Career advice PLEASE HELP!

aibato97

Hello! My name is Nathan, I’m a recent graduate and frankly a little lost right now on where my career is heading. I’ve applied to several jobs already and have gotten no responses so far. I’d like to get any kind of feedback on my portfolio to see whether I’m wasting my time applying for jobs and should instead focus on improving my skills. I specifically love both 3D modelling characters(Stylised or photo realistic) and animation. My passion is making animated films.

However, as an entry level artist like myself I’m unsure whether It’s a good idea to try and get a job as a 3D character modeller as these are usually given to more senior artists and may take years. I just want experience in the field so should I go for jobs that are more in demand like architectural visualisation or product design for marketing and focus my practice on that? Maybe animation is a better option to get a job? Any other highly in demand positions as a 3D artist? Any help and feedback would be highly appreciated!

Here is a link to my ArtStation http://www.artstation.com/nathanbeguin

Thanks.

Eric Chadwick

Welcome to Polycount.

This section is for advice about your career, and how to get there.

Portfolio critique belongs in 3D Art Showcase and Critiques. Please create a separate Topic there, for that. Thanks.

Taylor Brown

@aibato97

Hi and welcome to PC.
To be blunt, your portfolio screams "Learning Student" and you have a lot of work ahead of you especially if you're wanting to be a character artist.
My advice: search for the portfolios of recently hired Junior Artists in the area youre interested in, take a hard and long objective look at how your work stacks up against theirs and determine the skills you need to focus on to hit that bar. Once you've done that, get back to work! Consistently post here on Polycount (and anywhere else) for feedback. After a while of that, and when you notice solid progression in your skill set, perhaps consider doing some focused online studies at sites like CGMA.

tgm79

I agree with Taylor Brown. One second look at your portfolio will tell any recruiter that you are not quite yet ready. As you have figured on your own, you must improve a lot more. Take a look at the Artstation challenge winners in the categories for characters and you will see what is needed.

aibato97

@Taylor Brown  @tgm79
Thanks for the advice guys!

Alex_J

Lot of young people think if they have worked very hard on something, it must have value. But you can bust ass and it all be for nothing... then, if you got the wrong attitude, all that repeated failure and effort that seems to have been wasted drags you down. Eventually you quit.

The people who achieve their goals aren't more talented, they just keep persisting and take care of life's essentials so that they can keep focused on their passion for the long haul. Persistence always wins. Every time. But that means you take the time to get your life squared away so you can put in study with proper focus -- not that you let things go to shit and get super stressed as your money dwindles while you're sculpting lumpy heads.

Be sure to try to get as much feedback from as many different types of people as possible for all of your work. The goal is not to beat yourself down ("I am not wooooorthy!"), but only to learn to see your work through others eyes. Then, eventually you'll understand how to make stuff that impresses. It takes time though to learn to find your blindspots.

One thing I will mention because I haven't seen it said really, but obviously getting critique from fellow artist and especially professional artist is very worthwhile and something you should seek out. But another kind of feedback I think can be valuable is from gamers and other consumers of art. Obviously this is not the tough-love kind of feedback that is going to push you to the next level, but what it can do is help you understand the fundamental demands game art has on it. Like artist will tell you about silhouette being important, but if you make a game project then you'll get a real sense for the practical application behind in the idea. Thorough understanding versus rote memorization, which will help you be more innovative.

Also, gamers tend to have poorer taste than artist so they'll compliment you more, which boost the ego. And who cares what people say about that? If it makes you feel good you get excited to do more work, and that's a good thing. Give yourself a little pat on the back now and then.

Also be sure to do thorough research about whatever career you are going after. Remember there is no dream jobs and there is many ways to fulfill your creative instincts other than hyper-competitive AAA jobs. If you look at the average length of a career in games versus the effort to get into it... the math isn't so hot. It seems things are moving in the right direction, but make sure you got clear goals for yourself and if you gonna make a sacrifice, it's a smart one.

