Starting November 1st, I'm going to host a massive game character art challenge on my discord:  https://discord.gg/5FXbYCHU3K

 This challenge is mostly for the people who are still struggling to get a foothold into the industry and that already finished a character or two and now just want to improve their speed and get a taste of how production goes, but feel free to join even if you’re not there yet or if you’re already in the industry and just want to build up a strong portfolio.   

The purpose of this challenge is to do some work in a similar manner to production...from deadlines to feedback. It is also meant to teach people a bit of consistency.... which is something I often find that my students lack, hence the 12 months thing.  Doing your work on time and delivering consistently feels like the right way to build up a good portfolio quite fast. Obviously some of you might not reach the deadlines or won’t be able to reach the quality level I expect from everyone joining the challenge, but I still believe there’s plenty to learn from the simple fact that you will be there working every day and that you will get a better idea about what’s expected from you. You might also end up with some great artworks in your folio and if everything goes according to the plans some prizes ;) 

You are allowed to use any resources you can get your hands on... from kit bashes to scans... everything you can do to cut down the production time and hit the deadlines. Just like in production... if you made some buckles for one character and you can use them on another...do it. Cut all the corners you can but keep in mind the quality you must achieve.   

Production ready work - that means high poly, low poly, textures.  

• Full range from stylized to realistic but with a decent level of complexity...please don’t make amongst us characters (I might actually ban you) 
• You pick your own concepts 
• 6-12 High quality characters (in theory) 
• 4 weeks (5 working days/week) normal character – 100 points for completion 
  • +1week complex hairstyle – 30 points for completion 
  • +1 week likeness – 40 points for completion 
  • +1 week pet or over complicated concept – 30 points for completion 
  • +1 week for setting up a presentation scene (Marmoset/Unreal) done only once during the challenge and reused for all the characters- 30 points 
•  Total time per character 4 to 7 weeks +1 week deadline extension. Max points per complex character - 200.  
•  I will give minimal feedback and direction like in production to everyone. My students that will join will benefit from more in-depth feedback sessions.  
• I will randomly give stupid feedback that makes no sense from time to time to get you more accustomed with production requirements (like.... make that buckle more interesting or improve the silhouettes). Don’t worry...I won’t go too crazy ;) 

Requirements: 

• Constant updates in the discord channel 
• Preproduction schedule where you breakdown the times you’ll spend on each character (high poly, low poly, UVs and texture) and preferably as detailed as possible with breakdowns on each part of the character (head, hair, clothing/armor, attachments etc.). You must post this in the discord forum topic that you'll make for your challenge.  
• Listening to my advice and feedback is essential 
• I expect 5 days of work per week, 5 hours per day(real efficiency). Anything extra you put in it’s to catch up with the quality requirements and maybe to impress with a higher level of detail. If you have a job and can't put in the hours try to reach something close to 25 hours a week during weekends and outside working hours.
• The quality of the characters will be assessed by me or some people I will add to the “jury”. As an idea the quality of what you should achieve will need to be similar to Uncharted 4 and higher for realistic characters and Dishonored 2/Overwatch 1 or better for stylized or just look at the overall quality of my students’ work. 

Penalties and rewards 

• Each day over the deadline is penalized with 20 points. 2 weeks (10 days for the overcomplicated likeness and complex hair character) over the deadline means 0 points for the character, even if you finish it. If you hit 2 weeks pass the deadline then you stop and start a new character. You’ll finish the old one after the challenge if you still want to.  
• You’ll be rewarded with 10 points for each day you’re left with from the initial 20 days for a character if you finish it earlier. Keep in mind that this will happen only if your character gets approved.  
• Each character finished in a succession adds an incremental number of points. 
  • Second character adds 50 points to the total 
  • Third adds 70 points 
  • Forth adds 100 points  
  • Fifth adds 140 points 
  • Sixth adds 200 points 
  • Seventh adds 270 points 
  • Eight adds 350 points 
  • Ninth adds 440 points 
  • Tenth adds 540 points  
  • Eleventh adds 650 points 
  • Twelfth adds 800 points 

I will try to gather up some prizes for this challenge and give them to the winner or, if there are more than 10 people joining and finishing at least one character for the challenge, to the first 3. For now, we’re going to gather donations during the stream that will go into a fund for the challenge and the prize pool.  
I will also work on some characters for the challenge but obviously I will be outside of it.   

