@DrPTI Pls look into Color Theory. There are a lot of videos on youtube about it. Wish you luck in your continued research. Best of luck 
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@Jvry I looked through their webpages that present their program and sat through 2+ hours of a recording of a live Q&A on portfolio preparation with prospective students
I think I was pretty clear that I prefer to go in the cinema concentration because I prefer realism and I donât like to make monsters for video games. But if the cinema concentration is full for whatever reason and they got spot in video games concentration, I would accept that too. Maybe Google translate did a poor job.
If the advice is unclear/wrong/inaccurate or the type âyou just suck, go learn the basicsâ, I would obviously try to clear things up or go on defensive. If the advice is reasonable and provide direction to improve, I take them, even if I may say extra stuffs simply for your information.
As for the film/tv industries, and life in general, I donât hold/have any hope or expectations. I will see what I get. What matters to me the most in a job is to work with decent people, they donât need to be great, just decent is enough. The company must not be working toward destroying humanity or promoting demonic stuffs. I donât even expect a top of line pay or even average pay (I know Iâm not worth much with just 5 months and half of experience in a studio that didnât even give sample style/quality to set expectations), I just donât accept minimum pay. Minimum pay is for the non-skilled workers and total lack of respect toward 3D artists. If you can grab anyone on the street to do the job without much training prior or after, you can pay minimum wage. If itâs not something that easy, itâs just plain wrong to pay minimum wage.
For the Abundance piece, I should have made it into a classic S shape composition with the road. I tried to mimic those floral gardens and mixing them with orchards. The flowers colors should have been chosen more according to color theory. But the flower islands are still generally in the rule of third points? The focal point right now is on the bridge which has the brightest red that is most eye-catching. I can indeed add more shadows to accentuate it. However, Iâd like the viewer to behold the complete beauty of the scene as a pure landscape piece.
I can indeed add more DOF. I really thought that the mountains are blurry enough but that doesnât seem to be the case. I also thought that the foam/splashes in the lake are small enough that it didnât need additional blurring, guess that isnât true either. I did forget about the water/mountain contact line.
Again, nowadays the gardens and farms are separate. The idea is that they shouldnât be and nature can be both beautiful and abundant.
I agree the river looks fake. I wasnât satisfied with it either, but it is what is with the time I had. I think that the bridge should be in the well maintained category, how would it look different?
I tried to depict abundance in conjunction with beauty with plenty of fruit trees and vegetables + garden, . How would you depict my idea to make it clearer?
As for the particular school, you can think of their requirements as your usual requirements showing skills and diversity. I do hesitate to completely give the exact school, because of the hate I already garnered here and that in case you missed the story, Iâm pretty sure that the spies (yes, they presented themselves as agents of the country) continue to monitor me because I discovered solid proof of the elites planning to destroy most people and enslave the rest. They canât even hide it because they created a whole experimental city in India to test their slave society. They tried to intimidate and threaten me into silence. I even reported to the different polices and they either donât believe or told me to shut up about it (they didnât even pretend to protect people). But they really didnât need to, since no one cares, wants to know, or can do anything about it.
@sozap I should have posted and asked for feedback here first I guess. Although it is what it is for this time.
Yes, I will put more time into it and change my mindset. I will make a portfolio for others to see, artistic skills and all, and not include anything I donât want to share.
Because the requirements wanted diversity, so I chose diverse subjects, but they are mostly environment/character/prop/cloth (I feel like people forgot that only the base body mesh was bought asset, and I made the rest like cloths and hair and props). To me, one of the holy grail of 3D I want to attain is to cross the uncanny valley (even though I fear it being misused). I just want to make my characters more beautiful and life-like, but not necessarily according to social standards. By that, I mean like, must have facial imperfections. I think that is just nonsense. We finally have a tool to create perfection and yet one must intentionally distort it to make it âbeautifulâ? No thanks. That is part of the reasons why I donât like to show my personal projects.
Anyway, I think my goal aligns mostly with cinema that wants to create illusions of reality.
I would probably be bored to always do rigging. But yes, I do like to be able to move characters. Although, again, I use addons for CC/human characters because itâs really a great time saver. But i can make custom rigs (like for the snail) if the need arises.
If you let me run freely, it will be mostly characters/props/environment. What kind of position best fits that?
