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I need help.
2 years ago
Libra Labs Update! I am sorry for the click baity title. It's not an emergency, but it's more like I don't know where to ask. I feel like I've reached a place where I need a boost to keep going. I don't know, I've been stuck for a long time and feel frustrated. I know it is bad to compare myself to others...but the frustration is there. What am I doing wrong where others are succeeding? I don't know if it's a good idea to open up about my insecurities here, but I don't know where else to turn. I have asked other artists about this, but they are either busy most of the time, or at worst just ignore me. I am hoping to find someone who can help me and give me a clear direction on how to do the following. I know there are tutorials out there, but I've had the worst luck finding good or relevant tutorials that could help.
Animation: I have animated in the past but those are like... baby's first animation and I haven't had time to practice too much before I've hit walls all over the place. I have used Open Toons, but mostly use Clip Studio EX. I would love to learn to bring my art to life and learning to animate would provide a new stream of commissions and content. I have found tutorials on how to animate, but their menus and interfaces are wildly different than the one I use as well as not being able to ask questions either. My biggest problem is not being able to ask the right questions. Another thing that I would love to learn is to animate still images like this If you know how or know anyone that is willing to teach me, please do let me know!
Blender: I have used Blender before but other than navigate and move around I can't do much. I have friends that I have both commissioned and done trades for blender models for me. For example The Zippers Restaurant Blender map that I use for backgrounds. What I need is how to make renders, right now I can move about and use screenshots for backgrounds. I'm working on projects that I'll need full renders for backgrounds. However, I don't know how to use or move the camera itself and other than View + Navigate and Walk function, there's not much I can do. I have used tutorials, but there are wildly different than the version I use and the menus being different as well making the use of Blender moot, I could really use the help. >w<
3D modeling: Why did you make this its own thing, you can use Blender for this, right? Yes and no, like I said before I have tried to use blender in the past, but it was extremely difficult for me. The tutorials I used had a totally different set up than the one I was using for blender so finding the right set of menus was very hard. Trying to do anything involved going to the edit menu, go to the navigation sub menus, press alt + shift+ F3, then go to view, look for grids then turn the setting to 4 and then go back to window press I+D+10+T and then go back to start, go to preferences and look for the green moose, guava juice, giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, chocolate shake to move the camera to the left. I would love to learn how to do this: I would love to make 3D models of my OCs maybe making a Zippers VR restaurant.
SFM: I would like to use it for background renders. There's assets that just wont work for Gmod and there's a whole world of SFM assets that I would like to put into use to make custom maps to use for comics and commissions. I would also like to know how to keep my custom maps saved. I know that steam liked to randomly delete them.
Hammer ++: I got Hammer ++ installed but I can't make head or tails of the software, there's only a handful of tutorials, however most of them are incomplete and most of them are how to install the software. I would love to learn how to make my own custom gmod maps to use as background and locations to have everything as consistent as possible!
Gmod: I have been using Gmod for a month now, however Steam likes to delete maps and assets, making a lot of my custom saves useless. I'm annoyed that some maps are basically useless due to the error messages spamming the whole map. I would like to learn how to keep the assets and maps safe from deletion or maybe how to keep everything saved locally on my PC? I hate that anytime I open my specialty maps that I use for other projects are just gone.
Banking: Well... I'm just worried and I feel like I've fallen into the propaganda in the past. However, I would like to either avoid or go around p@yp@l. I would like to not use a 3 party payment processor and not worry about using my ability to make income. I know I'm not the only one worried. I recently tried to apply for a business bank account, but that's still an ongoing process. However, if anyone has dealt with this or know how to navigate the system to get around 3rd party payment processors. Please let me know.
Patreon: I feel like I've reached a plateau there, I'd love to have more patrons join, but I feel like the number fluctuates and doesn't grow beyond a certain number. I have a new tier system, the old one was very complicated. The new one is easier to use and follow and less stressful for me. However, my patron count doesn't seem to be growing. Am I not doing something right or am I doing something wrong? I've tried asking other artists, but... it really hasn't helped. If you can suggest any ideas or anything that would help my follower count grow, it would really help. I feel like I'm missing the forest through the trees with his one and not seeing the obvious.