Don't focus all your effort on infiltration. Exfil is more important. A lot of inexperienced alpinist get themselves into serious trouble by focusing all their attention on getting to the summit. And what happens when you finally get there? Whoop-dee-doo. Nothing. Plenty of idiots already climbed everest. Nobody cares, and neither will you when you get there. You'll just have to find another peak to chase.

Most accidents and fatalities happen during descent. Important principle to keep in mind. So don't get all screw-brained and forget that your life is in the right-here right-now, and if you aren't enjoying the crappy art you are making right now you will never enjoy art so you may as well quit.

Good luck!

Biomag

You can take a look at my portfolio -> https://www.artstation.com/biomag - It's still pretty much the same as back when I got my first AAA-interview as through out the last year I didn't have the time to finish anything else besides work. It's pretty much chronologic, once I finished Ciri I managed to get 2-3 answers from studios, before that nada besides automatic rejection emails (if I was lucky enough to get even that).

There is this thread here on polycount -> https://polycount.com/discussion/187512/recently-hired-in-aaa-show-us-your-portfolio/p1

Also seriously plan to start working outside AAA, don't get stuck in the mindset it has to be a big name for your first place. The very same portfolio that couldn't get me an answer suddenly was good enough to have recruiters contacting me after spending nearly a year in an AAA-outsourcing studio as recruiters and HR more often than not only partially look at portfolios, while paying close attention to working experience (artist in those studios on the other hand, won't give a fuck about working experience and focus on your portfolio)...


Last piece of advice - go with your dream job as goal, not what is 'easier to do'. Nothing is easy in games. There are thousands of students out there searching for jobs and by far not even close as many positions (not to mention seniors switching jobs). Every opening that is posted will have plenty of candidates to choose from, who all will be loving that specific field and have dedicated all their time and effort to shine in it. No reason to settle with someone who is looking for an 'easy way in'. You will be doing it for a awful lot of time. When you won't be working overtime you probably will be practising at home (because we all do it). So there should be a sincere passion for what you are doing or you will burn out before getting anywhere.

maximumsproductions

    Hey there, this is my room mate who is a character artist in film as of recently (but honestly it didn't seem to matter much -- game or film just have the foundations). I also think this is chronologically based. 
https://www.artstation.com/angela_rico                     

I'm just going to send you some content to start with and hope it leads you to more. Sooo much awesome content to learn from these days I'm speechless.

    If you can spend 6 to 12 months just learning from these guys and focusing on learning techniques, you will get a job. - It's good you have a basic foundation of the software and all that, so now you can get into the good parts.

https://gumroad.com/grassetti  
https://gumroad.com/dominicqwek
https://gumroad.com/robotpencil?sort=page_layout
https://www.youtube.com/user/rkingslien/videos

https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/courses/10-character-creation-for-film-cinematics

    Don't take this CGMA course, until you know your crap from the links above it. It's project based, you need a lot of passion and commitment and want to have high level questions to ask. It's a great workshop but I think it's more advance supplementation not complete foundation.

Cheers, good luck!

aibato97

Alex Javor said:

Lot of young people think if they have worked very hard on something, it must have value. But you can bust ass and it all be for nothing... then, if you got the wrong attitude, all that repeated failure and effort that seems to have been wasted drags you down. Eventually you quit.

The people who achieve their goals aren't more talented, they just keep persisting and take care of life's essentials so that they can keep focused on their passion for the long haul. Persistence always wins. Every time. But that means you take the time to get your life squared away so you can put in study with proper focus -- not that you let things go to shit and get super stressed as your money dwindles while you're sculpting lumpy heads.

Be sure to try to get as much feedback from as many different types of people as possible for all of your work. The goal is not to beat yourself down ("I am not wooooorthy!"), but only to learn to see your work through others eyes. Then, eventually you'll understand how to make stuff that impresses. It takes time though to learn to find your blindspots.

One thing I will mention because I haven't seen it said really, but obviously getting critique from fellow artist and especially professional artist is very worthwhile and something you should seek out. But another kind of feedback I think can be valuable is from gamers and other consumers of art. Obviously this is not the tough-love kind of feedback that is going to push you to the next level, but what it can do is help you understand the fundamental demands game art has on it. Like artist will tell you about silhouette being important, but if you make a game project then you'll get a real sense for the practical application behind in the idea. Thorough understanding versus rote memorization, which will help you be more innovative.

