Any Artists on HN?

Senior Visual effects artist here. Hi! 20+ years in the industry, worked on movies from Final Fantasy The Spirits Withing to Disney's Enchanted and a whole mess of forgettable cinema and TV shows.

My axe is SideFx's Houdini. I've been in love with it since I first set eyes on it in 1998, but didn't use it in work until 2010. Until then I was using Maya. Yuck. It's now off my resume and I've left studios that made me use it. It makes my hands clench up in pain.

I've also used Shake and Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop, etc... But Houdini is really my jam. And it keeps getting better all the time. Best damn customer support in the industry, bar none!

Any questions?

My opinion on Blender is: Sure, if it fits your needs. It seems kinda quirky, but the community looks good.

I'm a design manager in my dayjob for a brand that most millennials have heard of. :) However, I keep that world airgapped from my passion work which is best seen on kradeelav.com. Published comics, zines, erotic art, illustrations, you name it.

Since you asked about tools, I tend to live in Photoshop/Illustrator 99% of the time. I'm about to move to Kubuntu for my personal computer and fully intend on moving back to Paint Tool SAI (and a ahem "borrowed" PSCS2) which was my first love as far as digital drawing tools. I detest Adobe, but no alternatives have managed to compete other than those two (yes I've tried clip studio paint, procreate, affinity suite, etc etc. the lag drives me bananas.)

Most important thing for me with tools is longevity and reliability. I've noticed Japanese brands tend to be better about stable software for 10+ years and not updating things every six months and breaking my workflow or sneaking telemetrics in.

I'm also very conscious of tools that don't throw erotic/taboo artists under the bus - this is the primary reason I'm moving off of apple hardware after +15 years of faithfully using their ecosystem.

I'm a doctor and researcher in tissue engineering, and use generative / procedural design to make cell scaffolds and medical braces (site at: https://www.lukehale.com).

Houdini is amazing! check out tutorials at https://entagma.com

Not sure if it counts, but I make gifs with GLSL:

https://dontcode.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/glsl

I got inspired by a video, Paint like a Sculptor by Sinix on YouTube. I got reinvigorated to do art, so I got a tablet with a screen and started learning to paint in Photoshop starting in may. I'm on a nearly 150 day streak of drawing or painting something every day! I think I've had some good results as well, though I've got no link to share.

I started as a painter, discovered multi-color 3D Printing and learned basic coding skills. I'm currently working on a Blender Addon that lets you modify G-code inside of Blender. Shifting more and more to the developer side of things, but still trying to work with both, can be a powerful combination.

G-code importer can be seen here: [link redacted] Some results here: [link redacted]

Are you asking for 3D specifically (based on the example you provide).

I'm not a professional, but I'm learning digital painting. I use procreate on the iPad (It's way easier than connecting the graphic tablet to my computer) and I've made some good progress recently. I learned a bit about 3D, but did not really pursue as I got interested in programming instead.

You're question bears some qualification; by artists are you meaning concept/game artists, or something else?

I've been moonlighting as a fine artist and illustrator for a few decades (with a brief diversion at an actual game startup that failed some time ago) but I mostly work in analog, with post procesing in Photoshop/Krita and a slew of specialized tools (e.g. Context Free, various fractal generators, etc).

http://zeruch.deviantart.com or @zeruch on IG.

Where I used to work my colleagues used commercially available game engines to build simulations for training purposes. Many of these were for military customers although some were civil (e.g. a safety trainer for coal mining). I therefore became interested in game development in general and played around with Unity for a while at home. From work, I'd gained an appreciation of the many different skills involved in game dev. In parallel I'd been using Poser and Daz Studio for 3D scene construction, with Octane for photorealistic rendering. I'm also a hobbyist photographer, and enjoy playing with light.

I eventually realised that I most enjoyed photorealistic rendering and that the asset marketplaces were often swimming in shovelware - so there was no real money in asset creation. Not that I was looking for serious revenue, but I had wondered if I could make enough money to pay for assets and licenses. I'd produced some promotional renders for asset creators and eventually came to the attention of someone who produces tutorials. So I decided to combine my 3D lighting knowledge with general photographic experience. I've now produced tutorials (sold on the Daz 3D marketplace) focussing on lighting 3D scenes using Daz Studio (and historically Octane). One of these has earned me enough money that I actually think I need to declare it on my tax returns!

[Edit] I sometimes use Blender to create simple 3D assets although I've never really gone up the learning curve. The 3D tools in Photoshop although simplistic are also sometimes okay for my purposes - e.g. if I want some 3D text in a scene. I keep meaning to have a look at Unreal and its rendering capability, but never quite get round to it.

I'm an amateur illustrator, painter, luthier, and musician when I'm not writing code.

I've used Blender, 3dsMax, Maya, and ZBrush but my work-horse software is usually Photoshop on my wacom and Procreate on an iPad.

In terms of music, I run NI software inside Logic Pro X.

Most of the time though, I'm trying to stay away from computers when I do my non-tech hobbies. So most of my work these days is traditional media - canvases, acrylics, wood, etc.

