internship advice / portfolio review

Tom R.

Hi guys, I am a Belgian student in game art and design. I’m in my third bachelor year and looking for an internship (regarding 3d modeling). This internship I’d like to do in the UK and preferably in London (or near it). This to improve my English since I plan on moving to the UK or the USA when I get older. I have also given France a thought, but my French is at a lower level than my English. I’ve been looking around but I haven’t actually found any companies that have any internships open. So I just started contacting them and asking whether or not I could do an internship there. So far, I’ve send mails (with cover letters and a cv) to Traveller’s Tales, Splash Damage, Rebellion and colossal games. Except from auto generated mails, I haven’t got any replies.
By the way, this internship has to be from March 10, 2014 till June 6, 2014, so for a duration of 3 months.

I wanted to ask how I should really go about this, should I spam them with mails and phone calls ?
Because I feel like that would be too importunate and maybe even rude.
I definitely plan on contacting more companies but if any of you know a company that has internships open, I’d be more than happy to hear about it.

Below I’ve added a link to my portfolio so you guys (and ladies) can criticize it. I know my 3d models are far from perfect and my rendering skills even further but I’d appreciate it if you took the time to review my portfolio and give some critique on how to improve my work.

Portfolio: http://tomramakers.daportfolio.com/

Thank you for your time and sorry for any bad written English.

Popol

Please don't change the color of the font to black, it's almost impossible to read.

Popol

And to answer your question :

- Don't neglect small studio
- Send a shit load of emails to tons of different studios. It's quite hard to get an internship in a video game studio if you don't have a killer portfolio or know someone in that studio.
- Your portfolio could be improved a lot. If you have the time I'd recommend taking something like 2-3 weeks to make a good portfolio piece (hero asset, little environment or character).

Good luck in your search!

Tom R.

Thanks for your feedback, sorry for the text, I assumed it would automatically put it in white.

Stinkfoot

As said above there are a lot of small studios out there looking for interns, they can offer a lot of creative freedom, Getting a spot at the big boys is great and there's a ton to learn, but they will want to place you into the production process and might expect a higher skillset.

Take some time to order your work around, its much better to show a few really good (complete!) models, neatly rendered from a nice angle. then a lot of "incomplete" stuff.

Know that a lot of these companies get a ton of applications a day and you'll want your work to stand out from the rest and make them choose you as their Pokemon!

go for eet!

-edit-

Owjeah, take some time to set up a good letter, and send it to whoever you'd like to work for, at one point I had a template that allowed me to set up a letter fast and include some motivational info based on the company whom the letter was going to, takes time, but payed off. you'll want a lot letters poppin' out to let them know you're looking for a spot.