How do I get to this point as a self-taught artist? I know a

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>>2712939
>FZD speaks of formulas. Is math the differentiation between a self-taught artist and a professional?

No

>>2712939
Photobashing

>>2712939
The formula is zbrush and photobashing with a bit of painting

>math formula to get good at painting

How exactly do you imagine that to look like?

>>2712983
2 times loomis equals post your work faggot

Practice at least around 8 hours a day (12 hours if you are hardcore, but don't hurt yourself) for 2-4 years. Watch tutorials from professionals, don't only stick to one or two guys, check out more. Listen to podcasts with them like The Collective Podcast for example. There they talk more about the mindset, time management and life, instead of just techniques blablabla. Learn useful programs like Maya, Modo, Zbrush, Vue or Worldmachine, Marvelous Designer etc etc. Anything that might help you out and make your workflow faster and more enjoyable. I would recommend online courses as well for the professional feedback and the discipline it gives you. Sadly they can be quite expensive, so an alternative could be patreon or forums. James Paick for example has a feedback system set up on his patreon, check it out.

I know it seems quite a lot, but this is what it takes these days to reach the top. That's what all the top dogs say and that's what I did. Now I am working in a big studio on AAA titles as a concept artist, so I guess it works. Still long way to the top, but you have to accept that it takes years of fucking hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Don't let this scare you tho, if that's your dream, then go for it! JUST DO IT you know :D Good luck buddy!

PS! If you have more questions or anything, I am happy to help out :)

>>2713064
post work

>>2713064
>Learn useful programs like Maya, Modo, Zbrush,
Go fucking kill yourself you fucking drone.
holy shit and people will fall for this

>>2713064
>Now I am working in a big studio on AAA titles as a concept artist
Fucking kek, seriously? Who're you kidding?

P O S T
O
S
T

Y O U R
O
U
R

W O R K
O
R
K

>>2713108
>>2713100

how will he ever recover?

>>2713102
Uhm what? I'm not him but it's a good idea to learn those things. It will give you a lot more flexibility and especially for environments it will help immensely and is almost a requirement these days. Have you ever looked at all the job postings on Artstation? Literally half the positions require 3d knowledge as mandatory, and the 2d positions all say that 3d experience is a heavy bonus.

Sry after these negative comments I don't feel like it. It wouldn't change anything anyway, it would just give you an opportunity for a more personal attack, so no thanks. I am not here to prove anything, just trying to help out a little, that's it. You don't have to listen to anything that I am saying :)

>>2713102
Ty for the suggestion to go kill myself btw, but I was just talking from my point of view as a concept/dmp artist. These tools are commonly used in the industry in these fields and a similar quality of work or better to the given picture could also be done using these tools. This particular picture done by Alex Jessup uses only painting and photobashing, but the pieces he has photobashed in could have been made in these programs. Sorry to say but that is just where the industry is moving. If you don't like it then don't do it, you can just stick to traditional techniques, there is plenty of market for that as well. Especially now with this crazy indie boom, where most of the games use some sort of painterly or unique style.

Listen to that guy, he knows what is going down >>2713239

>>2713265
>my point of view as a concept/dmp artist
Glad to see you post again, I saw your first post the other night with the big 4 part explanation. I hope you stick around, there are a handful of pros here and the insight from them is quite important I think. You would especially be useful since you work in a large studio, whereas most people here are freelancers, so your perspective will be a bit different.

Also as a side note, I know others have been trolling around with the "post work" thing to probably try to call you out or shit on whatever you post, but I am genuinely curious what your work looks like, so if you are willing to post something it would be appreciated. Either a site/blog will work, but if you want to be anonymous just post something that is not online and connected to your name in any way.

>>2712939

This is painted 3D model. Also photobashed to fuck and back, so...yeah.

>>2713064
>8 hours a day
Feng said 6 and I've heard other pros say even 4 is enough. Where are you getting this number from?

>>2713265

ever wonder why all these self proclaimed industry professionals refuse to post art? like literally
EVERY
SINGLE
TIME
really makes you think

>>2713277
>how can I justify my laziness

>>2713277
8 hours a day is the same as a full time job, probably why he used that number.

>>2713284
>how can I project my insecurities onto others
>>2713287
Yeah I guess that's it.

>>2713268
Thank you so much, that meant a lot! I will definitely stick around for a while and try to help out as much as I can. I relocated to another country a few months ago because of the job, so I am in a situation where I sometimes have time in the evenings during the week for that. I also wouldn't mind sharing my work at some point, but maybe in a more friendly thread :D Also I would love to update my artstation before that, which I haven't done in quite a while. Sadly none of the concept work done for the clients can be posted anywhere online, so I have to find some free time for that.

