Need suggestion for Artist to get into AAA game industry (I got 3 options in my head)
polycounter lvl 5
Hi all,
I am working as an lead digital artist in a small Hong Kong mobile game company for 4years + 1year freelancing, and now I really want to move into the AAA game company (especially blizzard). Here is my website if you are curious about my art ( www.jason-Yikai.com )
I know i’m Not AAA quality and my art style is not blizzard at all. But I’m ready to quit my current job to study and push my art much further. I’ll say I know a bit of everything (illustration, 3D modeling, animation, sfx, UI, etc) but now I want to specialize at either 2d environment concept art or 3D environment art.
Right now I have 3 plans and really want your suggestion.
1. Use all the money I saved up to Study at FZD and push my concept art skill as far as possible and build a quality environment art portfolio (in blizzard art style which I love) and become a concept artist
2. Use all my money + borrow money from my parent to Study at Gnomon 2 year course and push my 3D skills as far as possible and build a quality 3D environment portfolio in blizzard art style + try my best to make connection during the time in Hollywood.
3. Set one year time and study by myself from any online resources, become a great 3D environment artist, and use the money to travel to Big conference/event etc to try pitch my portfolio to AAA art director.
I have so many doubt and want to hear what you all think. I like both 2D or 3D environment art and As long as I have a higher chance to work in blizzard... I will do it (It may sound silly but dude I love blizzard since I was a kid, and now i am 29 I don’t want to waste any more time and want to climb the mountain) I am living in Hong Kong it is pretty hard to make any connection with any AAA people or get a visa. Also mobile game industry in Hong Kong is all about anime girl and gacha mico transaction. Option 1 & 2 may sound silly & spoil, but does offer some great benefit that option 3 don’t offer (Like the connection with top tier teacher, America student visa (higher chance to look for jobs) and the learning environment.
The reason why I’ll need to quit my current job is because it is draining all my energy from 9:00am to 7:00pm. The remaining time (3-4hours) I can only draw something simple and learn so little. Then remaining time I use 1hr for dinner, 1hr travel back home, 1-2hr to maintain my relationship, and it is already 1:00am. I had been trying to work and learn at the same time for the past 2 years, and it did make some progress but very slow, a bit too slow.
Therefore I know this is not a want for the rest of my life and remember my childhood favorite dream... is to create an environment, a space of Warcraft.
Any suggestion and feedback will appreciate.
Cheers,
Jason
I am working as an lead digital artist in a small Hong Kong mobile game company for 4years + 1year freelancing, and now I really want to move into the AAA game company (especially blizzard). Here is my website if you are curious about my art ( www.jason-Yikai.com )
I know i’m Not AAA quality and my art style is not blizzard at all. But I’m ready to quit my current job to study and push my art much further. I’ll say I know a bit of everything (illustration, 3D modeling, animation, sfx, UI, etc) but now I want to specialize at either 2d environment concept art or 3D environment art.
Right now I have 3 plans and really want your suggestion.
1. Use all the money I saved up to Study at FZD and push my concept art skill as far as possible and build a quality environment art portfolio (in blizzard art style which I love) and become a concept artist
2. Use all my money + borrow money from my parent to Study at Gnomon 2 year course and push my 3D skills as far as possible and build a quality 3D environment portfolio in blizzard art style + try my best to make connection during the time in Hollywood.
3. Set one year time and study by myself from any online resources, become a great 3D environment artist, and use the money to travel to Big conference/event etc to try pitch my portfolio to AAA art director.
I have so many doubt and want to hear what you all think. I like both 2D or 3D environment art and As long as I have a higher chance to work in blizzard... I will do it (It may sound silly but dude I love blizzard since I was a kid, and now i am 29 I don’t want to waste any more time and want to climb the mountain) I am living in Hong Kong it is pretty hard to make any connection with any AAA people or get a visa. Also mobile game industry in Hong Kong is all about anime girl and gacha mico transaction. Option 1 & 2 may sound silly & spoil, but does offer some great benefit that option 3 don’t offer (Like the connection with top tier teacher, America student visa (higher chance to look for jobs) and the learning environment.
The reason why I’ll need to quit my current job is because it is draining all my energy from 9:00am to 7:00pm. The remaining time (3-4hours) I can only draw something simple and learn so little. Then remaining time I use 1hr for dinner, 1hr travel back home, 1-2hr to maintain my relationship, and it is already 1:00am. I had been trying to work and learn at the same time for the past 2 years, and it did make some progress but very slow, a bit too slow.
Therefore I know this is not a want for the rest of my life and remember my childhood favorite dream... is to create an environment, a space of Warcraft.
Any suggestion and feedback will appreciate.
Cheers,
Jason
Replies
Blizzard usually wants to see that you can emulate their style flawlessly before you apply there.
