Devoted Stories

Devoted: What part of work took the longest to master?

Ruben: Final designs. To be honest I believe I’m still in the process to master it. As a creative you believe that your first idea has the whole potential to be the best. I decided to tell myself that wasn’t enough, that there’s a lot of “something’s missing”. That makes me more focused, more open to changes, trying to increase my techniques, learn from other artists, approach different tools, get the right resources, get the best references and try to be as proactive as I can. One of the most important things in the process is the Feedback. Opinions of others, their perceptions – accepting it as advice will increase your own view on how to be a better artist. That “something’s missing”. In the industry it will help you to understand that teamwork can be the best way to get the Final and the Best Design. For me, the Final Design is just like a puzzle that will never be finished because I always try to include something new. Said that’s “something missing” it will make me focus on keep looking to master it.

Devoted: Someone who would like to do the same thing as you do might face what obstacles?

Ruben: Theory and experience. Theory as a knowledge. Experience, as in resolving problems using the knowledge you have. You can overcome those obstacles with patience. Not all of us could do something really fast. But continuous trying and repeating will lessen your obstacles or change the way you see them. What can make this process less painful is order and focus. Knowing where you want to go. Know where you are to focus on what you need.

Vladimir Novikov is a 3D Artist from Kharkiv, Ukraine who works with Devoted Studios on different projects. We asked him about his work, life, and inspiration. Read to find out how he became a professional artist at such a young age.

Introduced! Tell us about yourself

1. Let’s get introduced! Tell us about yourself in a few words.

I’m Vladimir, I’m 23 y.o. I like the color red, sports, and spending time with my computer.

2. What inspired you to choose this profession?

I wanted to unleash my creative potential while staying at home.

3. Reveal a secret sauce of your professional development.

Not to leave home.

4. Give some useful advice to your colleagues who are just starting out in the profession.

Don’t leave your homes

5. Tell us about the project that changed you as a person.

I believe that it is yet to come.

6. How do you see the future of the industry?

The industry has been developing very fast in the past few years, and it’s quite difficult to make suggestions about the future. The one thing is for sure, you need to become a better version of yourself and improve your skills every day, if you don’t want to stay behind.

7. What do you want to learn next? (in terms of software, engine, pipeline)

I’m interested in sculpting, want to boost my skills in this field a little bit.

8. What keeps you going in this mad world?

Love.

9. How do you manage burnouts and unfortunate difficulties as a professional?

I haven’t learnt to manage my burnouts, to be honest. Maybe I have to work on it in the future.

10. What’s your dream project?

A project without any feedback with full artistic freedom.

11. Where do you find inspiration?

The works of other artists, creative people and their projects, beautiful Tik Tok videos

Andrii Lukashevich is a talented artist from Lviv, Ukraine who collaborated with Devoted Studios on one of its major projects. He is a well-balanced and intelligent artist with a clear vision and real passion for his work. Keep reading to learn more about him and get some important insights.

1. Let’s get introduced! Tell us about yourself in a few words.

I’m Andrii, I’m a 3D Artist. I have been studying Computer Graphics for about 3 years, and have taken part in commercial projects for 2 years already. I like everything that is somehow connected to art and entertainment.

2. What inspired you to choose this profession?

I wanted to create imaginary worlds and transfer them on screens. I was always excited with video games, visual esthetics, and technical aspects of graphics. That is why I decided to become a 3D Artist. 

3. Reveal a secret sauce of your professional development.

My secret sauce is full-time studies and practice. I always keep an eye on new trends and technical innovations of CG, trying to use them in my works. Ability to think critically and analyse information is also very important as it helps a lot.

4. Give some useful advice to your colleagues who are just starting out in the profession.

As a newbie you should focus on basic skills such as modelling, baking, texturing. Learn from experienced artists, maybe you should find a mentor or start courses. Also take your time to read the documentation for programs you study.

5. Tell us about the project that changed you as a person.

I think it was Grounded. It was the first big project for me, I worked with a big team creating 3D assets. This project has taught me to communicate with my colleagues, manage my time and resolve the problems.

6. How do you see the future of the industry?

I see the future of the CG industry in a constant growth of speed and effectiveness of computing systems, that allows to improve detalization and make graphics even more realistic. But I’m sure that stylized projects will still be in demand.

7. What do you want to learn next? (in terms of software, engine, pipeline)

I would like to work with photogrammetry to be able to work on more complex and realistic projects. So I want to improve my knowledge of UE and Unity and polish my working pipelines.

