Greg the Artist
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IMPORTANT LINKS Take the pre-test Download the concept development document COURSE BOOKS Check your course syllabus before purchasing books since the requirements for each course vary. Glory of Yore RPG Toonzy! the Cartoon Role Playing Game book or in free PDF format Getting Started in ZBrush Developing Creative Content for Games The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals Universal Principles of Design SCAD INFO SCAD website SCAD Academic Catalog SCAD Course Catalog SCAD Events Calendar SUGGESTED COURSES For digital artists there is simply no substitute for knowing proper anatomy, understanding scripting, and being able to polish your work. It is the difference between getting a job as a modeler or not. Ignore these classes at your own risk. You may need to take prerequisite classes or get a waiver of prerequisite to register for these classes. Make sure that you check the latest SCAD course catalog as the names and course prerequisites of classes can change. SEQA 352 Constructive Human Anatomy for Sequential Art VSFX 160 Introduction to Visual Effects Programming VSFX 311 Digital Materials and Textures VSFX 312 Advanced Application Scripting VSFX 316 Digital Lighting and Rendering For environment artists it is a good idea to take a few architectural history courses and get to know various architectural forms. Especially since you'll be modeling these anyways. Here's a list of some of the most relevant classes. The ARLH classes count as art history electives! ARLH 208 Modern Architecture After 1900 ARLH 236 Renaissance and Baroque Architecture ARLH 321 Ancient Architecture in Context ARLH 323 Medieval Architecture in Context ARLH 325 Islamic Art and Architecture ARLH 344 African Art and Architecture ARLH 355 Gothic Art and Architecture ARLH 376 Historical Virtual Environments For game designers and writers it pays to hone your writing skills. Look into writing classes in the following majors and minors: DRAMATIC WRITING FILM SEQA WRITING Remember to email the professor teaching any class you are interested in in order to ask them about the class and whether or not it would be appropriate to your needs. PORTFOLIOS You need to have an online portfolio. You can either purchase a web domain and hosting from an online vendor such as GoDaddy or use a free portfolio host such as ArtStation. Your portfolio should be focused on the primary skill that you are excellent at and a secondary skill that you are pretty good at. It is critical to show how work looks inside the game engine. How the work looks inside Zbrush, Substance Painter, 3ds Max, or Maya simply doesn't matter. Renders are easy, but showing art in the game engine is not. You need to demonstrate your knowledge of the entire pipeline. Demo reels work best for animators and effects artists. Static images (JPG) work better than a demo reel for showing off modeling work. They load faster and are easier to browse through than a demo reel. Put something original into your portfolio, bring something new to the table, and show unique work that highlights your creativity. Try taking two things you know and combining them in an unexpected way. Show work that highlights the research you have done into your subject matter and that demonstrates thorough attention to detail. While fan art isn't forbidden, it serves your portfolio much better to include personal projects instead. When evaluating your work, don't compare your work to other students; compare yourself to professionals in your chosen specialty instead. That is your competition. Remember, it is quality over quantity that matters. You are only as good as your worst piece. There should be an even level of quality to the work you choose to display. Work that shows an uneven degree of refinement, detail, or design serves as a reason not to hire you. It is better to show a handful of excellent pieces over a dozen pieces of uneven quality. While you need to develop and maintain your drawing skills through figure or vehicle work, you don't need to show this work on your portfolio site. It can sometimes help to have a development blog on Instagram, Tumblr, or elsewhere. If you do so, you need to make it very clear what each piece of work is there for. Clearly label and explain when you are learning a new process or trying something outside of your comfort zone, and explain yourself when you think something is good. Show how you self-edit your work down into your curated portfolio. If