DEVOTED STUDIOS BLOG

Meet João, a 3D Modeling Master.

During this journey, I can say with all certainty that my biggest obstacle was myself, when you are working with art or just making it ’cause you love it, the most difficult thing is to deal with is your psychology.

You always feel that you are not evolving as fast as you could. Most of the time you are not satisfied with your art, so this is the most difficult thing – as an artist you need to know that the way to the top it’s hard and slow and the best thing you can do to deal with it is being kind to yourself.

We are not competing against each other and nobody is racing here, everyone is running together. This is my most valuable advice. Even if you think you’re not good enough, if you are going to do something, always do your best and you will learn as a consequence.

I always asked for feedback and critiques on my work, and it’s the best thing you can do to grow as an artist. Even if you didn’t ask for it, always hear the feedback. Just filter out the good and bad ones. This kind of thing helped me a lot to learn 3D Modeling.

All my journey through this was essential to build myself nowadays, but if I have a chance to say something to myself in the past, I should say “Keep your focus and study the most you can, enjoy all the way, not just the finishing line”. Basically when I was on the start of my journey, I was always excited to see the work finished, but I forgot to learn the most I can through the process, keep my focus and be calm on my studies.

I’m a generalist but mostly work on stylized 3D characters.

Since childhood I’ve been playing computer games and always had a curiosity about games creation pipeline. This prompted me to try different aspects of creating CGI such as software engineering, UI/UX, concept art, 3d modelling, level design. It helped me a lot to grow as an artist with a strong game-developer mindset. However, character creation is how I can truly express myself.

What allows me to create best results? I guess, training myself on focusing on base forms, overall character silhouette and playing with color palette. That is key to being able to recreate any form in 3D space. For example, choosing a complex concept to model in 3D without focusing on these core principles obviously ends up with not-so-impressive results and yet another unfinished project. Model may be well polished, but clear silhouettes do all the magic. And of course, spamming colors makes the overall look of the model too noisy. Keep it simple! After mastering it, doing more complex stuff ceases to be a problem

I always pursue tools that would come in handy on several stages of production for instance Marvelous Designer. Most of the repetitive or manual part of the work can be avoided. The Substance Academy website gives many interesting ideas and cool features to help spark creativity.

Tip: Be always open for advice, tips or critiques. Every feedback I have ever received has helped me to progress.