Good luck and have fun! 

Lately I had a lot of people asking me questions about the mentorship so I've decided to summarize it in a blog post. 

If you don't know what my students are capable of please check this link and drop a like and follow to each of them.... they're all amazing. 

https://www.artstation.com/nimlot/collections/1465839

1. What is this mentorship? 

The mentorship that I run is a program where you join to work alongside me and learn how to create the highest quality 3d models for games possible. I’m mainly a character artist but I’ve been a prop artist for half of my career, so I have plenty of students who are learning how to make props. I will try to help you develop the right mindset and increase your problem-solving skills.  I will try to teach you all I know regarding 3d creation but also how to increase your social exposure, how to negotiate your contracts and so on.  

2. How long does the mentorship last? 

There is no deadline for the mentorship. It is not a workshop nor a 3d school. You join and learn from me for as long as you need. The average time my successful students spent in the mentorship was about 2 and a half years. As I was saying in some blogs if you're just learning the basics now and you want to get to a decent spot with your 3D skills it will take anywhere in between 3 to 5 years of at least 8h/day. There is a lot of knowledge required to become a proficient 3D artist.  

3. What will our interaction be?  

Normally the mentorship includes a 1 on 1 call per week and written feedback when required. The reality is that the calls can be more often or rarer based on the progress you've made with your work.  

4. How many hours do I have to work for the mentorship?  

This is a question that no one really asks but you all know the answer. You need to put all the hours you can. If you can financially be secure and work 10 hours a day on the mentorship, it would be perfect. The reality is that the more time you put in now, the sooner you will get a good job and more free time and money to do the rest of the things you want. You should think about the mentorship as a job.... you need to put those 8 hours a day. Again, that is the ideal and most of the time my students have jobs and other things that occupy their time and because of that the progress for some of them is quite slow.  

5. Will you teach us how to use "X" software?  

No or rarely. There is no point paying for the mentorship so that I can teach you basic stuff that you can learn using the F1 key or watching basic videos from each developer. My role here is to make sure you're not straying away from your goal and to point you in the right direction when you have some difficulties understanding something and actually teach you the knowledge that I’ve gathered in these past 23 years of 3D.  

6. What happens if I don't work at all for a week?  

Nothing happens. Most likely there will be no point for a call but I'm not your boss nor your parents. I would love you all to be consistent and work hard, but the reality is that there will be periods when you will make no progress and that is absolutely fine. 

7. Will I become a great 3d artist after taking your mentorship? 

Becoming a great artist is not only about the knowledge that you can get from me. It's also about your mentality, your ability to gain exposure and interact with the 3D community and your natural inclinations. In the end I can surely say that if you put the effort, you will be able to get hired in any studio in the world, but that depends only on your determination.  

8. What happens if I can't pay the mentorship for a month? 

Most of the time I will continue to help you, nonetheless. I have plenty of students that are not paying anymore or some who come from low-income backgrounds who never paid. I'm not doing this for the money (tho I still have bills to pay) so if I see potential and determination in you, and you end up in a tight spot financially, most likely I will try to help you anyway, obviously depending on the available time I have. The paying students have priority and it's only fair. 

9. Will you provide precise tutorials for all the problems that I have? 

Most likely not. My intention is not to make copy machines but to make you develop the skills required to figure out whatever problem you will face. I often let my students stray from the correct workflow just so that they learn when they're doing something wrong. Hand holding is not something that I find beneficial for the growth of a student. I would show you often tho how to do this and that if you're really struggling but only as a last resort.  

