People Questions & Answers
So let's start this off with a 1st question which I get all the time.
1. Where are you from?
I'm from Lithuania. And no, I don't speak Russian.
2. For how long have you been working with Blender?
First, I discovered the Blender in 2008 when I was 14. So do the math ;)
3. How did you start with 3d modeling?
I've got a written story on my website about how I started with 3d modeling. So you can check it out.
4. Are you working on a new asset pack?
Yes! I'm currently working on my biggest asset pack yet - "Modular Medieval Buildings Pack." I also work on updating some of my older asset packs on the Unity Asset Store.
5. What defines your art style in your own words?
Next-gen low poly art :)
6. What do you look for when modeling?
When I model, I focus on maintaining the low poly look and low poly count while making the simple mesh look natural like a real thing. For example, when I model cars, I always try to make as low poly mesh as possible while adding all the necessary detail to make the car look real. I focus on adding detail to the mesh instead of the texture. That way, I can use a very small color palette texture and still maintain a pretty low poly count.
7. How do you keep it so consistent between different models?
I think color is one of the most important aspects of making your assets look consistent. I always try to use very similar color values like brightness and saturation. (show a quick example). If you make one of your assets too dark or too bright, it will look off. Same with saturation. If you make one asset over-saturated, it will also look off. Polycount can also be important. (show example). If you make one asset low poly and another high poly, it can look off.
8. What resources helped you grow as an artist?
I have a blog called "My Top 5 Resources To Learn As A Game Artist." I recommend you to check it out.
9. Have you released any games or other playable prototypes?
When I was a student, I created a game for my finals. It was a side scroller 2.5D game with very simple running and jumping mechanics, where you run across levels avoiding obstacles and try to solve puzzles while answering questions. I would show it to you, but I don't know where I put it.
I had made a few simple playable prototypes when I was learning C# programming with Unity, but I've never released or published it publicly. Even now, sometimes, I like to prototype with random stuff in Unity.
10. Do you have any games published or planning on doing so?
No, I don't have any games published at this time. But one of my big future goals is to make a game and publish it on Steam. I hope that day will come :)
11. What tool do you use for the animations in your videos?
To edit my videos, including logo and text animations, I use DaVinci Resolve 17. I migrated to it a few weeks ago, actually. Before, I've used Movie Studio Platinum 17.
12. How to find inspiration and references for your art style?
I think the best palace for finding inspiring reference images is Pinterest. Just open up Pinterest.com and search for "low poly" or "low poly game art". You can find so much cool stuff here from all over the internet.
13. What is your favorite smoothie to make in Blender?
A Cube.
14. Do you plan to make more videos like the "How I made This Game Environment (Blender & Unity)"?
Yes, I will definitely make more of these videos ;)
15. Any tips for artists not too good at programming wanting to create games solo?
If you want to make a game solo, learn programming. It's the most important skill for making the game. I recommend taking one of the game development courses by Ben Tristem in Udemy. This guy taught me how to program with C# and make games with Unity.
When I was a student, I had to do a project for my finals. And I chose to make a video game. At that time, I started learning how to make games with Unity by watching one of his courses while I was a complete beginner at Unity. After I completed the whole course, which, if I remember correctly, was over 40 hours long, I made a game for my finals. And ended up getting the maximum score for my project. And yes, I was terrible at programming, but when I focused on learning it by watching Ben Tristem course, follow along, and did all of the tasks, I got the hang of it.
So find a way to learn programming. Find at least 1 hour every day and learn, practice, and repeat.
16. Why does no one use the Blender game engine?
Well, I think because Blender discontinued development and support for the Blender game engine a while ago. And in my opinion, using it now would be a waste of time. So instead, you can use any other game engine like Unity, UE, or Godot. They are better in any way.
17. Where do you find blueprints for modeling vehicles?
Those drawings are called blueprints. So, you can open up Google images, type a specific car name, and add the word blueprint. And depending on the car, you can find a bunch of different blueprints to choose from. Then, select the image and "Open the image in new tab" to have the full rez image.
You can also use the website the-blueprints.com they have many high-quality blueprints, but they are not free.
