Where do I start learning how to become a game artist and create content? I'm currently a developer but would like to learn how to get started, particularly with 3D visual content - models, animations, textures, lighting, etc. Are there any recommended sites? Resources? Books? Communities? What are the typical tasks and tools? Thanks a lot for beating some clue into me!

Hey yaaang!

The industry is scary simply because everyone can't just settle with anything. [wink]

Blender is a great freeware modeling package for you to get your hands dirty with, paired with it's thorough tutorial.

If you do not want to be writing any code and simply create content, you want to understand how your elements will fit in the scale of the game world. For example, you don't want to make a human in your editor that is too tiny to go up a game world's staircase! This is done simply to avoid scaling at runtime and dealing with the problems it brings with vertex lighting.

As you become more experienced, you can touch on the more powerful industry standard software like Maya, 3DS Max and Photoshop. There are many different specialized tools that NVIDIA offers as well. As a beginner, you want to build your skills with Blender, and maybe save up for Maya and Photoshop. (They can interface together) Build a portfolio and make yourself impressive!

See here for more details.

Cheers!
-Zyro