Confessions of a 3D Artist
Bluebird 3D
Posts: 995
Sometimes...
I hit render over and over again just to stare at the little dancing pixels as they merge together.
On occasion I go out of my way to use 3D language in general public just to watch the expressions around me when I excuse myself to go home and skin my newest actor.
Now and then I resist the temptation to ask a perfect stranger if I can feel their shirt because I think I can duplicate the fabric qualities in Photoshop.
When somebody asks me what I do for a living, I look them straight in the eye and tell them I support the adult entertainment industry.
~Bluebird
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Comments
I hear you. i used to get funny looks when i talked about rendering, CGI and mesh, but since i now have a DA account, I get different looks when i can point them to actual images, LOL.
Now where is that adult entertainment work you mentioned????
I went out for a drink with my older brother and bumped into an old friend. The friend and I spent 5 minutes catching up - we were both IBM mainframe programmers. My brother later told our mum that he spent those 5 minutes in a state of total confusion an acronym overload :)
I have stopped telling most people I work with computers (mainly as that is now true as I am unemployed) but mainly due to one time in the past I did it was to an aquaintance who ran a restaurant. I later helped him sort out a problem with his home computer. A little later he brought over another customer and introduced me as 'the person who can help fix your computer ...'
I tried explaining what it is that i do once, I was telling someone how I use 3D renders that use ray tracing to create mat paintings to use as digital backgrounds for my films. The next question was "if Ray is tracing and Matt is painting, what is it that YOU do?"
.
That's hilarious
LOL!
Its funny, when I explain what Daz studio to someone who is totally uninformed on 3d/cgi, I usually receive a blank expression followed by the question, "I dont quite understand, what do people actually do with it?" or "what is the point exactly?
LMAO."
I gave up trying to tell people what I do. If they even had a clue what 3D was 90% would go Toy Story or Ice Age, or some other 3D toon movie. I would give up and say yes stuff like that. They never understand that Spiderman , Batman or the Avengers movies were full of 3D. To them that's all those new Special Effects.
I can so relate. Years ago I was friendly with a girl from Australian that was here on a 6 month Visa, who met and eventually married her husband, who just happened to be in the MIS department in a large midtown law firm at a time I was working with the MIS department of a large downtown law firm. Whenever we would get together, he and I always drifted to tech talk. One particular evening we had gone out to eat with her cousin, who was here visiting from OZ, and again her hubby and I were deep in a tech discussion, when all of a sudden she raised her voice so that everyone at the surrounding tables could hear, with the comment "See what I mean? I can't go anywhere with them that I don't eventually feel left out and alone!"
Needless to say, we both heard her and apologized though, when I looked at her across the table, I could see she was laughing when she said it. ~shakes head~
I have never really had a problem explaining my 3D hobby to people I meet, maybe it is because I live in the Los Angeles area and people here have a pretty good grasp of how 3D affects different local industries: design, architecture, animation & film, medical, etc. In fact I have turned on a few to get into the hobby themselves or expose it to their children. I have even had people come up to me when I am out taking photos to create IBL maps for the UberE; most seem very interested in the whole virtual environment when it is explained to them.
I gave up trying to explain ANYTHING I do... people think I'm crazy and I'm mostly fine with that.
My professional job description is model maker... so people think I build plastic model kits all day... I just gave up and tell people "prototype fabricator", and let them figure that out on their own (prototype fabricator = potato fabric maker)...
The 3D model making that I do, 90% of the people I know... I would not bother explaining it to... so I just say I do "computer graphics".
Its easier that way.
I've found out in reality, most people don't actually care what anyone else does... their job, their hobby, their sport is the only really hard/important job, interesting hobby or cool sport, so basically you can tell them you are a coyote spanker and 96.8% of the time they will just nod and except whatever it is you just said or they think they heard (coyote spanker= car salesman) and then forget it 30 seconds later... "you said fighter pilot, right"... uh... yeah... that one.
Someone actually said to me "You are the heart surgeon... right?"
Uh... yeah... but we like to call it heart recombobulation expert...
i'm going to add coyote spanker to my resume
It its an old and respectable career.
That is actually the only time I ever really bother to explain what I'm doing, though not for IBL maps, but for textures... I'll be taking photos of say a walkway or a retaining wall at the park...
---------
Passerby: What are you taking pictures of?
Me: The concrete, I'm going to use it for computer graphics...
Passerby: Ooooh...?... How?
Me: I turn them into something called seamless textures, so that basically you can take one image and lay it next to another and not be able to to tell where that one image ends and the other begins, you can then use them to tile a whole surface or image... you can use them as backgrounds or filler textures in images or as in my case to create surface textures on 3D models...