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My advice would be to avoid discussing these matters in public. To maximize your chances of getting into schools or securing jobs, itâs best to keep such topics private. Thereâs an appropriate place for these discussions, and thatâs in therapy. I mean this sincerely and with your best interests in mind
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So⊠you may just wait for it ?? Because nothing you write here will change their decision⊠so nobody can help about this. Also when not nameing the school nobody can check their requirements.
And it seems you do not actually have asked for any hints, suggestions or counsel when reading your replies⊠
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For me just a Birds Eye view.
A career choice is a thing that should be taken seriously. Art of any kind is a craft first long before it is a real work of art. That is to say to make great art requires years of hard work on the basic tools of the trade. Accelerated only by oneâs skill and aptitude. Next is the intangible talent.
The main thing is that it is a long range plan. And decisions and actions you take now have to be considered for how it fits into future plans. Even if you donât have a crystal ball, you should be focused on what you do now as to how it will affect your future.
So when I read âtook 2 monthsâ to prep a portfolio for art school, I think that this effort is a completely and utterly inadequate, useless waste of energy.
So I donât personally even see the point of commenting on the work or even the merits of the discussion in general.
Sorry to be so dismissive.
Why or why not it was accepted is also completely a waste of mental energy.
You want to be an artist? Great be an artist. Plenty of resources to help you these days.
Hunker down. Roll up your sleeves, work up a sweat. Make a mess of the art studio and churn out some art.
Art school?
Why not? Go for it.
But be an artist first.
Someone who understands the value of hard work and dedication would scoff at the idea of taking such a short period of time to prep an application.
Unless it was just formulating and collecting years of precious work.
Other applicants or students were not all that?
You think you are better?
Why in gods name would you want to be in that environment?
You want to be in an environment were other students are so good that each day you just want to take your biggest brush and rip holes in your best work and start over.
But you donât.
You finish your work and go to the next one.
Take the inspiration and humility and forge ahead.
You take this hard knocks of life and turn it into something that informs and shapes you into a better version of yourself.
So for me, sorry to be such an ass.
But 2 months to fail an application?
And this is the discussion?
I see that itself as the main problem.
Just figure out who you are and want to be, make a realistic plan and go!
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Diversity is good especially when you begin, but that doesnât mean you canât have a tendency either. Recall that portfolio ? : https://www.artstation.com/maryia_panfilova
There is a tendency for realistic humans, but among all that there is some creatures, animals, some cartoony stuff, some bits of environment, some propsâŠ
Basically the diversity is about your knowledge and your ability to adapt to different situations. The tendency is more about what you like to do best in relation to the industry.
This is a different topic more related to your personal views as an artist, and looking for a job in the entertainment industry is another thing.
Both are completely fine, but you shouldnât mix them up. Keep in mind that generally itâs not the same person that do the design ( all the creative decisions) and the one in charge of doing the final model thatâs going to be used in the movie/game. Including a bit of your personal work in your portfolio is fine but mostly theyâll look for how well you can execute an idea, and they probably wonât care much about that idea in itself. Unless you are a concept artist and then itâs totally the opposite, theyâll care mostly about ideas and they wonât bother much about the execution. Anyway concept art is pretty tough for now you probably should concentrate on being a CG artist and nothing prevent you from getting into concept later in your career.
Well are you more into VFX and basically producing realistic imagery, or into animations like pixar that creates the illusion of life ? Itâs a bit unclear given how itâs formulated.
Well, unless you work on small projects for small companies itâs very unlikely that you would touch all these areas all at once. One team will be in charge of modeling the characters, another will do the texture and shading, another will handle the rigging then itâs hand over to the animation department and so onâŠ
Itâs not always a strict rule, as some company will prefer artist that can do model and textures. Or in the last project I worked people where hired to do character modeling and they end-up working also on the props.
Props and environment are a bit more easy to mix, as a man-made environment is very close to a accumulation of props. So you can always focus on environment building do some extra polish on a few props and showcase them next to the environment.
In the end, if you are into characters try to focus solely on that for a while, obviously youâll have to make your own and avoid using external assets for the most part of your training. Youâll have to learn anatomy, and look into animals and creatures to be complete.
If you are more into props and environment, itâs basically the same routine, avoid using pre-made assets and try to make stuff of similar quality.
You can start to learn video-games techniques : https://www.beyondextent.com/articles/balancing-modularity-and-uniqueness-in-environment-art
As itâs probably a good foundation to latter move on to movies requirements.
