For Envy/Prop Artists,do you have difficulty telling others your job?
interpolator
This is not really an issue I lose sleep over. But I've found it's become an obstacle in almost every conversation I have about "what's my job" or "what do you want to do".
The hard part isn't just saying "well I am/want to be a game's environment artist". But rather, this statement that comes after:
"oh, so you're an artist? Does that mean you can draw people?"
Drawing people is obviously not a requirement of prop/environment art, but I notice people immediately go stone face if I tell them no. This then leads me to actually explain what game environment/prop art is and either they just nod along (pretending to understand I guess) or just stay stone face.
It's a bit frustrating for two reasons: I don't want to be seen as "less of an artist" for not drawing people, but I also don't want to lie about myself either (I did learn in school and online about the fundamentals of drawing humans).
Again, I don't let this issue beat me up everyday, even when it does show up in conversations that could affect my future (i.e explaining to parents I want to get into games).
In a twist of irony, I once went to an industry event where people could look at portfolios. While I was busy explaining myself, one of the industry recruiters noticed some cartoons I had left on the table. While he wasn't impressed with my 3D work, he was quick to point out my drawings "wow! you can draw cartoons! Are you going to be a cartoonist?"
The hard part isn't just saying "well I am/want to be a game's environment artist". But rather, this statement that comes after:
"oh, so you're an artist? Does that mean you can draw people?"
Drawing people is obviously not a requirement of prop/environment art, but I notice people immediately go stone face if I tell them no. This then leads me to actually explain what game environment/prop art is and either they just nod along (pretending to understand I guess) or just stay stone face.
It's a bit frustrating for two reasons: I don't want to be seen as "less of an artist" for not drawing people, but I also don't want to lie about myself either (I did learn in school and online about the fundamentals of drawing humans).
Again, I don't let this issue beat me up everyday, even when it does show up in conversations that could affect my future (i.e explaining to parents I want to get into games).
In a twist of irony, I once went to an industry event where people could look at portfolios. While I was busy explaining myself, one of the industry recruiters noticed some cartoons I had left on the table. While he wasn't impressed with my 3D work, he was quick to point out my drawings "wow! you can draw cartoons! Are you going to be a cartoonist?"
Replies
Just use simpler terms. Hey I make stages for games. Viola!
It's more hard when they ask how does it works.
Came here to say this
It's pretty simple tho,you just create the environments people see in games,and there are other people specialized in characters that make game characters.
That's all.Really
Them: So what do you do?
Me: I make video games.
Them: Oh, cool.
but just don't bother
i get that all the time. the best thing you can do is to leave out jargons and explain in layman terms like warrenM said. it is enough for them to leave you alone unless they like to play games or watch animation.
my only 2 cents is not to let this get to you; our field is considered very specialized even though more people are exposed to games and cg work everyday. this is true to many other types of jobs in this world.
p.s. if the recruiter did not understand your porfolio, i daresay he was just the wrong person to talk to unless the event was about games/cg.
Interviewer: I see your in game development at george brown college
Me: Yes, its a great program
Interviewer: Cool, are you like, designing new sports?
Me: .....
Thank you very much, the beer I was trying to drink somehow exited through my nostrils and made a big stinky splash on my keyboard...
On a more serious note, when trying to explain what enviro art is to random people I just pull out my Note 4 and connect to Artstation
Now, I do make characters. So I just tell them I make characters in videogames. How ? I use digital clay. It's like regular clay, but it's in computer. If they wanna know more, I just show them to my timelapse video. Done.
This is exactly what I do.
Really dosnt matter what people think of your Job, as long as your happy with it and it pays the bills.
Also you can draw similarities with other mediums as well, like more than just games have prop artists. Its just the tools of the trade that change. Like theater and movies have prop artists your just the digital version of that. Hell i done props and lighting for both games and live theater and even the same concepts apply.
"So you're an it guy?"
suuuure
Yeah, I used to say this when I was in the game industry. Or some twist of the whole, "You know the stuff you see when you play games? I make those."
Now that I do more animation stuff, it's back to the whole "You've seen Toy Story right?" way of explaining it.
Just tell them you make things move :thumbup:
I've tried describing this to people who don't play video games at all. Best response was when I said "You know those CGI movies? That's similair to what I do."
Like when people try to talk to me about sports.
For example, I could tell people straight up "I'm the Lead Artist on Gun Talk, a serious game about US Gun Control." but I try to give it context like "So, a colleague of mine approached me to make a serious game in response to the pattern of mass shooting in the United States. As he describes it, it's getting ridiculous and he wants to supercharge the conversation for reform through this game. So while he takes care of the gameplay design and programming, I'm helping define the visual language of the game and providing assets like rigs, environment art, etc." I did this at a birthday party of a recent acquaintance. I'm pretty sure most of them understood what a video game was, but I made the bet it'd be more effective to approach this from a "US shootings" angle, as opposed to talking about all the new things I've had to learn on the tech art side.
To me, I suspect it's not so much the job itself that people care about, but what that job does or means.
Star Wars rarely gets remembered for its visual design. Most people mention lightsaber fights, or how awesome the dogfights were between Rebel and Imperial starfighters. Or how weird it was that Leia got slightly incestuous with Luke.
"Like BDSM stuff?"
Oh god. What have I done?
or into latex
"So you made Call of Duty?"