If you try and be a personal injury lawyer, you will have a LOT of competition. If you become a tax lawyer, you can easily become the best in your field because nobody wants to be a tax lawyer. What job in the game art field is the equivalent of a tax lawyer? Which job is required at every game development company that most people don't want to do? I don't care how difficult the job can be, just that not many people want to go into it. Are there any suggestions?
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I'm glad it exists though, no job I'd rather do! Doing art just doesn't have the same appeal anymore.
there so less of them. Also i feel, that only very big companys would pay
a TA only position.
x3. But as Xoliul said no other job I'd rather do
This.
But also this.
If you have more specific questions though I can try my best to answer them...
UI/UX Artist
This. :poly122:
Never having the opportunity to create something from your own imagination is a terrible waste.
Yeah, I was the sole UI artist for a few months at one job, it felt like years and made me miserable (I was hired as an environment artist)
Maybe true. But I bet those EA Sports franchise slash athlete-body-scan artists are all driving Porsche Cayennes.
And pocketing the occasional gameday front row seat tickets. :poly142:
Well, It's mostly about how to do things instead of just doing them, and then finding ways to do it better/more efficiently. That means you should be able to do art well, but rather work on technical things instead. I think that's what makes it rare.
I enjoy it. But I'm so fucking bad at it, that when I see my results I get deopressed for week and do not do it for that period ;p.
TA is actually interesting position. I'm just not sure if I'm creative enough to be one. Though I like coding and art, so it is start at least .
Sure, the Seniors are paid well, however the associate animators(I assume they fall in line with the bodyscan artists' pay), not so much....
With all things considered, it comes down to what gives us long lasting job satisfaction and makes each day enjoyable to wakeup to.
Once we have a decent amount of money in the bank, it's common to start looking at other areas in our life for more meaning.
I wouldn't say that I'd have a bounce in my step going off to work cleaning up data curves...
Though in this industry, I've learned to never say never...If it's a really cool game, then maybe that brainless anim.mocap grunt work isn't so bad *shrug*
Oohhh Burn... ;P
If you join a small company you will probably end up doing it at some point!
Met a guy who loved it at the Eurogamer polycount meet last year
Guess that one slipped in from my head, I've seen some pent up demand and lack of available talent personally. Seems like the role is becoming more common.
In my experience, it gets lumped onto an Env artist who has a good eye for it or shows interest.
But goddamn, a good lighting artist can make a crap game look awesome!
I would definitely say that there is a lot more demand in these roles nowadays.
I'm not at all surprised UI came up. Personally, I love Graphic Design, UX and UI. I enjoy how diverse the work can become - there are so many areas to feed into that people don't even consider.
The problem with niche roles is that they tend to attract a lot of applicants who (for whatever reason) were unable to find a job for their preferred role.
When you eventually work alongside someone who knows their stuff, you will gain a whole new appreciation for these "less favourable" positions.
I like making foliage a lot.
Probably because I love nature so much.
Still, I don't get around to making any that often. Lots of work.
IT might be fun, until you see in house tools you must use. Not everyone is using UE and Cascade Editor.
Other than that I agree doing effects is very fun, but it is very technical job.
Is that common practice in the industry? Hired for one job but you end up having to do something else?
Ha! I had the exact same thing happen to me.
In my case, another artist (who was also an environment artist) had a graphic design background. And we had no dedicated UI artist at the time.
I was brought in to help him, since our UI system at the time had no editor, and consisted of editing a bunch of XML files.
The worst part was fixing the localized text. I really hate the written German language after that.
You don't always get to make what you want, leads tell you what art to make and you make it.
On the plus side I get the opportunity to concept stuff at my current job.
What are the things UI Artists have to do ?
:P
sarcasm doesn't work on the internet
My survey answer: marketing/ splash art artist
^Yeah this. Been responsible for UI at the last two places I work (small group, so not many artists, gotta do a bit of everything). It's actually fun designing it, but implementing it can be a pain.