Just got a junior 3D artist position and I'm suddenly feeling pressure, what should a junior know?
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I was recently told I've gotten the job of a 3D junior artist at a triple A studio, I'm excited but extremely scared now.
I have NOT lied and told them I can do this and that, but they aren't aware of everything I'm not fully confident in. I mean I didn't sit in the interview listing off my weaknesses because that seemed like a great way to not get a job.
But my question is what is the typical way a company treats a junior artist? Do you get trained and taught? Will I get to observe other for a few weeks? Will they expect me to be able to get to work straight away?
I'm very much going into this position hoping for it to be as much of learning experience as it is a job.
Thanks!
I have NOT lied and told them I can do this and that, but they aren't aware of everything I'm not fully confident in. I mean I didn't sit in the interview listing off my weaknesses because that seemed like a great way to not get a job.
But my question is what is the typical way a company treats a junior artist? Do you get trained and taught? Will I get to observe other for a few weeks? Will they expect me to be able to get to work straight away?
I'm very much going into this position hoping for it to be as much of learning experience as it is a job.
Thanks!
Replies
Your first day / week is usually installing all the stuff you need and learning the tools. All companies should have a ramp up period. It tends to be longer for juniors. You arent expected to be able to do what the seniors do right away. You`ll be given the lower end tasks at first to get you comfortable with how they do things. But, some companies will throw a super important thing at you day 1. here's a boss battle! or something like that. It really depends on the company. Some companies will match you up with a senior/mid. They`ll be your go to to ask questions and get help. Others, that's what the lead does. Its hard to give you a proper answer since each company is different.
It`s going to be overwhelming. Try to enjoy it. And dont put in a ridiculous amount of OT because you`re trying to prove yourself. Burning yourself out right away is a terrible way to start your career. Put in the work, but know there needs to be a balance as well. Some OT = sure. LOTS = bad.
At the end of your first week, talk to your lead. See if you can have a 1 on 1. Ask for feedback. How did you do? Ask what their expectations are of you. Communicate any issues you have. Feel like you`re not fast enough yet? Dont be afraid to talk to them about it. If you show you`re interested in the job, and want to get better, they wont fault you for that.
Also, try to find a mentor if your company doesn't set you up with one - this can be your lead or a more senior artist of your team, or just the guy sitting next to you. You don't have to strike a formal mentorship agreement, just establish a relationship and make sure you can turn to the person whenever you have a question. In theory your lead should take care of this, but leads can be quite busy people.
On my first job this mentor was the guy next to me (who would eventually become lead), but also my lead was very good at pointing out mistakes and showing me how to do it better next time.
Get the naming and folder structure right. Take notes on it if you have too. It's my biggest pet peeve with newbies.
"if you notice yourself receiving the same critique over a couple of assets then you're not paying enough attention to what's being said."
But yea overall I'll list a few things that helped.
- Good organization. Figure out a folder method that is easy to navigate through should you pass off assets. No one should have to ask.
- Asking good questions. Never ask questions that you can google in 3 minutes.
- Asking for workflow documentation if they have any.
- If you're working on an asset when you begin, you could ask them what they think is their best "x" asset that represents the quality/workflow/optimization they're looking for. That way you have an easy target to reference while you're working. That helped me a lot when starting my current position. There were a few minor changes that I had to adopt in my workflow but having a high quality asset to reference each step of the way really helped get up to speed quickly.
Both my last and current studio had me do an asset as soon as I arrived. I spend about a half a day setting up my hotkeys / scripts / etc and then just got to work . I asked any performance or workflow related questions as I went along if needed.
Overall, I wouldn't worry too much. I remember being pretty anxious at my first game-job. It took about a week to settle in to realize that everyone wants everyone else to succeed. Both places have been great supportive environments and I am sure yours will be the same.
Good luck!