8. What keeps you going in this mad world?

Ability to create something new has always given me strength to keep going. Also seeing the results of my work is a great reward for me.

9. How do you manage burnouts and unfortunate difficulties as a professional?

I try to make brakes, do sports and hobbies to get distracted and freshen my thoughts. Besides, I communicate with colleagues and get support and advice from them.

10. What’s your dream project?

My dream project is a video game based on my vision and ideas, that will be able to excite players and take them to the world of fantasies and adventures.

11. Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in so many things – nature, art, photography, cinema. Also I follow other talented artists on social media to find new techniques and ideas

Here’s a story of Bohdan, who made an awesome model in year…1999! Can you imagine this?

Bohdan: This model was made using a 166Hz Pentium Processor and believe it or not, it took whole night to render.

I used a LightWave 3D program to make it. Back in the day no one knew about sculpting in 3D, everything was modelled.

Maybe this will make you think about your favourite old game’s models in a different light, thinking how much differently they were made back in 90s.

We went through a long road from the first 3D models in 90s to where we are now, and I believe that in next 20 years we will be in a completely new level of sculpting and modelling possibilities.

Working in the industry for a longer while lets you witness the technological changes and improvements over the years, and it is important to always learn new stuff and to adapt to new, improved ways of creating things.

Paul: I can’t stop myself sometimes.

Sometimes I wish I lived on Venus because I can get more work done on my projects when a day lasts 2784 hours. I just love what I do, and since a while ago I started doing it almost every minute I have. It just started as “I want to be better for myself”, but when you see what others do on Artstation for example, you just keep pushing yourself to be better and better and sometimes forget to rest.

Before collaborating with Devoted, I used to spend my spare time working on my personal projects, yet I understand taking a break from time to time is also a must.

Devoted: There is a lot of competition, so you need to keep pushing yourself?

Paul: Yes, of course, but that depends on what you want to do – characters, enviro, props. There are different levels of difficulty and, sure, constant training is necessary.

Devoted: You are a character artist, right?

Paul: I haven’t decided yet. I think I’m a generalist, but I enjoy doing a character as much as I do working on an enviro, f.e.
I guess it’s that thing when you want to do a character… You finish it and then you’re like… “Wait a minute, something is missing” and then you do a prop for it – a gun, a sword, etc., and then an enviro and then it finally feels complete.
To get somewhere in this industry you gotta keep pushing yourself, no matter what kind of art you make. But remember to put your health first.

Hello from the Devoted team! Let’s get acquainted! Tell us about your role and specialization.

I am a 3D Art Lead.

What inspired you to choose this profession?

Since my childhood I enjoyed Science Fiction, later I was inspired with the classical era video games. So I think I always wanted to be a part of the industry.

Reveal a secret sauce of your professional development.

There’s no secret – study all the time, work as much as you can, talk to people from the industry.

Share your experience on managing your workflows and projects.

I worked as a freelancer for years, have performed as an Art Director in studios for a couple of times. These experience taught me to manage multiple projects at a time.

How do you approach a project estimation and calculate your work hours?

This comes from the experience, you can look at the model and tell how much time it takes to accomplish. I also try adding 20-25% of estimated time for fixes and polishing. The calculations are very simple – I just track time in a txt file while working.

What’re your favorite platforms to share your portfolio and why?

Artstation – because it’s an industry standard, Sketchfab – because it allows sharing 3D-art online with acceptable quality of shading and lighting.

What’re the main advantages of community in our industry?

– Sharing experience, tips and tricks;
– keeping track of new technologies and cool projects;
– an ability to find a specialist fast.

How do you see the future of the industry?

When I’m asked for my opinion on the game industry, I always say that it follows the cinematography steps, and considering the fact that today gamedev is less than 40 years old, we are somewhere close to Charlie Chaplin’s silent movies on the timeline. We didn’t even reach the color movies! The best is ahead.

Give some useful advice to your colleagues who are just starting out in the profession.

Just 3 pieces of advice here:

1. Learn English
2. Learn English
3. Learn English
Best tutorials are in English. Top artists are English-speakers. Best studios are English-speaking. Language is the key.

Last but not least, share your experience with Devoted CG and Devoted Studios

I started working as a vendor for Devoted in the autumn 2021. Half a year later I was offered to join the studio on a full-time basis. That’s it!

Hello, my name is Vitaliy Vatsko.

I am a 3D Photoreal Environment and Props Artist from Kharkiv, Ukraine. I like to create buildings and props for computer games.

