Life Advice/guidance (please help)
polycounter lvl 3
Hello,
Not to get too personal, but I have been doing freelance art and animation for some time(mainly 2D). While I do OK, it's not enough to make an income by myself. Due to circumstances beyond my control(horrible unfortunate events), I am trying to figure out what to do for myself(as I go through grieving process).
The small "plus" is that for the first time ever, the world has opened to me in regards to full time game jobs(instead of just freelance). This is where I need your help. I would love to get a job in 2D game art and animation(less concept art, more in-game). I have 3 months to really pull this together(a goal I set for myself for now), and I would like some opinions on what you guys would recommend my next step to be.
My Portfolio: https://www.deborahsaez.com/
I feel like right now with everything is going on, my head is cloudy and lacks focus. I would really appreciate if I could advice on what I could do to increase my chances of success, and future stability. Basically a plan of attack for the next 3 months. I want to make the most of it. Worse comes to worse, it's more on my plate to improve my freelance art career. If somebody can be my "third eye" I would really appreciate it.
Thank You!
Not to get too personal, but I have been doing freelance art and animation for some time(mainly 2D). While I do OK, it's not enough to make an income by myself. Due to circumstances beyond my control(horrible unfortunate events), I am trying to figure out what to do for myself(as I go through grieving process).
The small "plus" is that for the first time ever, the world has opened to me in regards to full time game jobs(instead of just freelance). This is where I need your help. I would love to get a job in 2D game art and animation(less concept art, more in-game). I have 3 months to really pull this together(a goal I set for myself for now), and I would like some opinions on what you guys would recommend my next step to be.
My Portfolio: https://www.deborahsaez.com/
I feel like right now with everything is going on, my head is cloudy and lacks focus. I would really appreciate if I could advice on what I could do to increase my chances of success, and future stability. Basically a plan of attack for the next 3 months. I want to make the most of it. Worse comes to worse, it's more on my plate to improve my freelance art career. If somebody can be my "third eye" I would really appreciate it.
Thank You!
Replies
You paint better than me. Much better than me. I don't know about your animation stuff because I am myself not an animator. But I do envy your painting skills. My lack of painting skills kept me from art career and if I had your painting skills I would have been somewhere, making a career out of my skills.
BTW, here's how I see it. Most larger studios seem to geared toward games with 3D elements, not much 2D. And when it comes to 3D animation, I was surprised to find out that the animators' job market is already saturated, along with other 3D fields. It's an uphill battle.
You mentioned you have 3 months. Well, that's too short. My friend who used to be a Dreamworks sotry artist advised me that I should invest at least a year to build a portfolio, and that doesn't include the time to build your skills. I think your skills is there, but I am not sure if you can create a sizable portfolio in three months.
I still will be doing freelance work on the side, but this is the time to learn and grow to increase my chances of getting a full-time job, or increase my chances so I can live on freelance on my own. I am just unsure(based on my current reel) what I should take to increase those chances.
Do I take a 2D concept art course? Do I continue to pursue 3D animation? Do I start a 3D modeling course(environment based) that could be applicable to my concept art? Do I just focus on making more animations? Do I try to make characters and animations and sell them on Unity? What reel would I make? Is the 2D market really dying in comparison to 3D? So many questions, and in this very overwhelming time for me, I would love some guidance.
Thanks again for the encouraging words
If you really like painting, then I'd recommend pushing those skills rather than starting to pick something else that you don't care for as much. Brushforge is a really good resource to use if you want to work as a stylized artist. Their courses are high-quality and expensive (they focus more on stylized textures and 3D stuff) but their Facebook group provides really good feedback and it's free to join.
Your portfolio has a LOT going on right now and a really wide variety of work. I'd recommend focusing it on the specific things that you really liked making and feel proud about. Trim down the User Interface content just to the dozen or so strongest pieces, or into a few sets of designs that are related to each other like the planets. I'd remove some of the weaker character pieces that you have, specifically the pixel ones on the bright pink background and some of the lineart pieces that look unfinished. I'd remove some of the low-framerate and low-resolution 2D animations as well for presentation's sake.
Feel free to respond with questions, I hope this is helpful. Good luck!