Can't settle down on a single discipline - any thoughts?

Ikarooz

I'm trying too much to be a jack-of-all-trades and I'm afraid that this is the issue why I don't land any creative jobs.

I've graduated from a media college and thus have a broad knowledge about drawing, 2d/3d animation, modeling, rigging, coding, etc. The thing is that I just can't bring myself to stick to ONLY modeling or ONLY animation, once I see another open position, I try to create something fitting to that job. For example, after seeing a 2d animator position, I created a small dragon rig via illustrator and animated it with After Effects Duik. After not landing the job, I saw a position for 3d animation, so I dug up an older 3d rig to polish some animations. Right now though I'm sitting in substance painter, reworking the textures and trying to add particle effects to that model...
In some weeks I work on a realistic render with Vray, in others I try some frame-to-frame animation in Krita, then I catch myself looking at some tutorial videos about Spine.

My main goal currently is the game industry, but if I keep doing stuff like this I won't go anywhere, I'm already turning 30 this year after all.

If you have any wise words to share, be it just a simpe "get your sh*t together!", I'd really appreciate it, thank you.

Alex_J

Broad knowledge is certainly a strength but you have to be good enough at at least one thing to be hireable. Think about it from employers perspective. You want a person who can do five things kind of ok, or five specialist at the top of their game?

So focus for awhile, then you can fuck around later. It helps to have crystal clear goals. Very specific. Writing them down may help. Peer pressure is also a great thing. It's a rare and weird person who can work completely without peer pressure helping guide them. Maybe you can join a small facebook or discord group of like-minded artist striving to get a job, tell them what you are all about, and use them to help keep you on target over the long haul.

alexsir

I hope this will help you decide what you want to do:

https://polycount.com/discussion/207245/riot-games-talking-about-the-foundations-of-the-games-industry

Brian "Panda" Choi

A newb generalist is someone who isn't useful at any particular thing.

A specialized noob is someone who is useful at one thing.

One of those makes useful things.  Be a specialized noob and let time and experience add to your generalist kit.

Ikarooz

Hm, the "specialized noob" does make a lot of sense actually

Thank you very much for helping me out, I'm feeling way less lost now  

garcellano

I get it. I feel like after graduation, we go through this phase. We want to grab anything to break in.
Mine, when I started after graduation, was 3D Animation. I never got a 3D Animator job (I think I took one unpaid internship for 3D animation.. but I don't really count it). Went from 3D Animation, to game tester, stereoscopic compositor, and slowly 3D artist, to Environment Artist.
There weren't that many jobs out there for 3D animators, and my demo reel wasn't as enticing, compared to others. The stereoscopic compositor role was random, it was one of the few jobs that were hiring at the time, and the company I applied hired a bunch straight out of college or any artist that was looking. I ended up staying there for like 3 years.

What I'm trying to get is, whatever job you take, it might show what you really want to do. Know what jobs are around your area and how frequent you see them. And whatever skill or role you really like, focus on that the most. It'll take time to nail it down.

It didn't take long after graduation, that I ended up switching from animation to modeling, mainly because of the jobs that were around the area, and I wasn't willing to sacrifice a lot of time to aim for something that I'll never know if I'll get, and won't know how long, if it'll be contract or permanent. 

I hope this helps.

Kwramm

tech-artist? ...it's a good choice for us who're always curious, get bored quickly and always need new things to research and tinker with, and there are plenty of specializations in the discipline (programming, shaders, optimization, etc.), branching out to VFX, rigging, lighting. As long as you're not scared of doing your own research and dealing with some complexity, it's a very rewarding career choice.