I remember having the same feeling about 8 months ago. On my first day I got settled in at my desk and took the rest of the morning to read project documentation and set up all my scripts and hotkeys. Then the last half my lead set me up with my first task and I got right into it. That first task is when you'll really be learning their pipeline. Make sure to ask questions about techniques or workflows that you would assume to be different from yours (Importing, lods, lightmaps/lightmap res, texture export settings) things like that.
As for worrying about having weaknesses... They realize every artist can't be perfect at everything. They will quickly figure out what your good at and what your not. Especially in a aaa studio where I assume where you will be working, they will have a pretty big pool of artists. You'll find your niche in the studio and the more they learn about your capabilities and skill set, the more fitting the tasks will become to you.
Also one of the most useful things you can do is to talk to people. People are busy and sometimes miss online messages or emails, if I need something to be fixed I usually try to just get up and go to their desk to talk about it. Its more often a waste of time than a time saver waiting for people to reply via email or online messenger. Besides, getting up, and walking around is good for you! When I first got there about a month in I got in this awful habit that I'm still trying to get better at of sometimes sitting through the entire workday for about 9 hours nonstop, eating at my desk, and leaving my headphones on all day listening to music or podcasts. It was not good for my health mentally or physically.
Try to be as realistic with your time estimates as you can and by that I mean pad your estimates. It's better to finish early and look like a pro rather than run long and cause problems.
Don't rely on others as a crutch, what I mean by this is don't keep interrupting the people around you because you can't remember what a keyboard shortcut is. Ask once, ok fine. Ask 7 times in an hour and you should have written it down.
Keep your ego in check. It can be quite a shock to talk to a humble artist in interviews and then when he shows up, thinks he's boss, is dismissive and god's gift to the department. Those guys usually don't last long and people don't like to help them out.
Don't be to hard on yourself either. If someone gives you a compliment take it, don't downplay it or point out your flaws. Don't make it a big deal or an opening to sing your own praises.
Don't be afraid to write down tribal knowledge or make tutorials to help yourself remember processes. Especially the ones you will do once every few weeks or months. That way you aren't bugging people to reteach what you already should know. It can help other artists that run into the same thing, or new hires that come after you. it also helps establish you as an integral part of the company and a source for knowledge instead of being just a junior, always taking. After all that's why they hired you right? they want to see you grow and become a valuable resource?
As for the rest : as Adam said, after asking a question and getting an answer, write it down. And never try to hide the fact that you didn't understand something. Make sure that you 100% understand an answer, and if not, ask for clarifications on the spot. Also take meetings seriously and always bring a notepad. This is actually a bit of a pro-tip here : if you go to a meeting and notice that the person in charge doesn't have anything to write notes on ... expect this meeting to be a waste of time and effort as everything will be forgotten by the next Monday
Also : please, don't stand/stalk behind someone to "observe" him/her, as this is one of the most annoying thing a new hire can do. Some artists may offer you the opportunity to do sit next to them for a specific reason ("hey come over, you might need to know how to do this and that, I'll show you") - but if you want really want to observe people at work, make sure to ask them first because most of the time their work requires 110% of their attention already and there's nothing worse then being observed without one's knowledge. (I am actually mentioning this because I personally ran into this situation with a Temp a few years back, and had to explain the above).
Thanks for all the comments, I read them often before starting the job and they really put me at ease. Ultimately I was overestimating what they expected of me and found myself in a position of doing very menial task that don't require much skill (grunt work). Over time I found myself getting so comfortable (almost bored) that I starting asking for more responsibility.
Initially when I started I found myself running into things I just did not understand, so every night I'd come home and learn about the particular problem I had that day. This went on for a few weeks, and while at first it was very stressful, overtime I started to pick everything up.
Having worked there for a while now I feel very comfortable. It's amazing how quickly it starts to feel like a regular job. As junior I had this idealised vision that every day would be wonderful and creative, but I find that 80 percent of my time I'm just doing technical tasks and the last 20 percent is where I get to be an artist.