If you or someone you know can help, please let me know, every little bit of knowledge helps. Thanks for your time! <3
Animation: I have animated in the past but those are like... baby's first animation and I haven't had time to practice too much before I've hit walls all over the place. I have used Open Toons, but mostly use Clip Studio EX. I would love to learn to bring my art to life and learning to animate would provide a new stream of commissions and content. I have found tutorials on how to animate, but their menus and interfaces are wildly different than the one I use as well as not being able to ask questions either. My biggest problem is not being able to ask the right questions. Another thing that I would love to learn is to animate still images like this If you know how or know anyone that is willing to teach me, please do let me know!
Blender: I have used Blender before but other than navigate and move around I can't do much. I have friends that I have both commissioned and done trades for blender models for me. For example The Zippers Restaurant Blender map that I use for backgrounds. What I need is how to make renders, right now I can move about and use screenshots for backgrounds. I'm working on projects that I'll need full renders for backgrounds. However, I don't know how to use or move the camera itself and other than View + Navigate and Walk function, there's not much I can do. I have used tutorials, but there are wildly different than the version I use and the menus being different as well making the use of Blender moot, I could really use the help. >w<
3D modeling: Why did you make this its own thing, you can use Blender for this, right? Yes and no, like I said before I have tried to use blender in the past, but it was extremely difficult for me. The tutorials I used had a totally different set up than the one I was using for blender so finding the right set of menus was very hard. Trying to do anything involved going to the edit menu, go to the navigation sub menus, press alt + shift+ F3, then go to view, look for grids then turn the setting to 4 and then go back to window press I+D+10+T and then go back to start, go to preferences and look for the green moose, guava juice, giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, chocolate shake to move the camera to the left. I would love to learn how to do this: I would love to make 3D models of my OCs maybe making a Zippers VR restaurant.
SFM: I would like to use it for background renders. There's assets that just wont work for Gmod and there's a whole world of SFM assets that I would like to put into use to make custom maps to use for comics and commissions. I would also like to know how to keep my custom maps saved. I know that steam liked to randomly delete them.
Hammer ++: I got Hammer ++ installed but I can't make head or tails of the software, there's only a handful of tutorials, however most of them are incomplete and most of them are how to install the software. I would love to learn how to make my own custom gmod maps to use as background and locations to have everything as consistent as possible!
Gmod: I have been using Gmod for a month now, however Steam likes to delete maps and assets, making a lot of my custom saves useless. I'm annoyed that some maps are basically useless due to the error messages spamming the whole map. I would like to learn how to keep the assets and maps safe from deletion or maybe how to keep everything saved locally on my PC? I hate that anytime I open my specialty maps that I use for other projects are just gone.
Banking: Well... I'm just worried and I feel like I've fallen into the propaganda in the past. However, I would like to either avoid or go around p@yp@l. I would like to not use a 3 party payment processor and not worry about using my ability to make income. I know I'm not the only one worried. I recently tried to apply for a business bank account, but that's still an ongoing process. However, if anyone has dealt with this or know how to navigate the system to get around 3rd party payment processors. Please let me know.
Patreon: I feel like I've reached a plateau there, I'd love to have more patrons join, but I feel like the number fluctuates and doesn't grow beyond a certain number. I have a new tier system, the old one was very complicated. The new one is easier to use and follow and less stressful for me. However, my patron count doesn't seem to be growing. Am I not doing something right or am I doing something wrong? I've tried asking other artists, but... it really hasn't helped. If you can suggest any ideas or anything that would help my follower count grow, it would really help. I feel like I'm missing the forest through the trees with his one and not seeing the obvious.
If you or someone you know can help, please let me know, every little bit of knowledge helps. Thanks for your time! <3
In your situation it could be worth gauging your community interest in 3D work, like models, animations, etc. Hell, you dont even have to be a modeller, you could start with fluid sims, like with Houdini or Blender, and depending on community reaction, there you have a hook.