Passerby: Ooooh... do you have to wear the glasses?
Me: It's not that kind of 3D, more like video game models...
Passerby: Oh, you use them when you play video games? My nephew plays video games... land of warcrafts or something like that...
Me: No, I don't play the games, I make things that could be used for them like, well... mostly buildings and props... though I have no idea if anyone has used my models in a game... mostly it's for illustration, like for example they could use it to make a book cover...
Passerby: So you are an architect or writer?
Me: No, it's called 3D model making, I make 3D models on a computer...
Passerby: But you said they are not 3D? How do you turn them into 3D...?
Me: They are 3D in the sense that they can be manipulated and viewed on all three axis within a virtual world... like... if I make a table... you could then view that table on a computer as though it were a real object you could look all around it...
Passerby: Oh holograms! Like on my credit card or in the star track wars!
Me: No, those are totally different, holograms are don't have textures....
Passerby: In star track wars they could talk and kill people...
Me: Those kind don't exist yet, thats just a science fiction story...
Passerby: So I don't get it, what are you going to use the pictures for?
Me: Pornography.... it's for people who are really into concrete. I'm a pornographer for really sick people who LOVE cement and poured stone products... it's a whole segment of the industry...
Passerby: Ooooh... I see... thanks. Bye!
Passerby: HEY, SHIRLEY!.... HE'S JUST SOME PERVERT TAKING PICTURES OF THE WALL!
Shirley: I told you maurice!
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I think L.A. is mostly an exception... I have had that sort of conversation in the heart of NYC, feet from technical collages with people of the age where "oh my freakin' lord, how have you managed to avoid even accidently learning this by now" is what you want to scream at them...
I've even tried explaining it to teen agers who play video games and I'm not sure they quite get it... Every now and then someone does understand, but mostly I get a perplexed look. The same one you see on a squirrel when they try eating a rock they think is an acorn.
Hey! OW! Knock it off! OW!
...In Portland I tend to get a slightly better reaction when I mention I work with 3D CGI. Most will say "Oh like what Pixar does" or "Like the effects they did in [insert name of big blockbuster film here]". Part of it has to do the fact that many Portlandites (at least east of the West Hills) tend to have a bit of "film savvy" along with the fact we still are home to several high profile computer tech and software development firms.
Sometimes I get the "games" question to which I respond I don't even play computer games.
However One day I made the mistake of using one of my pics as the background wallpaper on my computer at work. Then, the explanation pretty much became similar (save for the concrete pr0n reference) to lordvicore's post above.
Next they thought if I can do this, I should be able to handle prepress work in Acrobat, InDesign, and other production software. That took a bit more explaining to finally let them know that what I work in has little or anything to so with setting up graphics for publishing and high volume digital print production. Besides, I knew that one of the prepress operator's duties also included using a very frustrating "tear your hair out" piece of software called Printshop Mail as well as having to deal directly with our sales VP (neither of which I would not wish on even my worst enemy).
They were of course aghast that I did this for fun and relaxation rather than money.
Taking an acrylic painting class at a local community center. The instructor is very old school--he is from England and was taught formal art and draughting back in the 1950s. I'd like to learn more about that but I'm not very good at draughtsmanship which he feels is necessary to do before applying any paint. He's right in that context, of course. He wouldn't even look at my renders because he said it's just math not "art'. I don't do animations or games so that puzzles anyone I know whose into those, well they are so much younger than me, they probably just being polite enough before they "have to go to a friend's house," LOL!
Back in the 80s, when CRAY was the machine, I worked at a job with an art student who said to me that I would really enjoy working with computer art. No way in heck I could afford acess to that. I love being able to work with the DAZ stuff and make up my little scenes just for fun -turn them around, "fly" through landscapes ( I enjoy exploring muttiple environments like Parkside), light them, pose the models, etc.
I also get asked, "can you sell that?" People who ask me that also wonder why I bother. I tried to explain the vast collaboration of artists that contribute to a scene, but they have tuned out by then. I just wrap it up by saying I find it a relaxing hobby.Oh, ok. They shake their heads. I'm going to surprise my brother with a little album of my better renders. I think he will understand the 3d part when he sees several different views of the same scene.
I don't bother even trying anymore. The times I was semi-successful at explanation the response was along the lines of 'I need a card for my niece, she's going to med school. Can you make one for me? It should have a blah, a blah and a bleh in it. And, oh by the way, she's also fond of ducks. So I'd spend a couple hours hunting the net for a poser compatible stethoscope or some such and whatever else was required. Do up a nice little pic and send it off. It felt good to help but it usually took up a couple days of my time.