I would recommend following the artists who have worked at Blizzard, and can capture their style. Make fan-art pieces.
Make actual WoW models that look like they belong in WoW.
https://www.artstation.com/murph
https://www.artstation.com/dusty
https://www.deviantart.com/firstkeeper/gallery/3065304/3D-art
https://www.artstation.com/chickeninwater
https://www.artstation.com/faf
https://www.artstation.com/orb
https://www.artstation.com/nshade
https://www.artstation.com/davidharrington
https://www.artstation.com/leslievdb/albums/18899
Goodluck!
Do you think he needs to spend time at either school to get to that point where he spits Blizzard style without thinking about it? I almost want to say to just stay home and solo study given the quality of his portfolio right now.
And yes my portfolio isn't ready, and thats why I had decide to quit my full time job and focus on pushing my art to the blizzard direction. It may sound silly and risky but I'm feeling the urge to put 110% to climb the AAA mountain asap.
But I Can't decide which is the better path (I know nothing is perfect but I feeling nervous about the decision)...
1. Go study 3D at Gnomon (Super Expensive but easier to build a network, learn from top-tier artist, student visa(easier to look for job), competitive learning environment)
2. Concept art at Fzd (Super competitive learning environment, can push my strongest skill (illustration, concept art) further, help by professional to critic my art, profolio)
3. Study at home myself. (Cheapest)
Again thanks you for your reply!
Edit
Just saw your last reply.
I think your 2d skills would really propel you fast learning wise.
And studying here would land you a job much easier.
So perhaps based on those 2 variables. Decide what you ultimately would like to do more between jobs if Blizzard wasn't your first.
I've partially done option 3, but I knew I was ready for this. I would say if you're thinking of 3 then you need to know are you able to learn by yourself, or at least be capable of learning on how to learn for yourself.
Also I would advise not to put all your eggs (emotion) into one basket (Blizzard) but fine as motivation. Aspire to become a successful 2d or 3d artist in the AAA games industry. If you get into Blizzard straight away or years later that is a bonus.
There's plenty of tutorials out there, plus countless of forums (here for example) where you can find professional artist to critique your work and give you impressions.
I'd say thought, you have to know yourself if you wanna learn by yourself. If you go all out, working on your art each every day, not procrastinating and stay consistently productive, you could probably get a killer folio in a year.
But you have to be consistent at it.
Edit: Just looked up the price for FZD; YIKES, in total it's like 50k for the year course, plus all the living cost of singapour...
Right now Blizzard is the mountain I want to climb right now, I may end up somewhere else or fall of and fail. But at least I know I need to stop wonder around in the snowy field and head toward that direction.
Really appreciate your reply and I'm very eager to listen and learn. I believe I'm able to self learn just like what I did before my full time job, but I'm not confidence to build up my network.
Definitely I can learn myself and I'm feeling pump to do it already, been sketching for a few hours everyday after work. And yes you are right consistency is one the key! Just like going to the gym.
I get that there was a console embargo in your country
but there are higher peaks to aim for than that one, sheesh dude.
Did you actually quit? Don't tell me you did that. Please don't quit your job
Don't debase yourself to conforming to base frozen style
You are better than that.
Every wooden dude wants to work for the frozen games; not sure if that is the best option.
Also from what I hear, they don't pay very well either.
Their salary is unlivable in the area that have set up shop in.
Frozen games and many other woodland places like to impose their will on others and tell them they are bellow par if they aren't doing exactly what they are doing.
But to work towards making bellow the average salary in an expensive
area,for a company that makes most of it's funds by taking full advantage of the console embargo is ludicrous.
You've got a stable job, hold on to it.
Are they paying you industry standard?
Some of us have been looking for stability for quite some time, you are lucky to have had it for as long as you did.
Albiet it might not be the best, it's getting you a paycheck and shipped titles no?
If you got 1 hour during the week to create, use your weekends to the fullest.
As much as I don't like the "moe" types and the school girls, I would much rather deal with that
than the staunched attitudes of woodlanders, and seething rage as well as elitism of hyper real dudes.
You say you are influenced by the frozen blizzard games, but I see some heavy Shinsuke Komaki (megaman battle network), Toru Nakayama (megaman zero ) influences in your art.
I think you have the pieces to land a gig somewhere major though, I am especially fond of that mummy altar, floating city, and anubis robot.
Have you tried Bandai Namco?
Or perhaps Banpresto?
Maybe Capcom?
Maybe even the nintendo studio or perhaps one of their outsourcing companies.
Also do you have a degree already?
I am just wondering because some places require you to have it for easy access to a Visa, in order to
go to another country.
Networking is key, try to mosey on over to GDC or something of that nature.
It's gotten me many gigs and commissions. It's usually not the show floor though, it's the parties that are game changers.
