Hey everyone,

First off, thank you for taking time to read my post. I have a lot of questions pertaining to 3d modeling and what it takes to make a career out of it and I'd greatly appreciate any and all advice you can offer me. The more the better!

I have been working with 3d modeling for a few years now and I feel that I have a decent understanding of the basics of modeling. I do enjoy modeling, and I'm always thinking of things that I believe would be cool to try and model, but when I sit down to actually try and make something the work never really looks right. I feel the reason for this is that I'm seriously lacking in technique. So obviously I need more practice, and I do try to better myself, but at the same time I have trouble working on just anything. For instance, the idea of working on some ordinary car model or a high poly city that would never make it into a game engine or serve any purpose after creation is uninteresting to me. I like to work on things that could potentially be used for something so I tend to try and work with lower poly counts and have since I started. Now a couple questions to you 3d veterans out there, was this a bad decision to make? Was I in the wrong to begin modeling with low polygon counts? Do any of you have any modeling techniques to share or links to tutorials for such?

I decided awhile back that going to school for 3d would probably be the best choice for me. The reason for this is that I enjoy the working atmosphere of a school and I tend to work better and have much more focus in such an environment, so overall I feel it would be the best choice for me. Then again I've heard many people say that it's best to learn on your own and that college is unnecessary. Is going to school for 3d a waste of time? I have also had a horrible time finding schools close to my location (Evansville, Indiana) and if I did decide to attend a school for 3d I would have to move a great distance to attend any sort of reputable school most likely which really I don't mind, but the money itself would be an issue.

As far as the industry itself, what's it like? Anything you can tell me about it would be great. Work hours, amount of work you should expect to do daily, pay, atmosphere, type of people you work with, etc... Not looking for sugar coating either, tell it like it is. If it's a great job to have tell me why. If it's a strenuous and difficult job tell me why.

One more question for you 3d vets, should I work on my drawing skills more as well? I used to draw a lot and I wouldn't say I'm great on any level, but with some time and patience I can usually dish out decent work.