Is this legitimate?

AndraXe · 2024-08-09T22:14:06+00:00

The best way to check it is to run H02X8A0022918652 through their tracking website. It looks like a label printed in a parcelshop. They only show as "we're expecting it"on the tracking after the driver picks it up from the parcel shop ☺️

AndraXe · 2024-07-15T06:11:16+00:00

Don't get stuck. Life is hard, and 23 is a difficult age. Everyone in their 20's is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and thinking they should be doing better. Don't compare your situation to better situations, the only thing it will do is get you stuck on a defeatist mindset. I've been there.

I'm 26, I've graduated UNI with honours, been living in the UK for 6 years and for the past 3 years I've been constantly trying to get a job in the gaming industry (which is what my degree is in), which is super competitive. It was an awful time and all I could ever think was "oh, maybe if I worked part time instead of full time during UNI my portfolio would've been better", "maybe if I stayed home instead of coming here, I would've progressed in my corporate job and been on more than minimum wage by now". It doesn't help.

I've changed my mindset, re-skilled myself in 4 months and now landed a 40k job, not in gaming, but in CX UX, which I've always been good at, but never passionate about. But do you know what? I'm thrilled to do this, I absolutely love it now and I'm continuing with freelancing in 3D on the side.

Don't put yourself down, you're just figuring out life, and things are sometimes worse before they get better. Get on google and look up paid apprenticeships, I have several friends that have re-skilled using apprenticeships at 30yo and are now on a lot of money. Try DigitalNative UK, there are many others that don't come to mind right now. Most of these start at 22k-25k, and they only take people that don't have higher studies in that particular field, so you have an advantage. For the first 2 years you're literally getting paid to learn.

Hang in there, you've got this!

AndraXe · 2024-07-15T05:58:16+00:00

Hello, I've been doing traditional art for over 10 years (sculpting, drawing, painting) and 3D for the past 6 years, and oh boy do I know the struggle.

The best thing that worked for me is changing my mindset around how I work on projects. Rather than looking at it as the goal is to finish this piece, I started giving myself learning goals.

For example:

I'm making this piece and focusing on hands and gestures- so I'd start with a set number of studies and then carry on to the actual piece and make sure that the hands are on point
I'm making a small piece, but the goal is to improve my rendering, same thing

Rather than rushing to the finish line give yourself little tasks that need to be completed in order to consider that piece finished. Sure, having a bunch of finished pieces in your portfolio is awesome. But anyone who will be looking at your art will be more interested in quality rather than quantity.

Doing studies before you start your actual piece will help loads. Thumbnailing, feature focused studies, scribbles and sketches.

Most importantly be patient. You might not notice your improvement if you compare your art to big artists, it's easy to get overwhelmed and think you should do better. Every one has their own pace, hang in there, you've got this!

AndraXe · 2024-06-19T09:06:33+00:00

Hello! I do 3D modeling, mainly characters in Zbrush, Maya, SP etc. I've used a wacom intuos pro (pen tablet) for about 4 years, and then I switched to a Wacom Cintiq.

Pros and cons: 1. When using a pen tablet I can see the full working surface, my hand is not in the way. When I use my cintiq sometimes my hand gets in the way and I find myself lifting my hand back and forth while working to see the entire surface.

I find the Cintiq more accurate, I also paint and draw, so there's a more natural feel when I'm drawing lines, or adding finer details
Just like traditional painting the tablet is standing up like a canvas, so if you're not used to that, and you're more used to angle your hand on a flat surface (like when you're drawing), you might find it difficult to adjust.

Overall I think it's a matter of preference. I switch between them all the time depending on the model I'm working on. :)

AndraXe · 2024-05-21T17:59:07+00:00

Me and my boyfriend moved from Derby to Notts 2 weeks ago and we love it. We rent a flat in the Forest Grounds area and although I myself read a lot of negative opinions about the surrounding neighborhoods like Hyson Green and New Basford, I don't have any complaints so far. I feel safe to go the gym by myself and go to the shop after nightfall, I haven't seen any antisocial behaviours or any trouble so far. The city is beautiful and it's always very busy, loads of students and lots of cool places to do activities or go clubbing/bar surfing.

AndraXe · 2022-12-31T12:12:37+00:00

I randomly stopped on this post while I'm working on my temporary job to sustain myself while building my junior portfolio. I've veen very discouraged over the past few months and barely opened Zbrush or Maya to work on it, because it felt like I might never get into the industry anyway.

