Portfolio advice
polycounter lvl 4
Hi everyone! I graduated just shy of a year ago and have been working on improving my skill set and portfolio ever since. I'm still a long way off and I'm running into a wall when it comes to direction and content I need to create to get my first artist job. If you have the time and any suggestions I could really use some help.
My goal is to be a lighting and texture artist and I would love to build and maintain pipeline processes with Substance Designer for a studio (if there is such a position). I'm also familiar with Unity and UE4 and am learning PBR workflow. My modeling skills are atrocious and I'm trying to decide if I should focus more on improving them or the skills I enjoy more.
Thank you very much for your time and feedback!
www.sethblakely.com
My goal is to be a lighting and texture artist and I would love to build and maintain pipeline processes with Substance Designer for a studio (if there is such a position). I'm also familiar with Unity and UE4 and am learning PBR workflow. My modeling skills are atrocious and I'm trying to decide if I should focus more on improving them or the skills I enjoy more.
Thank you very much for your time and feedback!
www.sethblakely.com
Replies
For a lighting artist role you need to show more on your portfolio then just a point light put in a scene.
I do have a couple questions for you in regard to handcrafted textures: are you talking about stylized, hand-painted, or anything else in particular? My high level workflow for all textures breaks down into either tile-able or custom.
For tile-able I model basic shapes in Maya, sculpt in Zbrush, bake Normal, Height and AO in xNormal, then complete texturing in Substance Designer.
For custom assets I follow the same workflow except that I finish my texturing in Substance Painter.
For the lighting artist role I absolutely agree with you -- I'm asking to find out what and/or how I can showcase more.
Given that information, what else would you like to see if I applied to work for you? Thank you for your time!
It doesn't matter how you make stuff, all that matters is the quality. Substance designer is a great tool to know if it helps you texture, and if you can hit a high quality bar with it then it doesn't matter. "Hand crafted in photoshop," sounds like a really crappy requirement for someone to be a texture artist. Just use whatever tools you find most intuitive.
As for the original question. If you want to work in games, dedicated texture artists or lighting artist positions are not as common as they are in the VFX industry. That isn't to say they do not exist, but for the studios that do hire those type of specialized people, they are generally not looking for JR level people. It is going to be really hard to get your foot in the door for positions that are generally filled with mid to high level artists in the game industry.
If you do want to be a texture artist I would still recommend pushing your modeling skills though. Honestly 75% of my texture work comes from my highpoly model. Once my highpoly is done, I get about 15-20 masks from it which help me create my textures really quickly.
As for lighting, nothing in your portfolio shows that you can light anything at a level worth hiring.
My general advice would be to go out and find some lighting and texture artists working in the industry and look at their portfolios and resumes. See what their career paths were like, and see the quality of work they have and compare it to yours. Then try your best to get your next project as close to that quality as you can.
Great Advice BARDLER, its definitely tough Solmas. I graduated a little over a year ago as well. As long as you have a passion for what you are doing and you follow BARDLER's advice, and keep posting work here to get critiques, you will get there. Again you just have to really love what you are doing.
You're right about texture artist being a highly specialized and competitive position and I know I'm not there yet. Would anyone hire a lighting AND texture artist? Provided they had the skill level in both areas to be worth hiring that is.
I haven't been able to find any type of junior artist position yet to get my foot in the door besides testing gigs -- of which I have graciously accepted and am enjoying currently. I have been researching other lighting and texture artists and have found that a lot do come from the media and VFX industries. I haven't seen any who came from testing however -- test experience doesn't hurt an artists resume, does it? Would testing for the life cycle of a game count as production/pipeline experience or would that be dismissed? Sorry for getting side tracked with the career questions.
I will work keep working on my modeling skills. In the mean time, would it be bad form to use (with permission and proper credit given of course) other artists models to texture only? I've been considering doing this but don't know if it would be a good idea or not. What do you mean when you say you get masks from your high poly models? Typically I'll make my own stencils in Photoshop and use those to sculpt detail into high poly models. Is that similar to what you're talking about?
Thanks again for your time and effort in responding -- it helps me a lot!
I think so, I had a professor, which previous to teaching, was a texture and lighting director. He also had junior artists under him with the same role (except for the director part).
"I haven't been able to find any type of junior artist position yet to get my foot in the door besides testing gigs -- of which I have graciously accepted and am enjoying currently. I have been researching other lighting and texture artists and have found that a lot do come from the media and VFX industries. I haven't seen any who came from testing however -- test experience doesn't hurt an artists resume, does it? Would testing for the life cycle of a game count as production/pipeline experience or would that be dismissed? Sorry for getting side tracked with the career questions. "
It definitely does, any experience in the industry counts. Sure it does not apply to the actual career you want but it is a path to that career.
