Portfolio Review: Go for a degree, a job or a better portfolio?

haiqin0403

My portfolio: haiqin.artstation.com

I graduated high school and turned 18 a couple of months ago, but I'm still unsure of what I'm going to do to pursue a career as a 3D Character Artist, which is generally acknowledged as the most competitive position of all.

My portfolio has been completely swapped out and polished, my parents are starting to panic and urging me to go to a school (because that's what everyone does), and I have done a lot more research than I did at that time. However, instead of turning for the better, I'm even more confused now.

My choices generally narrow down to three, as the title suggests:

1. Going to an art school
This is the main cause of my headache. I started learning 3D 4 years ago and having started so much earlier than others in art school, I probably have to wait a long time for them to catch up. And it's hella expensive too. Besides, I have self-discipline good enough to keep me going without anyone's supervision. If there's one thing I wish to gain from an art school, it's the certificate that comes with the outrageous price. With a degree, I can apply for a work visa to work overseas as there are rarely any related jobs here in Malaysia.

2. Getting a job (remote)
This would be the ideal scenario for me. If I'm able to get a remote job, I would be able to gain enough experience and skills required for an employer to sponsor my relocation and a work visa (which is the only way I know of other than getting a Bachelor's Degree). However, as theory and logic proved, this is extremely unlikely. I applied for approximately 30 different junior and mid job offers and got either rejected or ignored. I was forced to apply to mid job offers because there are really not a lot of junior positions available as far as I can find. I think I was rejected of mid positions because I'm not good enough, and junior positions because it's not worth the money they have to pay to relocate me. Although it would be a game changer for me, it's probably better if I leave this option out.

3. Improving my portfolio (by myself)
This is the option where I stay put and observe. Or if I'm simply not good enough but not going to an art school. I'm probably gonna keep working on my portfolio anyway but choosing this option means that I'm focusing everything I've got on it. Maybe I could do this until I get to a stage where I'm good enough and I would be able to score a job (option 2).

I'm currently taking option 3, thinking to switch to option 1 or 2 sometime soon. However, the combination of these options could create possibilities too many for me to even start to comprehend. If you noticed some of my oversights, have a piece of advice, or simply want to talk about your experience, please feel free to do so. Thanks for reading.

TLDR;
Is my portfolio good enough to get a job? Is going to an art school for someone like me worth the time and money? Is there a way to get a work visa to work abroad other than getting a degree or sponsored by an employer? (legally, of course)
Lastly, should a self-taught artist such as myself go for a degree, a job, or improve my portfolio?

Fabi_G

Hi! Maybe a not art related job that allows you to pursue character art on the side is an option too?

Characters for realtime/games, movies, or booth?

iam717

Thinking about what you said and Fabi_G's comment gave me an idea for you.

Whatever amount of time you are allowed by your fam, what you have currently is a scene to a possible "hotel', "Motel", mystery type game.  You have 3 characters, now all you need is animation (or using unreals defaults), is the background for the car a scene you made or just flat bg with street elements, i do not know.

However if your goal is to be in the "industry" why not just start your own "demo", with buttons or links to go fund me's or whatever is a popular send me money site/middle man.  Then throw it at your fam, is what i would do to buy more time from your desired goals, if you got any buddies to work with from uni. with similar goals team up.

I'd say set a time frame, maybe your early 20's or whatever time your folks will allow, or better yet, do what fabi_g said and work somewhere collect some funds, then figure it out, while making stuff on the side.  As far as degree's go, i'll say if i had to do it again, I'd try to go to creating my own designs so i do not need a concept artist, nothing against them but if i am making my own thing, I'd want it my way & also do not have funds for anyone else. 

off/topic/on/topic thou, Realistically, if these copy/action/scripts or so called (a.i. models) get any traction, they can do it all and we can just, idk, collect garbage i guess, have to really think about that, sadly.  the talent-less want to ruin our fun, (interestingly, no problem for same topic to be spread across multiple threads but other topics get compacted or closed, yet the general area is filled with the same thing and allowed, hmm..)

nOLpte8

If the portfolio on its own is not enough to get a job then I think you are going to have to turn to art school as an answer. That being said whilst in art school you would of course be working on improving your portfolio as well. 

In regards to improving the portfolio on your own- yes that is an option, but the question must be asked "what happens if you work on improving your portfolio for a year and still not job"?, do you give it 2 years, if no luck in 2 years, do you give it 3 years etc...?  It's kind of like if you and your friends where in a band trying to "make it big", so you forgo college to "make it big". How many years do you try to "make it big"? Is there an indefinite time frame spent to make it big or do you have to call it at some point? 

Alemja

Hey Hai, I think I can help give you some direction. My advice will for if you want to pursue games as that's what I'm more familiar with. Film might have other requirements.

Technically for game art, you do not need to go to school. In fact I would say based on your skill alone I think you're in a very good spot that school wouldn't teach you much beyond what you already know. However there are a couple of things school are very good for and it's up to you to weigh your pros and cons for each based on your situation.

• School is a good way to make friends and start a network. In my personal experience there are some people I still keep in touch with from school. It's a great way to have a group of peers that can help you improve further
• A degree can make the Visa process a little easier if your job prospects are mostly outside of your country. I don't have much experience with this, but it is something that should be considered. It's not impossible to get a visa without one, but it is harder.
  