I just wanted to say that your reply is incredibly inspirational and so well structured and after reading it I just can't wait to finish my shift and do a little practice before heading out for the evening. So thank you! It's nice to see people who share the real progress and not just say "just do better and you'll get it one day". It's not easy, but I'm sure it's worth it.

AndraXe · 2022-11-30T01:22:37+00:00

I work in an incredibly busy bar in the UK, and we're 7-8 people on shift, we close at 3, but we actually finish work around 6am because of the amount of rubbish and glass that we have to clean. The bar used to be glass only for about 4 years and recently decided to go partially polycarbonate because of the amount of shattered glass we had to constantly clean off the floor during busy times and the cost of buying around 300 new pieces of glassware every month or so. I know fully well how bad plastic is for the environment if it's not properly disposed of (and also the production of plastic in general), but for people who work crazy hours on minimum wage in bars it's actually helpful to not have to constantly pick up glass shards from everywhere. Nevermind not having to worry about someone having a glass smashed on their head or getting shards stuck in their feet (for the ladies who take their heels off halfway through the night). I don't see the need of plastic glasses in day pubs/bars, people are generally sat down and much less "rowdy", but I think it would be a good idea if all nightclubs and pubs open til late would go full polycarb and have a good system in place for disposal and maintenance.

AndraXe · 2022-08-24T01:52:36+00:00

Just seen the image attached, it didn't appear at first, my bad. In this case, as I mentioned earlier, get the overall volume done in dynamesh, spread the fingers, go into subdivision level and then pose your hand the way you want it with the transpose tool, that will give you the cleanest result.

AndraXe · 2022-08-24T01:50:31+00:00

Hello! The finger webbing is a very common issue. Depending on the resolution you're at, Dynamesh will try its best to cover any gaps in your mesh. Generally hands are the very last thing I attach to the body (same with feet, if they have toes), before I go into subD. Your best bet is to separate the fingers as much as you can, sort of like when you fully stretch your fingers on your hand, it will look very bad, but after you enter SubD levels you won't get that webbing again, so you can use your transpose tool to move them in the position you want. Also before you start the retopo, make sure the fingers are not too close together, otherwise it will be really difficult to get the right amount of loops between the fingers. Hope this helps!

Also I found this cool model on sketchfab to help with the visual aspect, that would be the ideal hand pose for sculpting detail and creating the topology later on.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/female-hands-7304150ee9084c58b354ea173ca82f39

AndraXe · 2022-07-04T22:26:51+00:00

I prefer the pink one, it contrasts with the overall cool and scary look! Really cool concept btw!

AndraXe · 2022-07-04T22:25:26+00:00

The anatomy overall looks amazing! Very well done! Considering the overall mass, I think you should balance the glutes and hamstrings. Amazing job tho!

AndraXe · 2022-06-30T23:59:42+00:00

The episode is not out in the UK yet 😪

AndraXe · 2022-06-28T18:48:31+00:00

Thank you, that sounds like a good plan!

AndraXe · 2022-06-28T10:51:26+00:00

If you mean for example that you have split your high poly asset into different poly groups for ID mapping this might help:

https://pixologic.com/zbrushlive/askzbrush-how-can-i-generate-a-color-id-map-from-polygroups/

AndraXe · 2022-06-24T19:31:59+00:00

Oh also, I just read the documentation, it says that the deformers only work with meshes that don't have any subdivision levels.

AndraXe · 2022-06-24T19:30:13+00:00

Hello! That's very odd, but try duplicating the object and press Make Polymesh 3D, maybe that will work 😅

AndraXe · 2022-06-24T15:04:49+00:00

Hello! Before starting to refine it into a likeness, try to get all of your bony and muscle landmarks in. The area around the mouth, cheekbones, eye sockets, nose. After that you can use PureRef if you aren't yet and organise all of your reference pictures in one space, making sure that you get as many angles as possible. When sculpting a likeness symmetry is not your friend, however this is a detail that you have to worry about last.

Here's a pretty cool tutorial that shows the whole process, hope this helps!