10. People say you're pretty much a dick and that you don't like anything. Is that true? 

I might be a dick if people disrespect me but when it comes to 3d I truly believe my critique is on point. I will say if something is bad or rushed if it actually is and for sure I will praise something well done. What I won't do is pat your back as a participation prize. I strongly believe we can't grow without honest feedback, and I will provide it every time I feel like a bump in quality is required. I am not absurd and will not push you all to extremes tho I strongly believe and I've iterated many times that 1 good model counts as much as 50 mediocre ones and that the quality of your portfolio needs to be way above most of the stuff you see on Artstation if you want to actually get those good jobs, hence we will work towards that goal. It is doable as you can see from what my students have done so far. 

11. How long have you been doing this?  I’ve been teaching people more or less my whole career. My first mentee was actually in 2004 while I was at my first 3D job and nowadays he is an accomplished 3D artist with a lot of major titles on his CV. While I had a few mentees now and then, I’ve started the mentorship program on Patreon 4 years ago.  

12. Do you have students that left the mentorship?  

Of course I have. Some left because they got jobs, some left because their financial situation changed and some of them left because they were not happy with the way I teach or me in general. I don’t expect everyone to be on the same page with me just as well as I also know that some of the people who jump on the 3D bandwagon will give up if it gets too hard for them or try to find easier ways to accomplish their goal. I wish them all good luck and success in their careers, nonetheless.  

13. Can I join the mentorship at any point?  

Starting this month yes. Before this month Patreon was charging on the 1st of the month and you would have ended up being overcharged. Now tho, I’ve switched to the new billing plan that lets you be charged on the same day every month as the one you joined. 

14. How would I know if I’m ready to join the mentorship? 

As long as you have basic software knowledge and you are willing to put in the effort, you’re ready.  

15. Where will the interaction happen?  

We have a Discord mentorship server, and all the calls and interaction are on Discord. If you’re from a country that has no access to Discord we can use a different platform like Skype for calls, but I think it would be beneficial for students to have access to the mentorship discord community and resources.  

16. Where do I join? 

https://www.patreon.com/nimlot It’s the same place where I post the VODs from Twitch for the lowest tier.  The mentorship is the highest tier(Desperate thieves). 

17. How much does it cost?  600$/month plus VAT.  

I hope this clarifies it for everyone. If you guys have any other questions, feel free to message me.  
Cheers!

There is this whole conversation started on Twitter about the high price of mentorship in 3d world and how it's giving an advantage to those who can afford it also stating that this is a bad thing and it creates a big gap in between the fortunate and those who can’t afford it. I feel like I should state my opinion also.

I’ve started doing 3d in 1999 and have been struggling for years to learn some basics. The internet was not really a thing back then and the resources you could find were very limited. Got my first 3d job (if we can call it a job) in 2003 and my first proper game job in 2008. That’s 9 years I needed to get to a junior level. It took me another 5 years to actually get the character artist job I really wanted….5 years of working on my free time outside the prop artist job I had. To sum up it took me 14 years to get my dream job. All that was self-taught and with more and more free resources and tools available over the years on the internet. It was a damn struggle and I would have given an arm and a leg to have someone to guide me though all of it. 

Nowadays the internet is filled with knowledge. You can find tutorials, art streams, models, free software…all of them one click away. The problem is that all the good ones are pretty much lost in a sea of garbage. There are so many people with 0 experience that are making YouTube videos thinking that they will get some money out of it that it’s almost impossible for a beginner to actually sort out what is good and what not.

Now the 14 years I’ve spent trying to become a character artist would have probably been closer to 8-10 years with the current resources. Still a very long time for someone to put into something that brings no income.

In comparison I have students that after 2-3 years in the mentorship got really good jobs. We can add 1-2 more years before the mentorship where they learned the basics and we can see that a mentor may half up the time you need to put into learning what you need to become a 3d artist. Are they all worth? Absolutely not. Can you do it by yourself? Absolutely. Can you get the same amount of knowledge from a 3d school? I would say no based on the previous experiences of most of my students and a lot of others that stick around my stream.

But let’s break down the whole twitter drama a bit.

