Looking For Some Advice (Game Industry, Art Jobs)

CJE

Hey everyone,

I'm hoping to get some advice on how I should best progress with my career.  I've been freelancing part-time as a 3D Artist for several years and I've gotten a chance to work on some cool projects (Rise of the Tomb Raider, Dragon Age to name a few).  I've been working a "normal" 9-5 career (which I got a degree for)  in that time to "get by",  but have come to realise I don't want to do that career forever and want to pursue my 3D art full-time.

I've started applying for studio positions, and am starting to ramp up my freelance work, but I wanted to get some advice on how I can better present myself and develop. 

Most of my professional work has been prop and environmental work.  My personal work has always been focused on characters, and this is what I've found the most interesting. I've considered pushing more into the environment side, since that's where my professional work as mainly focused and there seem to be more positions in this area. I can see the appeal in learning to create complex beautiful environments, I've just never really focused on it before and there are a ton of aspects to it that are completely different than "hero/prop modeling".

I also know my portfolio needs some work, as it's a bit mish-mashed at the moment.

www.chademond.artstation.com

Does anyone have any advice on how I should move forward in terms of focusing my energies? Should I focus on creating complete environments? Should I maybe push towards a pure "prop artist"?

Thanks!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Hey Chad, question for you that I hope answers others questions:

Did you ever feel like it was possible before this week that freelancing fulltime could ever be conventional full time work?  Or was it just something that you couldn't easily imagine taking up your working hours, especially early on?

CJE

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Hey Chad, question for you that I hope answers others questions:

Did you ever feel like it was possible before this week that freelancing fulltime could ever be conventional full time work?  Or was it just something that you couldn't easily imagine taking up your working hours, especially early on?

Hey Brian, I'm not sure if I fully understand your question. I've always thought freelancing full-time was a feasible path, if I was able to get enough paid work obviously.  It had been difficult to take that leap however, coming from an extremely stable career.

low odor

It is good to see the pieces  that you did for games, but the materials and textures on the pieces are kind of bland- and the ones without  textures feel incomplete ( I'm sure it's  because you were tasked with just the modeling, but it still  gives off an unfinished vibe).

If I were in your shoes, I would take a step back  from freelancing and  use that free time to make some really killer portfolio pieces. Show off your modeling and that you know modern workflow begining to end.

Make an environment filled with props.

good luck

Brian "Panda" Choi

@CJE: That challenge you saw was the same one I was seeing two years ago.  But I guess for me, coming out of uni, I was wondering "well, if I can't find a full time studio position, I guess I have to freelance.  But how do I freelance fulltime?"

It's something I still haven't found an answer to.

Jonas Ronnegard

Just gonna throw in my initial thoughts about your portfolio.

just looking at the thumbs it looked very beginnerish, and then I noticed it were props made for actual games,
I think what made me think your stuff looked bad when it actually wasn't was the way you have presented your work, everything looks very flat almost close to unlit, if you do some work on your lighting it will look way better.

Bruno Afonseca

Between full environments and props, I'd focus on the environments. Prop work can easily be outsourced, while a good environment artist that knows how to create those props AND put them together in beautiful, balanced and optimized environments is a very valuable professional