What should I model for my first portfolio piece?

>>559007
You have several options. They are:

-A car (maybe a muscle car like a mustang)
-A sci-fi corridor
-An AK-47 or ithaca 37 (textured in SP with tons of edge wear)
-A render of your bedroom (make sure to use Cycles)
-Anything from the Chamferzone tutorials

>>559007
Competent art. Doesn't matter what it is, as long as it showcases the fundamentals, a decent understanding of topology, and good textures. It's your portfolio, make something worthwhile in the area you want to specialize in.

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>>559008

Gonna try out the shotgun, thanks for suggestions. Worked on it a bit already, pic related

>>559009

What is component art? Do you have examples? And I'm not sure what I want to specialize in yet. I've mostly done game assets, so just basic high/low poly & texturing.

Wanted to do freelance. I gotta research what gets the most work in freelance sites such as upwork

you just need to have a "feel" for it.
one day you gonna be like "AH THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO MODEL" and just do it

>>559008

low key shade being thrown up in here

>>559019
>low key shade being thrown up in here

Stop the nigger memes. The phrase is "trolled softly"

>>559021

But i wanna be black. let me wigger yo homie

>>559009
What the fuck are ~*_The Fundamentals_*~ anyway? I hear this term tossed around like salad but nobody ever elaborates on what they are.

Everyone must be born knowing these fundamentals or something if they're so omniscient and obvious.

>>559025
its just shitters referring to beginner youtube videos.

fundamentals is not enough. having perfect topology and amazing UV maps is not good enough. this is the shit you learn during college/school.
being an artist is the hard part. you have plenty of artists that make amazing sculpts/textures that don't have perfect topology or their UV maps are all over the place. the technique comes with time. the artistic process comes from observation + practicing constantly

>>559025
It means not fucking up any particular step of the process, and producing results that are appealing.

Anon is going for environment art so that means:
- Modeling and successfully representing a variety of objects and efficient topology
- Texturing that is convincing and without technical glitches
- Competence with the software pipeline, e.g. Subtance for texturing, assembling scenes in Unreal Engine or render engines like v-ray

>>559029
You didn't list "fundamentals". You listed the whole fucking process, from mesh to renderer.

>>559025
>Focuses on semantics just to bitch
OP wants to make a portfolio, so he must at least know the baseline to evolve. If you make ass quality in your art (realism/stylized), you don't know the fundamentals. Compare your art to professionals and see how you can improve instead of bitching about semantics. :^)

>>559034
>you don't know the fundamentals

There's that word again. :^)

>>559035
>semantics shitposting
t. angry autist

>>559037
>I can't define what a "fundamental" is so I'm dishing out the autism card

>>559038
>needs spoonfeeding
>ignores entire rest of post(s) information to bitch about a single word IT doesn't know
Hehehe, leaving thread and won't read response as you just wanna shitpost. Stay upset.

>>559039
Okay.

>>559007

I went to games industry careers conference just recently and spoke to a senior art director at an AAA studio and he told me exactly what an environment artist has to have on his artstation to get hired and gave me a couple secret tips too.

And I'm not going to post what he said. Because I made the effort to go find out, and you didn't. And that's how work works.

>>559041
im willing to bet he didn't tell you the truth either

>>559043
Not him, but it's not implausible. A lot of those guys just sit around at cons, conferences, and the like ready to talk to others and network. Whether it's true anon did this however is another story.

>>559049
those guys at cons will bullshit all day without telling anything useful.

>>559050
Liam Tart seemed like a rather nice fellow. Friendly, helpful, talked about Alien Isolation and etc.

>>559050

Seeing as he is a very visible / somewhat public figure for an enormous company and that he gave me his card and told me to give him a call in a couple months, I don't think so.

OP no one here knows what they are talking about. You have only two options:
A mug
Or
A cloth in a bowl.

>>559030
Kek. Those are the fundamentals. If you don't have those basic steps down you are useless as an environment artist.

Advanced skills include creating unique environments from concept art, developing art-directable procedurals, automating and scripting, pipeline tools such as scene assembly, shader optimization - there are an endless number of things you might need to do on the job but "the basics" means narrowing down to just the essential skills.

