So i have been thinking here.. Have you, modelers, texturers, landscapers and so on ever been on some special art classes, thus improving your ability in texutring, modeling etc? Just wondering, if you learned to model from nothing, or did you had some head start.
I haven't taken any deeper lessons.
Cheers! :foodndrink:

I haven't took any lessons, but I really only landscape. Not sure why you mentioned it tho, no skills are needed for that anyway, only a pinch of taste for aesthetics

Well not everyone can create very beautiful landscapes, that's why I mentioned it.

I took art classed during high school (up to AP Studio 2, plus photography and a introductory digital course) and am currently enrolled in an art school pursuing an illustration degree. I started modding long before that though.

But do these classes help you on modding in any way?

I took a couple of 3DMax classes a very long time ago (version4), and have taken a Maya animation class (5 years ago), but I never followed up by using what I learned unitl it was too late. You know the saying. If you don't use it, you lose it. Now I'm in the process of relearning Max and adding a few other things to my skill set, such as uvmapping/unwrapping and texturing. Some I learn on my own through tutorials and experimentation, some I find very patient people like AOF and Matt to walk me through it. The modders on this site and others like it really are the best resources we could ask for.

Directly, probably not really. My major isn't really about modeling or environmental design - though you can learn that too. However, principals of art such as color theory and composition are indirectly beneficial to modding.

Thanks for the answers so far. Just figuring, how much finishing art classes helps one create beautiful landscapes and how easy is it then to texture good and model good.

Nope, I just play around with the CS. I'm living by the K.I.S.S. rule!

It really depends on the class. A painting class probably won't help. A class on how to use Photoshop or Max will definitely help.

Ooooooh, Paint program. I'm pretty handy with that one. Sippin' sizzurp in my ride, like 3-6!

I haven't took lessons. Only tutorials for some programs like Blender, Photoshop etc...

Kalamestari_69

No, I never took any art classes, unless you count the ones I took in secondary school.

I never took any art classes. Even though my high school had some policy of everyone had to do art at least once in the first year, I somehow didn't end up doing art. I think it was the sport academy class which stole art's spot, 'cause it took up 2 subject slots. :shrug:

In saying that, I can't really model or texture, so I only know how to do stuff in the CS which is all self taught. When landscaping, I usually just draw inspiration from real world places I've visited, or the imaginations of my brain influenced by years of reading fantasy/science fiction. eg, Tyrthol Coast in Yesterbreeze was influenced heavily by my travels around the South Island of New Zealand, walking right up to a glacier and visiting the Milford Sound. All the time I was traveling around there all I could think about was how cool it would be to see this in a mod.

That, and I guess an instinctive feel of whether something just "looks right" or not.

ha, i do this to for my landscapes, though i haven't been to the south island, but the north island still has some nice spots that you could make without all the palm trees and furns etc, this place really is strange, sorta tropical and foresty http://www.nzgreen.org.nz/gfx/images/bush.jpg

Yeah, your YB project looks amazing, that is what started me thinking about whether you just have great imagination or have there been art classes or something like that, to help your creation.

I disagree. A decent traditional art background would probably help in game art development (or modding, pretty much the same thing) a lot. Knowing and understanding anatomy and proportions. at least as a character artist is key. For environment artists I would also think it is rather important. Environment artists are sometimes given the responsibility to create statues, and other sorts of details that require knowledge of human and other animal anatomy.

Aside from understanding anatomy, color theory comes into play a lot when creating textures. Creating textures is not that far removed from painting, especially if you are hand painting the textures in Photoshop or another similar app, and a pen tablet.

There are a lot of things that you could learn and apply to game art from an understanding of traditional art and all the different mediums. The only problem is you need to learn how to use the apps and its tools, which for the most part is pretty easy.






I don't have any formal training, to answer the OP.

Nope! No art special classes here, aside from grade school (watercolors, again?). Took one art class in uni last semester: http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr50/Alaisiagae/Random/Art%20stuff/mobiles_01.jpg. :frog:

Ha, after that long rant, I was certain you were going to say you'd had formal training.

No art classes here. Except for secondary school, but my final piece was a watercolour of bears playing blackjack, so I don't think that counts.

