Want To Be An Artist?

Anyone who wonders what's involved in 3D animation should head to G4tv, where there's a feature on Maya Modelling. It's not a tutorial, but it does tell you what's involved in each step. And if it's that sounds interesting then get a copy of the Maya Personal Learning Edition (it's free) and try it out. Maya is very, very popular among professionals.

Artistic fields, like the film and videogame industries, hire based on talent. It's not just whom you know or what you've done before, but also how cool your demo reel (portfolio) looks. I know a guy who used to work in a warehouse, but spent his shift time sketching rather than working. Well, now he's an animator working for EA! He showed me his production drawings for GoldenEye and they were mind-blowingly great. And the subject of GamaSutra's current Artist Gallery: Laura Schumacher (free registration required) spends her free time “doodling... to generate ideas:” art is something she can't not do.

So if you're already a good artist but know nothing about Maya, check out the G4 article.

And if you have no interest in doing art, check out the article anyway for an idea of just how hard it is.