>>559086
>Those are the fundamentals.

More like those are your fundamentals, Johnny. A general list of fundamentals everyone should adhere to should be way more simple:

- Knowing how to move the camera and manipulate objects around the 3D viewport efficiently and without wasting time.

- Knowing what your basic primitives are, how to modify their shapes (I.E. putting subdivision caps on a cyllinder), and how to combine them together to make new, more complex shapes using some simple operations like Bridge, Extrude, Insert Edge Loop, etc.

- Memorizing some key shortcuts so that you can get rid of some of the interface and focus more on your work.

- Never doing anything off of your head, always looking at references.

- Learning what your basic maps are, like AO, roughness, normal, bump, etc., how they work and how to generate them.

Those and more are essential skills everyone should have on this industry. Principles like those are the fundamentals. They are easy to learn but you have to apply some time every day to get really good at doing anything with them.

Modelling a bunch of shit, texturing it and throwing it in the render isn't a fundamental anymore, there's nothing fundamental about it, it's the full process. Those may include fundamental concepts but they are not fundamentals.

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>>559007
>what should I model for my first portfolio piece?
my waifu

>>559007
A "realistic" orc so you can be like every other hack.

>>559090
so by your logic the fundamentals of drawing have nothing to do with the act of drawing or the finish drawing itself, but instead

- knowing how to hold a pencil
- knowing the effects of the pencil (that pressing it upon paper and other surfaces creates a dark mark)
- knowing what circles, squares, triangles, etc are, and how to draw them in different sizes
- using references
- knowing the difference between charcoal, graphite, ink, etc

well I already know all that stuff so it looks like i've got the fundamentals down and can go ahead and jump in and start working on portfolio pieces applying for illustration jobs :^)

>>559122
Way to compare apples and oranges.

Also, knowing how to draw basic geometric shapes, the differences between your drawing tools, and to use references when you don't know when to draw something, ARE good fundametals to have when drawing, dumbass. Most objects in the world can be represented and built with a combination of these very basic shapes.

You could start putting pieces in your portfolio right there, because your portfolio isn't a static thing that only takes work of a certain quality. It's a reflection of your skills that changes and improves as you do.

>>559007
Above all else, your portfolio should exhibit a broad range of diverse subject matter and style. For example, if you want to focus on being an enviro 3D artist, explore a range of environments and different types of architecture.

A diverse portfolio shows that you're not just a one trick pony, and it opens you up to a far greater amount of different opportunities so that you're never short of work and people will want to hire you back for future projects.

Don't be an amateur and just focus on modelling one particular subject matter such as guns. You may be great at modelling guns, but someone who's able to model guns along with a range of other things is far more likely to be hired than you.

>>559090
I don't think you understand what is meant by fundamentals. It doesn't mean the very basics. It means the methods required that are essential in order to most effectively produce a finished piece.

The fundamentals of 3D modelling are:
Modelling
Texturing
Lighting
Animation
Rendering

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>>559131
A "fundamental" and a "basic" are so similar, they could be made into synonyms with very little effort.

Also:

>I don't think you understand what is meant by fundamentals. It doesn't mean the very basics.

"What is meant" by who? "It doesn't mean the very basics" as dictated by what? You fucks keep pumping out what you think is a fundamental concept in your heads but you never back it up.

There isn't an instruction manual into 3D explicitly saying what the fundamentals are that everyone agreed to, we have tons of software and software workflows nowadays where you can do some things you prefer before others. You don't have to adhere to a strict order.

Again, fundamentals should be things like how to make the most out of your software's interface, knowing how to create lights and which one to use for what situation, when to use a normal map and when to use a bump map, how to do simple operations to your mesh. You should be able to translate that to every software AND THEN move on to the actual process of modeling to rendering.

>>559135
I can understand how the term can mislead people.

In 2D art, there's a widely accepted definition of what the "fundamentals" are. In 3D, not so much.

Fundamentals of 2D are things such as anatomy, perspective, spatial representation, composition, rendering, etc. Logic would dictate equivalent knowledge of this in 3D to be based around wider knowledge, such as composition (again), structure design, or material creation, rather than things such as how to use your software's interface, which would be more considered a "technique" (like how to paint with oils, or acrylics).

