Do Entry Level Character Artist Positions Exist?
polycounter lvl 6
Hi, everyone.
I've been job hunting the past couple of months after graduating and just wanted to ask a few questions. I knew it would be difficult to break in, but I still underestimated how hard it would be.
My main question would be: Is there such a thing as an entry level character artist?
Are stylized character artist roles less common? Should I prioritize improving realistic sculpting skills?
How long does it typically take for companies to get back to you after you apply?
Should I apply to 3D generalist roles instead?
Thanks
I've been job hunting the past couple of months after graduating and just wanted to ask a few questions. I knew it would be difficult to break in, but I still underestimated how hard it would be.
My main question would be: Is there such a thing as an entry level character artist?
Are stylized character artist roles less common? Should I prioritize improving realistic sculpting skills?
How long does it typically take for companies to get back to you after you apply?
Should I apply to 3D generalist roles instead?
Thanks
Replies
Took me 2.5 years to find it.
Hard to say if stylized is any fewer or more frequent than anything else.
Prioritize realistic sculpts if you want to work in that style for a whole production. Do it so you can expand your range.
It depends.
If you feel like doing other thing besides character art.
There should only be "character artist able to deliver great characters no matter what challenge is thrown at him"
You've got dudes known for a particular style but usually these guys have 10 years of exp and know what they are doing
And I don't think it is that hard to break in, companies are desperate to find decent skilled artists and receiving 200 not-ready-yet portfolios with maybe 1 good guy doesn't make it easy for them.
Actually if a company is looking for a 3 years exp-level artist and you have a portfolio that is representative of that level but with no experience, it means they can pay you minimum salary for the same quality than a guy they would pay more, you've got that "straight out of school hungry spirit", and a lot of potential for progression, sounds quite attractive to me.
If you show you can be trusted to do the job, you should have absolutely no problem, looking at your portfolio the reason why you find it hard is quite obvious :
You've got 4 characters, only two of them are real-time, pink cherry works because the original concept is cool and not really because it is well executed, and your artstation challenge, the only full character, looks very rushed like maybe 30% finished, and the boring presentation is making it even worse. The most concerning thing is your wireframe, it is screaming "I don't know real-time constraints yet". McCree from Overwatch is around 37k tris and yours is 82k, if you're aiming at such a high triangle count then it should look cleaner than most characters in next-gen games out there.
This is gonna sound harsh but let's make a stupid statement and say the job is roughly 1/3 modeling, 1/3 texturing, 1/3 polishing, making sure it is clean, works with animation, making sure it looks good in-engine.
You're limiting yourself to stylized, you've got less than half those 33% points because your stylized stuff isn't the best, like 10/33.
Absolutely nothing showing you can texture, only flat colors, 5/33
Nothing looks polished, nothing is properly game-res, baking errors, maybe 10/33
If I should give your portfolio a mark out of ten, it would be a 2,5/10, and I'm judging through junior eyes, can't say what a lead with 10years xp would think.
When making a character for your portfolio, as a recent graduate, ask yourself "is this character showing all aspects of the job ?" This should be the ideal goal : looking trustworthy. This is why you're not finding what you want.
Hey, I'm sorry I don't know what you are trying to imply here?
Making it as a character artist is harder than making it to the NBA?
Clearly, that is false.
Without knowing how many people are trying to make into the NBA versus how many trying to make is a character artist, that comparison makes no sense. Imagine if 900,000 people are trying to make it into NBA versus say 10,000 character artist trying to make it. In this case your chance of making it as a character artist is better even if the number of positions is less.
The same is with the python job. How many people are applying to character art job, versus how many people are applying to the python job.
All you have there is meaningless numbers.
I feel number of jobs is also a bad metric. The most popular job in the US is truck driver. In a few years you probably going to have a greater chance of getting a character art job, than a truck job as it would likely be automated. Just imagine all the truck drivers in the US fighting over the last few non automated truck driver jobs.
Unfortunately, no I don't. I worked on an animated short film through Uni. Looking into participating in game jams, though.
@Amaury
Not harsh. To be completely honest, I needed to hear that. I haven't really been getting critique outside of my group of friends, so I didn't know what was what. Thank you for your feedback.
@RyanB
I understand it's difficult, but I'm still going to work towards the job.
Then again there are artists that have gotten work because of one character, or being good at making one type of character art (Hossien Diba comes to mind) so there's several factors involved.
There is a bar though for good character art, and working from reference and making art to target particular studios does help.
And networking plays a significant role, which at times borders on nepotism in several cases.
If you want to be a good character artist, keep practising your art and perfect those fundamentals, there will be a point where the right studios can't refuse you.
Your current portfolio would need better texturing and more variety in my opinion. If you have a specific studio in mind tailor your portfolio to their work.
You can continue with stylized/cartoony if that's what you want, realism has a different learning curve and not every character artist is adept at both styles or needs to be especially if you have a studio in mind and more importantly are more passionate of one style over the other.
But know the market for your work.
For freelance everythings a go, but where you choose to focus is your call.
Also if your work is near or at the bar of the quality needed by the studio, is the job entry level?
I mean in theory its an entry job, but if the quality is close to a senior or mid, than you're probably not a junior as far as your work is concerned.
Though with regards to speed, efficiency and knowing specific studio workflows there is a difference between new hires and current employees.
I see an entry level job as one that requires good knowledge of the fundamentals and where your likely to recieve considerable training to apply for mid/senior roles or rather tasks with more responsibility that would require you to have more efficiency and speed.
Some studios do away with terms like entry level, junior and senior since in a studio you do tend to work on several different tasks, and new hires have different skill levels.
Being brought on as a specialist is another matter, like that artist that only makes high quality guns.