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My humbling experience as Apollo.
For starters, leaving Lefty scared me. No more commissions, no more interactions. But what really made it important was to garner an understanding for what it meant to only be a designer and nothing else. So here is what I learned and what you can take away from it...
First off, a few people who are very active in the design community were no stranger to my personal style, and compared the work of Apollo to that of Lefty. This showed me just how important style and personality is to designs as a whole.
Next, the amount of traction I received was very slim at the start. Couple likes here, couple there, no where near the amount I had received as Lefty. The whole point of this was to understand what it was like to lose the Lefty name and do this as someone nobody knew about...
... but what helped me gain a following, gain traction on posts, and even start getting paid work for real schemes as Apollo, was interacting with other designers here on the platform. There is a few I'd like to mention here as they helped me out when they had no idea who I was.
Andrew aka SparksnSteel pointed me towards proper templates, render lightning and all around know how on how to make a better render scene. With how young they are I have zero doubt they have what it takes to be better than anyone I've ever seen ink a race car design. Period.
@shahzain_rana also helped me out with sharing my work and giving me feedback whenever they had a chance. The jump I've seen in their work has been nothing short of stunning. Renders, schemes, presentation, every aspect of their work has improved and shows a star studded future.
@SD_Graphicshtx knows how to render, and they were nothing short of amazing when it came to help on anything and everything renders. They're work is something to marvel at, and the time they take to help others and put you where you need to be is so selfless in my eyes.
As far as what worked for growing and building my work up from ground zero, it started with resources. Start here:
https://stunodracing.net/index.php?resources/mencs19-2-car-scene-blender.8118/
http://www.simracingdesign.com/resources/
https://www.bigevilracing.com/index.php/downloads/viewcategory/14-numbers
https://stunodracing.net/index.php?resources/mencs19-2-car-scene-blender.8118/
http://www.simracingdesign.com/resources/
https://www.bigevilracing.com/index.php/downloads/viewcategory/14-numbers
The work on @StunodRacing, @SimRacingDesign and @BIGEVILdesigns is the result of an amazing community publishing and polishing resources for designers big and small. Numbers, renders, templates, anything...
... Make sure to show everyone here some support, donate to them, credit them in your work, and maybe even contribute to their sites with your own work wherever possible. It's how my work as Apollo started, through the selflessness of other designers within the community.
The work of Apollo managed to get to some notable milestones using what I've listed above. Interacting with other designers, utilizing platforms, using the best resources available, and most importantly, receiving help from selfless designers within this community...
... Personality can be hard to utilize as a designer. It can be used for good but can also register too much of a personal attachment to negative feedback. You have to understand that with art comes criticism and you have to learn how to root out art and personal crit...
... I learned how important that was with Apollo, all negative crit I received never felt personal because I never made anything personal to begin with. If you are someone like me who cant handle that kind of heat personally, I highly suggest you keep your designs as they are...
... wanting personal attention as well as professional attention are two vastly different things and should never mix. This is what ultimately lead to my own personally viewed "controversial" image. I wouldn't wish that self confliction on anyone.
If you leave this thread with anything, leave with this. The people who help each other and share their knowledge and talent to help others will put each other in positions to succeed 110% of the time.
As far as I go personally. I'm doing really really good. The anonymity of Apollo really gave me some piece of mind on how well everyone in this community is doing and I was thoroughly heart warmed...
... Once I got to a point that everything I ran into caused issues on and off social media, maybe I was the one with the issue. I'm sure I'll be back at some point, soon...
I hope my PR @SierraSnowy has been taking care of you guys with #HeyLefty.
Much love, -Noah
I hope my PR @SierraSnowy has been taking care of you guys with #HeyLefty.
Much love, -Noah