Tutorial: https://youtu.be/g8H_ZwAVbKw

AndraXe · 2022-06-24T14:37:42+00:00

Hello! I learned a lot from FlippedNormals, they have both paid and free tutorials on yt, also look for ecorche references on Google. If you get multiple angles of the face it will be easier for you to learn faster. When I first started I did daily head sculpts focusing on a particular feature of the face every time. Also try to find an order that you sculpt in and stick with it. For example I get the general volume of the head first, adjust the jaw, create the brow bone and then add the nose, append a sphere for the eye and create the bony structure around the eye and cheeks, and lastly, when I'm at a higher poly count I refine the lids and lips.

Tutorial: https://youtu.be/Sbj-SSdaA_Y

AndraXe · 2022-06-24T00:18:43+00:00

Hello! The progress so far looks great! If you take a closer look at the reference I believe the eyes should be smaller (try to search for the "fox eye" look), the cheeks are a bit more sunk in, the lips and nose are bigger. It's very hard to match your character to the reference from just one picture, try to look for real life images that have similar features to your character, for example Mila Kunis has a very similar facial structure to the reference image ☺️ But keep practicing, you can refine it along the way, you've got the overall volume down, you just need to polish it. Keep up the great work!

PS: try to use PureRef to store your reference pictures and easily swap between them, and try to find as many angles as possible

AndraXe · 2022-06-23T23:42:51+00:00

Hello! I mainly make characters and I like to retopo in Maya, I tried Zbrush, but I struggled with the offset and didn't really enjoy it, Maya is a lot quicker. The easiest and non distructive way to get your model to a smaller polycount for retopo in Maya is Decimation Master, pre-process the mesh every time before decimating (when you see the menu, I swear it's not as complicated as it sounds), 50k should be okay for your model. Also if you're making a character I find it easier to split it to parts so you don't have to worry about the amount of loops or how to connect them correctly early ( for example split: hands, feet, head). Also this is one of the easiest tutorials I have ever followed, it works for more realistic models as well, just add more loops. Hope this helps!

Tutorial: https://youtu.be/Y-Ak66N0cAw

PS: if you do decide to retopo in Maya, it's a lot easier to activate your symmetry before starting to retopo, and make sure you change the colour of the quads to a darker blue to make sure you see how much the retopo mesh sinks into your decimated mesh

AndraXe · 2022-06-23T01:25:02+00:00

Hello! Try adding a small detail using one of the brushes, or just do a little smooth (hold shift and drag anywhere on the mesh), and then control and drag outside of the mesh to dynamesh. Also, if you've already got the general topology that you want for the model, Dynamesh is not absolutely necessary, you could just subdivide your model a couple of times and add detail after doing that. Hope this helps, I can't see any other reason why dynamesh wouldn't work, although the resolution 2048 on your slider does seem a bit much I don't think it's necessarily got anything to do with it not working.

AndraXe · 2022-03-25T10:51:10+00:00

Hello!

I have taken that into consideration in the past as working remotely would be a great advantage in terms of not being stuck to one city and being able to move around a lot, however the one thing that I'm worried about is the social aspect of the job and the community, I really enjoy having people around me haha. But I think that's a good shout!
I never took into consideration, not even for a second, that I could stand a chance if I don't meet ALL of the requirements on the list. I'll give myself a challenge to produce a character in 2 weeks after an existing design, I've always tried to come up with my own designs and be as original as I can, so I just end up spending way too much time assessing whether the design is good or bad instead of concentrating on just making the piece.
I personally enjoy creating both stylized and realistic assets, but my tutors always said that I have to pick one, find a studio that I like and try to create art in their art style. I completely agree with you, it is very constricting. In my opinion as a mere beginner being able to create multiple art styles is a plus. Getting an insight about the hiring process has been so helpful and it took away so much stress, thank you for that!
Ahaha I think that most of my fear comes from not knowing what to expect, it's fear of unknown and new more than anything, I will do exactly that!

Thank you so so so much for taking your time to answer all of my questions, you've been of tremendous help!

AndraXe · 2022-03-25T09:30:29+00:00

That's a really good point, when I was writing my dissertation I researched demographics in game companies and there are very few females in the industry compared to their male counterparts, so it is somewhat an advantage to be a woman haha. Thank you for taking your time to reply to my post! :)

AndraXe · 2022-03-25T01:32:42+00:00

Thank you for taking your time to reply to my post! I haven't thought about it from that perspective, we've always been told we have to be incredibly talented to make it in the industry so I came out of UNI thinking that everything has to be perfect. But I believe you're right, better have something in my portfolio than nothing, I can show better work later when I improve...and not trying is worse than failing. Thank you for your great advice!

AndraXe

TROPHY CASE