Uhmmm, I have training in Unigraphics (CAE) software, does that count? Oh shoot, engineering modelling does me no good for modding :pout:

As far as art classes; no. Don't have any.

i did art 'O' level at school which was a 2 year course which i failed miserably, i don't mean just failed i mean really couldn't have done worse failed.

One afternoon per week we either drew or painted a picture , usually rubbish uninspiring subjects the teacher had thought up then we would be given an assignment to draw or paint a picture for our homework. There were perhaps twenty kids in my class and each week when our assignments were handed in our teacher would decorate the walls with perhaps 17 or 18 of pieces of homework, there were always one or two that never made the grade and i say in all honesty i don't recall even 1 of my pictures getting posted on the wall , not a single one (not even out of sympathy) made it to the wall over the entire 2 years.

There was just 1 of my paintings the teacher did like, the way she went on about it anyone would have thought i had just painted the Mona Lisa , It was a pencil sketch of a stone, it was more of a doodle than a picture and bad even by my low standards but the teacher loved it, i didn't want to paint it but my teacher insisted that i did , so i painted it in Red , White and Black the colours of my favourite football team (read soccer if you are American) the end result was a mess , i am not being modest at all , it really was bad and i am sure that most people who saw it would agree, but for reasons unknown to me she thought the contrasts were superb and that picture was put in an exhibition in the town library for the benefit ( a term i use very loosely) of the public for several weeks.

When it came to the final exams , predictably there was a list of dull uninspiring subjects for us to choose from , so i recreated the picture of the stone my teacher loved so much and submitted that for assessment, i painted a picture of a stable i think it was and that went as well. At a later date my work was returned , grade 'unclassified' which presumably means the examiner deemed my work as unworthy of the lowest possible mark which dented my ego a bit and shattered any illusions i had of the pope inviting me to repaint the Sistine chapel.

Final tally at the end of the course , 1 masterpiece (in the mind of my teacher only) everything else - undisputed total garbage.

So , speaking as one with no discernible artistic ability and i have got my 'unclassified' 'O' level certificate to prove it , i feel i can say with some degree of authority on this point that you don't actually need artistic talent to make mods of any type for Morrowind. It certainly helps if you are talented and the work of those that are, often shines out head and shoulders above the rest. You can still produce models/textures/landscapes etc to a respectable standard if you take the trouble to learn to use the tools in the various modelling / paint programs and let your computer do the work.

Skills for making mods have all been self leant, painting techniques learnt at school have never been useful to me as i don't hand paint textures, My preference is for making textures from photograhs as photography, photo manipulation , trick photography , special effects etc is something that has interested me since i was a little boy.

One of my undergraduate degrees is in art (a B.F.A. in Ceramics/Sculpture). I am currently working on my M.F.A. (slowly). Having a background in art does help, but it is not necessary for such to be "formal". Most of the art I ever made was self taught til I got to the latter days of my undergrad degrees (as, up til the last two years, I took music classes out the wazoo; even the art classes I took for the major, though, relied on my own knowledge rather than "trained" knowledge from professors). Taking a few GD classes helped with my initial steps into Photo Shop; ultimately, though, it really boils down to the amount of interest one has and the determination to see it through (whether formally or self-guided). The most fun that I have ever had with art rarely ever came from a class room, but the additional education did not "hurt" .

Wish I could export the Daedric Armor to a laser cutter. I've done a tiny bit in SolidWorks many years ago (during my brief stint at engineering college). Is that the sort of modeling you do? It had the Cosmos Motion Simulator (??? not 100% sure on my recollection of the name), it was really cool - you assign materials to your pieces and input force and you can simulate your model's moving parts. I thought it was the bee's knees, I'd never seen a program like that before.

No training and it shows - though I do watch and read imaging tutorials when I can

I have to work around the limitations of not knowing art techniques - and greatly appreciate the work of those who do know what they are doing

The point I was trying to make was that having a background in traditional mediums, painting, drawing, sculpting, and so on can be a big help when attempting to learn digital arts. A lot of the same techniques and junk apply the same to digital art. No formal training is necessary really, though I am sure it wouldn't hurt.