Basically, if you are more into environment, itâs ok to use character assets that you didnât make. In the same fashion, if you are more into characters, it make sense to use external environment assets.
But also say you want to focus on characters you can avoid the environment and just model a small part by yourself. kinda like that : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/29ZveB
And if you are into environment, let the environment be the star of the image, and put a character only for reference scale if needed.
All that is obviously about portfolio work that you do in order to find a job. In your personal work you can do whatever you want, and latter in your career the limitation between personal and portfolio work will probably be blurred out to some extent. But in the beginning itâs best to make a really clear separation between the two.
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He already gave us the name of the school. Itâs on the first page of the cover letter publicly available on his artstationâvisible in the previewâwhich he linked us to with the intention we should look it over and read it to diagnose the problem with his admission materials. Iâve also mentioned it twice in the thread, at the time not thinking it was an issue. Any of the âspiesâ he doesnât want having that information will have picked up on it already, so Iâd say the horse has bolted on his reason not to.
Given the question posed in the opening is pretty much âwhy did I fail entry into my school of choiceâ, I think it is important information to share with us, and since we already have the school I thought it natural under the circumstances to go looking for the missing context.
Based on information he has freely given us, I think the course is the Certificate in 3D animation and in digital design. In which case, this is the relevant portfolio and cover letter guidance.
If this is not the correct course, the guidance is still instructive of the types of things a school like this will be looking for, and once Iâve properly processed it Iâll try to give more tailored thoughts on why the school might have rejected the application.
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Read the introductory letter. Thatâs really mostly what you need to know. The level of art skill here is somewhat ancillary.
Iâm not a French-speaker, so this is coming from Google Translate, but hereâs some specific feedback.
Traditional works are encouraged, but optionalâŠ
âEncouraged but optionalâ means you need to do it. Thereâs no traditional work in your portfolio, @DrPTI.
3D animation sequences, rigging exercises, modeling, textures, scenes with different types of lighting, âcomositingâ (integration of elements in a videotape shot beforehand), simulation of effects, etc. Whether youâre a self-taught person or youâve studied 3D, we want to see how far you can go with 3D softwareâŠ
Your portfolio doesnât have any animation, rigging exercises, etc.
You have to answer 2 questions:
1- Why did you choose the NAD School for your further higher education?
2- Explain your interest in the programme (video game O U cinema)You can also talk about:
- Your professional aspirations (example: where would you like to work after the baccalaureate?)
- Your knowledge of the industry
- Your involvement in the artistic/creative environment
- Your favorite artists (any field confused)
- Your favourite art exhibitions
- Etc.
You donât answer the second question at all in your cover letter. You donât mention your knowledge of the industry, your favorite artists, your favorite art exhibitions, or practically anything they ask for. Nor they do ask for any personal stories beyond professional aspirations.
Iâm not convinced that you did much research before applying, since youâve pretty much ignored all of their guidelines. Consider following the instructions youâve been given.
Iâd also add this link: https://www.nad.ca/fr/bac-admission
You need thirteen years of professional experience, if I understand it correctly, to apply to this school, in addition to an existing degree. This isnât something to take lightly.
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The second and third from last in the full portfolio include animation. Unless Iâm looking in the wrong place?
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There are some but itâs a bit buried :
https://charlie979.artstation.com/projects/6N0rx6
https://charlie979.artstation.com/projects/WBoOYE
I think itâs more 13 years of regular school education, while itâs written in French Iâm a bit confused by the Canadian educational system vocabulary.
In france the âbaccalaureatâ is something you validate when youâre ~18, but maybe there itâs different.
Anyway, I still think the main issues are a bit of rush into preparing the portfolio, and more importantly the motivation letter that misses many point they specified and probably include some part they wouldnât expect or would find inappropriate.
Maybe the proper road would have been to write the text in a formal manner and once that text is ok start to illustrate it, maybe by rephrasing some parts. That doesnât seem like an easy exercise âŠ
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@Double_G There are things that canât be avoided. Those experiences are too intense and became part of my core self. Also, for years, I didnât mention my experience in public. But it doesnât help anyone at all. Donât forget that those demonic followers want to destroy EVERYONE, including you and me. You, and everyone else will become victims, if not already in some other way. If I just fear and kept quiet, I know I will be judged for it, and others will just turn 180 degrees and accuse me of being a coward, âwhy you didnât do anything to help me?!â I am not a head of state or military, nor do I have some multinational organization to counter them. The people who are supposed to protect you are not serving you. Iâm practically without social connections whatsoever. So for your and my best interest in the long run, I decided to be totally honest in answering the letter of intent questions.