“A new barrier for aspiring game developers is emerging…. the size of their wallets”

Let’s presume for a moment that teachers don’t have to be paid…you know…their time is worthless and who cares how they pay their bills. Is that 800$/month such a big problem? I’ve seen people spending 50-60k$ on schools that gave them literally nothing but introductory courses into the 3d world, schools with teachers that never seen the inside of a studio or ever had a game/movie released with their name in credits. Let’s put it another way…how much would you pay now to not waste 4-5 years of your life?

In my opinion the cost for this is worth it all if you have a good mentor. It will take you closer to your dream job in a much shorter time and it will pay off really fast after that. It’s an investment in the end.

Now let’s talk from the point of view of the tutor. 200$ for 1.5h of his time…that’s 133$/h. And that is not covering any of the extra work that he made outside these calls or the part that the company he's working for gets. That 133$ is not only fair but also in a lot of cases way lower that their usual hourly rate.  So, tell me…. the tutors are not entitled to be remunerated fairly?

Now the same guy (btw a 3d artist with a lot of experience in the industry) is pointing out that more and more professionals are going away from their production jobs and go into mentoring people. He also states that people who decide to pay for their mentorships are now privileged because they have an advantage over the people who are struggling by themselves to learn 3d. Well duh mate…that’s the whole point. You pay the mentor to teach you how to navigate through the garbage and learn what to aim for and it will cut down those years of struggle. You know…it’s like when you need to have a surgery and instead of going to the state hospital where they might delay you for a year and maybe make a bad job out of it that will require 3 more surgeries, you go to one of the best in the field and pay the money to make sure you get the best chance to survive…. obviously if you can afford it.

What exactly is wrong with that?

This is “paid” networking where those that pay have an additional “in” at studios. Yes, it is. And it should be. If I have a student that does a great job and have learned a ton, I would gladly recommend it to any of my previous studios or at least I would share the shit out of their work everywhere. Why wouldn’t I? And why is that a bad thing? They are good artists and deserve good jobs.

Also… how is that different from any major 3d school out there. They actually tell their students that they have contacts in x and y studio before joining. That’s the whole point. Shortcuts to the industry for those who deserve because they worked hard and also made an investment in themselves.

This is probably the most dumb shit I’ve ever heard in my life.

If my mentoring saves a student 4-5 years of struggle and they land a job that pays let’s say 60-70k/year, my guidance is worth actually ~300k$ minus what they paid for the mentorship.

Also, I don’t think this guy understands that teachers and consultants exist and have worth.

It seems he decided that the tutors time is worthless but also valuable so we’d better just give everything away for free. I’m pretty sure my landlord will give me a pass with the rent since I’m such a nice guy and stream for you guys…right?

Those who know me also know that I’m live on twitch as much as I can as a way for those who can’t afford the mentorship to get a bump in their knowledge and speed up in their quest of getting a good industry job. I also have quite a few students who haven’t paid me a penny ever that I took in just because they come from disadvantaged countries or families. But that doesn’t mean I should do this for free for everyone. I still have bills to pay and I help as much as I can. But maybe this guy wants to sponsor me with a decent income monthly so I can take down the price on my mentorship.  

Overall, the whole conversation is stupid. People need to be paid for their time. Period. And if they decide to give knowledge for free that's a plus...not a must. 

PS: Don’t forget tho my previous advice that you should always do your research when you go into a mentorship program, workshop, art school etc. Do not just join blindly because you’ve seen an add of Facebook or whatever. Make sure that the person you’re paying is actually capable of helping you.

Cheers

Yesterday I’ve hit a mind boggling 20k followers on Artstation. Not that many years ago I thought that kind of numbers are impossible to reach for someone like me. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who appreciated my art and who’ve bothered to push that like, share and follow buttons here and on all the other social medias.  

For us, as artists, it is quite important to build up a big follower base since the high numbers of followers help getting higher numbers of likes when you post something and keep your artwork on the first rows on Artstation and in the easy reach for recruiters for a longer time. Without your constant support I would have probably never got so far in my career. As an artist, no matter how good you are, if you don’t have exposure your job opportunities will be very limited.

