Fulltime as a Character Artist?

CyberGameArts

Hello everybody,

So this question has been on my mind for some time now and I just want to clear it up. My goal/dream is to get into the Games Industry and eventually become a member of a core/fulltime team in the studio. I am just curious if that’s actually possible as a character artist, since I think there comes a time when a character is probably out of work, compared to an environmental artist who has to create a mind-blowing amount of assets(depending on the game of course. Maybe not in character heavy like Mass Effect or some RPG). So my best guess would be that the studio lets the character artist go after he has finished all his work.

But let's say I am wrong here(and I probably am :P ), what would the character do? Help out the envi artists with some organic objects(stuff like trees or cloth-type textures maybe? ) ? For some reason its just really hard to see a character artist in a fulltime position. I mean as an environmental artist there is always stuff to make, always maps to create. I guess the I am wrong here, but it just feels like there are so many more assets to create in an Environment compared to maybe like 10 characters. Of course characters take longer to make, but I think the sheer amount of assets in an environment outweigh that fact. Also characters need to be rigged, animated and then coded so they need to finished earlier- that’s just my guess. Hence I think that there is a point when a character artist is done with all his workload and left workless in his niche, but the game isn't done yet- so what does he do?

Now, I am a total noob and I have never had a job in the Games Industry, so I don’t know- these are just my assumptions . It just has been a bit mind boggling, if becoming a character artist is a good choice if I want to become fulltime at some point.

Anyways, thank you very much! and again sorry for all these noobish questions

ceebee

There's always plenty of work for a character artist to do whether it's full-time or freelance. You just have to have work good enough for people to want to hire you. And chances are if you're at a good studio you aren't going to be sitting there waiting very long for your next task, that's why jobs like art managers and art producers exist (to keep schedules flowing smoothly and to keep people busy, usually). Chances are if you're hired as a full time employee you will literally be working full time. There are also contract/temp positions for studios who don't need somebody for more than a year.

Companies usually don't throw money around willy nilly so if you're taken on, expect to always have work to do. If you don't, at least try to keep yourself busy/working and who knows, your employers/coworkers might appreciate it in some way or another.

CyberGameArts

Thank you very much! The likelihood of getting a fulltime position depends on how good and motivated you are, right?

Sculptaur

I think most big games have more characters then you might realise. Also keep in mind, that at most studios the character team is a lot smaller then the environment team and at some studios character artists will have to make weapons and vehicles as well.

ceebee

CyberGameArts wrote: »

Thank you very much! The likelihood of getting a fulltime position depends on how good and motivated you are, right?

Essentially yeah. There are other factors that come in like connections, friends, and luck. But the ones you mentioned should be first priority. Also making sure you actually enjoy what you're doing so that you actually have the desire to keep yourself motivated and consistently improve the skillset that makes you a valuable artist is very important in my opinion.

CyberGameArts

Thank you both! You helped me alot!

BoBo_the_seal

Every game I've worked on, we've had to cut characters for lack of time. Yes there is plenty of character work to do.

almighty_gir

BoBo_the_seal wrote: »

Every game I've worked on, we've had to cut characters for lack of time. Yes there is plenty of character work to do.

yet we hear of studios who have 50 or so environment artists, and only two or three character guys. Arkham City being a game with that kind of ratio (unless i'm mistaken, but i heard it from someone who worked on it).

JacqueChoi

.

PredatorGSR

almighty_gir wrote: »

yet we hear of studios who have 50 or so environment artists, and only two or three character guys. Arkham City being a game with that kind of ratio (unless i'm mistaken, but i heard it from someone who worked on it).

Env stuff gets cut all the time too. Even though the character team is usually smaller, they still create as many characters as they can within the production schedule.

almighty_gir

PredatorGSR wrote: »

Env stuff gets cut all the time too. Even though the character team is usually smaller, they still create as many characters as they can within the production schedule.

i get that, but you can understand why this leads to the perception that "you'll never make it as a character artist, just because of the numbers".

Sculptaur

almighty_gir wrote: »

yet we hear of studios who have 50 or so environment artists, and only two or three character guys. Arkham City being a game with that kind of ratio (unless i'm mistaken, but i heard it from someone who worked on it).

I think that number might be a bit distorted Gir, 5 Character artists to 11 Environment aritsts (including the leads).
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/batman-arkham-city/credits

Still, thats more then twice as many...

Essynim

Rocksteady also outsourced a lot of its character work to other studios, which may explain the ratio a bit better

skankerzero

I jump over to props and set dressing when I'm done with character work usually, but often times, you can find yourself tweating characters until the game ships.

Cutting characters always happens, but is usually more of an animation bottle neck than a character artist bottle neck.

Hazardous

We were down to 2 character artists inhouse for Rift for a while (+ outsourcing) - some of the enviro guys from the team might be able to confirm, but there was I think definitely over 10 Enviro artists??

Some studios have downtime, where you can experiment and make up whatever you want / add new things / creatures / armors for DLC once a project finishes - Youll always have tonnes to do providing management are doing good.