Ways to improve the industry?
polycounter lvl 3
Right off the bat let me say I'm not an artist, and it's likely I never will be. I do however love computer graphics, and I regularly browse this site and others marveling at the amazing work you guys manage to produce. I also see how hard it is to make a living in the industry, despite amazing talent and hard work.
To me it seems that there MUST be a way that people that can produce an image / asset / whatever, that can take peoples breath away can surely do better than the current industry situation?
To me it seems that there MUST be a way that people that can produce an image / asset / whatever, that can take peoples breath away can surely do better than the current industry situation?
Replies
I'm just wondering if there is some other structure that people with talent like that can use to make a living. Here are some examples of what I was thinking of:
* Submit a picture you've created to a website, you get a percentage of revenue if people view/ like it.
* Sell assets (already happening, does it work?)
* Produce tutorials that others pay to watch.
* Maybe some sort of benefactor system where people that like the art can donate to help support the artist.
I know some of these already happen, but surely there must be others? People pay for entertainment (apps, movies, games, etc), and surely seeing or interacting with the work you guys produce, that microexperience, can be used to help the artists financially?
This is the internet, man. People just gonna download/screenshot and host it else where. Not to mention art theft...
It does work, though appear so only to the top artists (very skilled and well-known.) The not-top artists can't really say the same. It works out to a certain degree to each artist.
This is nice and very helpful. Though, to play devil's advocate, it's a form of pyramid scheme... How ? Higher artists make tutorials for lower artists. Without lower artists, tutorials do not sell. So we make money off of each other instead of from developers or the ppl with money to spend. There's nothing wrong with this, but it's a little weird
There are actually websites like this. I ran into another one just last week. Again, only the popular ones could make it work. It's like pretty cosplay girls getting loads of donation playing BioShock and such.
No clue, man
Of course it takes time, effort and dedication, but that's just like everything art-related. It's actually a pretty fair system, since everybody is equal there. And the market is actually growing : Unity has an asset store too, and Epic is currently opening their own for UDK these days as well.
It's a good time !
That sounds reasonable for lead and senior artist sometimes,entry level/regular role do not come close to that number. The average pay for a regular role as 3d/environment artist to be honest is around 45k not including indie.
The viable methods of supporting one self and others as an artist is freelancing(Must have good traffic of clients) and working in a DECENT studio.
Fixing many of the central issues we all face as artists, starts with us stepping up for the value we deserve.
1. Stop working for free, or doing an internship for free(compensation for lunch and commute is not enough). Seriously Google interns earn around 5k-7k a month. Other industries value their interns. So why do will accept to work for free? Analyse that situation and things will start to ring. If the answer is to gain experience, that should signal you how bad the job market is.
2. If you work professionally or trying to get a job, do your best to negotiate what your value should be worth and do not fall into to what society sees in your value. Do not want to sound materialistic here, but 45k-60k as average pay is disrespectful if you do not agree, I assume you have gotten lucky and was unable to see the hard journey some artist have taken.
Where are you located, Blazed?
He never mentioned why that is... (shrug)
Place like Switzerland for example, which have a higher life expanse, isn't teaming with several dozen game studios unlike say a place like maybe Germany, or Spain.
Of course, there are other Governmental reasons this can happen as well, and for all you know, it could be rigged competition that no one cared about to look into.
I think a quick, simple reply is that a lot of services like medical care are not automatically covered by the government in the US, hence the hike in salaries to cover for expenditures like check-ups, etc.
Ya sorry should of speficied that number came from a friend at ubisoft Montreal who is senior
I actually was going to make a thread asking about cost of living, particularly in California. I don't know where I'll end up after graduation, but I do know that a lot of game companies are out in California, and I could very well end up there. Looking at the cost of living for apartments if you have a partner, isn't bad. Settling down and having a family in Cali though, whether in LA or the Bay area, seems crazy expensive. To get a decent home you'd need to spend around a million dollars it seems like. 500,000 will get you a pretty small house, that is not visually pleasing, and is nowhere near what'd you get for something on the east coast in places like North Carolina or higher up north. So it seems like Cali is only really good for staying there for a couple of years before you start a family, to build connections, then moving out when you want to settle down. I know the wage there is higher and there are people who are there that make it work, just not sure how? If anyone has anything to chime in here on this that would be awesome.
I live in Santa Monica CA and pay around 1,700.00 for a one bedroom. Not including utilities. Most of your salary will probably go to rent unless you have a room mate, wife/husband, live with your parents etc.
For the most part, the game industry salaries don't really pay well for the cost of living out here. Some do, usually if you're lead/senior level at a profitable studio. Thing is, even making low 6 figures out here is just middle class.
The taxes are extremely high in California as well. Also, in Los Angeles, if you freelance, you have to pay a personal business tax to the city as well as all the other state taxes.
I know some guys in the film industry and they get paid much higher than game developers. I mean, some get 2x-4x the salary, which boggles my mind when I think about it. Then you realize why studios started outsourcing a lot of the VFX industry out of LA.
Honestly, if you could find a game dev job outside of California, you'd probably be better off taking it. California is nice, has great weather, opportunity etc. But when it comes down to things like quality of life, raising a family, it can get pretty tough (financially speaking).
The industry has never been better for self-employed creative artists. We are spoiled rotten with amazing low-price tools that allow us to make a living or decent side income.
Maya Lt for $20 a month. Blender for free. Unity is free. Unreal is $20 a month. Quixel suite I paid some super low price for. Playmaker for Unity was $50. Artrage was $50. Git or Mercurial hosting for $7 a month.
Free tutorials for literally everything and even the paid tutorials I can get are less than a cup of coffee. It costs me at least $50 to take my family out for a cheap dinner and for that same $50 I can watch hundreds of tutorials for an entire month.
You can make money from literally everything you do as an artist. If you make a demo reel, you can sell every bit of it online. Models, textures, particles, etc. You could even record yourself making your demoreel and sell tutorials of how you made it. Now you have a demoreel plus money from the assets plus money from the tutorials. Get paid for everything.
Create things that have VALUE and you will be rewarded.
Milton Keynes? the only developer i know of in MK is http://www.drstudios.co.uk/ i've heard nothing but bad things unfortunately... So at least you're in a better place!
From what I read here it seems like a better way forward would be to increase the demand for individual assets, like the DOTA model or the unity asset store. Maybe setting a minimum price per asset and increasing the percentage that goes to the artist?
The other option would be something like Second Life where you can make assets and sell them, without a specific genre. Did anyone use that?
There is a big difference between making money and making a living/raising a family. I understand a large percentage of game artist are in many case single or team up with a room mate to pay for expenses. Which can lead to many settling down with their finances and not looking at the bigger picture.
In regards to living in the bay area, we seem to be one of the many creative fields that get hit hard/devalue. If you talk to an engineer he/she would say the opposite and state that the Bay area is amazing in both income and quality of life. Why can we also be in the same position? This goes for all the excuses of "It depends where you live census", that is one good way of accepting low payment. If you have more than 5 years experience and making less than 80k please wake up and take action. In other fields that would be an act of either discrimination or being disrespectful, we should treat it the same.
As with anything if we want the improvements (crunch, salary,etc) is going to start with voicing our demands and for the leads/seniors to take action at the top. If not lets keep making art forever and not complain I supposed.