I’m always telling my students that they should always stay updated with their social media and that all their posts should point at their Artstation since this is the place where you want the most visibility and where the recruiters are probably most active. I will iterate again tho to not just update Artstation with mediocre/unfinished work (yes yes I know….you’re gonna tell me again that I’m a gatekeeper). Take your time and push your artworks to a quality level similar to the people who are established in the industry. It is more important to deliver quality than to deliver fast. Speed comes with experience but if you never put that 10% percent of hard work to refine your character/props then you will just create some quality boundaries for your work that will be very difficult to surpass, especially in production where there are so many limitations. So when you work on a personal project do your best and keep refining even when you think you’re done. If you’re not at a level where to comprehend yet what you’re doing wrong but you’ve seen that your finished projects posted on Artstation are only getting a handful of likes, then seek some opinions from more experienced artists. Try to not get precious with your art and accept that you might have to start over with a specific project. Always take your time and do your research and most important keep an eye constantly on references. I cannot state how important it is to always have a big pureref with references similar to the concept you’re working on, materiality, wear and tear examples and so on. I used to think back in the day that I can just wing it and get great results but the reality is that how we think things look like is actually quite far from how real things look like. Take your time to study the functionality of the assets and how they age. Don’t stop in texturing only at smart materials and simplistic generators. Put in the manual work and try to put as many unique details as you can that make sense in the grand scheme of texture aging.

I know it’s a trend in the industry about “finished not perfect” and I agree with it to a certain degree. Nothing in 3d will ever be perfect but get as close as possible and most important get with the quality as close or better than those artworks that you’ve seen here and you thought are amazing. I’ve had students that told me it’s not possible, that they don’t have the skill to do it. In the end I’ve proved them wrong. As long as you take your time and you’re careful with each volume and detail then you will reach that level.

I’ll drop here again the link with my students’ work to give you an idea about what quality bar you should hit. A lot of these people were having almost no experience when they joined the mentorship, but the constant effort and the attention to details pushed their work to a level where no studio will deny their job application…to be honest they don’t really need to apply to jobs since the recruiters are eager to get them in their studios given the quality of their folios.

https://www.artstation.com/nimlot/collections/1465839

If you take 3 years to make 2 good characters that will blow everyone’s mind counts way more than taking 3 years and posting 20 mediocre ones that no one cares about. Growing your skill in 3d is not a short time task. After 23 years of learning 3d I’m still finding every day new things to learn, new workflows to adapt to, new tools to get accustomed with. Be patient and you will see that one good artwork can change completely your career path.

Anyway, I’ve divagated a lot from the thank you note I wanted to post.

Thank you all for the support and I’m looking forward to see you also with high follower numbers and see you posting great artworks.

Cheers!PS: In case you’re interested in my mentorship program feel free to join through my Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/nimlot

And if you don’t but still want to learn some stuff don’t forget that I’m constantly streaming for the people who can’t afford an 1 on 1 mentorship.

https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26

I know that most of you don’t like to read and that you’re all visual learners. Well…. deal with it and get through this long text since it might help you. 

After teaching artists for a few years now I’ve realized that I need to actually have a talk with the rest of you who are not around when I stream and hear me ranting on these subjects over and over. I see more and more of you are focusing on the wrong things when building your portfolio. We had this discussion about quality and finished assets/characters some time ago and a lot of you went nuts from calling me a gatekeeper to threats and so on. The truth is…. a lot of you will not make it in the industry...and let me explain to you why. First of all, no matter how good you think you are…I can bet you that there are at least 5 people with better skills than you who want the same job. Also, your skills are way lower than you believe. It’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect…. the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. Been there, done that. In 2008 when I got my first job in the game industry, after working 4 years in the vfx, I went to the contract negotiations like I was a rock star. I was so confident that I knew everything about modeling that now when I look back, I’m still feeling ashamed of how stupid I was. I think understanding your level is probably one of the most important things you need to learn. Based on it you will learn how to move forward and what to focus on. If you’re gonna get stuck with the idea that you’re some kind of 3D god when in reality you’re absolutely useless then you will have a really hard time evolving and getting the jobs you want. 