>>2713277
The question is, enough for what? These numbers are definitely enough for small improvements over time, but if you want to roll with the big dogs so to say, then sadly you have to do more than that. If you are still young and very passionate about it, then it shouldn't be a problem. It's all about how good do you want to be and how much do you want it. Yes Feng might say now that 6 is a good balanced number, but I am sure that during his early years he worked his ass off and had a lot of sleepless nights to get where HE is now. I happen to know two guys who went to FZD and one of them is actually a close friend of mine. Let me tell you, even in his school, they make the students work like horses man, occasionally even more than what I was talking about. How else do you think most of the students get hired by studios only after a one year diploma course. So stay hungry guys and go for it, everything is possible! Talent is overrated, hard work can beat it anytime :)

PS! Know your limits tho, don't hurt yourselves please! During my time in the university I went to, quite a few people suffered from hand injuries and had to stop for at least 3 months from overworking. If you start feeling discomfort or pain in your hand, take some time off. There are also some gloves you can buy that will help the blood circulation.

Take care and good luck!

>>2713318
>During my time in the university I went to, quite a few people suffered from hand injuries
Which uni did you go to?

>>2713318
Cool man, I hope you do post some images up at some point and hang around as a regular here. I know what you mean by client work being locked under NDA too, it's frustrating but can also be the push you need to do personal work.

Just a couple last quick questions: how old are you and how long have you been doing art?

>>2713282
only amateurs post work
Really makes you think

>>2713282
Maybe because last time someone posted work it got turned into a meme and the artist was attacked

>>2713361

if /ic/ is such a hostile place why are any of you here?

>>2713328
I went to The Animation Workshop in Denmark.

In 2016, the institution was featured among The Top 20 Schools to Hire From as selected by Animation Magazine and won 5th place worldwide in the CG Student Awards in 2015. TAW ranked among the Top 100 Schools for Animation, Gaming and Design and 14th among International Animation Schools by the Animation Career Review in 2014.

The amazing thing about this school is that there is no tuition fee for EU citizens. Since there are no schools for that in the country where I come from, I had to look for opportunities abroad, so little or no tuition fee was basically a must for me. It would have been impossible to cover both living expenses and tuition. The only thing you have to pay for monthly is the materials fee, because you get a lot of stuff from the school.

>>2713331
Awesome, I will post some stuff soon, I have a couple of pieces brewing :D But I am 24, quite new to the professional game, but I have been doing art for as long as I can remember. The first memories start from the times when I was beating the Crash Bandicoot games on ps1 to unlock all the artwork, already back then I pretty much knew what I wanted to do and it has never changed really. It probably got more serious after High school, when I started preparing for the university tho.

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work at it, draw every day, you'll get there

I started out like you and now I'm a professional concept artist
attached is an example of my work

>>2713370

I think it's for 2 main reasons. First is that you can maintain completely anonymous if you wish. The second reason is that it's not so overcrowded like most of the art related sites and forums. You can still have more or less proper conversations with people without getting flooded with stuff. That's why the professionals who start these type of sites normally end up leaving, because it become unbearable. Let's hope that this wont happen to Artstation anytime soon. It seems like they have a proper team to keep things under control and smooth so far.

>>2713064
Thank you, I'm an anon trying to walk your path, I won't be coming back to /ic/ after seeing how insecure some anons are though. They didn't need to to lash out at you, you were just trying to help.

>>2713388
Artstation is gonna stick around a while, it's really entrenched itself in the industry quite well and seems to be much smarter about finances and planning than CGHub.

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>>2713386

Beautiful work man! Love the rendering, especially on the face! Such a nice and simple lighting set up, wish people weren't so overly dramatic all the time with the lighting and colors :D

Since we started sharing things, here is one of my pieces.

>>2713386
your rendering is decent
but your construction is not
>>>/beg/

even if it is a meme post something better newfag

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>>2713386
What is it about this picture?

It's so shitty, but it's also very polished.

>>2713399
Wow, that looks like my friend Kenneth's work

Hey guys come on, if you throw such harsh criticism on the table, at least be more constructive. Let's be nice! :P

>>2713392
yea I agree man, let's hope it stays this way.

>>2713404
And who might be this friend of Kenneth I am talking to? :D

>>2713401
>>2713386
I think it's the combination of the shitty/generic design, and the stiffness that permeates the entire work. It might be a stylistic choice, but it's most likely not.

