What's the best software for artists in 2020? - Art Department Podcast

[@veneficarius]

I remember the times when question was: what brush do you use - now its what software ! :)

[@EmmanuelShiuArt]

exactly :)

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Right on. :)

[@droquis]

I still want ALL of the brushes. ;)

[@scarlet8078]

One thing I realized about Blender is the fact that it's free & that it's so old & evolving is what enabled it to have such a big community. Maya etc were always quite expensive & that impeded individuals' ability to learn. Photoshop of course is what most studios will have when you start there, but I've seen some illustrators use Corel Painter in ways that blew my mind. For painting on a tablet Procreate is fine (but only on iPad I believe), & Sketchbook is a nice free app for all devices. Krita is free also & has greatly improved in functionality, so now I've been donating to it & participating in its development. For painting, Krita is already superior to PS & I can make work that looks indistinguishable from oil or pastel. I recommend it for those who enjoy painting. If you have a chance to use Corel Painter it's also extremely cool, although I haven't had a chance to explore it fully

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Always have to be careful though. Free isn't automatically better haha. But for sure its nice to have free and powerful apps available now!

[@danieljinpark9695]

Great convo guys. I've been on the fence with Maya and Blender and there were so many good points to go towards Blender. TY

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Its worth a try :)

[@philjpark]

Never heard of this Blender app, will have to check it out!

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

It's magic, it will do everything for you! :)

[@kae_super]

Great talk! one of the questions I had and got answered here, whether painting skills are the main skills to get me into concept design, because I'm better in 3D than 2D.

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Good design will be appreciated no matter the technique

[@mikkelmelby]

great stuff! shoutout to Cinema 4D! Try it all! gets essier to learn. C4D was a gamechanger for me, but ill be looking into Blender and Houdini. plugins and scripts are very essential for every 3D package... I use Maya for retopology and UVs :D

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Nice, thanks! Yeah its not really what's better, but what's better FOR YOU. :)

[@bernierao]

Really loving this podcast. Thanks for making this guys.

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@nicolasleonflores7839]

Thanks a lot for this podcast! Already loving it

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@miladkarimi9612]

very very educational and inspirational content. thank you guys. would you please make some content for the people who want to become a concept artist but does not know where to start and what they need to learn in which order? i know there is no straight way to it but something like you need to know this and that and these are some of the tutorials out there that you can get etc. for example it's been a long time that i want to take the production concept design course but i don't know if it is suitable for me or not , i know i can take it but am i going to understand it as i should. again thanks a lot.

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Thank you for listening! Yes we have a lot of content coming on exactly these topics!! Starting next week already :)

[@zellafae]

Do I have to use photoshop to do concept art for video games? Or can I use other software like procreate?

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

No need for Photoshop, whatever you use to make beautiful images is good to go. :)

[@dasmachina1977]

Hi, Emmanuel Shiu and Jan Urschel, Wondering if you can guide me in the right direction. Should I be learning how to 3D model in C4D or in Blender? I've put some solid hours into c4d & Octane but feel that the real (Machine / SciFi) modeling workflow is flawed. If I choose to transition to Blender will the modeling workflow feel more industry-standard (MAYA) and would Octane work with Blender? Thanks

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

We can't comment on C4D as neither of us ever used it. Blender will be very different to Maya thought that is for sure. Octane works very well in Blender. Are you a 3D modeller or a concept designer?

[@luiscostales7490]

I think the use of 3D allows to get good results and it is very precise, and when you finally have the model done, is easy to get a different view, or change the lighting, the camera angle and lens... but it takes time to learn the software, and also to model the design. 2D is a simpler tool, faster and flexible, but you, apart from design, have to worry about perspective and all that important stuff, and also you need to have a lot of practice to draw in a decent way, this also takes time. VR looks promising to me. Maybe be it could fill the gap between 2D and 3D, because its intuitive, and easy to learn, and you can draw in a 3D space very fast, so you can focus more on the design. At the end you could have a 3D model ready to entry in the pipeline. A priori it seems to have a lot of advantages. Do you think VR and Real Time rendering could, in the near future, displace 2d drawing?. Maybe a daring question, I think sketching will be always there, but just to do "ugly" doodles for yourself and to come up with an idea, while to do the image for presentation, maybe be you could do it directly in 3D....

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Regardless of which path you pursue one thing will always stay true. Fundamental knowledge about shapes, proportions, taste, light, color, values is king above all else and takes very long to learn. For VR I think it won't be able to replace anything until the barrier to entry becomes as low as drawing. There is a huge difference if you just need a pen to put something down or if you have to turn on your high powered PC, put on the goggles and start the software. :)

[@rabbitvisual3399]

Thx for the talk again, really interesting. Regarding the hardwares, you guys seem to know pretty well about it and i''m wondering if you have some thoughts about the new nvidia who are coming. They are not much informations about it but compared to 1 or 2 of the current ones, what would be the best fit for an optimised new setup for quick rendering on cycles or octane for exemple ? Thx

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

We also don't know exactly what Nvidia will release in terms of specs, thats a closely guarded secret. :) But in terms of what to get we always recommend the best you can currently buy for the money. 3D unfortunately taxes the entire system, from GPU power, to CPU (number of cores and individual core speed), SSD and RAM. All these things work together, its not simply about a better graphics card.

