Aspiring modeler, lost in the sauce...

[Ray Petty]

hey guys,
i had a question i guess for the veterans or anyone in the industry i suppose.

i'm a few years out of college and just now assembling a portfolio, i went to an Art Institute where they did not have a major focusing on game design but kind of put us under an umbrella where i at least got to learn how to model, and with that education i tought myself how to do all the poly modeling, unwrapping, and texturing. where i did not benefit was that i was never shown zbrush or mudbox and am now having a good ol' time teaching myself yet again. i also enrolled in school for fine art after graduating as i felt i needed to be a more well rounded artist, and i couldnt make up my mind as to where i wanted to start my career.

the question i pose to those of you in the industry is this, as i have no experience in the industry and am now gearing a portfolio for a rapidly growing industry, and i hear talks of new technologies already (normal maps were new when i graduated), what is my best plan of attack for a portfolio?

do i keep going with the digital sculpting, is this going to help me when 'real-time rendering' is implemented, or is there something i'm not even familiar with that i should be learning?

or do i just move forward with the zbrush/mudbox/normal mapping method as that is what is current and will to a point still be relevant?

sorry for the long post but this has been on my mind for a while and any info that you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance.

[biery]

Originally Posted by Ray Petty

hey guys,
i had a question i guess for the veterans or anyone in the industry i suppose.

i'm a few years out of college and just now assembling a portfolio, i went to an Art Institute where they did not have a major focusing on game design but kind of put us under an umbrella where i at least got to learn how to model, and with that education i tought myself how to do all the poly modeling, unwrapping, and texturing. where i did not benefit was that i was never shown zbrush or mudbox and am now having a good ol' time teaching myself yet again. i also enrolled in school for fine art after graduating as i felt i needed to be a more well rounded artist, and i couldnt make up my mind as to where i wanted to start my career.

the question i pose to those of you in the industry is this, as i have no experience in the industry and am now gearing a portfolio for a rapidly growing industry, and i hear talks of new technologies already (normal maps were new when i graduated), what is my best plan of attack for a portfolio?

do i keep going with the digital sculpting, is this going to help me when 'real-time rendering' is implemented, or is there something i'm not even familiar with that i should be learning?

or do i just move forward with the zbrush/mudbox/normal mapping method as that is what is current and will to a point still be relevant?

sorry for the long post but this has been on my mind for a while and any info that you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance.

In technology related fields you will never be in front of the curve, and you'll never get to a point where you are like "phew" glad thats over with. If a company sees you can roll with the changes I don't think they will have a problem hiring you as long as your portfolio looks good.

[Ray Petty]

right on, thanks a lot for your input.