The ball is in your court now, if you just want âignorance is blissâ, be my guest, just donât blame anyone but yourself when catastrophe hits.
@sozap By the way, I made the rabbit in the Abundance piece (3 copies), but I donât think anyone saw it due to their size and fur pattern:
I could have included more grey renders but decided against it because I expected interference. I didnât want the spies to ruin my portfolio by copying everything and present under someone elseâs name. Grey renders are like the firmer proofs of ownership after all. Speaking of interference, I did lose access to my main email used to contact the school for unclear reason.
Yeah, I will concentrate on being a CG artist for next iteration of portfolio.
I guess the words are used differently in industry, I meant VFX producing realistic imagery. Although I donât mind making cartoon animation if that is what the job calls for (as evidenced by my 2 professional projects). I am open to do either, with just slightly more preference for VFX.
In the small studio I worked for, they just provided the drawings for environment and characters, as well the animation script, I did everything else including modeling (character + props + environments), texture, rigging, lighting, animation, rendering, and compositing (when the scene is too heavy to render in one run).
I see, so I donât need to spend extra time to make finished scenes with detailed and rigged character and environment. I can totally make them separately and showcase them separately. For anatomy, I did a fair amount in college and university classes (although Iâm not good with muscles since most of the live models were old people). and I know how to make animals (or any object) based on reference image from different angles. The rabbit was made that way. I modeled it to be quite animation ready in case I need to rig it in the future.
So, for example, if I make a character piece and used a bought chair that the character sits on, and label it as character art, it wouldnât cause a big scandal? For environment, do I need to make my own grass? leaves? And the number of free texture assets are limited, so I would probably use the same ones that millions others have used, and what about procedural textures? What about HDRI?
@joseph Alright, I shall take note, encouraged but optional means itâs not optional. But itâs so stupid. They are a 3D school, I can make 3D already, Iâm not going there to learn from scratch, and it is not a program to learn from scratch either. Showing them full 3D portfolio is somehow worse?
Your portfolio doesnât have any animation, rigging exercises, etc.
It is this kind of advice that need to keep going defensive because you also didnât look through my portfolio in entirety. I do have a full animation project and grey renders of animated rigged characters, they arenât bought assets either.
I answered the 2nd question: I believe that I was guided to them and I prefer cinema for realism.
-I obviously try to find something in cinema.
-I have worked for a studio and completed a project from start to finish, and got deceived by them. I have tried to do 3D for the average people, and I got taken advantage of. Those are my actual knowledge of the industry.
-My involvement was in the artistic environment is none because I was fiercely rejected for not changing the face of my character when I posted my personal projects.
-I donât have any favorite artists, hence I didnât mention any. I only have favorite arts.
-I donât have favorite art exhibitions, hence I didnât mention any. Ok, I didnât mention in the letter that traditional mediums canât satisfy me.
You arenât looking at the certificate program. It would be for some Ph.D program to require 13 years of professional experience.
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I offer my own two cents on this:
- Nice artwork, there are some nice images in there. However, the composition, lighting, etc is very basic, as other people have pointed out, plus frecuent use of kitbashing.
- Introducing yourself professionally is key. Complaining about demonic interference on your life, saying youâre just passing time till the world ends, etc does not give a good impression. Your goal, presumably, is to convince the school that it would be worthwhile for them to accept you. Show them your success story potential. Not your religious beliefs or past trauma.
- Why do you want to be accepted? Think hard about where you want to go in the future, and how being admitted into this school is the best path to take. If you are sure and have solid reasons, tell the school that. They love it when you show them that they will be pivotal in your life, and when you have big dreams. If you do not have big dreams⊠why do you try to get into an art school?
Just some food for thought 
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Hi,
You can forget this nonsense right away, first without disrespect they can find better artists to steal from, and secondly if they do they wonât last long anyway.
The point of a portfolio is to show your abilities, how can you do a proper work if you fake those abilities ? So forget about people sabotaging themselves and focus on your career instead.
Itâs more important to showcase how the mesh is structured.
