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3 Ways Early 3d Digital Art Makes You Go Crazy!3d digital art has its drawbacks and learning curve. They can be an overwhelming disadvantage to any beginners of digital art.However, wen you start digital art in the first place, there are two routes that you can go through: 2d and 3d. For me and for you, the best route for the beginner is 2d! Why? Before I explain why, I want you to know that I have nothing against 3d digital art at all. In fact, having some experience in it, I know you are able to create some of the most convincing realistic images ever! So why would I heavily endorse painting realistically as the proper way to learn digital art when 3d is the way to go to create realistic images? You see, that is precisely one of the three drawbacks: 1. It creates 3d space for you!Let me explain the conflict using the simple analogy of learning math. I’m sure you have gone through the school system enough to realize that it is a subject that must be taught because of its importance in our society. Do you remember how you learned that one plus one equals two? Yeah, that was the easy life, indeed! But somehow along your learning, began to work on mathematical formulas. Eventually, you even begin to depend on those formulas! The prime example of the jump from simple arithmetic to complex arithmetic came with learning the triangle through the formula of a^2 + b^2 = c^3. All of a sudden, everything in math can be replaced by learning the right formulas! Honestly, what the heck is that! If the teacher has taught you how the theorem works, then all is good. If you don’t know how the theory works, there is no need to worry as I bet you that the teacher that taught it to you didn’t even know how it works! Let me explain how it works. I want you to draw a grid of 12 squares in the configuration of 3 x 4 inches. After you have drawn the grid, outline two of the four sides of the grid. Then, draw a diagonal line to form a triangle in the process. The sides with the outline should have 3 inches measured out from the grid while the other side should have 4. Square those numbers so it reads 9 and 16 respectively. Now I want you to add 9 and 16. What do you get? That’s right! You get 25! Then you do the square root of 25 and what do you get? Yep! 5! Coincidentally, this number is also the length of the diagonal in the original diagram! Being a student teacher for a while, it’s a shame that the school system failed to teach you the purpose of having these formulas (but my life as a student teacher is another story all together). Anyway, before I almost go off topic, I needed you to understand the analogy that going the 3d digital art route this early on is just like learning only the formula! How far do you think you can get through in life blindly only knowing process without understanding the reasons behind the process? Not very far, I can tell you that! At the same time, it leads to the second problem of 3d digital art: 2. It is too dependent on the tools!Just as you learn a new formula to a new set of questions, you will need to learn the tools that will give you specific 3d effects. Some tools that come with the 3d digital art program will allow you to do it. Let’s give an example of the lighting effect.Just as you learn how to apply the formula to a math question by plugging the numbers in, you are learning to apply the lighting effects to your 3d art piece by letting the computer calculate every source of light involved in that rendering. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? Well, nothing really bad will happen if you plug in the right numbers to the formula. However, what will happen if you plug in the wrong numbers? Precisely! You get a distorted answer. It is the same with the art program if you depend on it to much without understanding how the lighting effects work. Moreover, as it is dependent on a tool, what if one tool can do the effect better than the one you are using? The logical answer is to use the better tool to give the best effect. For that, then you need to make purchases beyond your 3d program. One side note: although most 3d digital art programs are costly, there an exception. You can try out and use Blender 3d for free as it is an open source program. But even though you have the programs to create superior effects, there’s the issue of putting it all together. That’s one nightmare that most 3d digital artists deal with: rendering time! Everything you do in a 3d environment needs to be rendered once everything is established correctly. It may take (depending on the complexity) minutes, hours, days, weeks, and even months for the finished product to surface! Picture this: you see your favorite 3d digital art animation in movies and you just want to learn how to do it. You take the necessary classes and found a job with animation studio. You work with a team of dedicated animators who render the scenes. Once everything is done, your manager tells you to go home. Why? Because you need to let the computers run overnight to render the scenes! Go ahead and look at the various stats for complex rendering and animation. You’d be surprised by the numbers! Basically, even if you have the patience for it, your computer might not. The question then becomes: what will you learn in the meantime? If all you’re doing is waiting for the computer, what opportunities are there for learning? Does that mean that the richer someone is, the more they will learn because they can ‘afford’ those artistic skills? Remember, you are still learning the formula and not the theory at all if you go this route early on. Let’s admit it; you’re here because you want to learn how to do digital art. Although I’m here to teach you, I don’t expect you to go buying everything you need to get into this artistic field! To me, that will mean you’re not activating your skills at all. In fact, you’re going to do yourself a huge disfavor by becoming dependent on the tools rather than yourself! Just relax and learn the fundamentals of realistic drawing as that will lead into my final argument: 3. 3d digital art requires knowledge in 2d!Before any special effects and even before you begin anything in a 3d program, you need to create the object. For instance, if you need to create a screwdriver in 3d, where would you start? First of all, you need to figure out which shapes constitute the handle and what shapes make up the head. Then after all of that, you need to decide which effects to use to bring it to life. Basically, if you had to create the screwdriver from the 3d program, it would take you hours and hours of trial and error trying to understand what shapes is needed! Wouldn’t it be better if you did a 2d blue print on a scrap piece of paper? That’s what I’m getting at! For every 3d digital artwork, there is always a 2d approach to it! Every professional graphic artists use storyboards and drawing to figure out what needs to be rendered before anything is done! The conclusion? Although 2d digital art requires a tool, costs some money, and takes some rendering time, it does not go to the extreme ends like 3d digital art! You will find that, by going through the 2d realistic route, the program becomes an extension of your abilities rather than the other way around. Moreover, beginners and experts alike should always have a 2d background before starting any form of 3d digital art. It is up to you which areas you want to branch to. But you need to learn 2d first and learn it properly well! Remember to keep motivated!
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