I dabble in ceramic arts (hand building mostly) and woodworking. Those two pursuits have a loose connection to my professional life in the sense that there are desired outcomes for a project and a lot of planning needs to go into the execution.

However, unlike my day job I use my hands to create a physical object vs digital. I find that to be _extremely_ satisfying.

I have also started creating generative art. The outputs are SVG that get plotted with an axidraw. I use various tools and frameworks for this:

* Kotlin - https://openrndr.org/

* Python - I'm writing a custom framework that suites my style

* Inkscape

* Adobe illustrator for the handful of things inkscape can't do very well

I am interested in a lot of different mediums but I wouldn’t say I am great at any of them. I put a fair bit of time into it though.

I really enjoyed creating 3D art in Rhino, however my very old educational license doesn’t work on modern macOS. I have been meaning to get comfortable with other tools but have yet to find the time in my day to day. I'd be excited to hear peoples opinions on what's worth my time.

I sketch, and otherwise do the occasional digital work with my Wacom tablet though less often than I would like. I have had my eyes on a Cintiq for a couple months now thinking it would encourage me to do more, but I know the problem is less lack of tools than motivation. I have been a huge fan of ArtRage for years, although I have not tried the latest version. Photoshop is my primary tool.

I have been taking a near daily photo for over a decade now, every couple years I put out a video of them. The latest version I wrote some software to do a rolling average which ended up with a neat sort of painterly feel.

https://youtu.be/Zv6P0wNiZOA

I also messed around building some tools to convert bitmaps into actual available lego's - and rendered using Stud.io

https://noteof.it/post/184075469826/so-i-wrote-a-little-prog...

I’m a senior visual effects artist, compositor. My skills are more related with the 2d aspects of a movie, usually blending multiple 2d and 3d elements seamlessly (and hopefully) photorealistic way into the final image.

Is also said compositors are the last line of defense on movie productions (image only side). The mantra “we’ll fix it in post” means usually us fixing productions problems/incompetence/laziness/lack of money - and a ton of overtime.

I use Nuke on a daily basis and other softwares to assist related tasks.

For high-end productions, artists are very specialized - both 2D/3D artist usually spend 80% of their time in a single software: the most likely in these productions are Nuke and Maya, and for some artists, this can be Houdini, ZBrush or Photoshop. For the 3d tracking dept, 3D equalizer, Syntheyes or PFTrack.

I’ve started a long time ago, where most compositing softwares that I’ve used are dead: Shake, Combustion, 5D Cyborg and a bit of Toxik.

I recently joined a new studio as a pipeline developer/technical director. I’m very excited about the AÍ developments (in a non delusional way - only recent research is getting quality/control good enough for visual effects) and hope to bring these tools to more non-technical people.

I became interested in computer graphics at a very young age, spent the first 9 years working as a developer. Then switched and started working as a cgi artist in media/advertising. 10 years later i have gone full circle and am way more happy with what i am doing. We have come such a long way- from mode 13 to GPUs, from scanline to raytracing, from offline to realtime. It still excites me. If it wasnt for graphics i would not even be interested in computers.

I draw, paint and use blender - at the moment to make assets for a friend's indie game project made in Unity. Personally, I'd rather use Godot but the team has experience in Unity, so that's that. I may also write an ocean surface compute shader for the same project.

I’m a painter working in traditional mediums (mostly acrylics and charcoal/pastels) but also previously worked as a engineer and researcher in the computer graphics industry developing tools for 3d artists (incl at Disney and Pixar).

Currently focusing on my painting practice in Hawaii :), and may bring tech-art together again in the future. You can find my work at https://www.artofxinyi.com or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/artofxinyi

Many of my paintings are inspired by nature and touches upon aspects of spirituality - including themes of transformation and change, death and renewal.

Generative Art based on physics and nature, Krakow. First I started with Processing, then switched to Python. On the technique: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344327257_Generativ... Examples: https://opensea.io/collection/grzegorz-kepisty-art-collectio... https://society6.com/gkep/prints?sort=new

I paint with oil on linen.

I use blender and python for reference.

Here's an example: https://ridaayed.github.io/posts/shark-flower-sunrise-venice...

I have studied Art and Craft, Electronic Art/Graphics as well as Media Art over the years. Used Cinema 4D and 3D studio Max in the past, but am in love with Blender these days. Great for Modeling, Sculpting, Animation etc. Amazing community too!!!

I do a lot of video work using Blackmagic cinema cameras and Davinci Resolve. Solid as houses, features growing with every update. Also has Fusion built in which is a powerful Compositing and FX toolset. Been tinkering with Photoshop for more years than I care to remember. Also After Affects, which is great. However I have become less and less happy with Adobe over the years, so I'am currently working on weening myself off that teet.

I'm a composer/producer, which is art I suppose. Funky, VGM/Jazz inspired tracks.

https://tuckerzodd.bandcamp.com/album/hindsight

Programmer, but my hobby is drawing using Krita. I got into Blender by way of Wobblepaint (discovered here on Hn) and went on to beta-test PicoCad (part of the amazing Pico-8 community). It was a great introduction to 3D, which made it way easier to overcome the blender learning curve.

