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I'm a games industry art director, ask me anything.

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  • adaweawe
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    adaweawe polycounter lvl 3
    How important is it to have all the models in your portfolio be in  baked on low poly game ready meshes? I see many people simply have high res beauty renders in Keyshot.
  • sziada
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    sziada polycounter lvl 12
    When you review Portfolios do you normally just look a Quality of the work or do you want to see break downs and progress shots of projects that the candidate has worked on?
  • skyline5gtr
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    skyline5gtr polycounter lvl 11
    Stuart - Thanks. took your advice and followed up and now I have an interview. The team was out of the country at the time at gamecon, so good thing I kept going with it. Thanks !
    Good stuff! Best of luck!
    Just wanted to pop in and relay the good news, I was offered the position. So thanks for the advice 
  • Stuart Campbell
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    Stuart Campbell polycounter lvl 13
    Stuart - Thanks. took your advice and followed up and now I have an interview. The team was out of the country at the time at gamecon, so good thing I kept going with it. Thanks !
    Good stuff! Best of luck!
    Just wanted to pop in and relay the good news, I was offered the position. So thanks for the advice 
    Congrats, that's excellent news!


    In response to adaweawe and sziada, I've wrapped this thread up now but your questions are related and I've been asked similar by many others through PMs.

    I'm working on a post that should answer these and hope to have it ready over the next few weeks so keep an eye out for it.
  • Stuart Campbell
  • kasigawa
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    kasigawa vertex
    Along time ago I would have asked a question regarding how can I find employment as an artist in a game company. It's a question I have asked many developers and directors which have given me similar or slightly different answers. However, after trying all their suggestions, putting out 300+ resumes, going through 10 major revisions, and modifying and creating portfolios more than10 times, one's ego and determination to break into the industry gets beat up pretty badly. Even with a degree in game design, it's hard to believe this is where I would be a few years from now. Unfortunately, I turned to indie game development as a side hobby. I want to believe the industry is flooded with developers both new and old,  there is an exaggerated amount of competition for any position in the industry, or it's perhaps the result of a bad or not growing economy. Ultimately, I would like to see new companies come up hiring inexperienced developers, perhaps without the mainstream corporate model or indie companies so that there won't be so much competition or industry stagnation if there is any. But these are my personal opinions. I enjoyed reading your advice. Great job.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
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  • Jonas Ronnegard
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    Jonas Ronnegard polycount sponsor
    Who are you? what titles have you worked on?  Where are examples of your art?
    Sure portfolio and titles would probably be better as years in the industry doesn't always mean much but if you follow his links you can find this.

    "I am a working Game Art Director with over 14 years development experience across most platforms going back to Playstation 2 and original Xbox, and right up to current generation consoles, PC and mobile"

    also his advice sounds right at least to my ears, but as always just because one advice is right it doesn't mean the other one is wrong.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
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  • artbychien
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    artbychien polycounter lvl 8
    His advice sounds promising and right to me. I have learned a bunch from this thread and appreciated his time for this thread. I think people give advice based on their experience; there is no standard way to break into the industry or build a good portfolio. I would just pick the suggestions I need and work on my craft. (I know still a long journey ahead) 
  • Stuart Campbell
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    Stuart Campbell polycounter lvl 13
    not trying to be combative but there are lots of past examples on PC of "secretpros" coming on and giving advice that may not be informed or based on anything.

    Redflags for me - hard to find art, he's promoting a site he's making gameartmentor.com

    we have tons of mentors here - with TOOONS of verified experience they aren't hiding or hard to find.
      
    Sorry you feel my advice to be something sinister. I just felt like trying something to help out students that really want to make it into this industry and my experience puts me in a position to do that.

    I'm certainly not trying to hide. If I were, I wouldn't be using my actual name as my Polycount ID, making it super easy to find me. 

    Look me up on linkedin or mobygames if you need to see actual proof. A quick google search should be all you need. 

    In fact, simply type 'stuart campbell linkedin art director' into google and see what happens. As I said, not hiding and certainly not hard to find.

  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    Stuart Campbell said:
    type 'stuart campbell art director' into google and see what happens.
    http://cargocollective.com/stuartcampbell

    Kinda anticlimactic if you ask me.

    Edit: For the record I have no opinion on this dispute I was just hoping to actually get something by googling

    Edit 2: I see you edited your post... but your linkedin profile is behind a registration wall... Would have been way easier for you to just link your Mobygames profile.

    I really liked the look of F1 Race Stars btw.
  • Stuart Campbell
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    Stuart Campbell polycounter lvl 13
    Edit 2: I see you edited your post... but your linkedin profile is behind a registration wall... Would have been way easier for you to just link your Mobygames profile.

    Yeah, not sure why you got a different result to me, maybe web cache. I also didn't realise LinkedIn hides behind some sort of registration wall. Maybe it just works if you're already signed up?

    Anyway, I have added some of my titles directly on my site now and here you go for those that are interested.
    http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,363570/

    And sorry, but I don't have a folio link. Its been a long time since I've had the need to make one myself and I've had very little time outside of work to do any personal projects. You can find images of any of those games online though.

    P.S. Glad you liked F1 Race Stars, it was a great project to work on. I was Lead Art on that one, Harvey Parker was Art Director. I took over as Art Director on the iOS version. Since then I've been Art Director on Toybox Turbos and Micro Machines.
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