Breaking into game industry with 0 shipped titles

3djon

Hey Everyone, popping my first post cherry here.

I'm looking for career/portfolio advice on breaking into the 3D art wing of the game industry while having never worked on a shipped title.

Some background on me:
I've been lucky to have been employed steadily for the past 6 years at my current company. 4 of those years were spent working in offline rendered productions (digital marketing vfx) while the last 2 years have been working in real time rendered digital experiences (VR/AR).   My current acting position is a 3D supervisor, of which I am not blinded to the fact that my skill set is no where near on par to an environment or lighting lead in the AAA gaming industry. Hell, even lacking compared to recent grads who have focused in game art.

Check out my portfolio to see where my skill set currently sits: https://www.artstation.com/jon3d

I've reached a career draining point within this company shortly over a year ago and have been working on many personal projects and developing a stronger portfolio since.  I enjoy creating real time environment game art, and have found a niche interest in lighting.

I've got all this agency experience behind my belt, and I'm itching to join a game production where I can produce art that others get to interact with and explore.  However, I'm struggling to understand what leverage (if any) I may have while job hunting as I've never literally shipped a game.  I've been working in Unity professionally for the past 3 years, and have recently been picking up Unreal for personal work.

I'm not opposed to seeking other Agency work that is geared towards my career interests in game environment creation and lighting, however I'd love some advice on how a 3D artist in his 30s should be authoring his portfolio to switch into an industry of which I have no direct production experience in.

Any advice/guidance is greatly appreciated.  Moreover, I'm looking forward to becoming an active member on these boards!

Cheers,

-Jon

sacboi

Firstly don't sell yourself short, after all experience is experience, whether attained on the periphery too your intended career path or for that matter skillset. Anyway I should think especially with as I understand you've 5yrs working professionally via game IDEs alone? then re-gearing your folio accordingly by just concentrating on quality over quantity wouldn't present any issues I can think of, which by the way would be my tip and besides isn't 30 something the new 20 something?! so don't sweat it, because nowadays I've heard it said that "age is only a state of mind"

Good luck       

poopipe

The good news is that it can be done. 
I moved into games in my 30s after many years of vaguely related work in other industries. 

I took a position with less responsibility when I made the move which made sense as i wasn't familiar with game production cycles but it didn't delay my desperate scrabble up the career ladder by more than a year or so and I'm very glad I did it.

In terms of your work,  a (very), short scan over your artstation (on a phone) suggests you have ability and a reasonable amount of appropriate work so I wouldn't worry about the content.
It might be worth focusing a couple of new projects on the specific role you're looking at just as a way to remove any doubt that you can do it. 

garcellano

Interesting. I know where you're getting. I use to freak out about this.
When you look at it, a shipped title is pretty much a released product. You've done tons of that, and you're portfolio is pretty good. I'm sure you'll do fine.
I know the one thing that might sting is the type of role and the pay. Don't know how the transition will be like. I met someone, 30, who wants to get into games, but isn't willing to take a paycut for a junior artist role or internship. I can't complain, I'd feel the same way.
Also, do you know Jose Marin? I think he use to work at All Things Media LLC. I saw your ArtStation/resume. That company name sounded familiar. He was a compositor there. Worked with him in compositing years back, at Legend 3D.

3djon

garcellano said:

Also, do you know Jose Marin? I think he use to work at All Things Media LLC. I saw your ArtStation/resume. That company name sounded familiar. He was a compositor there. Worked with him in compositing years back, at Legend 3D.

Woah, small effing world! Jose and I were on the same team for a couple years while he was here at All Things Media LLC.  We became good friends while working together.  He was/still is a great mentor and I got exposed to compositing through him while working on this project with him.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dBE41

3djon

Wanted to say thanks for everyone whom left a response and advice thus far. 

I'm not afraid to taking a paycut, so long I can move into a part of the U.S. that has a corresponding appropriate cost of living to compensation. (Currently where I live in NJ, cost of living to compensation is a shit show.)

Additionally I have a personal project that I put on the back burner due to lack of motivation and time that I hope to jump-start 2019 with.

The job hunt has been a double bladed sword and I've slowed down on applying to places unless I feel I am a direct fit for the role(s).  Moreover, until I finish my next personal unreal environment piece which would help bolster my portfolio.

RyanB

Make asset packages.  20 environment models or similar. 

Price it high.  This tells people that you value your work.

Stick to the genres that you want to work within.  High fantasy, sports, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, etc.

Create a demo scene for your asset package.  Stick it in the package with the assets.  Use this to show off your lighting and assets.

Follow a naming convention.  Show your organizational skills in your asset package.

Put your asset package on a store.  Unity, Unreal, Gumroad, etc.

Keep making asset packages until you get hired.

This shows off your skills, builds a body of work, shows your ability to follow a naming convention, organize your work, etc.  It also demonstrates that your work has value and that you are self-motivated.

NikhilR

I think more than your portfolio or shipped titles, being in the location of where you want to work helps a great deal, especially for junior to mid level jobs.
Of course companies do relocate, but there is a tendency for recruiters to poach from other companies, hire internally before looking outside.
You can also have a good freelance career with good quality work that might pay more than a permanent job.

Zi0

Many job applications in the game industry have the "At least 1 shipped title" sentence in there but in reality if your portfolio is good and you have 0 shipped titles it doesn't really matter. You have some years in the industry and I think that's your leverage.