
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    JedTheKrampus polycounter lvl 8
    Whenever advice has 'always' in it it is always bad advice.
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Abnormal maps > Normal maps
  • rawkstar
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    rawkstar polycounter lvl 18
    Take whatever money you would have put into a degree and buy a bitcoin miner or two. Then mine bitcoins for a couple of years, then retire.
  • Nosslak
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    Nosslak polycounter lvl 12
    Minos wrote: »
    Always set your lowpoly meshes to 1 smoothing group before baking normal maps... never understood this one lol
    That's actually not that bad of a piece of advice, it's just not complete. What you need to do is bake an object space normalmap from that mesh and convert that to a TS normalmap for the lowpoly with the actual smoothinggroups with handplane. That's what I usually do when I bake out normalmaps from models made in Blender as there is currently no fast and easy method for creating cages (might be improved for the next version though). It saves a bunch of time when you need to bake and don't want to remake a cage every time you adjust the lowpoly.

    This is only really applicable if you explode loose parts as otherwise you'd want a cage to limit the rays so they hit the desired parts only, but in my opinion it works pretty well.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I cooked some sausages last night and the packaging said "EAT TWO SERVINGS OF MEAT A DAY"
  • [HP]
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    [HP] polycounter lvl 13
    Minos wrote: »
    Always set your lowpoly meshes to 1 smoothing group before baking normal maps... never understood this one lol

    lmao, yeah, that's so not true unless you use object space, which no one really uses it for production.
    Or what Nosslak said. :)
  • valuemeal
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    valuemeal polycounter lvl 6
    Stromberg90
    I've heard even crazier advices in my day....But I shall be a respectful fellow and not point out things. Mark Dygert
    Indeed, that's what I was going for, it seems as though when I have my hair cut people don't the correlation. Indeed, I thought that there a set pipeline and that there was only one way to do things in 3D, but those advices were incorrect. Majority of it was from vfx people who didn't unwrap anything ever, and said it was a waste.

    ScudzAlmighty
    L
    ine art for drawings.
    For at least two years I painted over my sketches with no line art; and it turns out I am not the most painterly fellow in the world. That was a no terrible venture.


    rawkstar
    Education is paramount, but aren't bitcoins worth quite a bit now?
  • Amsterdam Hilton Hotel
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    Amsterdam Hilton Hotel insane polycounter
    WarrenM wrote: »
    WTF is this? I don't even see where that could work ... unless they meant bump maps?
    yeah overlaying the normal map directly is pretty zany advice, but you can often use an object space normal for a variety of handy tasks regardless of whether the engine supports normals. ex. directional masks, edge masks
  • lukepham101
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    lukepham101 polycounter lvl 7
    I remember both students and teachers at the place I studied at saying that Zbrush was a piece of crap and a terrible sculpting program, and that the industry was going to move onto 3D Coat... and that portfolios was a thing of a past so don't bother with it and just make a show reel because that's industry standard.

    Really it's like with anything, take what people say with a grain of salt and actually think about what they're saying. There something you can learn from all perspectives. Critical thinking and being open minded is how we evolve and move forward! :)
  • valuemeal
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    valuemeal polycounter lvl 6
    oh yeah, I forgot I also thought that anything above 4k tris was too much to show, because for some reason all the game art fellows I knew a long time ago were 500tri-1ktri dudes.

    Looking back at some of my old models today, (2009-2010 models)
    they were all between 5k and 9k tris, who would have thunk it?

    Guess I was never a high poly fellow at all, despite what they said.
  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    yeah overlaying the normal map directly is pretty zany advice

    might be ok if you are making a smurf
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    "Make sure you have some crates and barrels in your (entry-level) portfolio because that's all you're going to be making when you first get a job"
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    rawkstar wrote: »
    Take whatever money you would have put into a degree and buy a bitcoin miner or two. Then mine bitcoins for a couple of years, then retire.

    That's only worth it if your electricity costs are low or free.
  • Kot_Leopold
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    Kot_Leopold polycounter lvl 10
    "Failure is not an option" is a terrible advice. It only applies to dire situations, say you're in a war and failing is the thing between life and death. If one applies it to art, (s)he can screw up big time. Failures are a pavement to success.

    "Watch let's plays while you're making art". Yeah, right. You'll be very tempted to see what's going on when a let's player says "man, did you see this enemy! siick..." Walkthroughs with no commentaries are better, but still.