The second point is that you need to understand that getting good at modeling takes a tremendous amount of time. This is definitely not a short road. I see people expecting to make a break into the industry after taking some online courses on one of these 3d schools out there that sell you this noob to pro in 6 months bullshit. Trust me, you won’t…or if you will, it will only be because you were fortunate enough to know the right person, and has nothing to do with your actual skills. The 3d schools, 3d tutorial makers, 3d mentors…they’re all there to take your money with the smallest effort that they can put into it. Some take this to extremes…. you will see prerecorded videos from 5 years ago rebranded as new workshops and sold for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. In reality…the only way to get good is to work your ass off. Now let me explain to you what working your ass off means since a lot of you think that it means 2h of 3d every other day for like 2-3 months…. this is not it! In my opinion, to get to a medium level as a prop artist you need like 3 years of at least 8h/day of work, and as a character artist close to 5 years. Now you can make some cool characters or props during the whole learning process but that will not be, by any means, enough for you to sustain production time and quality. You need to work hard and long hours to build up that knowledge base that you will need to have to be able to approach any asset/character and find the fastest workflow possible to meet the requirements. I have students that can deliver really good quality but they’re slow for now and I constantly tell them that they need to build up speed before venturing into the production world. I have been on this road for more than 20 years and I’m learning new things every single day. For example, you can check my facial anatomy skills a few years ago and compare it with my current facial anatomy knowledge... it's such a big difference that it makes me cringe when I look at my old works... and I still have so much more to learn. It takes time and a lot of practice. Give yourself time and understand that you can’t grow overnight. 

One of the most common questions I get during the streams is how do I motivate myself to work these long hours every day? It is simple. To be a successful 3D artist you need to be really passionate about it. If you get into this just for the money, you will never pass the mediocrity level, not even after 20 years in the industry. For me it’s simple…. I love 3D …. my life revolves around the 3D world, and I know that the only way for me to improve is to put in the hours. The feeling of finishing a project is great, especially if it’s a well-known title and you get to see your work appreciated by so many people around the world…. it’s a feeling that you will not get it from too many jobs. But as advice, if you can’t push yourself easily to do the work, just wake up in the morning, go to the PC, open up the last scene you were working on, and then just leave it there in the background while you browse the social media or playing some games…you will eventually feel bad for ignoring it and will start working on it. Very often I don’t feel like I’m in the mood to work but after 10-15 min of doing some actual 3d then I get sucked into it and then I can’t recall when the whole day passed. We have a saying here in Romania “Pofta vine mancand” which translates basically as “Your appetite will come while eating” and it’s one of the things that I really find to be true. If you start investing some time in the work, you will get lost in the work and you will end up making a lot of progress without realizing when time flew by. Even if your skills are low and you feel like all you did was a waste of time, it is not. Every single vertex moved is going to make you a better artist. What you need to understand is that you need to move it all the time and you need to be patient. That knowledge base doesn't get built up by itself.  

The next point is about focusing on the wrong things. I’ve seen so many examples of young artists getting fooled by time-lapses and useless tutorials and thinking that they should just do some fast sculpting exercises or stylized stuff…because it’s easy. If you see a timelapse of someone sculpting a likeness in a few minutes or you watched me doing those Face Guide streams when I was making a likeness every stream and you think that you should do the same…don’t. A timelapse will never show you the undos and not really reflect the amount of time the artist put into that work. As for my daily likeness let’s take Rosario’s example. I’ve made a 7 hour stream while sculpting her and then spent 30-40 more hours refining the sculpt and finishing her up. And I’ve been doing this for so many years. Take your time and build up those skills, make 20-30 heads, then test yourself to see if you can get it done fast... and by fast I mean 20-30 hours. Also, don’t stop when a head is looking similar to the reference. There is always room for improvement. You want to push it as far as possible and that comes only in time. This applies to every single 3D object. Keep your references close, ignore all those that tell you it’s cool to design stuff from your ass because that makes you an artist. Stop believing that you know what things look like… you don’t. Every single thing you make in 3D needs to have a nice pack of references to guide you. Even when designing stuff, you need to have images with similar objects to get an idea about what you want to achieve and to be able to extrapolate some of the details. 