you choose to have a development blog or multiple websites hosting your portfolio, it is critical to keep the content on all of these sites up to date and relevant. Finally, you need to be super motivated and willing to accept any position to get your foot in the door. Remember that saying yes opens new doors, saying no closes them. FORUMS Z-Brush Central Polycount Forum AutoDesk forums Adobe Photoshop forums LINKS 3d.sk, a great anatomy and reference pay site Anatomy resource. Archive.org, a wonderful free resource CIA World Fact Book Covert Shores Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Draw.io Game Developer Hypertext d20 SRD Internet Archive's magazine rack ODIN Worldwide Equipment Guide Omniglot - online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages Phy's deep sea pages Pop mechanics military news Science Daily Sci News Shaolin Kung Fu weapon: meteor hammer video Species New to Science TV Tropes GAME RESOURCES Glory of Yore: Fantasy Role Playing in the World of King Arthur Toonzy! the Cartoon Role Playing Game Game pitch archive (archived) Call of Cthulhu Classic Runequest GURPS Marvel Super Heroes D&D 3.5 SRD OSRIC Basic Fantasy Microlite Mini-Six SAMPLE ADVENTURES B3 Palace of the Silver Princess L1 Secret of Bone Hill L2 The Assassin's Knot N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God Quest for the Silver Sword T1 Village of Hommlet U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh U2 Danger at Dunwater UK5 Eye of the Serpent FICTION WRITING RESOURCES World Builders (archived), a very organized site for step-by-step building a world. Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions by Patricia C. Wrede. Speculative Literature, contains creative writing resources. Language construction kit Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. The Internet Sacred Texts Archive, for developing your own fantasy religion Diagrams.net, a very useful diagram and chart making web app DRAWING RESOURCES DC cartoon archive (archived) How to critique Design method Design process Keeping a sketchbook digital drawing tutorials (archived) human pose app human proportions how to draw proportions how to draw people figure drawing color theory in depth color scheme designer copyright basics RESUME RESOURCES Read an introduction to using Microsoft Word How to use email Download a copy of my CV ACROBAT RESOURCES How to create a PDF Read an introduction to Adobe Acrobat WEBSITE RESOURCES Advice: Make sure that your web presence always reflects positively on you. Never post or tweet anything that could be considered a detraction from yourself. Your personal and professional space now overlap and will affect each other. Set up your art portfolio here Get a web domain from GoDaddy.com Download the example website View the notes for the website Photoshop for the web Making your own portfolio web page Design a website with photoshop ILLUSTRATOR RESOURCES Download the first set of Illustrator notes. Download the business card template Download the second set of Illustrator notes. Download additional notes on Illustrator. How to capture a screenshot. Understanding spot color. Official Adobe Support website Some Illustrator cartooon character tutorials PHOTOSHOP RESOURCES Download an introduction to Adobe Photohop. How to use photohop's palettes. Notes on scanning a greyscale or color file. Notes on scanning lineart. Download the notes for photohop's brushes. Official Adobe Photoshop tutorials Official Adobe Creative Cloud resources AFTER EFFECTS RESOURCES View the notes Official AE User Guide 3DSMAX AND MAYA RESOURCES Download the reference grid image Download another variant grid image Official Autodesk learning resources. Polycount.com's WIKI Maya Learning Channel on Youtube 3D & Motion Graphics tutorials A guide to fish. 3d Glossary and terminology Maya Support from Autodesk. Baking lights and creating dirt maps in 3dsMax, from 3D World. A great tutorial for weathering a model train. Examples of character modeling and reference pictures Download the facial poly-regions image The classic Joan of Arc character modeling tutorial (archive) Video on modeling a face Video on modeling an ear Video on modeling a hand Maya tutorials Ben Mathis's 3d tutorial site A character modeling tutorial FBX converter Fixing maya's texture memory errors when rendering a file 3d Glossary and terminology Creating perfect skin Creating a face Anatomy for 3d artists Light and Color for 3d ZBRUSH RESOURCES ZBrush Central - Forum for tutorials, questions, and