i cant draw worth crap with a pencil, should i even try the computer art design?

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9 comments, last by JQP 11 years, 10 months ago
im in high school, taking an art class and i am pretty sure im the worst artist there. not that it bothers me but just to let y'all know :P

i even work horrible with clay models, trying to make a vase, looks more like a soda can XD

now im very creative, dont get me wrong, i can see a perfectly built spaceship, with pulsing lights, and antennas coming out every which way, and spinning jet engines with a light blue haze, with a slight particle disbursement. any way you get the picture.

has any of y'all, cant draw with shiz on paper, but can create masterpieces on blender, or whatever tool you use? should i try for arts, or not waste my time? any advice?
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has any of y'all, cant draw with shiz on paper, but can create masterpieces on blender, or whatever tool you use?

When you listen to a music piece in you mind, can you reproduce it on an instrument ? Not yet, but maybe with practise ? The key is practise, practise, practise, and after that, still practise. I'm a coder and I've pratised painting for a few years now , thought not enough, I'm quite satisfied with the result. Currently I'm involved in modelling, painting textures and icons, rigging and animation. By far I can't reach the quality of any professional artist, but I'm convinced, that I still have enough reserves left over to improve my skills.
Yes, I can't draw as well.
I wouldn't say, that my Blender models are masterpieces, but they are quite okay.

That's the reason why I use Blender to make sprites for my flashgames.
However, the issue is to draw the textures for the models.
Anything that's pretty geometric is 3D-friendly, which includes spaceships. There are also a lot of models for sale that you can pose, animate, and optionally recolor. But if someone who hadn't built up some art skills were to try to model a human from scratch, they would have a tough time.

I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.

Don't follow the path of a texture artist and you'll do fine I guess :P

The thing with 3d modelling is - it has Ctrl + Z (undo operations) so you can always go back and fix things easily. Also, moving vertices and edges has nothin to do with "pencil" skills. Your 3d models will suck, if you can't get "proportions" right.

Don't give up so soon :)
I started out with very poor drawing skills. 2D is important, but don't let it stop you. I worked in pure 3D for a couple years before I put myself through 2D animation training. Most of my drawn/painted art these days makes me groan... but it seems to make clients happy enough. So long as you are happy enough to learn the basics and apply the theory to your 3D work (and never touch texturing anything in any serious way) then you'll do fine. As time goes on you might actually learn how to draw through 'reverse engineering' too :)
Software such as ZBrush, MudBox, 3DCoat or Sculptris turn the act of character and organic model creation into an intuitive and very smooth process. I'd venture to say that just about anyone can create somewhat acceptable characters by way of an intuitive method such as sculpting. I've put my 4 year old niece in front of the computer with Sculptris up and she creates some quite convincing blob-like characters. They're not anatomically correct humanoids (those do take a bit more work plus plenty of reference material, but I still don't think they take any significant amount of 2D skill). But they're pretty awesome for a 4 year old kid who can't even color inside the lines.

The technical tools we have available provide a pretty strong disconnect between the skills required for different kinds of game artwork. If you are a 3D modeler, you do not need strong 2D skills. The two mediums are different. Tools allow you to sculpt organically, paint directly on the model using various textures, and import the models into other software for rigging and animation. Even texture painting these days is so much a process of painting directly on the model using broad strokes of color, heavily using procedural textures or textures derived from the real world, etc... Once upon a time, you wanted to have an eye for shading and highlighting, and while that still comes in handy, a non-2D artist can just bake ambient occlusion and shading maps directly from high-res sculpting, rather than trying to hand-shade the texture.
It's a different type of thinking for 3d work though, don't be discouraged.
...I'm not very good with 2d stuff either:)
You pretty much need to be a good drawer at some point. Drawing and modeling requires perspective, and perspective is something you build over time by experience. You don't have to be a good drawer to be a good modeler, but there's a reason why most modeler are good artists in the first place. The two skillsets go hand in hand.

If you can barely draw right now, that's means you're behind. Most drawers have been doodling since a younger age. But that doesn't mean you can't do it. The question is are you willing to put the effort in? If you're in highschool and unable to do decently in art class, it will require about 4 hours of pure practice practice a day to catch up. You need to be pre-disposed in the early ages to be a good drawer, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to get GOOD at it. It's a matter of pure will and determination.

It's easier said than done. Practicing over and over again for hours a day isn't exactly the most enjoyable thing but that's what you need to do to be good.
I sucked at drawing but then i kept on drawing until i got better. i cant draw a perfect straight line

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