Well you should concentrate on VFX and realism then, you can work on both cartoony and realistic stuff but youâll have to spend twice the time to get a good level so itâs better to focus on what you like best.
Yes, I saw that in your portfolio, itâs cool. Thatâs how small studios function and they indeed prefer people being able to do a bit of everything as they canât afford specialists. But unless you really want to work on these kind of low-cost project youâll have to pick a specialty and become really good at that. On the 3 portfolioâs artists I posted previously probably none of them do rigging, animation, lighting or compositing, but they do model pretty well with very different styles.
Again itâs up to you to decide, if you prefer doing a bit of everything then you shouldnât aim for cinema stuff as itâs pretty segmented, but rather corporate video, stuff as you did earlier, or maybe small indie games.
Yeah itâs a good start, but itâs not enough if you want to really use that skill to work in VFX. It lack some details and realism, as long as the anatomical structure beneath the skin.
To be specialized in character /creature/animal creation this is the kind of result you should aim :
or that :
Itâs ok to include what you did in your portfolio especially since the goal is to enter a school, just donât expect that level to be enough once youâre out of school.
Thatâs fine since the most important part is the character, but since itâs easy to model a chair itâs more clever to do it yourself. Keep in mind the context and what is the purpose of that piece :
If itâs for professional work, you should use as much as external assets as you can, as the idea is to save much time and money as possible and focus solely on what needs to be hand made for the project.
If itâs personal work, well you can do whatever you want, to goal is to have fun, and practice what you like best.
If itâs about portfolio / job training, itâs best to showcase as much of your work and show dedication. But at some point if something takes more than a few hours to do and itâs unrelated to your specialty itâs ok to use already made assets. Maybe if you made a character in front of a city you might use some already made buildings, just make sure that the city doesnât steal the show.
Some hardcore artists would probably model everything but if your specialty in on character it would be understandable that you donât.
Well, that depends, the point of the portfolio pieces is to show your skills.
If what a piece says about your skills is just that you know how to scatter already made 3D assets itâs not very useful. It becomes much more interesting if you do them by yourself, especially if your piece is mostly about vegetation.
Now in a piece like this :
Itâs probably fine if the trees where not from the author, as itâs really not the main point of the image. And anyway for tree itâs fine to use generators as itâs tedious to model manually anyway.
But, anyway, it really depends on how much youâd like to impress people that will review your portfolio. Say you use your own tree generator and the result looks great youâll get much more interest than if you didnât do them : Forest Nodes - procedural trees using Geometry Nodes
Then about textures, if your specialty is environment itâs probably fine and expected that you reuse images you find or bought online. Same with HDRI.
Now if you want to become a shading artist itâs obvious that you have to do most of the work, a pro-shading/texture artist : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r9VNn6
Obviously, as an environment artist demonstrating that you know how to create convincing procedural material, or you can photo-shoot your own texture is a great plus, so including a bit of that is ok, but itâs pointless to do everything by yourself. At least once you start to become really good at environment youâll probably become in need of more and more custom textures and youâll naturally get to that as well.
The catch is to understand what you should specialize into and what is relevant with that specialization. Like animation and environment modeling are two very different things so youâll never have to do both at the same time in a standard production environment. So in a pro portfolio, you should include animation if you are a character animator, environment if youâre an environment artist but never both at the same time unless your goal is to do lowcost projects where doing everything is asked.
However, say you are an animator and know some rigging itâs pretty valuable.
Same if you focus on environment and know some procedural shading, lighting and composition.
Anyway, if you focus on one area and study professional artists Iâm sure it will quickly make sense if not already.
Well, I donât completely agree with Joseph here. If itâs optional then it is. But obviously it can add some weight to the decision if there are two similar portfolios. If you donât know how to draw well maybe itâs best to focus on improving your 3D skills as it should prevail in the end. If you can afford to take some drawing class during that year this might be even betterâŠ
Anyway if during the year you get a better understanding of how the industry function, you pick one specialty and improve in that area by studying artists who work in VFX and lastly you make an appropriate letter of introduction Iâm sure youâll get accepted next year.
And anyway, the school should explain to you why you fail right ? Then maybe just listen to their advice 
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Hereâs a silly idea: "take an actual, dramatic (of course) photograph," and try your very best to re-create it. Or maybe, a scene from an interesting-to-you painting.
In fact: something "truly interesting to you."
