Top Digital Artists’ success stories: Justinas Telksnys
So I am starting the series on Digital Art which I’ve already covered partly in the context of Blockchain. What is so cool about this particular work is that together with tones of words and in-deep analysis on what a successful digital artist’s life looks like today, you will get a chance to really see how Creative Talent sparkles through art. In this piece, please enjoy life and work of Justinas Telksnys, a game artist from Lithuania.
Justinas Telksnys, 24, is a self-taught 3d artist from Utena, Lithuania. Over a cup of his favourite cappuccino, he creates game assets and distributes them via Unity Asset Store. The software he uses includes Blender, Unity and Photoshop. Join him on Twitter and follow his work together with 1,375 other fans.
How did you grow as an artist?
I didn’t know anything about 3d art when I started. I had never studied art before. But I had a passion for video games. Since childhood, I had been wondering how to make them, how to create those 3d models!
I loved to draw as a kid and playing video games, too. In 2008, when I was 14 years old, I found out about Blender for the first time. The software was on the CD attached to the printed magazine. I saw an image of Shelby Cobra modelled in Blender and was blown away by the fact that you can make cars look so real just by using this software.
After two years of learning Blender in my free time, as well as watching tutorials by Andrew Price and other artists I managed to make my own 3D car model of Nissan 180sx. At that time I didn’t know what I should do with my life, I struggled to find my real passion. But after a long break, I ultimately got back to Blender.
In 2014, I was a student of Information Systems Technology and studied basic programming with Java, C++, HTML and JavaScript. At the time, also, I was making more videos of me playing video games. I researched the niche and found out about Unity. To make something out of it, I learnt programming with C# and made simple games.
In 2015 it struck me. I realized that I only wanted to do CG stuff for video games, to make game assets and environments.
At that point I started taking everything that had to do with modelling very seriously and focused on Game Assets even more. I had already had a lot of experience by the moment — with modelling, hard surface models and, then, took some Digital-Tutors online courses (now it’s called Pluralsight) and did some sculpting, UV mapping, texturing, drawing with a graphics tablet. Basically, that’s how I improved my modeling skills. I learned a lot about colors, composition, game optimization, lighting, and more. I did everything to build better skills as a game artist. In 2015, I learned so much that it now scares me.
Now you know, everything I’ve learned I’ve learned from the Internet. I’ve taken a few paid video courses on 3d/2d art in games and game development — mainly, through pluralsight.com and Udemy.
I jumped at modelling 3d high poly cars, and after getting familiar with some low poly style art, game assets and even games, I fell in love with the style. So, I tried doing something here and there and somehow managed to polish the style in my own way. It just happened, and I love it.
These days I follow a few people on YouTube who do an amazing job by creating art and building a business from that. For example, Andrew Price and Gleb Alexandrov. These two guys started from zero, just like me, but they managed to gain revenue out of doing what they love. And now they do it for a living.
Have you always wanted to become an artist?
As for me, I’ve always wanted to work as a freelancer, to do what I can do the best, and to generate income out of that. I’ve had the vision and I’ve accepted big challenges. One of them was to work from home as a 3d artist, and now I’m doing that! To give you an idea, right now I’m working on a new Low Poly Modular Buildings Pack and a new video tutorial for Blender and Unity.
But I’ve got a lot of goals, actually. One of the most important thing for me is helping other people create amazing art and high-quality video games. I pursue this dream by making video tutorials and game assets.
The purpose of my life so far is to become the best 3d game artist ever walking on this planet. See for yourself on my website.
Do you ever get inspired by anything or anyone?
Yes! I get inspired by other incredible 3d artists who create amazing stuff! Sometimes my ideas come from random art posts on Twitter!
Besides, I like playing video games, and for a person like me who loves creating 3d game assets, it’s especially important to play high-quality video games. If the graphics, nice models, textures, lighting, composition of those games look amazing, all that also turns into a source of inspiration.
These are all very good moments when you come up with an inspiring idea and, then, when you have all the work finished in hand. To be inspired is great, to inspire is incredible!
What does your work process look like?
In the morning I work on the game assets for Unity Asset Store. I guess this is my most important job since the platform is the major source of income for me.
Right after, during the next few hours, I do a blog post or create a video tutorial.
I finish the day learning something new, reading a book, watching a video course. Besides, we are all humans and I do a human stuff, too, and work out 4 days a week.
Do you promote your work if you ever do?
Well, from the very beginning, I spent a few weeks creating the unique brand name “LMHPoly” — made a logo, launched a website, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+ accounts. After that, I created my first asset for Unity (Low Poly Rocks Pack), uploaded a trailer of my asset on YouTube and published the asset on Unity Asset Store.Then, when it went live, I posted the info on social media, on Unity forums and Unity Reddit pages.
Most of the marketing stuff is normally being done by Unity Asset Store. I was lucky to receive a few 5-star reviews and got promoted on their main page. That was insane because it was my first asset! Yet, its sales rocketed.
I kept on publishing video tutorials on YouTube which I think was one of the main traffic sources for me. And then, time and again, I started working on the other pack, posted blogs and tutorials on my website and announced progress on social media.
I’ve always liked sharing my work, that’s why I’ve launched my website and regularly post some timelapse videos on YouTube as well as some other work on all social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Has anyone ever stolen your work from you?
Without letting me know someone once reposted my most popular artwork which I originally had published on Reddit.
After reading the comments, though, I felt relieved because many people blamed the guy for stealing it.
Of course, copyright is important for me, especially when I work on the project for a long time. But, overall, when it happened, I wasn’t angry or anything, and I will not stop sharing my work because of that. I do it to inspire people because one of my goals is to inspire people. And people like it so much that they ask me for more stuff. Some of them even steal it. It’s just crazy.
In your opinion, is digital art different from any other kind of art?
I think that traditional and digital art, in essence, are very different. You can never create the same piece of art out of digital and traditional approaches.
The same thing would look much different. Ink on paper looks very much contrasting to screen works.
I think traditional art is much more challenging a niche because you can’t just press ctrl+z to go back and fix it, and you don’t have any help using layers if you paint on a traditional piece of paper. That’s why I’ve never tried and installed my work in traditional galleries.
Here you can find the second episode of the series!
If you enjoyed this story, please click the 👏 button and share to help others find it! Feel free to leave a comment below.
More where this came from
This story is published in Noteworthy, where thousands come every day to learn about the people & ideas shaping the products we love.
Follow our publication to see more product & design stories featured by the Journal team.
