To Those Learning 3D
Glen Moyes (Metsys on the forums) has written an excellent article on the key steps to becoming a great 3D artist.
To me, the essense of his article is this:
Blender is a tool, not a process. If you can’t make something good without it, you won’t make something good with it. It doesn’t enable you to create a well-designed image without first being an artist and understanding the principles and elements of design.
This is one of the most insightful articles that I have seen in the Blender community during the eight years that I have been around. Please do yourself a favour and take 30 minutes to read it.
Link: To Those Learning 3D
The link is broken!
No, it’s not.. It works ok here.
I would really encourage anyone, who has a slight interest into this article’s content, to read the following book: “Art & Fear – by David Bayles, Ted Orland” (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961454733/sr=8-1/qid=1150702448/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9272075-4586420?%5Fencoding=UTF8)
It’s well worth the read as it tries to uncover the reasons behind quitting, procrastination and the not-creation-of-anything.
Yes, the link is OK.
@Benedikt
Nice tip with the book, I’ll probably get it (damn procrastination).
Excelent. Read it if you havn’t already. Stop procrastinating! NOW! I mean right NOW! STop reading my post and get to work, dummy!
Yes- a really good article!
“the importance of being an artist before being a software user”
Very nice Blender animations can also be found on his website under Gallery -> Motion Design. Great job!
This should be mandatory everywhere.
http://www.getmoredone.com/tips.html
This is a great article. I’ve been involved with art for around 15 years now and I agree with everything that Metsys says, especially about natural talent.
I remember one gal in college that was taking an art class just for the credit until she was surprised to find that she could actually paint quite well. In fact she was awesome! I’ve scarecly met another artist with as strong a grasp of color or instilling a sense of mystery into a piece. The funny thing is that she never painted outside of grade school and just never thought that she could paint, basically because she never gave herself the chance to try because of the expense of art materials. It took our professor’s pointing out similarities with her early works (that weren’t exactly Da Vinci) to several artists. That gave her all the confidence in the world.
The biggest hurdle that I’ve seen in budding artists or the everyday average Joe or Jane is that they don’t have someone to tell them that this aspect of their piece is reminicent of one painter or sculpter or that another aspect was the basis of such and such a designer’s work. Knowing that you are on the right track can make all the difference in the world. Everyone has natural talent, sometimes it just takes pointing out the less obvious aspects of this to the unexperienced artist.
Take it easy and many blessngs,
Rob
I agree with that article entirely. Blender – or Maya, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, photoshop, or really anything for that matter – will not make one a good artist. They’re just tools. The tools don’t produce magical works of art on their own; it takes the artist to do this.
However, I’d just like to interject that the tools -are- powerful. They make things possible that wouldn’t have even been feasible otherwise. Since I first downloaded Blender nine months ago I’ve been able to do things I never would have been possible with my sketchpad, pencils, pens/inks, etc. It hasn’t made me a better artist, but it’s given me an amazing tool to work with.
So… no, Blender doesn’t make people into artists. It certainly does allow artists to do things they could never do before, though.
Alright. End tangent. Just wanted to say that. ^_^
I realize, that that this was posted a couple of months ago, but Id like to put in a word here for anyone who reads it.
Good Software or software in general does not an artist make.
but…
Anayo hit it dead on.
I got blender about a year ago and have to admit, Ive had more success than with plain old freehand. Ive been told Im a talented artist, but this has really opened up new roads for me.