artwork. ZBrush tutorials forum. ZBrush official help material. ZClassroom - video tutorials beginning with extreme ZBrush basics and building to more advanced topics. Concept sculpting technique ZBrush Alpha pack. Scuplting in ZBrush ZBrush wire technique PROGRAMMING RESOURCES DOS Microsoft explains Windows/DOS file paths Microsoft Guide to Ms DOS 6 Wikipedia's list of DOS commands Linux Cygwin, a very useful Linux emulator for learning the basics of shell programming. Bash manual in PDF format Bash programming - Introduction and how-to Bash Guide for Beginners Bash in depth The Learn Shell interactive Shell Programming tutorial Bash scripting cheatsheet HTML & CSS Get the official W3C notes for HTML 4.01 W3C the official getting started with HTML guide W3C: CSS and HTML tutorial W3 Schools online tutorials Read the Bare Bones Guide to HTML A detailed HTML overview Mozilla Developer Network: Introduction to HTML Website Setup: HMTL beginner tutorial Meta Tags: Meta tags code generator JAVASCRIPT Learn JS: Learn JavaScript JavaScript Official Site: Try JavaScript University of Idaho, JavaScript quick reference card PDF Python Make sure that you are learning Python version 3.10 if you want it to work with Maya. Using Python in Maya Python: Tutorials Practice Python: Beginner Python exercises --> Further Reading CodeConquest: Free Code Tutorials MIT Open Courseware Reddit's learn programming subreddit Youtube's Learn Code:academy Youtube's Google Developers Youtube's Android Developers Youtube's the Coding Train WRITING and LANGUAGE RESOURCES The 1912 New Websterian Dictionary for clear word meanings. Purdue's MLA writing style and citation guide Grammarly can help your writing INFLUENTIAL COMMERCIAL ARTISTS Simon Bisley Tony Diterlizzi Chris Foss Frank Frazetta Jack Kirby Syd Mead Alex Ross Michael Whelan HELPFUL MISCELLANEA SCAD Course Descriptions 6x6 art show Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists SUGGESTED READING LIST Project Gutenberg - an online source of free books Project Gutenberg Australia - with more Scifi and Fantasy Critical non-fiction books: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell Deadly Powers: Animal Predators and the Mythic Imagination by Paul trout Film Directing Shot by Shot by Steve Katz The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer Writer's Guide to Character Traits - Dr. Linda Edelstein Color and Light - James Gurney Imaginative Realism - James Gurney Anything by Andrew Loomis How to Paint Citadel Miniatures - Games Workshop 1912 dictionary Reading list of fantasy and science fiction authors: Wikipedia Category: Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel Nebula Award for Best Novel winners Wikipedia list of joint winners of the Hugo and Nebula awards Wikipedia list of science fiction authors Wikipedia list of fantasy authors Critical scifi reads: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams Watership Down - Richard Adams The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov The Mists Of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury A Princess of Mars - E.R. Burroughs Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick Neuromancer - William Gibson The Forever War - Joe Haldeman Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein The Dune Chronicles - Frank Herbert The Conan The Barbarian Series - Robert E. Howard Brave New World - Aldous Huxley The Left Hand Of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin The Complete Fiction - H.P. Lovecraft I Am Legend - R. Matheson A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr. The Elric Saga - Michael Moorcock Ringworld - Larry Niven Animal Farm - Orwell Small Gods - Terry Pratchett Anthem - Ayn Rand The Lord Of The Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - Jules Verne Journey To The Center Of The Earth - Jules Verne Slan - A.E. van Vogt Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut The Lords of Dus series - Lawrence Watt-Evans The Time Machine - H.G. Wells War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells The Once And Future King - T.H. White The Amber Chronicles - Roger Zelazny MOVIES & TELEVISION WATCH LIST Horror They Live (1988) Re-Animator (1985) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) The Thing (1982) The Shining (1980) Alien (1979) Carrie (1976) The Exorcist (1973) Night of the Living Dead (1968) Gojira (1956) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Dracula (1931) Nosferatu (1922) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) The