You can lay down as much rendering as you want, but that won't fix the underlying issues with the foundation.

>>2713407
It's me, Robert.

>>2712939
FZD or do you mean Feng himself? Because I know Feng says it, but its meaning isn't really clear unless you've listened to him a lot. He's basically saying that once you get to a high enough level, you just know what's "good" and therefore you can always construct towards that standard. That's pretty much the formula. One example of this is, good composition. How to lead the eye. It always works in the same way so just do that. Feng is also just saying how art can be very technical when you simplify it down to pieces. Like how an animal can be broken down in to the simple shapes and how shadows can be broken down. This is what Feng says he teaches at FZD, it's basically not "feel". It's "this is what happens and why it happens". Applies to all the fundamentals really.

>>2713410
Hahah no way man! :D

>>2713399
Just so you know, that picture you responded to is an /ic/ meme, where two members argued and one asked for the other to post work, so he posted that image. It later got posted around whenever people ask to see work. So that anon you responded to isn't the one who painted it.

Source: I painted it and was the original anon. It was done like 2 years ago though, so I hope I'm better now. Some people might not believe me, but whatever. I've talked in previous threads about it and probably some of the regulars here know who I am and know that I'm not lying.

Anyways, that painting you posted is nice, very good sense of scale and lighting. Is it done with the mixer brush? Just wondering about some of the canvas texture and stuff. I think the character though is weaker than the rest of the image, so he might need some tweaking with his design and making make the lighting on him more consistent (he is casting a hard dark shadow, but he himself is completely one flat value as though he is lit ambiently and not by direct sunlight).

>>2713417
what's the original filename anon ;^)

>>2713422
Fuck, even I forgot that since it's been called merc_wip so much. I had to go into my files to check haha, FutureSoldierFinal.jpg is the original.

>>2713417
Did you make it, how good are you now

>>2713417

Thanks man! Yea I hate the character myself. It was sort of a last minute decision to throw it in just as a secondary focus point and I couldn't make it work. Just feels so out of place. Sadly I ran out of time and I just had to put it in the portfolio as it was.

>>2713427
I scrape by a living off freelance so I guess I "made it" according to some anons. Depression has really held me back a lot both professionally and artistically, so I'm not super good I don't think, maybe it depends who you ask though since other people tell me I am better than I think I am. I basically have gone through periods of months of not really painting much and stuff though which obviously is not the best. Right now I'm trying to finish up some work for a deadline next week, but I'm having trouble focusing, hence me being on /ic/.

>>2713430
Ah I see, that's part of why I hate posting images online. Once it's up that kills the image. Like I never want to work more on pieces that have been put public even if I see the mistakes.

Anyways, if it got you a full time gig then it doesn't matter much at this point.

>>2713433
Can you define scraping by?
How much would you say you would make if you did your work everyday and semi-comfortably.

>>2713433
Shit dude, I hope that you will get better! I am fighting with some mild depression myself, so I know it can be tough. Also as you said yourself, it really like dries up the creative juices and your favorite activity becomes more of a chore. I never have and probably never will regret the decision of becoming an artist, but there is a shit ton of things we sign up for that we don't really understand until we are too far in you know. Losing connections and friends because of the traveling and moving around. The stress that comes with it. Extremely difficult to make and keep relationships because of the same thing, etc etc etc. When you are a full time freelancer the situation might be a little different, but yeah, it aint easy.

>>2713440
Hm, well it's hard to say. Actually I was making more back in 2014 than I am now per piece, bit I am more efficient now so am doing higher volume of lower paid work (not really by choice, it just sort of happened). At the end of 2014 I had some bad depression though and fucked up some jobs and lost a lot of contacts, and then took a year off fb and social media so lost touch with a lot of friends. In mid 2015 I had a remote studio job for a few months then took more time off, then only started up working freelance again recently in the last few months. So it has been very inconsistent as you can see, and saying specifics on what I earn is not that clear or helpful because I took many breaks lasting months. Money is pretty tight though at the moment, even though I live cheaply, but a part of that is probably because I burned through all my savings when I took time off working. So now I'm really counting on clients paying up on time (actually I have two clients that owe me money right now) and giving consistent work.

>>2713441
Thanks man, don't think it will just magically get better, but I appreciate the thoughts. If anything it's probably gotten worse over time, but at least I am slightly better maybe at coping with it? I dunno, I just ignore things now like suicidal thoughts. It's true that it's tough to maintain relationships and friendships as an artist, but that's how it goes I guess. I have some online art friends though which is nice.

