I'm switching careers out of the game industry.

Bletzkarn

Always thought I wanted to be a 3D artist / designer for games.

I do really enjoy my work and I'd say I'm really good at it. I currently model, texture, animate, rig and optimise all 3D assets for the game. I will then import them into engine and set up any controllers required. I also do most of the 2D graphics (UI and artwork) and optimise and import them into the game as well. I also write internal tools when required.

I just don't feel rewarded though. The coders make significantly more money than I do, and the reason they can ask for this money is because they have other jobs to go to if they weren't paid that. There's literally zero jobs in my city. There's maybe 3-4 3D jobs in the entire country right now and none are even related to games. 

So you get your dream job but you're going to be stuck at whatever company you can get into for 3-4 years at a time because of the huge over demand. I feel like there's no point to learn that new workflow or train myself in a new scripting tool, why? It's not like you're going to get paid more. I'm already paid "good" money for an artist but compared to most jobs it's a joke.

I'm switching over to UX design. There's several new jobs posted a week and even a mid level UX designer makes more than my current role (senior lead artist). I also take it upon myself to learn the analytics tools and put together user flows in order to get better at UX. My UI skills are already pretty good from putting together so many UI screens in unreal. I'd say half of my current work experience has cross over with UX. 

I am a little , after 7 years I feel like I've finally "got it" when it comes to 3D. Finally wrapped my head around skinning, uv maps, topology, texturing. There's still endless amount I could learn. Feels like all that will be going down the drain, but holding onto is just not paying off.

That being said I do have hope that "3DX designer" will one day be a thing. All UX centers around 2D screens, maybe one day they will be 3D spaces.

Alex_J

Sounds like your hunting the wrong grounds. Sometimes in life, you've got to follow the herd, where ever it goes.

Other times, you've got to learn to enjoy eating bark. 

I'd say keep up with your 3d since you've invested so much of yourself into it (and enjoy it), but if staying put is what you've got to do, I'm sure you can work yourself into something more viable and still maintain some job satisfaction.

Best of luck! 

carvuliero

Looks like you already made your decision I personally think its a right call if things continue as they are right now [3d is slowing dying ] most jobs will move overseas and probably be automated after that so either way its a good to plan ahead and have plan B

Ashervisalis

@carvuliero Why would you say 3D is slowly dying? There are more productions in 3D games, movies, TV now than there ever was, and I don't see any hint of upcoming automation in 3D.

carvuliero

I can only speak from freelancer point of view and my observation is that things are getting worse , yes there is more jobs but there is less well paying jobs + there are a lot of people willing to work for peanuts

About automation take for example far cry 5 procedural generated environment , sooner or later the other studios will start using the same thing and if you combine that with photographer and something like google earth or other satellite imaging or even drones to take images which later are converted to models you make big part of environment artist obsolete .There are tools like adobe fuse that are still primitive but in few iteration they will be pretty much able to spit and variation you can think off and if you combine this with photo or concept art and face/pattern recognition algorithm you end up with program that can create any character you want which make character artist obsolete .

JordanN

And even if automation does take over, why can't the artist just find new ways to market themselves?

The invention of the camera didn't stop people from from requesting painted artwork. It's likely 3D art would still exist, it's just the way we do it in the future would be different.

carvuliero said:

I can only speak from freelancer point of view and my observation is that things are getting worse , yes there is more jobs but there is less well paying jobs + there are a lot of people willing to work for peanuts 

About automation take for example far cry 5 procedural generated environment , sooner or later the other studios will start using the same thing and if you combine that with photographer and something like google earth or other satellite imaging or even drones to take images which later are converted to models you make big part of environment artist obsolete .There are tools like adobe fuse that are still primitive but in few iteration they will be pretty much able to spit and variation you can think off and if you combine this with photo or concept art and face/pattern recognition algorithm you end up with program that can create any character you want which make character artist obsolete .

This is too situational.

If you make a game that's just a copy of real life, then sure, you wont need artists.
But then look at movies like Star Wars, where it's still filmed on Earth, but they have to create all the set pieces and wardrobes that don't exist.

There will always be a need for artist direction/vision.

carvuliero

I haven't said that's the end of course there are a lot of other ways to continue making art and earn a living,people have done it for thousand of years .I personally plan to do art for as long as I am alive but still been realistic and plan for whats to come can save you a lot of trouble down the road

Alex_J

Ahem.... September 8th!

Bletzkarn

I feel there will be increasing need for 3D artists, however the popularity of game design courses means there is now a huge oversupply of these artists, which decreases wages. We already know it happens in the VFX industry where people work countless unpaid overtime only to get their studios shut down and out of a job. Meanwhile people working in easier jobs are earning a lot more.

I recently was offered a role as a "VR Designer". I would have been the only artist, doing all of the modelling, texturing, rigging, animating. It was expected that Unity scripting would be known in order to setup simple interactive scripts from the objects you make. Also would be required to do all the level design, lighting, and experience design. So at least 3 roles in 1. Salary: $40,000 USD.

Ashervisalis

What country are you from?

Taylor Brown

Bletzkarn said:

...recently was offered a role as a "VR Designer".... Salary: $40,000 USD....

I can totally understand why someone with your level of experience would be put off by that number considering how much work is involved. Speaking as someone working to get in to the industry one day, I'd trade my $38k a year warehouse management job and the destruction of my back for all that in a heartbeat if I could. The intrinsic value would far outweigh the extrinsic.

garcellano

That's understandable, if you have to do it, or want to.
You can still do 3D stuff on the side, or use it in UX/UI when you need to. Also, I know at the studio I'm at, we have a UX/UI Designer. I think other game studios too have those roles, so you're not ruling yourself out of the picture. It's still relative.