>>559135
How are you this assblasted about the definition of a word? When people talk about fundamentals, they talk about your knowledge and understanding to create proper up to par art in the respective style you are making. Autism, I swear.

>>559161
Because people use this word constantly around critique of other people's art on this board. And it's usually some real vague, shitty criticism like, "Wow man, your work is trash, you need fundamentals." or, "Work on your fundamentals before you do anything else.".

And it boggles my mind, because they never specify what the fundamentals are, they don't cite examples of other works where "the fundamentals" are there. It ends up coming across as anon actually being a dumbass who wants to judge someone's shit but he's too retarded to put into words what's wrong with it, so he'll say some vague word like "fundamentals", that isn't defined well in 3D, and has a different definition for everybody, as a way to sound knowledgeable and experienced.

When he isn't. Anon is just a retard. And he'll call me an autist when I call him out on it, because he can't define the fundamentals for me.

>>559163
When people use the word fundamentals, most are using it as a way to point out your quality is not up to par. Whether that be within your anatomy being poor, textures looking shit, lighting being poorly rendered, or your assets just being of poor quality, when people use the term fundamentals they aren't referencing youtube videos my friend - they're calling your art shit and not up to standards. I think you're blowing this out of proportion, but what can you expect from 4chan where the mentality is to be angry about everything?

>>559136
>Fundamentals of 2D are things such as anatomy, perspective, spatial representation, composition, rendering, etc. Logic would dictate equivalent knowledge of this in 3D to be based around wider knowledge
Most 2D fundamentals apply to 3D. It's just that 3D has a few more tacked on that 2D doesn't.

3D essentially has 2 different aspects of "fundamentals".

There are the technical fundamentals, which includes knowledge on how to actually use the programs, the 3D workflow, topology, etc. Generally stuff that's specific to 3D, such as
>>559131
listed.

And then there are the "artistic" fundamentals, which include most of what you listed, plus anything you'd find people screeching about on /ic/.
These can usually be applied to 2D as well.

You can make very technically impressive work look like disgusting garbage in 3D if you ignore the artistic aspects of it. It's pretty easy to accidentally do, and I see a lot of people here do it.
On the flipside, it may be possible for an artist to make a beautiful sculpt, while only having rudimentary knowledge of zbrush, yet become stuck afterwards because they don't understand enough about the technical aspects of 3D to do anything with it.
(Can't retopo if you don't know how topology works. Can't texture if you don't understand how UVs work. Can't rig if you don't understand how weighting and bones work, etc.)

It's safe to assume you need to know both aspects to succeed in 3D. It's not all about simply learning the programs and hammering hotkeys into muscle memory like a lot of people here would lead you to believe, though that is important.
A lot of 3D bleeds into actual artistic fundamentals that have been around for centuries.

>>559007
Presentation is everything in a portfolio. Your post processing and lighting have to be good or else your portfolio will be ignored. OP's image looks pretty shit but the mesh itself would look good with better rendering.

Just make a cartoonized asset and plug it into unreal with this article:
https://80.lv/articles/henric-montelius-overwatch-style-visuals-with-ue4/

Everyone will be impressed that you can make "Overwatch" style models, when in reality it's all post-processing magic

>>559008
Scifi Corridor master race reporting in

>>559016

This is trash advice. Amateurs wait for inspiration. Professional sit down and produce.

>>559008
KEK, this should be a bingo.

Checked:
-Sci fi corridor
-Chamferzone tuts
-Ton of edge wear with curvature map mask

>>559207
you are trash.
if you think chamferzone ak47 is gonna let you in the front door you have some thinking to do

>>559225
You can add to that list:
-Bricks or Tiles texture made in SD
-Something "sci-fi" with lots of 45 degree angles and painted normal greebles
-Untextured, overly simple sword (bonus points if arranged to resemble the Dark Souls bonfire)

>>559267
>glock 18
>scifi grenade
>some stone/metal in designer
>some kind of bmw or bugatti
>poorly lit scene of some corridor with some trash on the floor