When I was at the beginning of my 3D road there was poor internet access and limited resources…. now you have tutorials everywhere, now you have 3D schools and mentors and forums and so on… and this builds up into another problem. How do you separate the good stuff from the bullshit, because trust me… there’s so much bullshit that even I have a really hard time trying to find a specific answer on the internet. I think this is the most difficult part… to figure out what to learn and how to learn it. To be honest this is why it’s good to have a mentor… you will have someone out there who can point you in the right direction… the problem is that the mentors also are split into good ones and mediocre artists who were in the industry for years just for the money and now are trying to make an easy living by “guiding” the young artists for crazy amounts of money. 3 minutes of feedback and prerecorded videos are not what you’re looking for. I strongly suggest you do your research when it comes to buying a tutorial, joining a workshop or a 3D school, or getting a mentor. When I say research, I mean it…take your time to see what that artist can do, talk with people who learned from him/her, and don’t just throw money at random people on the internet just because they’re famous. There are good artists to learn from and good marketing people out there… try and make the distinction. For example, I’m yet to find an artist who can honestly say that they learned anything useful from the plethora of 3D schools out there. I have had at least 25 students that went to one or another 3d school before joining my mentorship and turned out to me because they were as clueless as they were the day before joining them. Don’t rush into things just because they have a lot of marketing… you should know by now that this is not how things work. Don’t be lazy and do your research. 

Then there is the discussion about quality. As a beginner, you will think that it’s good to fill up your folio with stuff and that you actually need a lot of assets/characters to get the jobs. You don’t. I have students who got really good job offers by having a single character in their folio. It’s all about quality. If you have 20 mediocre characters, the recruiters will just pass over you just like anyone else. Your folio needs to be as good as possible. Even if it takes you a year to make a good prop or a character, take your time. Make sure everything is crazy good and preferably unique. Try to avoid making the same characters/props that others did. Try to avoid having another AK47 or military radio in your folio. The people who will decide if you get the job or not don’t even click on those anymore. Keep in mind that quality comes first in the eyes of the recruiters. They need to see good models before caring about how fast you are. You can finish 3 characters per month…. if you can’t meet the quality they’re looking for…they will not care about you. I’m always telling my students that they need to make incredible artworks and that the speed will come in time. The more you work on your stuff, the more you will learn and next time when you will have to do something similar you will have all the knowledge required to make it faster. Once you made stuff a few times you will be production-ready, but if you instead make bad models a few times just because it takes too long to make good ones, all you do is never reach that final 10-20% of quality work and it will just remain a mystery for you… one that it will take years to correct and improve. Remember that when a recruiter is looking at your folio, he’s comparing your work with what’s already been made by their production artists, so in general you need to show that you can do better. Also, you will compete for the jobs with artists who took their time to make high-quality work. If it will be to choose between you (with 10 mediocre characters) and one of my students with 2-3 good ones…who do you think they will choose? In the end, when all the good jobs will be taken by the artists who actually put some effort into making good quality stuff, you will end up with the crappy jobs… the poorly paid ones or the big studio jobs where they will not give you anything else to do but retopo, uvs and LODs. 