Plenty of artists have looked at their own desks. (M. C. Escher might have been the very best at it, âback in the lack-of-technology day.â)
Nothing âfantastic,â nothing âabstract,â nothing âpainted.â But also, not necessarily âphotorealistic.â
Create your image. âMake it come to life.â According to you.
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@sozap I think you didnât understand the scenario Iâm talking about. Think like this: if I publish all works with grey renders, and the spies copy and paste them on another portfolio under another name, then the school googles, and sees both portfolios, maybe the school would accuse me of plagiarism. If I didnât post grey renders for everything, I can prove easily that I didnât plagiarize by contesting school decision with grey renders.
Since Google translate sucks, let me tell you what kind of spies Iâm dealing against. I simply linked dots with freely available information on reputable public websites. They sent a stranger to scream the name of world domination organization at me the very next morning after interview. I didnât provoke the person and he wasnât even talking to me at first. It was on a packed public bus and he kept screaming 5 times until I showed that I understood his threat. He did the screaming (although no screaming same things) 2 other times on separate occasions (one time he was also threatening another person to not write a book). Additionally, they sent another person driving a gold color PT Cruiser (which has unique form and very conspicuous) to watch me every morning I went to work, sometimes staying in the car for up to an hour (that one time I was really late for work). Although, he slacked after a while. Other spying attempts include hacking my now defunct smartphone that never had a SIM card. You know itâs hacked when the battery that usually can lasts for 4-5 days gets drained in few hours without running anything on it. I never got a cellphone ever since. They also tried to lure me into wearing a RF recorder under the guise radio station rating survey, they would pay even if I donât listen to any radio. Then, this is ongoing, they rented out a neighboring apartment just to place a camera to record through the window of my bathroom. I suspect it to be a camera because it flashed red a few time when it was first put there. No one lives in that apartment for few years now. And well, Internet. Your tax dollars are being used to cover up their genocidal and anti-humanity plan. You might not be in the same country as me, but unfortunately, they are international, and all the major powers seem to be under their thumb. Many people may not like what I am about to say, but I think the evil world power fits exactly to the biblical prophecy of Daniel, which was referenced by Jesus (the Beast with 10 horns (kings) and a small arrogant horn that pushed out 3 horns (Germany, Italy, Japan). They are scumbags that warrant extra caution especially since I exposed them in my letter of intent. They went after my email this time, I think.
I think itâs still too early for me to decide to specialize in something. Unless I skip school and directly find work. And since the school evaluates diversity, I think I will just make a bit of everything for now.
For the rabbit, I built it for that static scene and I think that level of complexity was enough. Although no one even saw it. The first example you gave looks like a sculpt right? I am not a sculptor because one needs to retopologize the model after anyway. I would rather model it cleanly and make it look like the second example.
Ok, I see for the use of the external assets. I will make separate works for now.
So for trees, using generators is more acceptable than fixed tree assets? as long as itâs not the main subject.
Hmm, shading artist doesnât quite resonate with me, although I know it is important to know how to texture to get realistic results.
For animation, I think the traditional way is to copy the poses from a video frame by frame? or do it without reference. How acceptable is it to retarget existing animation FBX (with or without modifications) or use animation tools such as iClone or AI? for portfolio purposes. I donât have much experience in animation, still hard to gauge how many frames the movements should take as well as the transitional falloffs.
@sundialsvc4 Thanks for the input, but I need to actually making things that are less interesting to me for portfolio, since every time I showed my interests on public forums, it never ended well. I will just make works to show my 3D skills.