Also, gamers tend to have poorer taste than artist so they'll compliment you more, which boost the ego. And who cares what people say about that? If it makes you feel good you get excited to do more work, and that's a good thing. Give yourself a little pat on the back now and then.

Also be sure to do thorough research about whatever career you are going after. Remember there is no dream jobs and there is many ways to fulfill your creative instincts other than hyper-competitive AAA jobs. If you look at the average length of a career in games versus the effort to get into it... the math isn't so hot. It seems things are moving in the right direction, but make sure you got clear goals for yourself and if you gonna make a sacrifice, it's a smart one.

Don't focus all your effort on infiltration. Exfil is more important. A lot of inexperienced alpinist get themselves into serious trouble by focusing all their attention on getting to the summit. And what happens when you finally get there? Whoop-dee-doo. Nothing. Plenty of idiots already climbed everest. Nobody cares, and neither will you when you get there. You'll just have to find another peak to chase.

Most accidents and fatalities happen during descent. Important principle to keep in mind. So don't get all screw-brained and forget that your life is in the right-here right-now, and if you aren't enjoying the crappy art you are making right now you will never enjoy art so you may as well quit.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot for your views and opinions! It's hard times atm but what you've said is really motivational so I really appreciate it. All the best! 

aibato97

Biomag said:

You can take a look at my portfolio -> https://www.artstation.com/biomag - It's still pretty much the same as back when I got my first AAA-interview as through out the last year I didn't have the time to finish anything else besides work. It's pretty much chronologic, once I finished Ciri I managed to get 2-3 answers from studios, before that nada besides automatic rejection emails (if I was lucky enough to get even that).

There is this thread here on polycount -> https://polycount.com/discussion/187512/recently-hired-in-aaa-show-us-your-portfolio/p1

Also seriously plan to start working outside AAA, don't get stuck in the mindset it has to be a big name for your first place. The very same portfolio that couldn't get me an answer suddenly was good enough to have recruiters contacting me after spending nearly a year in an AAA-outsourcing studio as recruiters and HR more often than not only partially look at portfolios, while paying close attention to working experience (artist in those studios on the other hand, won't give a fuck about working experience and focus on your portfolio)...


Last piece of advice - go with your dream job as goal, not what is 'easier to do'. Nothing is easy in games. There are thousands of students out there searching for jobs and by far not even close as many positions (not to mention seniors switching jobs). Every opening that is posted will have plenty of candidates to choose from, who all will be loving that specific field and have dedicated all their time and effort to shine in it. No reason to settle with someone who is looking for an 'easy way in'. You will be doing it for a awful lot of time. When you won't be working overtime you probably will be practising at home (because we all do it). So there should be a sincere passion for what you are doing or you will burn out before getting anywhere.

Very useful advice! Thanks a lot man!

aibato97

maximumsproductions said:

    Hey there, this is my room mate who is a character artist in film as of recently (but honestly it didn't seem to matter much -- game or film just have the foundations). I also think this is chronologically based. 
https://www.artstation.com/angela_rico                     

I'm just going to send you some content to start with and hope it leads you to more. Sooo much awesome content to learn from these days I'm speechless.

    If you can spend 6 to 12 months just learning from these guys and focusing on learning techniques, you will get a job. - It's good you have a basic foundation of the software and all that, so now you can get into the good parts.

https://gumroad.com/grassetti  
https://gumroad.com/dominicqwek
https://gumroad.com/robotpencil?sort=page_layout
https://www.youtube.com/user/rkingslien/videos

https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/courses/10-character-creation-for-film-cinematics

    Don't take this CGMA course, until you know your crap from the links above it. It's project based, you need a lot of passion and commitment and want to have high level questions to ask. It's a great workshop but I think it's more advance supplementation not complete foundation.

Cheers, good luck!

Thanks! All the best!