    "Listen to tutorials while working". It's like juggling 3 balls with one hand while somebody is standing over your shoulder and scolding the living soul out of you. What do you concentrate on?

    "Copy the works of artists you admire". Got to be careful with this one. Copycats aren't appreciated and you're running the risk of making the same mistakes.
  • Texelion
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    Texelion polycounter lvl 8
    "The videogame industry is expanding fast, you'll have no problem finding a job if you're good, even whithout any experience."

    The cake is a lie.
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    Similarly "The games industry is recession proof."

    L. O. Muthaflipping L.
  • Visceral
    Texelion wrote: »
    "The videogame industry is expanding fast, you'll have no problem finding a job if you're good, even whithout any experience."

    The cake is a lie.

    This....a thousand times this.

    Other than that, i cant recall ever getting bad advice, especially not from here. Might have gotten, one or two "it looks bad, fix it".
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    On a serious note I did get one honest piece of advice from a uni tutor, "Don't bother specialising as a modeller, one day people will just be able to hit a button and have a pre-made character created"

    :/ I thought there's already something like that available, its called Poser...
  • valuemeal
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    valuemeal polycounter lvl 6
    Torch
    Oh WOW, lol. What were these people thinking?

    Also I heard rumor that rigging was the most major job around years ago, but I hardly see any dudes who wrig.
    Also someone told me that folks will think you are a pervert if you have a portfolio with mostly female forms..

    Again, this is why I almost never trust teachers.
  • WarrenM
    Torch wrote: »
    On a serious note I did get one honest piece of advice from a uni tutor, "Don't bother specialising as a modeller, one day people will just be able to hit a button and have a pre-made character created"

    :/ I thought there's already something like that available, its called Poser...
    Yeah, that "auto art" button argument comes around time and again.

    We're seeing it now with a rash of "You don't need to know how to retopo anything, just use ZRemesher" arguments these days.

    Once Modo comes out with Mesh Fusion, I'm sure we'll be seeing advice along the lines of "You don't need to know how to subd model, just use booleans".

    Time after time, and the skills stay relevant...
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I want to see this website that said lines are for losers, I have a feeling you misunderstood advice on focusing on shapes and forms. You kind of have a reputation for misunderstanding advice, like "study real life anatomy" turns into "only make meaty soldier fellows"
  • Mark Dygert
    Jackablade wrote: »
    Similarly "The games industry is recession proof."

    L. O. Muthaflipping L.
    Ha, that's really bad. Discretionary entertainment spending is the first to get hit and takes the longest to recover. When it begins to rebound it normally means everything else has made good progress.

    If you're lucky, you live in an area that is pretty economically diverse and you can go do something else until people start pumping money into entertainment again.

    So yea LO-MF-L.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 3
    "Everybody are using Maya, Nuke, Linux and Macs" - said a person that barely left company that was based from top to bottom on Windows and 3dsmax in a country where 3dsmax is everywhere. Now when you look at job offers in this person country, 50% are for realtime, another 50% for motion graphics and architectual visualization. If you are lucky there are 2-3 Maya jobs in a year, 1 Nuke job in 1-2 years and Linux... yeah, people heard about it. Let's not talk about Macs.

    Do not listen advices of people that started their carrier more than 5 years ago, especially the ones that started it before 2007. World changed soooooo much that they have no f*cking clue what you should do to get into industry.
  • WarrenM
    Uhm, I see the point you're going for but ... don't listen to anyone with more than 5 years experience? Seriously?
  • skylebones
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    skylebones polycounter lvl 10
    mantragora wrote: »
    "Do not listen advices of people that started their carrier more than 5 years ago, especially the ones that started it before 2007. World changed soooooo much that they have no f*cking clue what you should do to get into industry.

    Add this right here to wrong advice. Hard work and a good portfolio is timeless.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 3
    WarrenM wrote: »
    Uhm, I see the point you're going for but ... don't listen to anyone with more than 5 years experience? Seriously?

    Experience how to do something is NOT equal to the knowledge of what you should do to get into industry.
  • Will Faucher
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    Will Faucher polycounter lvl 12
    mantragora wrote: »
    Do not listen advices of people that started their carrier more than 5 years ago

    Preeeetty sure that right there is some bad advice.

    In all seriousness though, I've had teachers telling me to avoid tri's like the plague, and only ever use quads. :poly142:
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