JacqueChoi
You have woodlanded my good fellow, that title doesn't look anything like that.
The storm based fellows sure; but not the wow.
You are putting it on some high pedistal when it shouldn't be.
Ex-Ray
Almost everywhere I have worked has required me to do both. More stylized places require both.
I spoke to people from triples like Carbine and,the Hal labs; they said both skills were required of them.
Not so much at tough guy games, I am not sure what is required of frozen games though.
Being a part of gaming history.
During the console wars of the 90s many companies created the technologies, genres, and innovations
still present til this very day; who wouldn't want to join a studio with such proud history?
Also working on titles that everyone will play is a plus too.
Not so much the OP's company in question, during the days of deciding factors they were more akin to Akklaim, Psygnosis and LJN, they most likely would have poofed too if that warharmmer license went through and they weren't able to take advantage of the console embargo.
YiKai wrote:
3. Set one year time and study by myself from any online resources, become a great 3D environment artist, and use the money to travel to Big conference/event etc to try pitch my portfolio to AAA art director.
This.
Really, a pretty much concise 'roadmap' I'd personally agree with in order too craft a folio of work targeting those skillsets and/or art style you've an interest in, also content these following topics discuss will bear keeping in mind considering your particular circumstance.
A Story of How I Became a 3D Artist
https://www.polygon-academy.com/articles/
I'm not sure of any official courses online or in North America that focus specifically on the Blizzard Art style, but there are several resources online to match it.
That said, not everyone who matches that style gets into Blizzard, not because they aren't good but there are a lot of applications even from people who aren't good, so there is a great deal of filtering to be done there.
Would you be satisfied if you got to work at a company that does a style similar to Blizzard but isn't well Blizzard?
For instance, Epic, Riot or Hi Rez Studios? Not that their art is exactly like blizzard, but there are some similarities.
Because every job has other aspects you need to take note of, as well as how much you'd have to work/struggle to be a part of a brand name/experience.
For instance I'm sure there are many artists who'd love to do your job because its all about the anime girl, lol but are probably just as excited about the prospect of living in HongKong/Japan/Korea etc.
This sounds good. You can't lose with this one!
Also getting work authorisation in the USA for non citizens is challenging and depends on several factors besides your portfolio,
For example,
https://www.quora.com/How-can-European-citizen-move-and-live-in-USA
, though you may get a freelance off site role because of a good portfolio.
Are you looking to eventually migrate to the USA and live there permanently?
A coworker of my wife's -- a French national who's lived in the United States for a decade; worked for the same company; highly skilled worker; married to an American citizen -- went to France for a holiday and was denied entry back in without any explanation as to why.
That's one anecdote, but stuff like this is happening a lot lately. I'm not sure if my wife -- a Canadian -- will get her green card renewed soon or not. We applied for renewal more than two years ago... again, this is somebody who's lived legally in the states for almost a decade, paid taxes, never used government assistance, highly skilled work, etc. And it's no mystery why this nonsense is happening. There's a racist moron in the White House by the name of Stephen Miller who's making this shit happen. So called "patriots" who never risked a thing for their beloved country thinking they know what's best. Anyway...
Maybe this will all be forgotten like a bad dream, but do be aware of the cultural climate of a place before packing your bags and moving there. Not saying moving to CA is going to be like taking a trip to backwoods Alabama (I'm from there, I can make fun of it), but for immigrants of any kind America can be an uncertain place at the moment.
I definitely don't intend to scare OP or anything of the sort. Just one factor among many to throw into the pro's/con's pile for consideration.
To answer OPs question.
Option 3 is only a option if you 100% know what you want to specialize in and you have a good plan and a lot of self motivation.
The education route (in your case FZD or Gnomon) Will be most beneficial for networking. I met so many great people/friends at school and when I went on to do a internship, these people now work for different companies and can help me when I start applying after I updated my portfolio.
I cant really answer the FZD vs Gnomon question because I didn't go to any of these and I don't know anyone who did. My school did have orientation days in which they paid for your stay and food for 2 days maybe FZD and Gnomon have it as well? Contacting them wouldn't hurt either, you are a potential clients so they will probably answer all your questions.
If you do study in the USA you can get a 1 year work permit which can be extended to 2 years for STEM related programs (don't know if this applies to game development)
After that you have to get an H1B unless you find another way to stay in the USA.
@defragger, funny I was thinking about suggesting to OP to look into places like Germany as they are much more friendly toward immigrants right now, but I didn't want to potentially start a "this country vs that country" type of thing. But yeah, the US is a mess right now regarding immigration law, in my experience.
Whether disasters be natural or man-made, they happen and you got to deal with them. It just particularly irks me when humans create problems from nothing -- as if there isn't enough real problems to deal with.