As I was saying in the beginning… not everyone will make it into the industry, and to be fair, there is a requirement for poorly paid mediocre artists also, but I’m sure none of you dream of becoming one. So, take your time and learn. Make some sacrifices and put as much time as you can into your 3D work. Create high-quality stuff and do your research for any 3D object you create and also for any tutorial, school, or artists that you want to learn from. Only hard work and time will make you a great artist. And since you got to the end of this long wall of text, here’s a code to use on my gumroad for a 30% discount. Use “Iliketoread” on any purchase for it. But before going blindly and buy my stuff make sure you check what I can do and if my tutorials are worth the money. Don’t be stupid 

For those who got here by mistake I have a few links for you:

https://www.artstation.com/nimlot

https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26

https://www.patreon.com/nimlot

https://gumroad.com/nimlot26

At the beginning of the year I wrote a blog post showing you guys what my students were up to.  Let me show you what they produced since then. Again the order is chronologically.
I know you don't like to read too much so i will just show you some videos.
In the order of appearance: 

Bartek's axe: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gJzxdm

Natalia's Morrigan: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A9090m

Aaron's carriage: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A90o8e

Amanda's redheaded Knight:https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6aWrgx

Ziel's amazing Viking: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Nx5GZP

Nathan's strylized Knight: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/d8OV4A

George's pipboy: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8eB00w

James's 16th century flintlock: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mDv4ZZ

Natalia's Robert Downey Jr: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3dvwWD

Amanda's Anna Valerious: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ELEQzv

I might be proud of all of them but don't let them know that ;)

Not long ago I've released A Guide for Sculpting Faces https://nimlot.artstation.com/store/WXNJ/a-guide-for-sculpting-faces   and decided to take some time during the streams to make a few more likenesses with the base mesh I've made for the tutorial. 

The whole point was to see how far I can take a likeness in 5-6 hours. 

In this fifth video I went for Rosario Dawson. 

The actual sculpting starts at about 2hours and 22 min into the video. 

As usual the whole thing was streamed on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26

Also don't forget about my Patreon where you have access to all the videos from the beginning of the year and many other goodies: https://www.patreon.com/nimlot

Here's the 5th day video:

Not long ago I've released A Guide for Sculpting Faces https://nimlot.artstation.com/store/WXNJ/a-guide-for-sculpting-faces and decided to take some time during the streams to make a few more likenesses with the base mesh I've made for the tutorial.

The whole point was to see how far I can take a likeness in 5-6 hours. 

In this fourth video I went for Nathan Fillion. As in the previous videos I took the first hour to refine the previous day's sculpt. 

The Nathan sculpting starts at about 2 hours and 54 minutes into the video. 

As usual the whole thing was streamed on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26 

Also don't forget about my Patreon where you have access to all the videos from the beginning of the year and many other goodies: https://www.patreon.com/nimlot 

Here's the 4th day video:

Not long ago I've released A Guide for Sculpting Faces  https://nimlot.artstation.com/store/WXNJ/a-guide-for-sculpting-faces  and decided to take some time during the streams to make a few more likenesses with the base mesh I've made for the tutorial. 

The whole point was to see how far I can take a likeness in 5-6 hours. In this third video I went for Rachel McAdams. 

The actual sculpting starts at about 1 hour and 24 min into the video. 

I kinda failed this likeness and it was definitely in a worst place than Morena and Steve after the 4-5 hours mark but in general the female faces are much more difficult to nail down, especially if there's no big landmarks on the face to guide the likeness. I guess a day or two more on it would do the trick.  

As usual the whole thing was streamed on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26 

Also don't forget about my Patreon where you have access to all the videos from the beginning of the year and many other goodies: https://www.patreon.com/nimlot

Here's the third video:

Not long ago I've released A Guide for Sculpting Faces https://nimlot.artstation.com/store/WXNJ/a-guide-for-sculpting-faces  and decided to take some time during the streams to make a few more likenesses with the basemesh I've made for the tutorial. The whole point was to see how far I can take a likeness in 5-6 hours.

In this second video I went for Steve Buscemi. The first hour or so I've refined the sculpt I did the day before and took Morena's likeness a bit closer to what I wanted since every time you take a break from your model then come back to it you see stuff that is wrong and needs fixing. 

For Steve I've continued from Morena's head and again the actual sculpt of Steve starts around 2 hours and 12 minutes into the stream. 

As usual the whole thing was streamed on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nimlot26

Also don't forget about my Patreon where you have access to all the videos from the beginning of the year and many other goodies: https://www.patreon.com/nimlot

Here's the day 2 video: