Stepping in the Game Artist World
polycounter lvl 4
Hey there ^^,
I hope you can answere my questions
Well Im right now in my 2nd Semester almost 3rd in the department of Game Art
and now the time starts where it worrys me if I get a Job right after stepping out of my Study-time.
well I don't want answers as to how I do a demoreel or else because about that I can annoy my lecturers ^^
My questions are about kind of the jobhunting itself
- Which kind of requirements are important and what kind's can maybe be Ignored?
--> do I need to fulfill all requirements
- Whats are Important characterristic's / Skills / Knowledge which my not be listet or required?
or so ^^.
I hope you can help me even if my questions are not really accurate.
I hope you can answere my questions
Well Im right now in my 2nd Semester almost 3rd in the department of Game Art
and now the time starts where it worrys me if I get a Job right after stepping out of my Study-time.
well I don't want answers as to how I do a demoreel or else because about that I can annoy my lecturers ^^
My questions are about kind of the jobhunting itself
- Which kind of requirements are important and what kind's can maybe be Ignored?
--> do I need to fulfill all requirements
- Whats are Important characterristic's / Skills / Knowledge which my not be listet or required?
or so ^^.
I hope you can help me even if my questions are not really accurate.
Replies
- can I only apply to job's that have "junior" in it, after I finished my study in Game Art?
- and does my expierience in my study time count as expierence? -> like when they say "A minimum of 3 years’ experience in game development" ?
Still when it comes to visa things are different. Little general advice to be given here as it depends where you are from and where you want to go on the one hand and on the other if the company actually even wants you for the job and is willing to deal with all that comes when they would hire you.
3rd it can really come down to the years of experience if your application is handled by a HR person and not an artist/or at least some experience with hiring artists. I just recently got a rejection based on 'game industry experience' and I got the feeling that there was no traffic at my portfolio site when it came, so it would seem it really was about numbers (I could easily be wrong though in this case). I also have seen rejections from HR in my privious working place based on experience, where we artists protested as actually the student involved had the by far strongest portfolio (working in AAA now), but the HR person never looked at it and instead gave us 'experienced' guys, with pretty worthless portfolios that were all rejected by the team.
At the end of the day you can only influence what you can send them and these would be your portfolio and coverletter. So focus on your work and just give it a try when you think you can make it. Its anyhow up to them to decide if they want you or not.
this gives me a good Image how it works.
right now I have lectures about After Effects how to create Showreels and the way to present everything ^^
1) No, you CAN apply for non junior positions.
2) Not necessarily.
For example, were your years studying in fact making a game and shipping it on the Apple Appstore while in uni? That counts as experience for a lot of developers because you literally made a game (with others if you did).
If it was just learning how to write essays, taking a class in introductory computer science, and learning the UI of Maya, that's a lot harder to pitch as immediately useful for a commercial game development team. That's the clincher. Is it something someone can immediately find useful for the project they're working on?
Think about what you are applying for. WHAT skill you are presenting and WHY you are presenting it. For example - you want to become a concept artist? Great. So you make some great drawings and then spend some time on a video displaying them, with fancy effects where they are moved around and blended in or fading out. Teachers love this, right? Art Leads hiring concept artists don't. They are not interested in waisting time to see your stuff by whatever tempo you did it in the clip. They don't give a damn about your fading/blending voodoo in Aftereffects when they actually only care about your CONCEPT ART.
So when you have found a job you want to do and you are preparing your portfolio think about what is relevant for that job and display that. Don't put in stuff that doesn't promote your skills - and clips seldom do. If you are not applying as a animator or rigger there is little reason to have a clip there that needs more time to load, might have issues from compression or whatever else, and actually takes away controll for the person looking at it.
Now does this mean your teachers are wrong to teach it? Absolutely not! It is part of your education. Do it the best you can for school. Learn the skills they show you as in the end you might even find out that you like compositing more than whatever else you thought you like. At the very least you will understand what makes life in the pipeline easier for the guys at your next job that work with AE so you can adress their needs by adjusting your stuff to it.
Just once you are done with school sit down and think about your next step. What you really want to do. What people doing it are expected to be able to do. Finally plan your portfolio according to that after listening to dozens of portfolio reviews and advices that can be found online. And don't underestimate how important a good presentation is (I fucked up a lot til a couple of days ago by not giving it enough thought and care and I am still just trying to improve on that), but a good presentation takes also into account who the audience is and what they want to see - so adjust to it and don't simply do what school has shown you.
Have fun with it
sadly my last Projekt is already over the deadline and is more like a low Demo ... this year we got no one for programming or better to say they had no time
You are really good at explaining and it is easy to follow, you would make a grate teacher ;D
Thanks a lot, but this is just rephrasing some of the terrific information and knowledge this site and others are offering. So the kudos has to go completely to the fantastic community this industry has online
The Supervisor at my study place say mostly whats good and what can be done better but ... that doesn't really helps me to know my level O.o
well I post my Work sometimes on Artstation and Sketchfab but don't really get comments about it ^^'
well my problem there is most likely that im to lazy and push the work away -.-
Let me guess, first time doing something like that (or any kind of higher education?). You are wondering what the point is of all of that, right? I mean, you want to be an artist and its all about the portfolio. So who gives a shit about some stupid paper no one will ever read, right?
I've been on the SAE in Vienna. I did the one year long diploma, I know the procedure. I know that this thesis is a nice pile of BS. Honestly, I didn't write mine and I droped my diploma, so I guess I should STFU, but you know what? Nope. The reason I didn't write is I was working at that point and had to choose be part of a released game in its final 2 months or taking a vaction and write that thesis. But there are 2 other reasons:
1. I've a master degree I could fall back to if the whole game art thing would crash and burn - and I knew no matter what I would not do the bachelor for art and the diploma wouldn't count for the visa anyway.
2. I've paid my SAE education with work that I had done before. So it was just my own money I was burning.
Instead of writing the thesis is kept pushing my 90 hours week, devided between all other SAE projects, homeworks and work, for months not sleeping more than 5,5h per night. After taking care of priorities, I had to make a decision and pay the price. Those 10k I've spent for the SAE have no official closure (and actually costed me already a job offer from them). Do I regret it? No, but as I've said, I had my reasons and I am aware I've lost here an opportunity.
Now to you. What is your excuse not to do it? That one to two weeks of work? Back at university I've done such papers. They are part of any education. If you don't do it, you can't finish the school you are paying 10+k for and anywhere else you would go you would still have to do them, but they would interest you even less. Yeah, you still learned something like I did, but ruining your degree just because of being lazy? All those months of work, exams, homework, lessons and all that money thrown away for because of that stupid paper?
Never back away from something boring if its part of something big that is important to you. This education is. If not, you wouldn't bother coming here. So go back and do it and do your best. Down the road you don't want to look back and regret this one or two weeks of your life.
so to say no mativation in the time i had nothing to do .... well we get a second chance luckly and can revise it ... well I wrote manly my whole thesis in less than one Week .....
I nearly blow my first year at law because of one odd exam. I liked most of the things I had to learn, except (oddly enough) law history. I failed it twice, after I had finished all others, and had just one more chance before I would no longer be allowed to take it and basicially would fail the whole school. This are points in life where you really have to think how bad is it to push through something boring, compared to a life time of options to do what you really like. Its really no sacrifice at all to sit down and do it
...and I know - its more easily said then done, but still - do it and enjoy the rest of your lessons persuing your dream job
--> do I need to fulfill all requirements
- Whats are Important characterristic's / Skills / Knowledge which my not be listet or required?"
As long as you can match about 75% of the required skills and at least one or two of the bonuses in the job description, you are definitely eligible for the position IMO. If it's an associate position, but asks for 2-3yrs of experience or one shipped title, you can usually ignore that if you have a solid portfolio. You will usually get an art test either way, that will test what you are capable of under production style deadlines and technical limitations.
The main non-listed requirement(s): Personality and Professionalism.
The interview is one of the biggest parts of the whole job application. If you show up to the interview and show that you are just excited to be in the same room as them, let alone work alongside them on their project, you will be just fine. Do not act better than them, or walk in with an ego, leave ALL of that at the door even if you get the job. They want you, and none of your bullshit ego (if you have one, but I think most confident artists have a bit of an ego that is sometimes needed to get through our day to day). A lot of people have great portfolio's and really solid resume's/past experience that more than qualifies them to do the job, but at any hint of ego in their tone or attitude and they won't hesitate to pick the slightly lesser qualified candidate that is a better personality fit.
The thing is, that there are some many trying to get into the industry that the companies can afford to be very picky. That's why I am trying to get you to understand how important it is to get everything done that is on your end. Eductation, portfolio, how you present yourself on the internet. These things are in your hands, so you can max them out and no one else can do it for you. It's not that everybody out there is outworking you, but its enough that one of the persons applying for the same job as you does. I wished that all the things I did would have been something special, but putting that much effort into it doesn't really make me stick out. It is pretty average. Look for example at what Jon Troy Nickel says/writes about what it takes to make it.
1. Don't be an asshole. This is the #1 way to never work in the game industry, everyone seems to know everyone.
2. Don't burn bridges with people you have worked with, and people you meet in/related to the industry (everyone should be your friend if possible).
3. Work hard, and even when you get the job, you should ALWAYS be learning new tools and skills to stay ahead of the curve.
4. Job requirements are more like requests, but not always actual requirements. You can get away with being slightly less qualified than what the company actually wants, as long as you are a good personality fit and your portfolio is strong. (see #1 and #3).
5. Don't be an asshole.
6. Profit? (lol)
Some advice from me as a supervisor of what I expect of people I hire.
Of course, it's hard to demo them in a reel, but those are the traits I see in people who will do well in the long run, especially if you want to eventually move on of being a grunt. Ideally you want to become an artists who can think about art, production and tech independently, rather than just being one of the dudes who's always told what to do and what not to do.
1. Ask questions! Many mistakes get made by asking too few questions than too many. Don't be afraid of looking stupid - we all started out as newbies
2. If there is a problem, e.g. you can't reach the deadline, etc. inform your supervisor early, and not just when the work is due. The earlier you tell them the better they can plan around the delay and the damage is far less.
3. Make friends with your co-workers or at least look over their shoulders to learn new things
4. Try to learn what happens in the production steps before and after your own.
5. Be on time! Yes, it can be silly in our "flexible" work environment. But for meetings, where the entire team needs to get together, you're wasting everyone's time if you're late. e.g. 10 mins x 6 people = 1 hour time lost!
7. Assets don't have to be perfect - they just have to be good enough to fit whatever standard your art director has set
8. Art direction exists for a reason - don't try to bypass it, even if you think your own designs are better. Remember your own designs for your own work to put into a future folio
9. Using shortcuts is desired - as long as they don't compromise artistic or technical quality of your work. Getting more work done in less time is always good!
9. Don't send mails without subject lines.... it upsets the cosmic balance of the studio
from kwramm s list, I have to work on
2# that I know there are sometimes in my seminar projekts people at the top where I can tell them and then sometimes ones where I can't really talk with and if I try they seem angry. but I guss its partly my fault too.
Well but there was one case where I got the full blame even thought I said to here that I can't do that and if I would it will be bad. She still insistet me to do It even thought at the beginning no one told or better at the beginning it shouldnt even be my problem( was 2D Charackter artist and should do a wallpaper with frontview, but I cant really dra from that angel, she said fronview even thought the bg auf it wasn't in front view -.-) sry for my outburst about this topic
#4 is someting we also got teached in my seminar we learn a little bit from everything: a little bit scripting, Rigging and Animation, so on
And I always like to learn new thinks, so I hope I will lern a lot in my jops that still stay in the future ^^