thepixelizer 2023-05-25 18:28:48

Welcome to the world of blender!
I wish I would’ve seen this when I first started.
https://youtu.be/DAAwy_l4jw4

TravelSizedLions 2023-05-25 19:02:52

Congrats!!

I couldn't agree more with your message: building up your talents takes years of effort and lots of time practicing that in the end nobody will see or care about besides you, and that journey isn't always the one you'd ecpect. But it's that effort and the willingness to go on that reaps the big rewards in the end. And when you get discouraged, don't forget--many people will still enjoy your work even if you think it's flawed!

I remember my first days on newgrounds waaaaaaay back in 2010. I remember being inspired to do animation by Eddsworld, because he wasn't that much older than me at the time, and because, oddly enough, I thought his art style was *terrible*. Not in a mean way--I freaking love Edd's original animations to this day--but in a way that made me realize, "Hey, I don't have to be amazing to do something people love and genuinely enjoy."

You see, for a loooooong while, I'd given up on doing art professionally. I stopped studying it in college and picked up computer science instead to make sure I could secure a good job for my fledgling marriage. I feel like that was the hardest decision of my life--I swear, it tore me in two psychologically--but I made the right call. And do you want to know why?

Because years later, I now still have the artistic abilities I grew up with AND the coding skills to build anything I could want, which has put me down the unique path of being an indie developer, someone who really can build a full length game on their own. Now, instead of having to do God-knows-what for some morally bankrupt studio whose ideas I most likely wouldn't agree with, I get to use my skills for a project I love, free of any commercial incentive, and free of outside deadlines. And whatever comes out on the other side, it'll be my best work, even if it's not perfect.

Hear's to another year, man. Go do great things!

TravelSizedLions 2023-05-25 19:23:50

@dupreedraws Sweet man. Hit me up whenever if you want some resources!

jthrash 2023-05-26 11:01:11

I loved reading about the 3D modeling process in particular, and of course I agree that the word “talent” implies one is just born with the skills when in reality it takes a LOT of hard work (and failure) to get to that point!

Personally, I have found a middle ground between the torture (and necessity) of hand-modeling each polygon and the ease of sculpting (until the dreaded “retopology” phase necessary for rigging and posing the character)—basically, I make an extremely basic, super-low-poly, almost PS1/N64-looking base mesh, add and apply a “Subdivision Surface” modifier, then use Blender’s sculpting tools to smooth things out and make things more organic. Of course, it rarely turns out as linear as that, depending on the project, but I feel that by keeping the poly count as low as possible as long as possible, it ensures I don’t get the “lumpy” result that comes with adding too many polys too early while keeping the amount of manual retopology I have to do to a minimum, if at all, because I focus on animation-ready topology early on, too. I don’t know if this workflow is all that great for more realistic/detailed characters, but it certainly helps keep my shapes simple and appealing (and not lumpy) for my stylized cartoon designs!