I'm working with some amazing friends on Cosmoose, a kind of huge collaborative project where we do music, illustrations and videos. I'm working on bridging the two by releasing the stems for everything CC-licensed, and building a platform to bring the good aspects of Git to ease the collaborative process.

I am in the process of learning Clip Studio Paint by doing some October themed dailies. CSP has gotten a strong rep among indie illustrators for its usability and mix of raster and vector functions. The vector tools I think are particularly outstanding - you can build a whole workflow around line art using vector erase(which automatically chops your selection to the nearest intersection). It also has some great conveniences for scene building with poseable 3D mannequins, perspective rulers and an asset store.

Unicorn type person working in games here.

Engineering, design, art, music, etc. I started my career as an abstract painter and sculptor. Then transitioned into 3d animation, then web design, then into back-end web engineering. Found I was decent at that, then moved into web games(flash). I've been making games and interesting public interactive projects ever since.

Nothing you've probably heard of, maybe the ZX Plectrum (if you are British), a musical toy for android and iOS that is fairly popular.

If I would call my self anything it would be artist.

I am a physicist by trade, but recently I started drawing on my Samsung tablet. I'm really enjoying it. For other folks that are doing digital drawing I can recommend that you print out your stuff on canvas with a high-end printer. The feeling of having your work that you can hang on your wall is amazing!

I put my stuff on my blog. Feel free to check it out here: https://physica.dev/art/

My daugther(18) and I(47) create a comic series at https://www.instagram.com/arghhhcomics/. We use Inkscape and Gimp for them. Now we have animated series coming up, called Misunderstood, where daughter is exploring blender. She is just starting, but loving it.

op here. I want to thank everyone who shared, I read every single comment and very pleased to learn the variety of artists around here!

Blender, Cinema4D, AfterEffects and Ableton Live users here. Only a semi-pro in the music category (paid to do music but nowhere near my main income).

I started in the 90's with Sculpt3D and REAL3D on Amiga.

Started to do a lot more of Unity and Unreal because the rendering engines are becoming pretty good, even for postproduction VFX. Traditional renderers are much much slower.

O use daily Adobe (Ps, Pr, Ae, Il, LrC, Au, Id). 6 years ago I was working in UE4 over year in indie game studio that failed on kickstarter but assets was later bought by other developers.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/131398789

Not an artist, but for about a decade I worked with artists (and other production crew) to create a remake of Riven: the Sequel to Myst. Had a lot of fun times and learned a bunch from them. http://starryexpanse.com/

I like to draw pictures for the kids school lunch boxes... https://goo.gl/photos/LJ4GTMTBy1VvQHBk6

Though I haven't done it for a little while and really need to get back into drawing again :-)

I make pseudo-generative work art using a custom cv-based pipeline I built myself. I use redbubble for printing (posters are OK, everything else is mediocre). Check me out at https://zwerdlds.me

I'm a 3D artist doing 3D animation (non-character) with Blender. I've used Max, Maya and Zbrush in the past, but it was a long time ago, since then Blender has been all I needed. I probably should learn some C4D and Houdini to be able to get a better job...

Are there any '1 bit' artists on here looking for work? Ie 1 bit pixel maps/cities or 'dither punk' style.

I require several pieces completed for commission, and am looking for collaborators related to a startup I am working on.

I've got into generative art lately. Originally it was a way to test-and-stretch my Javascript canvas library, but as time went on I found it was a nice way to exercise my creativity. I do most of my art coding on CodePen.

Freelance photographer / videographer here, mostly involved with horses and general equestrian things.

I use RawTherapee, Canon Digital Photo Professional and Gimp for photo editing, and DaVinci Resolve, VLC and Handbrake for my video pipeline.

I've been into generative art for a few years. I actually started posting my artwork here a few weeks ago: https://zck.org/art

I use HUGIN to manually align photos into synthetic focus, and generate layers as big TIFF files

I use a python script to merge the various layers into a single huge JPEG

I use GIMP for editing the resulting images, and for general photo editing.

Meta question, at what point can you call yourself an artist? After you finish a painting, story, or song? When you sell something you’ve created? Artist isn’t a well defined title.

I make music with Logic Pro and a piano :) https://dclassic.work

I'm using unity to do 3d midi animation, have an ok setup going, lacking artistic vision :)

I doodle, paint, use Blender, you name it. Tech and art are my two biggest past times.

I make ultra-large scale [32000 x 32000 pixels] abstract AI generated art and make them into NFTs. It's an ever-evolving project: I learn new things and I try to create some art with them, recent ones are now animated!

Main Website: https://aidream.vercel.app Animated Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0WozGLf0uw Questions: https://twitter.com/bitmarx 3D Gallery: https://app.spatial.io/rooms/6130be9402ac0d00014f4442?share=... [No Sign up is required, just needs a name]

i make (electronic) music :)

I am an artist and my tool of choice is Perl. :)

No only nerds are here lol suckers