FX Artist and Environment Artist career advice
polycounter lvl 6
Hi i'm new to the forum and i have some questions regarding the FX artist and environment artist jobs.
I started doing 3D graphics some years ago as a hobby and i learned a bit of everything but now that i'm 20 i decided to specialize in a field to transform this hobby in a career.
The field that i like the most is FX because you create stunning effects and mind blowing stuff but i also like doing enviroment modeling because you literally create virtual worlds from zero, so i'm deciding between the 2.
I already read a lot about this 2 professions so my questions will be more on the economic/market side of things:
1) As an aspiring FX artist/TD for both film and games, what is the demand for this role in the industry ( with industry i mean both games and films ) ?
2) I saw many junior environment artist positions in games but very few junior positions for FX, why ?
3) What is the best presentation method for a game FX reel: Show only the effects in a game engine ( ex. black background with a magic spell simulation on screen ), full CG ( ex. effects put in a fully modelled environment ) or i don't know, something else ?
And what about film: compositing+fx, full cg etc. ?
4) In your opinion what is the most dynamic/less repetitive role in the long run, env or fx ?
5) I currently live in Italy and i don't have a degree but only a high school diploma in electronics and automation, is this a problem for working outside Europe ?
6) is it possible to work as a FX freelance artist ? And what about environment freelance artist ?
I started doing 3D graphics some years ago as a hobby and i learned a bit of everything but now that i'm 20 i decided to specialize in a field to transform this hobby in a career.
The field that i like the most is FX because you create stunning effects and mind blowing stuff but i also like doing enviroment modeling because you literally create virtual worlds from zero, so i'm deciding between the 2.
I already read a lot about this 2 professions so my questions will be more on the economic/market side of things:
1) As an aspiring FX artist/TD for both film and games, what is the demand for this role in the industry ( with industry i mean both games and films ) ?
2) I saw many junior environment artist positions in games but very few junior positions for FX, why ?
3) What is the best presentation method for a game FX reel: Show only the effects in a game engine ( ex. black background with a magic spell simulation on screen ), full CG ( ex. effects put in a fully modelled environment ) or i don't know, something else ?
And what about film: compositing+fx, full cg etc. ?
4) In your opinion what is the most dynamic/less repetitive role in the long run, env or fx ?
5) I currently live in Italy and i don't have a degree but only a high school diploma in electronics and automation, is this a problem for working outside Europe ?
6) is it possible to work as a FX freelance artist ? And what about environment freelance artist ?
Replies
2) Because there is more environment stuff on screen than FX stuff in games. Film is again better because almost every frame has some sort of fx.
3) Look up "Houdini Reel" or "FX Reel" on Youtube and copy that. Ex.
4) Film VFX
5) Yes
6) Yes and Yes.
I'm also planning to learn Python for scripting.
Beside that i must keep working hard to reach a good quality level for a reel