I donât have a ton to add, since a lot of people with tons more experience than me already gave some crucial advice, plus this thread has admittedly taken a strange turn with random conspiracy theories and it kind of disturbs me. First of all, seek therapy just so you can have the temperament needed to work in the ultra-high-stress field of VFX work. I was in a similar dark place around 2017 or so, where I couldnât turn off my anxieties about the world at the time, realistic or not, long enough to at least get stuff done or avoid inappropriately bringing up religion and politics to my overly-patient friends at the time. Thankfully people donât seem to take much stock in this artist stereotype anymore, but for a while it seemed like the media celebrated âtortured artists,â you know, the kind of clearly-unwell artists who would genuinely cut off their own ear like Van Gogh did or commit other forms of tragic self-harm based under the assumption that such clinically-depressed individuals would somehow produce more creative works of art that ânormalâ people couldnât possibly achieve. I would argue itâs CRUCIAL to take care of oneâs state of mind and be in a mind-state of pure inspiration, rather than abject fear and paranoia, when creating. Iâm sure many here relate to the struggle of staying motivated to make art after, for one reason or another, seeing some horrible news about a fatal shooting or a war on the news (especially cable news and other cynical outlets that profit off of anger and fear, not the facts). Obviously we canât âescapeâ tragedy and overall misfortune all the time, but Iâve personally found it helps to figure out oneâs priorities so I can better figure out when it is appropriate to be sad or angry and when itâs frankly none of my beeswax, or when not to get âtriggeredâ by ultimately-meaningless gossip and political saber-rattling. For example, I should definitely take a break from art and not push myself too hard when Iâm grieving a recently-deceived family member or petâyou know, stuff that directly affects me. On the other hand, I shouldnât let some simple âhot takeâ opinion that makes me angry ruin my entire day. I can acknowledge the temporary feeling I get from some stranger pushing my buttons, but then let it go and actually do something productive right after, rather than wallow in anger over something that is not an immediate threat to me or really concerns me at all. âRage-Tubersâ in the âCartoon Criticâ community in particular, who thrive off getting people genuinely angry over lousy childrenâs shows or âwokeâ Disney and other meaningless drama, can go take a long walk off a short pierâthere are FAR more important things to occupy your mind, and these sad consequences of YouTubeâs algorithm âgameâ should especially be ignored.
But anyway, hereâs the point I am actually trying to make with this post: if it seems like many of these responses are rude or overly-blunt, then Iâm sorry, but at least in my personal experience on projects big and small, you need to develop a thick skin for constant criticisms in the industry to make your work the best it can be, as well as develop the humility to not constantly fight against veteran artists and project leads who, quite frankly, DO know what works and what doesnât in any given project, simply because they have more industry and general life experience than the employee not in the leadership opinions. Do even the most celebrated art directors and producers make mistakes that ultimately result in a bad movie or video game? Of course, they are human like the rest of us, but Iâve learned that I can learn a lot even on failed or misguided projects so that I can do much better in the next project and develop crucial fundamental skills and âsoftâ social skills in the meantime that will not only give me a better âartistâs eye,â but become easier to work with in general.
Richard Williams said in The Animatorâs Survival Kit that the golden rule of any creative industry is âwhoever has the gold makes the rules,â meaning if you are not the one directing, writing, funding or producing the story, then itâs really not your responsibility to decide (or argue with those that do decide) how the product ultimately turns out. Your assignment is your responsibility, and you have to make it to the director or art directorâs exact specifications, not what you think would look better in your opinion. And especially when you first start out, you WILL endure harsh criticism and be forced to trash weeksâ worth of work until you finally make the asset or shot exactly as how the showrunner wants it from you and all the other artists. You can have more creative freedom when working on solo hobbyist projects or if you work your way up to directing entire productions, but otherwise you need thick skin and humility to work on any creative industry project at all.
An example of the blunt feedback that one just has to embrace and accept in this field is something that happened to me in a class in college, when I was first learning 2D animation in Toon Boom Harmony. The assignment was a basic âbouncing ballâ animation. The professor showed me one way of doing it, but I decided to do it in a different, letâs say âlooserâ way inspired by one of my favorite childhood cartoons, Ed Edd nâ Eddy. I uploaded it to the professorâs computer and he showed it to my class, then he quietly dragged my animation file to his desktop Recycle Bin, then chose âEmpty Recycle Binâ to permanently delete the file, then told me to do it again the way he showed it (using the Ellipse tool to draw the ball instead of drawing wobbly, purely-hand-drawn blobs). Besides teaching me what kind of criticism I needed to be able to handle if I really wanted to pursue this career, this particular class assignment taught me that, unless Iâm the lead art director or showrunner of the entire project, I need to put my ego to the side and make something consistent with the projectâs overall art style. Itâs a job I do for others, like everything other career in existence, and I needed to be fine with that. Hopefully you will learn to be fine with that, too, if you want to get into this school and into a bigger-budget studio production at some point.
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Iâm going to close this thread now- I think all the possible feedback has been given, and itâs not like OP is taking it anyway. No to mention, all the conspiracy theories arenât appropriate for this site, and this just seems to be heading in a bad direction overall. @DrPTI , youâve been given excellent advice by professionals. Take it or leave it. Good luck.
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