Heya /3/, I'm having a crisis. When I was in highschool,

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>>544466
Night version

>>544466
im not sure if it's a good idea to go back to school but you should definitely try to if you have the time and $$.
Attending school for 3D will verify if youre really passionate and will definitely help your portfolio if its not already killer

>>544473
no this is dead wrong. Ppl who attend 3d school are the bottom of the barrell

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>>544473
>>544475
Good to know, just do tutorials in my freetime, scrap the school? I just wouldn't mind taking a few courses to help me get back into the swing. When I was modeling in 2006, sculpting was pretty new to small media outlets, now the sculpting programs seem much more user friendly. A course would just help open my eyes to what's new and what I shouldn't bother with anymore. Plus it would keep me on task in the begging.

Thanks so far so helpful guys.

I wanted a better sky for this pic, I forgot why my younger self didn't make one.

How do you all feel about beginner hardware. Can I ostensibly model and render on my mid-tier notebook (core i7, 8gb mem) until I can upgrade to a larger machine? I travel a lot so this would be a huge deal.

seems like you were one of those autists during the modding scene era which is a good thing, it gives you a big advantage.

d/l unreal start making stuff with bsp brush and explore. it don't have to be original but just get used to the new editor.
for assets i suggest (if you have background of it) i suggest you focus on alot because your want to eventually make a scene in static meshes.
and eventually pbr texturing which is a new thing. with 10 year gone by texturing become much easier and with your previous knowledge of set dressing its gonna help you make concept levels easily.

>>544476
drop school. have like 300-1000$ and start investing in top of the line tutorial from gumroad/lynda.
make your own materials in ue4, build your own stuff. in short - master the editor.
you seem like you are eager and that's a good thing, there are hours of learning awaiting you.
as for a computer you might want to invest in a good gpu/cpu to have good FPS when building levels.
for assets you might want to get modo or maya indie versions which have some kind of subscription price but if not get something free like blender (if you can get past the UI).

good like to you

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>>544466
Are you me?

>>544478
>>544479
This is good advice.

Dont get stuck trying to get good at everything at once. Focus on one thing and get great at it.

>>544466
don't go back to school especially now that you (assuming here) have a steady paying career. learn stuff on the side from gumroad, gnomon, etc... if you don't have the cash to pay for gnomon dvds for instance you can resort to pirating everything. and that way you won't have crushing debt / time pressure. also dabble in enough of 3D to realize what you want to do, because it isn't the same as it used to be. Everyone mostly wants to do environments for games, but there's so much more out there (that is also less competitive). So I would take the time to explore first.

>>544483
no one got broke from gumroad/gnomon tutorials lol.
give those artists some credit and avoid pirating

I can second what people here are saying about teaching yourself.

Furthermore, I am currently attending a reputable 3D school (NAD, in Montreal), and while what we're learning isn't a complete waste, 80% of the "good" work comes from students learning and practicing in their free time.

For those things, a school is an environment to keep you motivated and focused if you think you will have issues working on your own. But if you're organized and responsible, I would say learning on your own is cheaper, and actually more efficient.

>>544476
Also, in my experience, gumroad/pluralsight/whatev tutorials actually do a better job of introducing you to new software, whereas real-life intro classes stick to incredibly basic shit, and will barely go in-depth at all.

This might just be my personal experience, but I feel like intro classes are too oriented towards people with no understanding of 3D whatsoever, rather than people simply rusty, or new to specific concepts.

>>544481
call of duty 1 ?

>>544490
Maybe, random from my example inspiration folder

You can seemingly model okay, have to see wires and UVs to judge that.

However you don't have the artistry for texturing and lighting and I doubt you know how to rig.

As it is now, you're only a hobbyist and wouldn't get hired.

The single most important thing for me to learn a software is to have a specific task that needs to get done.
That way I'm forced to figure out problems, whereas random tutorials just have no pressure behind them and no incentive to actually get it done.

So whether it's a school, a job or something you just really want to do, find a specific project to finish, preferably with a deadline.

>>544603
>>544604
please read the post before making a comment

>>544608
How is my comment not related?

It's never too late to get good at something, except maybe sports.
I thought your question was not if you could do it, but what was the best way. Which is to have an actual project to work on imo.