Need some Advice on my Presentation

Mark Madness

Hey Everyone. So I'm working on a presentation to present at a local convention like anime, sci-fi, games, an overall general convention of entertainment. I wanted to give a presentation at one of them about being a Game Developer and Animator for those who have an interest in the Game Industry. The audience would range from mostly teenagers and young adults. If you have the time, I would appreciate your feedback on my outline so far and what can be improved to give a clear message to the audience.

Animation & Development in the Video Game Industry

1) Introduction

My career so far

-4th Grade: Desire for working on Games

-Middle through High School: Created multiplayer maps in Halo Forge

-High School: Made a World of Warcraft Machinima Movie

-Full Sail University

-Internship with Animation Teacher

-Starboard Games LLC

-Druid Gameworks LLC

2) How to be a Game Developer? First things to understand.

Criticism

-Not to hurt, but help

Understand the Stages of the work pipeline

-Pre-Production

-Production

-Post-Production

Be a Team Player

3) Jobs in the Game Industry

-Concept Artist

-3D Modeler

-Rigger or Technical Artist

-Visual Effects

-Animation (Cinematics)

-More to be added

4) What do I do? 3D Animation

My job

-Animate biped characters

-Use Maya. There are other softwares like 3DS Max and Blender as well

-Convey personality and character

-Show, not Tell

-12 Principles of Animation

-Importance of Poses

5) Game Animation

-Not film shots like in anime or your favorite animated film

-Create “Action” animations (Idle, walk, run, attack, death, sit, stand, drink, dance, etc.)

-Games are simulations controlled by the player

-In Film, audience views animation from one angle. In Games, players can view animations from any and all angles

6) Process of making animations: Referencing

-Creating from Memory is not efficient for being accurate to body mechanics. It’s like drawing from memory, very difficult unless you have photographic memory or something like that

-Will have a video reference of a sword attack

7) Process of making animations: Get your Character Rig

-Rigs are the controls to the skeleton of your character. Like the strings of a puppet

-Will have Image of Rig I used for this example

8) Process of making animations: Animating (Blocking)

-3D Storyboard of your animation

-Creating the “Key” poses

-Will have video clip of my blocking for the example

9) Process of making animations: Animating (In Progress)

-“In between” poses

-Will have video clip of my in progress for the example

10) Process of making animations: Animating (Polish)

-Tweaks here and there

-Icing on the Cake

-Will have video clip of my polish for the example

-Are you done? Work can always be better, but with your remaining assets to get done you need to be able to have a finish line of “It’s done enough”

11) Implementing animations in engine

-Unreal as Example

-Blueprints

-The “code” behind the animations

-Will have image(s) of Unreal’s Blueprint System

12) What can you do now?

-Play games to study them, not just play them

-Think about what makes the games you love to play so much fun for you?

-Determine the functions and mechanics of the game

-Make games of your own. Card games, board games, roleplaying games, 2D, 3D, any and all kinds of games

13) Advice

-Don’t feel like a Degree is necessary

-Do not underestimate the power of Mentors/Critiquers

-Always continue to learn more

-Make there most of interviews (Successful & Failed)

-Network

14) Resources

-Animation Mentor, ianimate, AnimSchool

-Resources for other disciplines(You guys can let me know for Modeling, Rigging, Concepting, Composition, etc.)

-Colleges: Full Sail University, (SCAD), CalArts, Ringling College of Art & Design

-Books; Illusion of Life, Animator’s Survival Kit, Breaking Into The Gaming Industry

-Youtube: Extra Credits, Unreal Engine, Unity Engine, GDC

15) Any Questions?

-Q&A from audience

-The End

What do you think?

Marshkin

I think your flow is pretty good, one topic naturally bleeds into the next. You're covering a lot, but don't seem to plan on getting too technical, which is awesome. 

How long are your targeting your presentation to be? Currently, what is the run time for each section? 
My initial impression is that you might spend too much time in the introduction, based simply on how many items you have listed there, but without knowing how deep you plan to go on each point, it's hard to tell. 

Kevin Albers

It seems like you are trying to cover way too much for an 'intro' style presentation, although your outline seems good. I'd suggest focusing on some points, and skipping over a bunch of the rest. Also, I'm sure your audience would appreciate seeing some eye candy. Examples of game animations (i.e. individual actions such as a walk cycle, and then a shot of the walk cycle being used in gameplay) would be informative and a fun break from listening to a speaker.

To me, the main points would probably be:  1, 3 (although you only mention the art side...most of the team will be other disciplines entirely. I think breaking it down into artist, programmer, game designer and producer makes more sense), 4, 5, 12, 13, 14.   I'd probably skip the rest, if you are talking to young people.

If the convention is about entertainment, and not strictly a careers overview, it might be good to mention that it can be tough to get a job in games, but there is also plenty of fun hobby and Indie stuff that could be done with the skills. Creating Art is fun and healthy, and not always a source of income.

RN

Mark Madness said:

13) Advice

-Don’t feel like a Degree is necessary

Be very careful with this point, dude. Some people over there might make important life decisions based on what you say.

- You DO have a degree. Even if you believe it had nothing to do with your career success, you can't say "I have a degree and got a job, but you don't need to get one." Rather, be someone sucessful without a degree. Then you can say that.
- (Based on what you've said) you're not someone with the power to hire and fire -- a recruiter, for example. This kind of statement needs some authority, like in "I don't care about degrees when I'm evaluating applicants."

So how about presenting it as facts, not as an opinion. Something like "the pros and cons of getting a game-related degree". This way people can make their own decisions if they should pursue a degree or not (the following is an example, don't take it seriously):

Pros:
- People with Bachelor's degrees earn more than people with an Associate's or no degree at all.
- Your resume looks better than the competition, more chances of getting an interview.
Cons:
- Student loans.
- The risk of going to a cash-grab school.

etc.

Mark Madness

This has all been very helpful. Thanks everyone. This is improving my presentation.

Mark Madness

And you're right about the point on a Degree. It was misleading and I'm glad you provided me with the words to correct it.