"I will work keep working on my modeling skills. In the mean time, would it be bad form to use (with permission and proper credit given of course) other artists models to texture only? I've been considering doing this but don't know if it would be a good idea or not. "
You can do that, but I would rather make a model and go through that process. The more experience you get in modeling and texturing will only help you.
Actually the important thing is what you do in your free time, beside whatever job you do. I know a concept artist that was a waiter before finally making it as fulltime artist, but he also spent up to 12 hours per day drawing.
The biggest advantage that a tester gets, has little to do with pipelines, as normally you don't get that close to the artist part. It is rather that you get to know the industry and people within. If you gain their respect then your chances will be higher so that they give you a benift of a doubt when you apply for an artist position or whatever other job within the company if you have about the same qualifications as other applicants.
Altogether I am sure that working as a tester is nothing that hurts your resume, rather on the contrary if you do it right. Testers are often the persons who know the product best. This knowledge and experience comes handy when you are working on such a product yourself. Also if you are keeping an open mind you will get a lot of understanding for the whole process of making a game, which also comes handy when you work within a team. There are some basic experiences that every job shares that are important to gain and will help your 'softskills' a lot - I have a pretty good reputation within our company not only for my 2D/3D skills, but also because of some knowledge and skills I aquired while studying economy and working as a jurist and the basics of how I work with other people.
So to get finally to the point and stop boring you
As an artist, you will get an interview chance based on the skills you can present in your portfolio, but finally you will probably be hired based on your overall package. Your portfolio will show your skillset - if it is good enough to make them even read your resume your previous experiences will never hurt you as long as they don't make a case for you to be a poor employee.
So best of luck to you in this new year
@3dReaper: Thank you for answering my questions -- especially given that you've had experience with your instructor. I will certainly take your advice and continue working on my own models; everyone has been pretty insistent that modeling skills are key regardless of what your specialty is. In the mean time, I'll look into texturing other artists' models to at least have something decent in my portfolio -- might also be a good experience to texture a professional model too
@Biomag: Thank you for relating your personal experience getting into the games industry! I hadn't met or heard of any artists that came from test yet. Honestly I don't mind the job, it's fun and I've learned a lot more than if I were a server or any other job outside of the industry for sure. And I spend a LOT of my personal time working on my skill set: I volunteer for a startup indie company as a texture artist, devote every Sunday entirely to portfolio work and usually spend at least a couple hours every night working and watching tutorials after I get home. But to finally get to my point and to stop boring YOU (I wasn't bored in the least btw
I really appreciate the positive mojo and time everyone's taken to offer their experience and advice. Thank you all very much and may 2015 be a great, great year for all of us!
I wrote Photoshop, zbrush etc. I wouldn't hire a texture artist who only knows Substance Designer. What happens when he has to hand paint some decals or sculpt some details for a baroque environment and so on? Then he becomes a burden because someone else has to do it. Basics are important for an artist.
I mean the process, not the style. Everything that isn't done with a procedural tool (hand painting, sculpting, modelling etc.). Imo a texture artist should know all the tricks and tools to be versatile, flexible and never hitting a wall when a task comes around that's very difficult or impossible to achieve with just one particular tool.
Agreed.
You should be able to get the results with as little as possible. Your workflow should be enchanced/improved by the right tools, not your skills.
If you are lucky maybe the company you will work for will have the chance to add a program into its pipeline that you prefer to use, but you shouldn't make it a necessity for you to get good results. Increase your worth as artist by getting to the point you can say: "I am specialized in creating textures and I can make whatever you want, but if you want me do be faster/more flexible I suggest you add this or that program".
Also basics are incredible important to be able to adapt to new tools or necessities of a project. Never ever underestimate the importance of those as they can make life hell or incredible easy.
@Steppenwolf: Thanks for responding again and clearing up my confusion. I agree with what you meant by understanding the processes of using different software to create a product. I am experienced with using Zbrush, Photoshop, and other software and can produce quality work though I am certainly not as proficient with them as I am with Substance Designer and Substance Painter. Over the last 2 years I've replaced my original workflow using Photoshop and Zbrush with SD and SP almost completely. I will revisit the old way of doing business though to ensure that I'm proficient -- well, as proficient as a junior artist can be anyway
@Biomag: thanks for seconding Steppenwolf's suggestion, I think its really good advice!