Back when I was 'doing music' by manipulating a real sound synthesizer and coming up with believe it or not nice cello, guitar, and other sounds and doing Bach, country banjo, and other pieces, my next door neighbor after hearing my explanation said:
'Why don't you just buy the recording?'
Sigh.
Back when I was getting ready to launch my website and sell my 3d models, I'd asked my landlord (who runs a side business creating websites and hosting server space) to help me set up a site so I could open my store... I tried many many times to explain what I do and even sat him down and loaded a few of my items into Daz so he could see what I was talking about... To this day (going on 3 years now) he still thinks I'm selling pictures and movies that I've created because he just can't wrap his head around 3d modelling!
When people ask me what I do i usually just tell them I make 3d models for computer and tv animation... Most people can understand that much of it, but not much else...
I can't even adequately explain it to my wife--and she's played WoW for years! I get as far as a basic observation about "mapping" and she's lost already. I quit trying to describe a "mesh" to her.
Me: Pornography.... it's for people who are really into concrete. I'm a pornographer for really sick people who LOVE cement and poured stone products... it's a whole segment of the industry...
Passerby: Ooooh... I see... thanks. Bye!
Passerby: HEY, SHIRLEY!.... HE'S JUST SOME PERVERT TAKING PICTURES OF THE WALL!
Shirley: I told you maurice!
---------
Bahahahaha!
I think I'm lucky. Most of my family know the basics of what I'm talking about. They just don't care much :p
Also lucky. Husband has some CGI background and is into the maths side as well. He thinks doing people is strange but is ok with buildings, landscapes and wildlife. He got me started, taught me to program Povray.
I don't get problems taking photos as I mostly do "old stuff" and people don't mind weird photo behaviour around old buildings. You're just a very eccentric tourist. Though photos of stone and brick walls or pavements are a bit outside the usual ...
I have had mixed reactions when I explain doing Graphic Art. I have had both family and friends try to tell me to give it up, it's a waste of time, it's not real art if it's on a computer, it's not a real job, and the best one of all...I will never be any good at it or go anywhere with it. Normally I have no problem explaining what I have learned from Graphic Art in 3D, most know what CGI is thanks to movies and cartoons, yet in spite of knowing how the entertainment industry uses this type of art, most still consider it useless.
When I explained about 3D models and art, I explained about the program on the computer has a room, much like a room in a building and in that room I have a model (I usually refer to V4 in the case), that model is a base, then proceed to explain you can buy morph packs that allow you to change the shape of that model and I can even make the model look like them. I explain about bones and poses to make the various parts of the model move, then I explain textures for skin, eyes, hair, clothes. I even managed to explain dynamics in a way they could understand. Once I have explained this, I explain how you can make money doing this kind of art.
I explain how you can make a character for V4 or several textures for an outfit make for V4, then package it up and have it sold through one of the various sites or even several sites to broaden my exposure to sell and make a mark as an artist. At the time I was explaining this, Renderosity had over 1 million members, Daz had over 800,000 members, Content Paradise had over 600,000 members and that was just to name a few places, to give a person an idea of how many people are into this kind of art (yes I know a person can be at all those places and the numbers are not exactly as I stated, but the person I am talking to doesn't know that...lol). So with about 1 and a half million people and my product (if it's made well enough) goes for say $10 I would only need to sell to 5000 people and I would have $50,000 in a relatively short time. To get that kind of sales, timing is everything with seasons, holidays, etc. I did explain how part of that profit goes to the place I am selling my product through with the different percentages based on which place I choose.
Of course I came up with these figures about 5 years ago before everyone got hit on a financial level thanks to our glorious politicians around the world (dumba$$es). So they wanted to know why I was not yet making loads of money in this type of art, to which I explained it costs about $35,000 dollars for a 2 years course at the Art Institute near where I live and I simply don't have the money, so I am learning the hard way (though in my mind it's easier cause so many are so helpful and generous with time and freebies), it just takes longer to learn everything necessary to create something worthy of sales that people will want and the market is always changing as well as the programs used always changing.
One thing I have learned about explaining 3D Graphic Art, you can only explain it once, after that they don't want to hear about it anymore and any attempt to do so is met with a glazed look and change of topic. Another thing I have learned, I get more support and compliments for my art from complete strangers half way around the world, then I do from my own family and friends. Having a love of Graphic Art is a lonely hobby unless you are surrounded by people who share it.
The worst for me was wanting to get started with mocap, and having to explain to the girl at Gamestop that I didn't have an old 360 OR a new 360, and I planned to plug the Kinect into a laptop.