Godfather (1972) Bonnie & Clyde (1967) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) North by Northwest (1959) Vertigo (1958) The African Queen (1951) Casablanca (1942) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Gone with the Wind (1939) Potemkin (1925) SciFi V for Vendetta (2006) Minority Report (2002) The Matrix (1999) The Fifth Element (1997) City of Lost Children (1995) Total Recall (1990) Predator (1987) RoboCop (1987) Aliens (1986) Back to the Future (1985) Brazil (1985) The Terminator (1984) Repo Man (1984) Blade Runner (1982) Star Wars - A New Hope (1977) Logan's Run (1976) A Clockwork Orange (1971) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Star Trek (TV show, 1966–69) The Time Machine (1960) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Forbidden Planet (1956) The War of the Worlds (1953) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) When Worlds Collide (1951) The Shape of Things to Come (1936) Metropolis (1927) Action Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) 300 (2006) Kung Fu Hustle (2005) Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) Black Hawk Down (2001) Gladiator (2000) Léon: The Professional (1994) Die Hard (1988) Predator (1987) Lethal Weapon (1987) Robocop (1987) Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Commando (1985) Ran (1985) Escape from New York (1981) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) Mad Max (1979) Apocalypse Now (1979) Death Wish (1974) The Four Musketeers (1974) The Three Musketeers (1973) Dirty Harry (1971) Kelly's Heroes (1970) Bullitt (1968) Where Eagles Dare (1968) The Dirty Dozen (1967) Goldfinger (1964) From Russia With Love (1964) Dr. No (1962) Spartacus (1960) Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) (1954) Western Unforgiven (1992) The Wild Bunch (1969) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) The War Wagon (1967) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) For a Few Dollars More (1965) A Fistful of Dollars (1964) The Searchers (1956) Shane (1953) High Noon (1952) Red River (1948) Stagecoach (1939) Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) Fantasy Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Hellboy (2004) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) The Princess Bride (1987) Highlander (1986) Ghostbusters (1984) Conan the Barbarian (1982) Time Bandits (1981) Superman (1978) Wizards (1977) The Land That Time Forgot (1975) Fantastic Planet (1973) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) Jason and the Argonauts (1963) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) The Seventh Seal (1957) The Thief of Bagdad (1940) The Wizard of Oz (1939) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) King Kong (1933) Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) The Lost World (1925) Comedy Army of Darkness (1992) Evil Dead II (1987) The Blues Brothers (1980) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Blazing Saddles (1974) Young Frankenstein (1974) Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Some Like It Hot (1959) The Great Dictator (1940) Bringing up Baby (1938) Duck Soup (1933) The Three Stooges (shorts, 1930-1950) The General (1926) Cartoon The Venture Bros. (2003-) SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-) The Tick (1994-1996) Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95) Ren & Stimpy (1991-1995) The Simpsons (1989-) Thundarr the Barbarian (1980–81) Scooby-Doo (1969-1970) Jonny Quest (1964-1965) The Flintstones (1960-66) Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show (1959-64) Fleischer Superman (1941-1943) Tom and Jerry (1940-1958) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Looney Tunes (1933-1960) Steamboat Willie (1928) Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) Cult Hell comes to Frog Town (1988) Man on Fire (1987) the Italian version Pulgasari (1985) Zardoz (1974) Hercules Unchained (1959) Les visiteurs (1993) MST3K Episode 422 "Kalevala" Bubba Hotep (2002) Master of the World (1961) My Name is Bruce (2007) The Day of the Triffids (1963) Five Million Years to Earth (1967) The Adventures of Brisco County Junior (1993) Jack of All Trades (2000) Any "Hammer" films Plus anything from these Directors Kathryn Ann Bigelow Cecil B. DeMille John Ford Terry Gilliam Alfred Hitchcock John Huston Stanley Kubrick Akira Kurosawa Sergio Leone Hayao Miyazaki Leni Riefenstahl Martin Scorsese Steven Spielberg Quentin Tarantino Billy Wilder Cheers and good luck in your classes! |
