A common question in professional CG forums is, “Do I need to know how to draw for a successful 3D career?”
Let’s dive in. But first, a key point:
A solid foundation in traditional art or digital painting is a definite advantage for a 3D artist.
Drawing skills bring versatility and freedom during the initial design stages. They let you seamlessly blend 2D and 3D elements and refine your image in post-production. So, 2D skills are helpful – no doubt.
The real question isn’t whether it helps. It’s whether the time investment in learning those skills is worthwhile.
If you’re young (pre-high school or in high school), then absolutely yes! You have plenty of time to develop a broad skill set including drawing/painting, 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering.
But what if you discovered 3D later in life and haven’t spent much time learning to draw or paint?
Did you start experimenting with 3D software in college, or even later, and now you want to pursue it professionally? You might be wondering:
Should you focus on mastering 3D as quickly as possible, or take a step back to build a strong 2D foundation first?
Ideally, you’d do both. Studying composition, perspective, figure drawing, and painting for a couple of years before diving into 3D would be fantastic. But for most, it’s not realistic.
So, what’s the best approach when time is limited?
2D Skills You Should Focus On
It’s likely you’ll need to choose the 2D art skills you can focus on. Here are some that will be most beneficial if you’re pursuing a career in 3D computer graphics:
- Sketching and Thumbnail Iteration: The ability to quickly generate and refine ideas is incredibly valuable. Churning out multiple thumbnail sketches in a few hours puts you in a great position. You can get feedback, and you have the freedom to combine ideas.
- Perspective: You might think this is less important since 3D software handles perspective.
- Compositing, Set Extension, and Matte Painting:These depend heavily on combining 2D and 3D elements. For successful images, precise perspective continuity is crucial! Sometimes, you won’t have time to model a whole scene in 3D, so knowing how to place 2D elements within an accurate perspective grid is helpful.
- Composition: While a good environment or character design can stand on its own, exceptional composition separates the great images from the good ones. Invest in books about storyboarding, which are great resources for both composition and sketching!
Techniques That May Not Be Worth Your Time
Sight-size drawing: This technique is about drawing exactly what you see. It’s a great way to learn in traditional art settings. But if your goal is to improve as a 3D artist, sight-size drawing may not be the best use of your time. It relies entirely on live models and clear references.
As a CG artist, you’ll often create things that don’t exist in the real world—unique creatures, fantasy environments, etc. Copying reference photographs may produce some impressive images, but it won’t teach you how to create your own designs.
Reference is important, but learning to transform it into your own concepts is more beneficial than copying it directly.
Learning production-level digital painting/2D rendering techniques:If your primary goal is working in 3D, you likely won’t need to refine sketches to create a production-level piece of artwork. It takes years to master painting light and shadow, rendering form, and surface detail at a professional level.
Don’t expect to learn to paint like Dave Rapoza and then start your 3D career. Concept art is a great choice if you are interested in this as a job choice.
What About Anatomy?
If you’re a character artist then this is a great way to learn anatomy, which you will need to become a character artist.
Muscle memory is huge in art, and even with some overlap between drawing and digital sculpting, they aren’t identical. Why spend hundreds of hours mastering figure drawing, if you could focus on sculpting?
Sketching in ZBrush is fast, and it is something worth considering. Study the old masters like Loomis, Bammes, or Bridgman, but why not in 3D?
