I imagine some people want to make games (like me) who can’t draw yet have the imagination to create some truly unique games, so how would you create/make assets for your game if you can’t draw?
Have any of you had experience creating the stuff you want without drawings of it or extremely rough drawings of it?
You don’t need to be good at drawing to be able to make 3D content
Yep. I think some skills transfer over, so it helps, but most of it is completely different. Lots of amazing modelers can barely draw.
Ye but how would you create your content if you can’t draw it to get the baseline length and sizes of certain areas consistent? etc.?
http://opengameart.org/ has some public domain models. If you are wondering how to even start making the shape trying using www.yobi3d.com and look at the wireframe of models. Also if you want make something I like getting a reference image to base it off of. Then I go by relative ratios like the size of your thumb compared to your pointer finger. Also symmetry is my best friend, makes it so I do half the work then just mirror it.
Kinda like asking “How can I build a lego house if I cant draw?” though I do understand the confusing since they are both visual mediums. Im a terrible drawer but I do ok in 3D modeling.
I’m not sure what you mean. If you’re a character artist for example, you know what human proportions are already, you don’t need to go off a drawing to do it. Concept art just helps come up with ideas and it’s quicker than doing the 3D character and then changing it.
For what it’s worth, I can just barely draw stick figures with pencil and paper, but I can do mid-level object modelling in Blender. Nowhere near the guru/pro-artist level or anything, but the point is that I got as far as I did without a shred of drawing ability.
It’s pretty much a totally different skillset.
Ah ok, I was thinking wouldn’t it be hard to do the assets the way you want them without a drawing to assist xD and I am going to start learning modelling through maya lt & how would I go about texturing it? mainly for high detailed assets.
The Internet is your friend, watch as many tutorials as you can on youtube to get you started. If you get stuck, google it and you can bet you’ll find someone else had the same question.
If you want to learn 3d modeling in Maya then start out with simple model tutorials and go from there. I been watching modeling tutorials all day long and have learned a lot.
A crucial step in 3d modelling is reference research. Get as many reference images to your model as you can. This will help with scale, measurements, ideas etc. You can also set up reference planes in your 3d modelling package using any image you want as a guide.
I’m using Blender but I imagine Maya would be similar - look for something called a UV mapper or UV editor. That lets you map each vertex in your geometry to a location in texture space.
Once you get good at that, there are other techniques for baking higher resolution meshes down into normal maps you can use to fake the higher resolution so you don’t need so much geometry.
I cant draw that well. I’m pretty much useless when it comes to line art. I’m ok at painting since it borrows more from sculpting by using masses of color. Modeling is more like sculpting than drawing though, so you are safe in that regard. Drawing, painting, sculpting and photography are very specific skill sets, but with a good artistic eye you can navigate through those skills. Always try to grow your artistic eye. Why does a piece look good? What is not working? Learn how to manage large, medium, and small frequency shapes both across your models and your scene. You can have a super complex piece of geo that looks amazing by itself and everyone on forums will shower you with praise but once you put it in your scene, your entire scene looks like a robot vomited in a hallway. Composition, visual pacing, color scripts, areas of interest…these are all the principles you should be worried about. If you have that stuff on lock, than you could make a scene with just simple boxes and that scene would look amazing.
I have been able to navigate through my game dev career just fine without being able to draw all that well. To me its just a different skill set from modeling in both muscle memory and angle of approach. I also don’t want to disregard the power of painting over your own work though. This will increase your iteration times greatly. I “red pen” my own work constantly…mind you it looks like a child drew over my work, but in the end I know I will execute the ideas at a much higher level when I get to pushing poly’s.
Naveed makes a great point with bringing in reference images to model over…its crucial. That will be a great catalyst to keep evolving your artistic eye.
Iterate…iterate…iterate - art is never finished, just presentable.
Well, I can answer your question. I am a real life engineer, & I design Automotive components as my day job. I self taught 3D, & mainly focus on Character design, until I decide to make may own game, when I put most focus on environments & props. looking at the content creations here, & an experience poster at CGTalk 3D session, characters, organic things & monsters are the hardest things to model for most people. You do not required strictly good drawings skill, but most character artist have decent drawing base, proportion, anatomy, these skills are usually transferable in some form.
But to made geometry shapes from existing designs, like a table, you do not need that much art skill, you just need blueprint, & take the correct dimension. CAD designer do not strictly required any art skill of note, same can be said of 3D design for many things (table, chairs, Cabinets, doors etc), you just need to tune in to how 3D wireframe modeling works, teh same way a CAD designer can trace the base shape to make the design. Of course if you want to make intricate classical Gothic style design, then you need major art & design skill. Your typical Ikea style table, not as much.
Get someone to help design your characters, & you create the rest will be a good start.
Use floor plans for houses, use plans for tables… think outside the box here … i cant raw for ****… and mst of mine has been from pictures with scale on them… or just guesstimate using the basis of the UE4 charcater avg (84x84x192?) if im not mistaken everything else kinda comes to play…
As for Very detailed work, twists, sculpture style… i honestly find free stuff and add it to existing structures, and if not i make time to find a turtorial on it and learn just that Feature… ie i went and learnt to do cables (wires etc) in 3dsmax one year and well thats helped for years for many other things… hair, grass, fingers LOL…
hope you get into it… i was skeptical but now im neck deep in learning this UE4 engine and its pipelines =)…
Hard surface modeling takes little or no artistic skill, while character modeling definitely improves with some artistic ability. Both are feasible even if you suck at drawing.
Drawing is not a requirement of 3D modeling and sculpting at least not in my experience.
I suck at drawing but, am quite ok at 3d modeling and sculpting / rigging and some animation.
you wont know until you try, and you wont get better until you start Use a tool like substance painter for your texturing.