As far as I can remember I was fascinated by different stories. When I was young I liked to visit museums, look at exhibits of old artifacts, and through their story learn the stories of those who owned them in the past. Old castles and buildings which remain now witnessed a lot of human history and have their own stories to tell. Making 3D models allows me to create something from imagination into some sort of reality, it allows me to tell stories from places that never existed but were inspired by reality. I remember reading Hobbit by Tolkien and how it inspired me to become a magician like Gandalf the Grey. I was a child back then. Now I think that creating something material from pure thought is the most magical thing I know, and by doing so I make my child’s dream come true).

There is no secret sauce except that my ideas and thoughts motivate me to create new scenes and props that have a story to tell, an impression to make, and a feeling to share. If my idea demands certain techniques or tools to be used, that motivates me to learn and grow professionally.

3D Artist wasn’t my first profession. Long before I allowed myself to make my hobby a serious profession I was working as a Project Manager in IT. That experience taught me much about planning, risk management, and project documentation. First of all, before starting working on a project it is crucial to understand what is the core of the project, what is needed for its success, and whether or not my skills and competence can match the demanded level of quality. Risk management is very important so before starting anything I ask questions that might be very important to the quality of my work, and that can save much time and effort while working in the process. If I see that I can handle what is demanded, I start breaking down the workflow into smaller stages and evaluate them accordingly to similar tasks that I’ve done before.

I also have a golden rule – I don’t work on several projects at once, since there can be a situation when many projects demand my immediate attention at once, which is not possible for me to do).

Before any calculation and estimation, I have to break down the chosen workflow into smaller stages. For example Blockout, Highpoly, Middlepoly, UV, Baking, Texturing, Importing to UE, Rendering, Delivering. I know myself and I know how much time I usually spend on each stage (it also depends on the complexity of a model). Of course, I’m just a human, and sometimes not everything goes as planned, so for those situations I add some time for the most crucial stages to deal with unexpected complications.

My main portfolio platform is Artstation. It allows looking at the works of other people there and learn some techniques from them, to see how they dealt with some challenges that I’ll face in the future. It is also exciting to look at the “Artist journey” that people make throughout their lives, improving their technical skills and creating meaningful art.

In my country, it is still a pretty close community. Almost everyone knows everyone, or at least the studio or projects that someone is working on (except for NDA’s). That allows artists to ask for advice for their projects, share knowledge, and support each other. I have some friends from different studios, who work on very different projects, yet still face common technical difficulties. One day we made a call and there was a guy who changed his profession from 3D Artist to Game Designer, and while listening to our problem he remembered the same issue that he faced several years ago, so he gave us a good solution to it. As my friends say: Once a 3D Artist you are always a 3D Artist)).

I am a very bad fortune teller, though looking at some new technologies like UE5 and plugins to it, I can certainly tell that some stages that took a lot of artist time like retopology or manual LOD making will go to the past allowing us to spend more time on art itself rather than its technical sides like optimization and other time-consuming things. I assume that If 3D scanning will go further, some professions like Weapon artists can change their ways forever, because why manually create the same existing in our world rifle 1000 times, if you can just scan it and retopologize using some artificial intelligence).
– “Don’t be afraid of failures.

– You will and you should fail a lot. Failure isn’t a tragedy it is a lesson, that will teach you how to become stronger in areas where you are weak now. Don’t be afraid to fail.

– Motivate yourself.

There is nothing more important than inner motivation to achieve something and to learn something that is demanded to achieve it. Motivation from others whether it’s family or friends helps. It helps a lot! But It should never be a core source for all you do as an Artist. Bad times may happen, a family can be separated, and friends can be out of reach. In times like that, it’s only up to you to face the challenges and keep yourself motivated to achieve your dreams. To achieve not for the approval or excitement of others but yourself.

There is no end to knowledge in our industry. Due to its constant evolution some skills that were highly appreciated several years ago, are irrelevant now. You should be prepared that the “Old ways” of doing things might be not needed or even considered inefficient. So it is very important to be prepared to constantly evolve as an artist, to learn new techniques, new skills, new tools and to work on yourself as a person. Evolve constantly”.

I like working with Devoted Studios. Our project allowed me to be part of a friendly, supportive team, that was motivated to produce results as well as possible. During that project, I learned new tools and worked with a type of computer graphics that I’ve never worked with before. I was glad to participate in that project and I hope to work with Devoted Studios more in the future on similar projects or others). As for the Devoted CG – it’s a promising young platform that can become a really good competition for Artstation.

I’m registered there and I hope it will bring some cool projects to me and allow Devoted Studios to be a part of top Game Titles in the Industry.