I wouldn’t have guessed it would come to this. It is a little bittersweet, because 3D is an artform that I love to own and have as part of my identity. I’ve been 3D modeling since late 2015, so 7 years. But I think 2D is what I’d like to do, moving forward.

Here are my reasons why:

1. Seeing Something New

The thing that motivates me to make art is to see something new, whether it’s a new character, a new art piece, even a new version of how my character looks. Because 3D takes so long, I wouldn’t be getting as much of the new, especially new OCs. Making new OCs excites me, and it’s so much easier to crank them out in 2D.

And going back to what I said about “a new version of how my character looks,” in 2D, whenever I draw one of my OCs, they come out slightly different from submission to submission, whether it’s the distance between their eyes, the size of their ears, the length of their mouth, details like that. I love that. However, in 3D, since it’s always the same model, my OCs will always look the same (unless I adjust them like I did with Plummet’s 3D head, but that takes a while, and it’s not from piece to piece). The only parts I really change with the rig is their pose and expression, which isn’t so fun for me.

2.Character Expressions

With 2D, man, the expressions are so raw. Whenever I draw my OCs in 2D with their expressions, I get this amazing release. With 3D, I feel like the expressions are watered down, and I don’t get as much of an emotional takeaway.

It’s not that 3D is incapable of raw, amazing expressions; look at what feature animations studios have done, like Pixar. However, to pull off those expressions, that takes some serious modeling and rigging which demands a high technical ability. Admittedly, it’s possible for me to learn those kinds of techniques. Nevertheless, a huge part of art, especially building up a portfolio, is knowing how to choose your battles. Yeah, it really could take me years, even decades to learn all of the subtleties when it comes to character facial rigging. And since my OCs aren’t humans, there is far less information out there on how to do it.

3. Split Goals

I’ve realized that over the time of me splitting my artwork between 3D and 2D has made me not get the full potential of either. In essence, I’d like to pick just one, go HARD in that direction, and see what levels I may accomplish, as high as they may be.

It was picking either 3D or 2D, and I’m going with 2D. It’s the new OCs. I want tons of them.

4. Print Design

What I really love about vector art is that it has huge advantages when it comes to print design. Because vector art doesn’t use pixels, you could print these works to any size without losing quality. I’ve printed some of my 2D pieces before, and they look amazing. This is something I’d like to pursue for the future: printing my works on paper, and even puzzles and T-shirts.

5. My Maya Subscription Expiring

Because of the new year, and Autodesk’s changed policies, I can’t get Maya for free.

Honestly, this is the smallest reason for me wanting to discontinue my 3D work, because I have alternatives: I could pay for Maya or switch to Blender. In fact, if I were to continue my 3D work, I would definitely use Blender. But sadly, because of the above reasons, already I was leaning towards doing 2D as my line of work, and this huge 3D program change is the icing on the cake for my decision.

Conclusion

Despite everything I’ve outlined, it’s not like I’m completely banning myself from doing 3D ever again; I could change my mind and come back to it. However, I have pretty good idea of what my future art is going to look like. Most likely, the last bit of 3D you will see from me is in my background designs. Like, say if the background is a city, I’d just model it in 3D and trace it over in 2D. But, that’s about it.

Overall, I’m drifting away from 3D, which is a new, beautiful transition for my artistic journey.

See you all in 2023. For some reason, that number looks so futuristic to me. Happy New Year!