It's the new year and you know what it's like: " I'm going to do this, that, those, these and that again. By March, it's back to the old habits. All that talking all that potential, all that tumbleweed...

Something cool happened recently and I'm sharing it here so it hopefully motivates the crap out of the constant tutorial watchers but never actually doing anythingers. Sic.

I love spaghetti westerns. The blog title is a quote from my fav, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Short clip below.

I used to work as a doorman. I started in university to earn some extra cash, and when I graduated, I did it for a bit too. When I got my first job in games I stopped but after moving around a few times I ended up in Brighton and decided to pick it up again. I used to work bars, clubs and sometimes, hotels. 

I worked full time as a 3d artist, worked weekends on the door, and if I had any spare time, worked on some personal projects too.

But this story isn't about me.

Fast forward a few years and I'm now freelancing and cranking out work because I'm trying to promote myself. I'm also doing a few shifts at The Hilton in Brighton.

One evening, I was working a shift at the hotel and one of the shift managers and I start talking about art.  I showed him some of my stuff and he showed me some of his older 3d stuff which was decent enough. I asked him why he stopped and was working in a hotel and he said it was quite hard finding a job in 3d. He tried years ago but couldn't get one so he went into hospitality instead.

He's a good dude and we got on well whenever I worked his shift at the hotel. Plus he made sure I got chicken salad when I was hungry! 

I knew he wasn't happy and I told him he should jump back on the art horse and give it another go.

Fast forward again a couple of years  and I've given up door work, but I'm still in contact with the manager. He asks me how work is, I say "Great, I'm really busy. I don't really work on the door anymore as I don't have time."

He asks me if I reckon he could get a job in 3d, I said "Sure, but you have to work hard. I mean really dedicate time and effort to it."

He had no experience in Zbrush, PBR, or retopology yet.

"Do you think I'm too old for my first job?" 

(He's not even 40 and even if he was, he STILL wouldn't be too old! Let's just say you're never too old! :) )

"Nope."

"You sure it's possible?"

"Absolutely."

I told him if he ever needed help learning stuff he could pop by my place and I'll do what I can. He took me up on my offer a few times and I showed him the ropes in Zbrush, I pointed him towards a few useful tutorials on YouTube and even some paid ones.

Initially, he was trying to make characters whilst working at the hotel but it was hard to keep that up. So in 2016, he bit the bullet and told me he was going to quit. I told him to make sure he had enough cash saved up because it was NOT going to be easy. He said he had enough cash and was ready to do the thing.

He quit his job. He worked hard, he regularly sent me pics of stuff he was working on and I gave him feedback when he needed it and kicked him up the butt when he needed it. Or when I felt he was procrastinating with "speed sculpts" or projects that weren't going to get him employed in a hurry.  He got some characters made, got published in a 3d magazine but missed out on a few opportunities because he hadn't done what I told him to do: make a complete game character.

He finally buckled down and made some quality pieces, complete with PBR textures, displayed nicely in Marmoset Toolbag which showed he had an understanding of the workflow used in today's games. He stuck them all on Artstation and applied for a few jobs.

In December last year he had an interview with a local games company for a character artist position and Thursday, the 4th was his first day at work.

Well done, Dan. I'm really happy you bit the bullet and got on with it.

Stop telling people you're going to do the thing and DO the thing. 

Stop watching hours of tutorials and not practising.

Stop asking questions, getting the answers you require and then asking the same questions again. Askhole.

Stop procrastinating.

"Which brush did you use for that?" won't make you better.

In other words:

When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.

Happy New Year!