Need some advice

(Continued.. Sorry for the length)

So i’ve decided to work endlessly for the next 4-5 months and i’m realizing that i don’t like the idea of buying expensive softwares, pc, tablets, having to self teach everything, group projects, socializing, impossibly tight deadlines, etc. Yes i do enjoy games and art and yes i do still wish i had a wacom cintiq or cool monitor rigs for my self made pc, but i think working under games, animation, etc kind of industry will just further spoil my enjoyment for it.

So i just want some advice on what i can do once or if i can actually graduate from this sort of degree, i’ve been thinking of being an art teacher since it takes away from working in a games industry environment and i think it would be kinda cool being an art teacher who has some knowledge in stuff like concept art, animation, games to younger generation highschool or college (not elementary or uni). But i also wanna know if there’s any other careers that i can do with this degree. My last go to would probably work in retail or something… i wouldn’t mind living in a lifestyle where i could just afford games and basic necessities and maybe some art supplies and play and draw freely if i have time.

>>2834063
I know students like you, typically the school did nothing wrong and it's really just you that's the problem. I've seen it time and time again. You seem to think it's useless because it's not what you want to do. What kind of stuff is it then? You're being so vague about it.

Anyways, you say it like you've been doing the program long. Only second year? First year is all for general stuff.

Also,
>don't really teach the students anything
I think you're just too stupid to catch it or something. Concept Art, 3D, Animation, etc. aren't things where you can be hand held. It's a lot of self learning that you do on your own without anyone even telling you because you yourself just know you'll need to.

Glad you at least understand meeting deadlines. That stress is something they know and force onto you so it prepares you. It'll never go away, so you will have to learn how to deal with it. There'll always be more work to get done while you lack the knowledge along with tight deadlines. What matters is that you do it and get the most done as you can. That's just how the world rolls because it's going too fast.

>>2834065
This whole post, I understand. You know why? Because this type of thinking happens when you've gone through extreme amounts of stress. Anything seems like a better alternative to the now, but really you just need to get yourself back on track and remember why you came in the first place. It's easy to forget things when you're stressed.

(Final.. Again sorry)

I know this is /ic/ but i want to say that i am a 20 year old woman studying in uni, my course is stated to be the best for 3d/animation/vfx/games/etc sort of thing so i decided to go in, i guess the place just lost it’s ways i just don’t know but i do know i have to deal with this since i’m here.

I’m kind of insecure about this whole thing i feel like my lack of knowledge makes me not good enough to work in the gaming industry, or even a teacher or just i dunno retail job? Honestly drawing and art has been the only thing that made me confident about myself, i’m insecure about my looks, i think socializing with people is really hard, i feel like i’ve lost all qualities that made me happy or atleast confident on who i am. At this rate i just want to graduate with whatever degree and get a teacher/any job that can give me enough to pay off bills, games, art supplies and let me draw and live alone in my room. Maybe even a pet cat because i’ve never had a boyfriend and don’t think i ever can. I just don’t know anymore. Any advice would be nice.

>>2834071
>Honestly drawing and art has been the only thing that made me confident about myself
Then get good so you never feel this way again and can move on with your life. Once you're confidence and really good in one thing, everything else sort of snowballs. Also, insecurity comes with stress.

>>2834067
Yes, i know 3d stuff is self taught, in the first year they taught us how to use maya. This year they told us so much more like Unreal, Marmoset, Substance painter, Substance designer, Zbrush, etc. However honestly they've just told us the names of the softwares, we had to figure out how to even navigate or set up our model, or how to use anything, create anything, etc. We had lectures that were supposed to help us but it’s usually 30 minutes of talking about irrelevant things, 20 minutes of showing other peoples works and showreels, 15 minutes of a student or teacher having technical or software issues, sometimes they actually teach however it’s usually the old method or something very basic that doesn’t really help expand our knowledge.

All the student by this time know that all they’re doing is just for the degree and having to self teach everything, maybe skip weeks of “lessons”, the education in the uni is a meme and all the uni is relevant for is getting project details, vanishing for 4-5 weeks and reappearing to submit the work.

I enjoy concept art, painting and sculpting and i’m just honestly looking for tutorials on youtube online to learn about texturing properly, shaders, materials, sculpting, uving, etc since our classes are a mess. And it’s not just me from what i can understand there are 2 types of people in our course, the ones that are doing well because they’re just skilled/learnt from their previous background/watched tutorials since the first year. And the second type of people who are just tilted off their minds about the whole university education and beginning to self teach things.

>>2834069
Yes i seem to be overthinking about this whole ordeal and being stressed about it instead of just getting on to work. I have to do like 1 entire character each week for 5 weeks, not a good sign..


>>2834078
Yeah i plan to just finish my current projects and submit everything and just relax during summer and think about the third year. Once i graduate i think i’ll just be a teacher or work in retail or anything that can afford me my basic necessities and start drawing pages after pages like mad since i don’t think any other jobs i’m looking into will involve working in the level of intensity as the gaming industry stuff.

>>2834071

Hi OP,

I'd love to know which school you go to. It really sounds like one of those terrible for-profit schools.

I'm 40, I've been working in the game idustry for around 10 years now, in various roles. Before that I worked as illustrator and designer, amonst other things, and before that I've been to art school. if it's ok, I'd like to give some general advice about things I've learned the past 20 years. From practical advice to more philosophical stuff.