I would also think about the cost of school. Here in the US it can be very expensive and leave you with debt for many years, so for a lot of people that debt isn't worth it when they can take courses or find communities for a lot less money. If it's free or low cost, then maybe it's something you can consider, going to school outside of your country might also be an option. You can put courses you take on your resume under education and that might be an option. Apart from school I've taken the Scott Eaton course for anatomy (highly recommended) and Rigging Dojo to learn rigging in maya, they are both things I put on my resume and have helped my job prospects. You could consider that route too.

I think you are a good position to apply, and honestly sometimes getting the job is a luck and numbers game. It's not always about how good you are, but when you apply and if you're a good fit at the time. It never hurts to continue applying. I've applied to many many jobs, many were rejections, you have to keep at it. The industry is in a slow period right now, as I'm sure you've seen a lot of news about the layoffs as the pandemic bubble has burst. I bring this up to not discourage you, but as a reminder that there are ebbs and flows, more jobs will show up in the future.

As far as your portfolio, I mentioned I think it's pretty good but I think there are some areas that could be improved and some things you need to show that proves you can do the work. I'll give you my thoughts as someone who has interviewed people for positions, what I tend to look for, what I think is especially important for artists who don't have much experience.

The first thing to remember is that game art will always have limits to work with. Even though with recent games having every increasing budgets and leeway with what they can do, there are still limits that need to be put in place. A main character like Kratos might be a million polygons, but I guarantee that NPCs have much tighter constraints in the same game.

• I don't see you presenting many wireframes for your characters, I want to know how your geometry looks, if you can work within a budget and how many triangles something is.
• I would also like to see you try planar hair, we are getting some games with hair strands, but it is still pretty expensive and not often used. Planes are what are going to be used a vast majority of the time.
  
• I think your UVs are alright, you do some good things like orient shells well, but I would like to see better packing and if you can swing it, having at most 2 sheets for a character. If you wind up working on a long-running game, there is a decent chance triangle counts may increase, but texture sizes will almost always stay the same. Attempts to make games last longer with seasonal content means that you're going to come across this sort of thing more frequently in the industry. If you're able to get your hands on models from games that have been shipped, I would definitely do so to see how they create their textures. You can get a lot of info from that, it's amazing what some games get away with, the textures might be smaller than you think.
• For textures, show that you know a standard PBR metalness/roughness workflow. I don't really see anything that shows that you do. It is the standard these days and so many projects use it, from stylized to realistic. Another pro tip for showing textures, is pack your metalness/roughness/other grayscale maps into a single RGB texture. It is so common these days to do some form of texture packing and it's super easy to set up with substance painter. Showing that you do it can give you a slight edge that other people with your experience level might lack.
  
• I think you could greatly benefit working from someone else's concept. As 3D artists we may have to figure out details that aren't seen or well defined, but for the most part we don't make our own concepts and studios have dedicated concept artists. Show that you can make something based off of a concept you enjoy.
• I would like to see a piece with a triangle limit, I've seen so many artists who are amazing at Zbrush absolutely flounder once they have to work with limits. If you showed me 2 3D art pieces of the same concept that looked exactly the same, but when you turned on the wires one is 10K triangles and the other is 100K, the 10K will always be more impressive and better demonstrate that you can work within limitations.
• Finally show off more of your process and work, show the UVs, textures, sculpts, polyflows and all of that good stuff. I see students and people starting out forgetting to do that all of the time. Part of it might be because there is the common advice to look at people's portfolios who have the job you want and see what they do, which is really good advice to figure out the quality you need to hit. However there is a bit of a catch, and that people you may look up to who have a lot of work history or work at big studios may show a lot of art that is done on their personal time, and a lot of time that can be sculpts. So because of that, they may not show all of the process because they don't have to, they have history to back it up. You, not really having that experience, need to prove you can do all of the work required of you. Just sculpts or high poly work is not enough if you want to work for games.
  

You're on the right track and I want to encourage you to keep going, there are some gaps you need to fill for employers to consider you and need to keep at it. You have a lot of skill and I'm sure you will get something in time. If you have any more questions I would be happy to answer them!

ThisisVictoriaZ

hello! Based on my experience in finding my first job in the games industry, I went to school and got a degree, Alemja said I was stuck with lots of debt and not enough experience or skill to find a job. I would say based on where you are now with your skill level going to school would really only be helpful to start building a network, as your portfolio is as good as or better than most student portfolios I see. It would be interesting to look into a mentorship instead where you can still meet people in the industry and develop your skill for way cheaper than college, or doing some online courses! CG Master Academy has lots of great classes https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/ 
Gnomon has online courses as well https://www.gnomon.edu/academics/individual-courses/
Individual courses are great because you get the networking without having to necessarily wait for your classmates to "catch up" to you. Good luck!

nOLpte8

Mentorship is a great option if you don't want to go the college route.  I hope the OP looks into it. 

chien

i am currently freelance and also still attend course at moment, frankly i feel that no matter what knowledge or artwork, workflow we learn or familiar with, i feel it won't even help myself to get even interview, best i can think is network all the time and be ready to change your workflow and reset your workflow and accept new knowledge in short moment. hope that helps

tgm79

What I've learn for that last 5 years of unsuccessful attempts to get a remote job is that the 3D industry is a private club, and you have to know people to get in. You can also try to be insanely good + productive.