Daily Links to Visit
Kiel Figgins
3dFiggins.com
Whether your looking for work, keeping up with the industry or simply looking for motivation, there are sites online that can help you achieve this. I'd highly suggest displaying your links as bookmarks whenever you open up your internet explorer. You'll be more tempted to check the listed sites more often if you see the links on a daily basis. Below I've listed my key sites I visit on a daily basis and a brief description as to why and what the site is all about.
Industry Showcase
CGHub: Amazing art galleries from the industry's top talent. 2d and 3d. Great for finding inspriation.
CGTalk Front page: The Best of the Best. See what some of the top industry talent is up to.
Finished Work: Reels, show reels, final projects, really top notch work.
WIP Animation: See what others are animating and working on, provide feedback and post your own.
Animation: General discussions on animation as a whole, not software or project specific.
Maya Character Setup: General discussions and problem solving for Maya Character setup, lots of free rig postings.
Motionographer: Latest and greatest for commercials and broadcast showcasing and studios
3dTotal: All purpose 3d thread and showcase, lots of cool work and its all image thumbnails
CGChannel: Another all purpose 3d site, more images and stories.
Industry Informative
Gamasutra: Whats going on in the games industry, huge company and job listings, along with articles and development blogs
Penny Arcade: The insight and art of Gabe and Tyco are a must if your into games. An industry standard for water cooler conversations
Zero Punctuation: ZP is amazingly funny, crass and surprisingly intelligent for game reviews. Hilarius images and animation per review.
Apply Movie Trailers: What movies are coming out? This site will usually have the latest versions and the most formats
Animation Blogs
Cameron Fielding: Cameron's work is amazing, and his blog is great to read up on.
Animation Mentor: Headed up by some of Animation Mentor's instructors, this is a fun day to day animation blog.
Inspiration Artists / Blogs
Johnny Rocwell: Cool Character Concepts
Anne Coale: Great 2d Artwork with a variety of characters and subjects, updated often.
AutoDestruct - Portfolio: Paul Richard's official portfolio site. Amazing work, great archive.
AutoDestruct - Blog: Paul's blog, great to see his day to day doodles.
AutoDestruct - Babe Lab: Paul's second blog, dedicated to illustrating pin ups with amazing how to's
Amusing
XKCD: Great for math/science nerds, great content, regular updates.
This is Indexed: A different take on displaying social situations, like using parabolas for example.
We The Robots: When a robot realizes he's different but stuck in a corporate world, this comic happens. Robots meets Office space.
More options you can use when creating your own web list
Company Home pages for studios you want to work for. What are they working on? Are they hiring? Visiting these sites daily serve a number of purposes. They keep you informed, motivated, and keep your eye on the prize.
Inspirational Artist's portfolios and blogs. Seeing what other artist's are doing, what they're working on, personal projects and daily sketches all remind you to work on your own craft as well can help you spot trends and patterns in the industry.
Contest Threads. Seeing the workflow, speed and thought process of your competition, even if your not in the competition, is not only motivating but also informative. So keep tabs on others and learn from them.
Gallery Threads. Most forums have a gallery of sorts, I visit 3dtotal's often for inspiration and ideas. Bookmark whatever showcases that keep you going.
Closing thoughts
These are just the sites I go to. I'm constantly finding more, especially as blogging becomes more popular. But what you'll notice about the majority of these sites, is that their updated often and/or have content thats more then just portfolio work. They have resources, other links and generally useful information that keeps visitors coming back. Keep this in mind when your creating your own site or blog.
Other Opinions, Further References, Typos, and Grammer Issues please contact KielFiggins22@gmail.com