Alternatively, a break for a bit could do you good if you have a backing to allow you to take a artistic spiritual journey to maybe rediscover the joy?
Frankly seeing it as 'everyone around me is getting so much attention, how can I get that?' is somewhat unhealthy to think. If you're the type of person who sits alone in a room tinkering away at art, that type of thought can eat at you. My suggestion, talk to these peers? Approach them privately for tips, or resources. Generally you will have peers willing to loosely coach you on new avenues, and even then you can put out the call for your community for help. Give it some more thinking space and narrow it down to two routes you can take BESIDES staying with 2D/animations.
Personally, I would love to see your animations begin again. I dont care if they're rough, I love to see an artist grow!
When it comes to the camera, i would say the method you're currently using is probably still the way to get the specific final angle you're looking for. But for generally moving the camera around the scene, it can help to remember that cameras in Blender are invisible objects; you can select them and move them around the scene like any other object.
edit: when i say invisible object, i mean you can see them in the editor windows, they exist within the scene; they're just invisible during rendering.
It's too much and too complicated to all do and learn at the same time.
I'm not specialized in any of the stuff exept 3d modeling.
My advice on that: Start playing VR-Chat
VR-Chat is firts of all a wonderful social game where you can meet tons of people with these interests and passions but also the resources available for people to use VR-Chat where you can make your own maps and Avatas is massive. I'm talking like videos over videos over tutorials and step by step guide for making models in Blender and Unity.
Unity would also allow you to practice working with 3d environments.
About the rest I'd need to dig myself since I'm not an artist or earn money online.
I strongly recommend taking your time and realizing, from the start, it's a different and unintuitive workflow and saying "Y'know what? To heck with it!" and dive in regardless.
On said same end, you can use Number Pad 0 to "look through" the camera. Use "N" in the main viewport to make the right-hand panel open up, and on the View tab you can lock the camera to your view (it's a checkbox). Then, when you navigate, the camera will move with you, repositioning. It's great for stills! Also, that can help you learn how to move the camera. Also, if you're viewing something and want to move the camera there right now, alt-ctrl-0. Brings camera to your view.
Those are little tricks. Like any software, the UI is this confusing jumble until you settle in and work with it. Look for "The donut tutorial" on Youtube, it's by far one of the most user-friendly and useful.
And, lastly, to quote the late great Douglas Adams:
DON'T PANIC!
:)
Of course I'm also a daytrader, but still.
There are too many Patreoners, than Patreonees. The whole thing should have never been allowed to escalate like that anyway. Getting Patreon money should not be seen as "free basic income" or whatever.
When it gets to 3D/CGI-Stuff, I've got a friend who is very good at modeling. If you want I can ask him if he'll teach you a few things.
It'll take awhile to get to grips with setting up a scene with multiple camera angles + reference images, there are a few tutorials on that alone, but from my personal experience blender, maya, 3d studio max, and zbrush is very much practice practice practice, and build real world objects first to get a grip with understanding how everything looks within each program. And always start small and don't panic.
In 30 minutes, my animation teacher had made a clip of an astronaut walking down a hallway to flashing lights and sirens. You take a pre-existing picture, cut out the limbs/head and maybe segment the torso, and rig each limb to a different layer to animate separately as you move through each frame. If I still had access to that software, I'm sure I could just as easily pick it up today and animate more stuff really easy and fast. Theres always interesting stuff to do in adobe that add to what scene you're going for, even animating backgrounds.
If you don't want to spend anything, they are also on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/3xJpa.....wUWCG1sH9CLzGl .
https://stringbing.gumroad.com/l/Introto2DComplete
but might give some insight from the preview video, to tell if it's worth your time? :p
don't have a lot of personal links I can think of for the other specific programs and such though
there is always help in new areas.. be patient and keep going
me I love your work Zippers is my favorite work so hugs trust me we love you and yuour work
if you wanna talk about something be free to send me a note
or.. maybe know what is coming next on the banking collapse
And I don't mean it metaphorically or rhetorically or poetically or theoretically or any other fancy way. Stale. Straight. Up