18. Would you do a video on modeling a high poly car?
Oh, man. It's been a while since I made a high poly car. My high poly modeling skills might be a bit rusty since I have made so much low poly stuff in the last few years. But I'm thinking about creating a video course on modeling and texturing game-ready car asset in the future. Maybe the same style as my last few cars. Let me know what do you guys think about that!
19. What is your favorite game?
Well, I think because Blender discontinued development and support for the Blender game engine a while ago. And in my opinion, using it now would be a waste of time. So instead, you can use any other game engine like Unity, UE, or Godot. They are better in any way.
I love all kinds of games, and if I had to choose a racing game, it would be a Gran Turismo series, especially Gran Turismo 2 and 5.My all-time favorite FPS is the original "F.E.A.R." That game is something else—one of the best experiences I had in any shooter game.I can talk about games all day because I've played so much in the past. I think too much.
20. How do you manage your time?
What works the best for me is having a time management plan for the whole day. So I've written everything I should do and when I should do it throughout the day. For example, the first thing is written: 06:00 AM - I wake up, walk the dog, exercise, and eat breakfast. Then 07:00 AM - I work on the most important task of the day. So, for example, right now, I'm working on this video. Then at 11:00 AM - Lunch break and so on. So I've planned the whole day what I should do and when. I've my time management on my wall where I can always see it.I also use a journal to write my to-do list for the day. Since I already know when I should work, learn, or read a book. I write what I should work on exactly to my to-do list. What I should learn or read at that time.
So, I've tried many time management systems before, changed them a lot. And at this time, this one works the best for me.
21. Can you make a video on how to make low poly water?
I would love to make an animated low poly water tutorial on Unity. But first, I need to learn shader programming and using shader graph in Unity by myself. At the moment, I'm trying to dive into shader programming and learn all the basics in my free time.
22. Is it better to create LOD's in Blender or use the LOD Group feature in Unity?
LOD Group in Unity won't do anything if you don't have LOD meshes created in Blender with a different level of detail to save performance. So, yes, you must create LODs in Blender first because LOD Group in Unity won't make it for you. LOD group alone can only make your original mesh culled when moving the camera further away.
23. How do you make Low Poly Mountains in Blender?
The fastest and easiest way to create mountains in Blender is to use the original Blender addon called "A.N.T.Landscape." Open up Blender, go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons. Search for "A.N.T.Landscape" and enable it. Then hit SHIFT+A - Mesh > Landscape and play with the settings to create nice-looking mountains. After that, apply Decimate modifier and set the Ratio to a lower value like 0.1. Also, set mesh shading to flat.
24. Can you list some optimization tips for models that will be used in a game made with Unity?
Yes, I can give you a few quick tips:
- Use as low polycount as possible without losing the quality of your asset and the art style.
- Try to use as few materials as possible. The best would be to share the same 1 material for as many assets as you can.
- Use texture atlases to pack a bunch of model textures in one texture map.
- Create and use LOD meshes. Setup LOD groups in Unity.
- If you need colliders in Unity for collision, use primitive Unity colliders, like BoxCollider, SphereCollider, CapsuleCollider. For the best performance. And if you need to use a custom MeshCollider for more complex shapes. Create as low poly mesh as possible in 3d editing software like Blender and use the "Convex" option on the MeshCollider in Unity.
That would be my top 5 game asset optimization tips.
25. Should I bake light and shadows when I make game assets for Unity?
Well, it's a tricky question. If you want to make a scene and bake all the scene lighting and shadows, you can do it in Unity. If you want to create PBR assets, don't bake any lighting data to your textures while making assets. However, if you make stylized or old-style textures, you can bake your lighting and shadows into the texture. (show video example)
26. Do you have any plan to make a tutorial-like sword trail effect?
For now, I don't have any plans on making this kind of VFX tutorial. But I found this fantastic tutorial by "Gabriel Aguiar Prod." which shows you exactly what you want to learn.
27. How to know which color to choose when drawing?
Yes, I had a lot of problems with picking colors in the past. What I did and recommend to do, is to learn about color theory first. There are many resources on the internet about color theory, stuff like complementary colors, triadic colors, and so on. I highly recommend a fantastic video by Blender Guru called: "Understanding Color."
Saturation and value are very important to make something look nice or bad. Try to take someone else's picture or drawing you like, use the color picker to pick the colors, and look at what saturation and values they use.
