Career path advice

LeeCurt

Hi polycounters!

I'm a junior level artist, currently working at Ubisoft Paris.My contract is ending in a few months so i'm starting to think about my possible next career move.

I've been in the industry for 2 years now. I spent my first year in a studio working on an augmented reality game. I was doing mainly generic props and there was no need to make special compositions or complete environments.

Now, as a level artist at Ubi, i'm doing mostly world building directly in the engine with internal tools, so i really don't model that much. I'm proud to work on a big upcoming title but it sometimes frustrating to spend weeks at work without opening a 3d package or a texturing tool.

That's why i'm spending my spare time doing what i can't do at work: learning substance tools, sculpting, improving my anatomy knowledge doing characters. As many of you know, is not always easy to find room for personal improvement  after a 8hours day at work (or more). The industry is moving fast and i don't want to be left behind.

My point is that, at the end of the day, i feel like my portfolio is clearly lacking focus when combining my personal and my pro work. It demonstrates an average level in various fields, but nothing really stands out IMO. I'm kind of lost when i see job opportunities for enviro or chara artists. I feel like i'm not reaching the minimum requirement in either field.

So at this point, I'm having a hard time deciding what i should do during the upcoming months:

-Improve my character work and try to compete with the complete savages out there? O.o

- get rid of the characters and do more complex props and build complete environment scenes?

- Keep going with this broad skillset cause it didn't prevent me from landing my previous jobs?

So if you guys have some wise advices to strenghten my profil, I'll take it!

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

MM

ask yourself what makes you happy ?
focus on what ever makes you happy and focus on what ever you see yourself doing 10 years from now, focus on what inspires you.
if you focus on anything other than what you enjoy doing, then you will eventually get bored, frustrated and complacent.
if you focus on something you enjoy making then you will never burn out or get tired and you will improve every day which would bring more opportunities career wise for your future as well.

Stuart Campbell

First decide what it is you want to achieve. Do you want to do environments or characters?

Once you make that choice, focus solely on that, drop the others for now. You want to really drill into one discipline and do it well rather than trying some scatter gun approach with a bit of everything. You can always develop other areas later.

If its environments then I would ensure your folio contains ~10 images of solid work showing off your environment skills. This could be props, modular components and final scenes. I'd also suggest that at least one shot deconstructs a model showing wireframe, UV map and the various textures used. This will help to show a deeper understanding of how everything goes together and also allow employers to see how efficiently you model, etc.

All images should be taken from a game engine - doesn't really matter which one, unless you are only applying for roles at companies that use a specific engine.

You could do some ZBrush work in there too but it really depends on what the piece requires. The majority of game environment art can still be done without this - and a high percentage of games will not have this in their pipeline. In tight production schedules Zbrush is often a luxury and there are more efficient methods of achieving similar results without the need for a high poly workflow - NDo, etc. There are of course cases where ZBrush would be beneficial to the end result. I guess what I'm saying is, use if it is genuinely the right tool for the job and not just because you feel pressure to learn it. 

JacqueChoi

I should point out it's generally harder to get in as a Character Artist due to lower amount of openings.

You have to make sure you want to do this above and beyond anything else.

With your current portfolio, I feel you would be accepted at several studios as a props  artist, but you're still 1-2 years away from being a Character Artist.

I don't see any environments in your portfolio, and I only see 2 Completed Characters which are very stylized.

LeeCurt

Thank you so much guys for taking the time to give me some feedbacks. Think i'm going to build a more props/enviro based portfolio, with complete scenes, and  just keep my best character to show i have a basic understanding in character modeling.
I have 3 months to find a new job so it looks like the best thing to do for now