Why are my applications for jobs being rejected?
So I graduated last year in late August from my masters degree, feeling pipped up and confident based on my achievements I went ahead and looking forward to embark on an adventurous career path. I created my CV, tried to ensure my portfolio looked as best as it could (at least according to my abilities) and sent a few applications for some positions. Only, sadly to have a large scale amount rejected even for junior positions and quite frankly I'm feeling burned out and exhausted as well as extremely frustrated. So I find myself in a dark corner if you will and I need advice or some critique and input the best steps moving forward. Is my portfolio an issue ? Is my CV layout the problem ? Lack of experience? I'm not sure what the problem is, I do often find flaws in my work even if it's already looking rather polished but I guess we all suffer from some form of perfectionism. Any in put would be greatly appreciated as I'm keen and eager to land my first position as I've been grafting and working tirelessly for some time now. https://david123.artstation.com/
Replies
This is totally normal I would say.
Getting a job as artist in this business is about location, lots of luck and then skill.
Location is something you have to ask yourself. Are you close to many job opportunities? They will probably rather take the junior from the university next door where they know the prof then the applicant one from the other side of the country or even another country.
And to push the luck only endurance and patience helps.
Seems you have some skills going so keep that one up for sure!
Hi! Regarding your portfolio pieces, I think the vampire hunting kit is the weakest one, in design and execution. Here are some aspects I think you could improve on, should you rework/remake it in the future:
Consistent sense of scale: Currently it's hard to tell the size of some elements, as some are reused with different scale. Using the scull as a reference, some of the items contained seem rather small.
Correct shading: Looking at the chest, I think a normal map with wrong green channel direction is in the mix?
Believable construction: Paying attention to wood direction, fixtures and material strength will help make assets believable. On some of the case wood-bars the grain goes orthogonal to their direction, making them structurally weak.
For realistic assets, one can check against scans or other 3d references to see if it holds up. Imo not everything has to be sculpted, it might be more efficient to add non silhouette relevant surface details during texturing.
Overall, I would reduce the amount of assets and invest the time in polish using references for details. You could take a look at the assets from "Hunt Showdown" as a reference for style and quality.
Another option of course, would be to create a new project, ideally based on an existing concept so that you can focus on execution. Maybe that's better if you need to get some distance to your past work. Personally, I had good learning experiences participating in the bi-monthly environment challenges on here.
Keep it up!
As Rollin mentioned, can be boiled down to just pure dumb luck i.e. right place - right time and/or something hadn't 'clicked' for whomever eyeballed your stuff etc...
Plus I might also add, a few of your materials are not reading well eg: parts of the bow wood texture have a wax like appearance, chest vials don't seem to be filled with liquid (thumbnail) and those metal axe/knife thingys are not leaving an impression too suggest weight upon that velvet - silk lining?!
so overall in my opinion, leaves an unfinished perception for the viewer, alongside possibly the inclusion of a stylized cell shaded prop which honestly I'd found slightly jarring, considering the realistic aesthetic of the other two assets.
The unfortunate truth is; game art is a saturated market. You have to be insanely good and insanely lucky to find any work. If you're finding flaws in your own work, imagine what an art director with decades more experience sees. Everyone's been working tirelessly, not just you. Keep at it though!
Check those long text descriptions. I see at least one typo, and the grammar could be improved. Tbh, it reads as "Fine Arts Nonsense" where the language is flowery but doesn't say much. I can tell you're trying to sell your passion for the work and that's great - you could do it with 50% less text :)
If your seeking a job as a dedicated weapons artist, not only are you going to have a hard time; you got to show the boring stuff. If you're modeling made up weapons (sci-fi and fantasy) I have no idea if you can accuratly model and texture a standard 9mm or a AK47. I want to see your understanding and accuracy of those weapons. Do you understand the mechanics of real weaponary? Do you have an understanding of the specific grips, barrel widths, 3D surfaces, and materials on those weapons, and why they are used? Go the extra mile and make a holster…ammo and clips. If you're shooting for realisim go for it, make it a eye catching portfolio piece, study the weapons from AAA front runners like Battlefild, COD, and PUBG….if you can't match or ideally exceed that quality, then you're not going to be considered. Put your stuff in a 3D viewer like sketchfab and add it to your porftfolio. Seek out folks on artstation who have the positions you're seeking. Learn from their portfolio's…what have they shown that you have not…how have they shown it? Try and PM them to seek their advice = How did they get their start? What were the pieces that lead them to land the jobs they got?
Right now you don't have a body of work to show you have a mastery of your craft. Pump up those numbers…dem rookie numbers. If I was hiring a weapons artist for my team, I'd want to know he could model other stuff as well….it's rare I'd have an artist on my team only singularly dedicated to weapons. I'd hire a hardsurface artist that has versitality to do vehicles/weapons/props (like industral machinery, or other mechanical assets). Good luck….keep on moving forward.
Sauce….
https://www.artstation.com/larsvtooren
As others have already said I think the best you can do is keep applying and keep working on the portfolio. 3d artist like any creative job honestly (UI/UX designer, Illustrator etc…) will inherently be very, very competitive.
I mean not only are you competiting agianst the people who graduated from school with a game art degree, you are also competiting against all the hobbysist, all the people sick of their current job and trying to puruse their dream as a game artist etc… -that is a large swathe of people for often very few openings.
Outside of knowing someone internally at X studio I don't think there are any shortcuts, it's just matter of keep applying, keep improrving the portfolio.
Hi, as much as talent plays a huge role in this industry, a lot of it is just pure luck.
The studio i'm working at prioritize recruiting internally, which means if a team needs more people, they would pick artists from a 'reservoir' inside the company (artists with good track record from another team).
Although a lot of artists in-house have incredible skills, they're left waiting for a vacant seat when somebody quit the job.
your artwork is fine, just keep trying and learning
I am also still learning until now, sometimes i feel i have to return to fundamentals again
I heard somehting terrible recent;ly online where some of the jobs advertised are actually not real. I would not go as far as saying they
are totally fake,, but it seems like some compnaies are trying to manipulate the jobs market. idf this is in any way true, then its a real disgrace
not sayign that
https://jobacle.com/blog/the-dirty-truth-why-employers-post-fake-jobs.html