GDC Portfolio anxiety fun time!!!

anglorum

So my somewhat extensive "career" as an amateur character artist/student has been long lived and educational, however I recently got the itch to make the switch and have been heavily considering moving from the realm of 3D character art into environments.



I feel like for a number of reasons my prospects towards getting a job in that specialization are much greater than penetrating the venerated role of character artist. I know that I can be equally passionate about environments as, really, it's just as much their job to convey emotion and intrigue as any Sly Cooper, or Master Chief.



Upon realizing my new passion and direction, I also come upon another realization, my portfolio is completely tailored towards the position of character artist. GDC is in roughly a month and a half and I am really hoping to pick up atleast one art test. If I am to shape up an impressively powerful, yet to-the-point portfolio, I would like to find out the answer to one question:



Is one extremely polished environment, which displays a wealth of knowledge over many types of surfaces and materials good enough to catch the attention of a AAA developer at the convention? Or will they need to see multiple pieces? When I say AAA I'm aiming for something along the lines of Blizzard, Epic, or Riot studios.



This answer is probably pretty obvious, and I feel like I've heard several times that someone at "recent graduate" level only needs to have one extremely well realized environment to land the admiration of a recruiter. Just wanted some feedback from the sages here at polycount.

Thanks in advance for your advice guys!

Goat Justice

That's probably going to depend on who you're showing it to. Different people/studios are looking for different things. Some will probably place more value on a deeper body of work than others. I would imagine that showing one piece with nothing else on hand to follow up could be a bit awkward. Making some nice call-out sheets of hero piece models and the best textures from the scene could help pad it out.

Jeff Parrott

My gut reaction to reading this is that 1.5 months is not going to be enough time to get up to par to get an art test with the type of AAA places you listed. And GDC is different than maybe you're thinking. It is really just a time to get portfolio feedback from studios. They don't dole out art tests onsite (As you're most likely traveling and not able to work on one). But they might contact a few weeks later. I've had that happen in the past.

But I wrote a piece a while back on being an Environment Artist http://blog.environmentartist.com/?p=734. There's a few links to other helpful posts in there as well. Good luck!

anglorum

Thanks for your responses guys!

Goat: That's kind of what I had hoped to do. Create one entire piece, but then focus on the different areas of the piece as if they were their own tiny stand alone scenes.

Jeff: Wow! It's so nice to get legit advice from a pro like yourself! I read through your link and it definitely makes sense to start with props. I've been modeling props for a while, so maybe I could put together a few strong center pieces for levels or weapons instead.

Also, I've been to GDC a couple times now and I by no means expect to get a job on the spot. I was more curious if I could make an impression that might lead to future art tests (in the weeks following gdc) if I come in with a portfolio showing my knowledge of the full environment process.

anglorum

For reference, this is the kind of piece I was considering creating. I would be aiming for this level of storytelling, variance, artistic expertise, and polish.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107729&highlight=diorama&page=4

anglorum

Anyone else care to weigh in? I'd love to get a variety of responses.