[@rabbitvisual3399]

@@artdepartmentpodcast thx for the response ! Its good to hear your advice on it. Keep up with the content, you guys rock !

[@PatrickZigart]

love the podcast you two provide! a lot of great insight! :)

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Thanks so much!

[@weweweLit]

Hi, im looking to learn Maya or Blender, I want to become a concept artist in gaming industry. Money aside. I'm wondering which software to choose, I heard the industry standard is Maya, and to get into a studio environment Maya is preferred, and Blender is not so much. What are u guy's opinions if I have to pick one?

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

If you're a concept artist it honestly doesn't matter what software you use. Maya is used predominantly in the film industry but not in the concept stage. Use whatever you're most comfortable with and what you can afford.

[@Yamshabass]

I'm digging those glasses :P

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Blender glasses are the best :)

[@alexanderk8150]

Really enjoyed this. Thanks!

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@shibino2973]

The question of the future is - what kitbash do you use?

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Hahahah indeed!

[@marcuskeil420]

Awesome thumbnail!! xD

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Hahahahahaha, couldn't think of anything more stupid. :)

[@marcuskeil420]

@@artdepartmentpodcast It's great humor and a great podcast.

[@robinchyo]

You guys made me feel less terrible about dumping some money onto a new render-rig.. goodbye money! :p

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

hahaha we're all in the same boat!

[@romiromi3325]

for concept art?i think it doesnt matter ,even eytan zana mybe still only use 3dcoat and keyshot..but now since 3d concept art&3d concept art course is really on fire,people start asking more about software..but if we talk about job?i thing not much&only a handfull company use 3d concept art,since most studio only looking for painting from photoshop..and its getting hard to find a job right now..sorry if iam wrong.

[@staybalancedn]

the industry seems really really small. 3d or no 3d like in the hundreds of jobs.

[@romiromi3325]

@@staybalancedn yea but not for concept artist ..for 3dartist?u name it..

[@niklasspira1617]

@@romiromi3325 In most production pipelines (3aaa Games & Films) 3D takes a major part, at least to my experience

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

We've seen 3D taking more and more of a foothold in many peoples workflows. But of course in the end it just depends on whether or not you can create beautiful images. :)

[@romiromi3325]

@@niklasspira1617 no,what iam try to said is : there is MORE alot opportunity for 3d artist and ui artist compare to concept artist..if u look artstation job now?how many job open for concept artist?and how many job open for 3d artist?yes there is a job for concept artist,but its not much..if u dont believe?just count it :)

[@dasmachina1977]

Great podcast

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

Thanks for listening!

[@Chris-ru7cy]

RE: Mac vs PC: Right now you would be mad to get a Mac. The MacBook Pros have been sub-standard for years, with the awful keyboards, lack of connectivity, crappy GPUs, and Apple's focus on aesthetics over practicality and performance. Even the newest in-house chips only have 16GB of RAM, max, which is shared between the CPU and GPU, right? Totally insane. I configured an iMac to roughly the same specs as a PC I want to build, and even then the iMac was still less powerful with much slower RAM and processor and graphics, and the iMac was still twice the price (£6000 vs £3000). RAM and SSD upgrade option costs are criminal. Plus of course you can't upgrade anything apart from the RAM. You would be completely insane to waste money on a Mac right now. I have a 2015 MacBook Pro, but Apple's practices are abhorrent and I won't be buying another computer from them anytime soon. iPad and iPhone - ok, but not computers.

[@artdepartmentpodcast]

On pure specs the Mac would of course always lose to the PC (the same way the iPhone has waaaay lower specs than any Android phone - but interestingly performs way faster in app performance :) ). But I think we have to look beyond that. Its about workflow more than anything. A lot of people just can't bother with having to build, setup or maintain PCs which will always be more effort than a Mac. A lot of people simply want to get to work right away. You can't dismiss that preference purely on monetary grounds. In the end the only thing that counts is how to get the work done efficiently and comfortably in an environment that suits you. What the name of the OS/hardware is should be secondary at best.

[@Chris-ru7cy]

@@artdepartmentpodcast True, however, if you have say £3000 to spend on a PC, and you build your own instead of buying a much slower iMac, the time it takes for the initial build and setup (A few hours? One day, max?) will FAR outweigh the time saved (and money made) from having a machine that performs faster, every day. Plus you can upgrade it as you see fit later, and choose your own screen :) I have always used Macs since I was about 15, but now I think it's the right time to change. They are simply underpowered, overpriced, and cannot be upgraded or customised to suit the user's specific needs / software. For example: I am going to install 2 x M.2 drives, 2 - 4 SSDs, and a few HDDs inside my new build. That just isn't possible with any Mac.

[@watchandproduce]

@@Chris-ru7cy Macs, especially with the M1 chips are not underpowered. However if you want to use Blender getting a PC with an Nvidia graphics card is highly recommended. I use both Macs and a PC specifically for Blender and Photogrammetry.