Hi guys,

I've been into digital art (specifically, creating assets for games) for a while now, primarily using 3ds Max and Photoshop, and while I'm proficient with both and quite confident creating relatively simple objects (swords, furniture, etc), I've felt a bit lost lately in developing my skills. Aside from practice, practice and more practice, I figured out that I'm lacking any peers who can give advice, constructive criticism, and encouragement; when I'm unsure how to start a project or don't feel motivated, I tend to feel lost and usually don't get past the idea/concept stage.

Anyway, the purpose of this thread is to ask for recommendations of particularly good 3D communities that might be helpful to an inexperienced, hobbyist modeler/texture artist like myself. I don't need to bombard anyone with questions -- and I'm aware of the many tutorials and textbooks available -- but I feel a constructive forum environment would be much more beneficial.

I did search before creating this thread, but there are so many different communities (presumably all with different user bases and emphasis on different tools) that signing up to dozens of different forums just to see what was what didn't seem very efficient.

Any suggestions, perhaps communities you're already a part of? Thanks!

CGSociety is the obvious choice... but it's so large that it can overwhelm newcomers. :shrug:

3DBuzz has a nice community too, but it's not as active.

Thanks. I guess I'll take a closer look at those two.

I am with Turbosquid, but that's kinda professional looking, and buying, not much critique. Polycount is pretty good, that is based more off of game art, and assets however.

Right now I am mostly on the UDK forums, cause I am making assets for a game. They have a model , programming, character, architect forum and all that however.

I agree with Exorince though, CGSociety has a huge community, but everything in the gallery ( mostly) is amazing professional work, if you stack up, start posting there =D )