>>2713447
>tfw have depression and after reading this realize it's going to fuck me up even in the future because it's impossible to beat down forever
Why does life have to be so horrible

Ok, normally I prefer not to comment in these kind of threads, but I would really hate for someone just starting out getting a misconception and burn out needlessly.

This whole "you need to put at least 8 hours a day into your art" is just totally nonsense.

- Pushing yourself so hard will suck all the joy and fun out of it, making it more likely for you to fail to see the ponit of it and just give up. It's like self-inflicted crunch-time. What's the use of that?
- Putting in so many hours is like cramming schoolwork. Yes, you have to repeat things constantly because otherwise it won't stick.
- Putting in the hours =/= Understanding. The goal is to learn, absorb knowledge, make connections and understand. Things won't 'click' if you cram.
- Are you going to do this the rest of your life? Cram, cram, cram, work, work, work, without enjoying life? It's a quick way to go nowhere.

OP, the thing is this:

It's quality that matters, not quantity. You need time to understand what you're doing, how you're doing it and why you do it. Your brain needs to absorb the knowledge and make the connections. And you have to live life, have new experiences, learn from them and incorporate that in your work to get better.

To be a top artist is not about being technically perfect. It is about understanding human nature and human motivation, to spark feelings and create a connection with your audience. This is why some artwork or music or movies, even though they might be technically perfect, leave us unsatisfied.

So, put in the hours you're comfortable with. When you're tired, take a break. Don't force it. Yes, do technical exercises and repeat them to improve your motor skills and technical skills, but also make enough room for new experiences and understanding.

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>>2713455
>Thought I had depression
>Realized I need to follow my dream of becoming an artist or else I will commit suicide
>Currently living a happy life living with my parents and working 5-6 hours a day studying the fundamentals

I'm about to turn it up to 8 hours a days.

I no longer wish for death.
I guess you should read this article on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism

>>2713465
I think it's important to say what you just did and I agree for the most part, but it really depends on the person. Most people (myself included) will burn out doing 8+ hours of daily grinding. Some people (Algenpfleger for example) thrive on that and grow very quickly. The thing is to just not lose sight of why you are doing art in the first place and to enjoy the ride. You can become professional doing art 2 hours a day, but it might take 5 or 6 years instead of 2 or 3 like the guys who can do huge amounts of hours.

>>2713331
why would anyone want to hang around here? this board has turned to shit since discord came along. N

>>2713465

Completely agree with you, that's why I always mentioned to take care of yourself and stay healthy. That's the most most important thing! 8 hours a day is a very good amount I would say, but above that is not recommended. If you don't feel like doing it, then don't. Only if you really want to and you truly enjoy yourself. If you are doing it hardcore, don't keep it up like that for too long, be very careful not to burn yourself out. It is important to take sometimes even a few days off just to let your brain process all the new information and make sense of it. If you find yourself stuck, like there is no improvement no matter how hard you try, take some time off and things will fall in place. It's ok to push yourself, but everything in moderation. Remember you are doing this because you love it.

To me it just happened naturally. For a while the only thing in my life was drawing, so that's what I did all the time, but you cant keep that up forever. There is so much more to life! As our wise friend said here, the difference between a good artist and the top artist is what you put into your work. The message, the feelings and the connection are the key for taking your work to the next level. But you wont get that from staring at the monitor or sitting at your desk, to find that you must experience life.

I normally don't recommend animes, because I am not a very big anime guy, but there is a very good one that is super short and talks about an artist who fights with exactly the same things we just talked about. It's called Barakamon

https://myanimelist.net/anime/22789/Barakamon

Check it out, it's only 12 episodes, quite funny and extremely down to earth. It helped me a lot during a difficult time in my life.

>>2712939
Sticky like says all there is to know. Just do the fundies and yeah. There's no secrets in art.

>>2713384
damn dude, i live in Denmark myself and aspire to join the animation workshop as well.
I'm at complete beginner though, how good do you reckon you have to be to get accepted, and what's the best way to achieve this level? just following the sticky?

any tips regarding acceptance in the animation workshop is appreciated

>>2713509

Hey! They have decent standards and quite hefty portfolio requirements, check out the details on their website. You can also follow them on youtube and FB to check out the projects made by students and stalk a few names from the end credits to check some of the level. Also they have open house dates, when you can check the place out and even get some portfolio feedback given by the second and third year students. Usually they also recommend taking the classical drawing course in The Drawing Academy, it really helps a lot, I did it myself, but it's not mandatory. So go over there, the people are very nice and welcoming :)