Architect thinking about breaking into the Gaming Industry

Snafu__

Hi everyone,

I am struggling with what to do with my career at the moment.

Im 30 years old and have a bachelor degree and 3 years working experience working as an architect in Europe.
On top of that I have a 2-year degree as game designer. I decided to do this degree because I love 3d modelling and making scenes look as realistic as possible and I love gaming  

At the moment Im working as an architect but I miss the 3d modelling, the artistic freedom and variety you have when creating game assets or environments. 

Does anyone have an idea how I can switch careers? All companies seem to be looking for people with 3-5 years AAA experience.

I feel I could do a lot of good in either level design or environment design with my architectural background.

Just wondering if anyone has experience with it or any thoughts on it in general would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

oglu

Do you have a portfolio?

Snafu__

I have one of my architectural work but not online yet. For my gaming work its still WIP.

TheGabmeister

As previously mentioned, an online portfolio is a must. For each artwork, you should show a detailed breakdown of the scene such as wireframes, materials, trim sheets, modular components, and other things that are relevant to game asset creation.

I came from a civil engineering background. Although most of what I learned never translated into 3d modeling, I'm pretty confident that a significant portion your knowledge as an architect will be relevant since you guys are well versed with scene lighting and composition.

poopipe

You'll need to do some game related portfolio stuff in order to be taken seriously as an environment artist.  Decent uvs, management of texture resources etc.. 

As the poster above says you should have a really solid grounding in lighting and structural composition which will serve you well. The big difference I suppose will be learning to make a place look lived in rather than stopping once you've finished inventing the building.

It might be worth looking into concept art as an option if you're interested in designing environments - you don't necessarily need to be able to paint from scratch (although it does really help)  the main skills are in design and communication - which again you should be pretty comfortable with as an architect 

Snafu__

Thanks all for your input.
What do you recommend for using as an online portfolio? I have an artstation account and thought about maybe having my own webpage but that requires a whole lot more effert/knowledge which I dont have at the moment.

oglu

Artstation is fine.