About software & equipment:
- Going to a school to study 3d modeling and animation, it is reasonable to expect you own a computer good enough to run the necessary software and you have a tablet for sculpting or painting textures. It doesn't have to be a Cintiq. Even a Wacom Bamboo will suffice.
- I do not agree that you must have a commercial license for every single piece of software. Student licenses or trial versions should suffice, and in other cases use free software or use software at school. It seems to me you wrote that the classes provide computers to work on. So, overall, it should not be insurmountable.
- Even if you decide to change your area of interest, or if you decide to become a teacher, a computer and tablet is just so incredibly useful to have. Unless you will refuse to do anything on the computer, and cut digital media completely, it will always be helpful.

About art school:
- this particular art school sounds terrible. An art school should provide at least one of two things: Either good technical courses which, even if theoretical knowledge is ignored, teaches you to be technically proficient, or otherwise offer good theoretical courses, allowing you to think critically and be a good designer. Any technical knowledge you will have to gain on your own. It sounds this school provides neither.

(part 2 next)

Advice:
It seems to me you you don't really know what you want to do. I can understand that, since you are young, but this problem is making things difficult for you. You are trying to focus on everything, and do everything, which is causing you stress.

- Try to find out what you like most. What excites you? What gives you the biggest sense of accomplishment? For example, do you love overcoming difficult technical challenges, or do you love learning new techniques or technical developments? Maybe creating beautiful models, or scenes or animations that are maybe not your designs but technically and visually excelllent? Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you do not care so much how something is done, but you have great ideas to express. You love coming up with new ideas, combine things in novel and unexpected ways and you love to surprise people with original, fresh work that is meaningful?

- Then try to focus only on the things that are most important to you. If you love the technical challenges, focus on that. Try to challenge yourself and try to learn as much as you can. Focus on the things not easily found on the internet, but the things that only people with experience can tell you. Or, focus on creativity, idea-development and visual communication. after all, learning how to use certain software you can do on your own or in a studio. This way you cut out a portion of the things cuasing you problems, allowing you to do better, more focused work.

- Try to set reasonable goals. You say you are under a lot of time pressure, so adjust the amount of work to the time you have, instead of the other way around. You need to make a character a week? So make them super simple. Go for a stylized design, with only 1 or 2 areas of greater detail, concentrating on just one specific thing. Like rigging, edge loops, or shape language.

(cont'd)

Last bit:

- Just try to remember the school is there for YOU. Not the other way around. You are not supposed to conform and mold yourself to the school or school system.
Make contact with new people, be open-minded, gather new ideas and experiences. The rest will come. In general, being in art school is a great opportunity to expose yourself to new ideas that you will be able to draw from later in life, because, honsetly, in a busy studio environment there is not always a time and place to do that, so use the opportunity.

Try not to worry too much. You'll get there :-)

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>>2834727
Yes i’ve actually spent like 3.5k on my pc that i build for uni, i also own wacom tablets but not the cintiq ones (the dreams). I don’t have commercial licenses for softwares, softwares such as substance, autodesk related softwares, arnold renderers, unreal, are all free for students, all the softwares we buy are with student licenses however they still end up taking a lot of money eg: photoshop cloud package cost me £300+, zbrush £300+, marmoset £150+, Mari £99.

I do still plan to do 3d stuff and digital painting in my free time but just don’t have any interest for working on a project or based on what the clients want. I’m hoping working as a teacher or anything else would provide me more free time than in the games industry. Also seeing my teachers who used to do well in their prime days on ps1 games and so on and not knowing much about the modern ways makes me kinda sad and i feel like my level of tilt would probably make me end up like them which i refuse to be.

My current plan is to just do my work the best of my knowledge and look up online tutorials to better myself. I plan to work with my friends in a similar course in the same uni next year if they accept me in for the final large project i will be sure to work to the best of my abilities, maybe even uninstalling games and giving the project a 100%.

Honestly the things i enjoy doing in my place is Concept art, Character modelling, Sculpting, Texturing, UV, Animating, since i do modelling i can also do props and environment stuff but i enjoy organic modelling the most so i would rather do a fantasy/horror based setting rather than real world or scifi stuff. But i have come to appreciate fine art and traditional art much more i feel like they give you much more sense of freedom and rooms for experimentation, i kinda miss getting my hands dirty and seeing all the textures that makes you want to feel or feel the finished or rough works.

>>2834727
Not even OP, but thank you for the advice. I am a student in a tech school that has a 'computer graphics program' out here in NY. I had a lot of great profs that I learned a lot from and a lot of friend that Ive made here. Ive been exposed to different disciplines, like mocap and VFX, outside of the one I wish to pursue, which is 3D character modeling. My only issue that I had with the whole procedure is that they really wanted us to be generalists, given how they required us to take so many classes in varying things, but at the end of my senior year during a portfolio class, they told us to specify in what we wanted to do/our strongest area, but we were all sort of mediocre at it all, and we weren't even skilled or accustomed to 3D.

But I realized soon after that really, I should have been investing time outside of the class to pursue my interests rather relying on the class to show me the starting points. And now I'm playin catch up. But damn, I made some good friends with similar passions, so I feel the lesson was worth it, and it lit a fire under my ass. I've been drawing and modeling much more than I ever did in school. A month outside of class I've learned much more than a whole semesters worth. Learning starts once you graduate.


So OP, if you're this far in, definitely stick it out, make some friends if you haven't(and make sure you keep in touch with them). Places like college is a place to meet like minded people, to make new friendships that may eventually become a link into something you enjoy.

Good luck and keep at it.