You can try to recreate someone else work. For example, take a simple render and try to recreate it using the same colors. Or use their color on your own artwork, 3d model. I did this a lot, and it helped me to improve my colors significantly.
28. Will you do tutorials on UE?
At the moment, my main focus is learning, improving, and working with Unity. I want to master one game engine and be good at it instead of jumping from one game engine to other. So no, I don't plan to do tutorials on UE at this time.
29. How do you motivate yourself when you are stuck at something (including your life problems too)?
I was burned out from work this year, and I had zero motivation to work on anything. I was stressing a lot, overthinking about everything, and I felt stuck.
What I did was I took a break for a few weeks from work, from everything. It was summertime, so I started going for a bike ride almost every day. That alone boosted my mood and energy so much. After every bike ride, I felt alive!
Since I used to sit at the computer all day, I started to go out to nature more, and it felt great. I also limited my social media use a lot. I don't watch the news or tv, which I think can also impact how you feel.
After about two weeks of rest, having fun, and not thinking about work or other life problems, I felt much better and well-rested.
Then I decided to create a new Vision for myself, for my future life. So I spend a few days rethinking what I really want in life and why? Having a strong WHY is very important! So I wrote a new vision, new goals and created a new vision board for myself, which motivates me to move forward and work on my goals.
So by combining exercise, having a vision and goals with a strong why moved me forward.
Now, when I feel stuck, I stop and take a break for a day or two and remind myself why I'm doing this. I look at my vision board daily and remind myself what I'm trying to achieve, what I want to have, and why. Having a powerful vision and goals moves me forward.
30. Can you upload the video daily, please?
I'm focused on making tutorials. And It's physically impossible for me to make a decent tutorial in one day, especially while I'm also working on game assets. So maybe, if I make more timelapse videos without any commentary, I would be able to make 2 or 3 videos a week.
If I would do YouTube as a full-time job, then it would be a different story. But for now, I do what I can to help people out.
31. What do you do for a living?
My main source of income comes from selling Unity game assets on the Unity Asset Store.
32. How much do you earn from selling your assets?
It fluctuates a lot. For example, when I was at my peak, I earned about ~$2500 per month on average, going from ~$2000 to over ~$3000. That was between 2017 and 2018. At that time, I had 4 of my asset packs released and updated a few times. After I went to compulsory military service for 9 months, I did nothing, so after the service, my earnings started to drop a lot, down to less than $1000. Then I updated all of my asset packs, and they went up and down. My earnings have fluctuated a lot for the past 3 years. But I didn't release new asset pack since 2017. I only updated my old ones. So, I'm feeling very thankful for all the people who support me! At the moment, my income fluctuates between $1000 to $1500 per month.
But that is just my experience. I have a YouTube channel that now has over 30k subscribers, which also helps with sales! On the other hand, I've heard many people in the last 2 years since the Unity Asset Store changed that their sales dropped a lot, even to $0. So there is no guarantee that it can work for everyone.
If you really enjoy creating assets, have time and resources, then go for it. It's up to you. I won't decide for other people what to do. I do it because I enjoy it.
33. Do you have any tips on selling assets online?
Yes! First, create a unique brand name. When I started, I spent a week brainstorming and came up with LMHPOLY. Which not many people know, means Low, Medium, High Poly ;) Just make sure that your brand name is not already in use or has a Trademark!
I recommend creating social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Then, buy a website domain with your brand name and build a website.
After that, try to grow your social media by posting something interesting, maybe the progress of your work, art, whatever. That way, you can reach more people when launching your assets. I think growing my YouTube channel helped me the most.
Do research what people need. For example, maybe there is something many people are interested in, but no one else has done it. Or someone has done it poorly, and you can make it better. Read other asset reviews, especially negative ones. That way, you can find what people want to see in the store and how you can make it better.
I would recommend coming up with your unique art style and make all assets using the same style.
34. What do you plan for the future of the channel?
It's hard to answer because I'm constantly trying new things and figuring out what works the best. Right now, I plan to focus on creating Blender and Unity game art tutorials for game artists and game developers. I want to help people who are struggling and inspire them to create amazing-looking 3d art and games.
One of my dream goals is to do a YouTube full time :)
So, that would be all of the questions I got. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to write me a question! Have a nice day and goodbye ;)
