Hi there! I’ll give some advice if you’re intending on working in the games industry in the future
- Maya or Max?
Maya is generally more popular these days and happens to be what I use. In the companies I’ve worked for, if you’re skilled enough they will just provide which ever software you need. But take a look at your favourite companies and see which one they use, aim to be able to work for them one day. You can get a student version of any of the Autodesk software and can keep renewing the license.
If you want to delve into the Architectural industry, Max is used more often.
But overall, having great understanding and skills of modelling is what we look for. If you’re skilled enough we will provide you the software you need.
- Unity or Unreal?
Try both!
UE4 is amazing for artists. With the inbuilt Material Editor and Blueprints, you can create very impressive scenes as an individual artist as opposed on relying on a programmer.
Unity can still achieve this but if you want artist friendly tools you will need to buy them in the Unity store as plugins.
- Other Software?
Texturing
Definitely the Substance tools. Substance Painter is definitely something I recommend and also Designer. It’s pretty much becoming one of the industry standard tools now for PBR workflow.
Photoshop is a must, every artist is assumed that they know how to use it.
High Poly Sculpting
Zbrush is the standard here, there’s also Mudbox as well if you’re into the whole Autodesk ecosystem. But definitely Zbrush is more popular. But pick any you prefer since you will always be exporting them out to bake anyway.
- Tips
Become confident in the whole workflow of creating a finished asset. Starting from Modelling > UV Unwrapping > Texturing > Importing > Material in Engine.
Software will always evolve and change over time but as long as you have the foundations set you can always adapt.
Understand the rendering system in your chosen engine! I don’t mean a fully detailed understanding, but artists who have a decent understanding of how the game engine works can utilise it more to their advantage and create amazing art.
There’s going to be plenty of times when you create something and it just doesn’t look right in game, make mistakes and learn from them quickly, ask many questions as possible.
Understand lighting and composition of the whole scene!
Lighting is the biggest selling point in the world of 3D. If you have amazing lighting, it can push your art to the next level. I’ve seen many times where some artists do create nice models but is ruined by very bad lighting, makes their work look worse than it actually is.
Understand the whole entire scene, not just putting up individually modeled assets in your portfolio.