Junior Character Artist

torrrents11

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for my first job in the industry,  remote if is possible because for personal reasons I can't move out from my city. What do you recommend to do? 

Thanks

torrrents11

Thanks for you comments!

poopipe

torrrents11 said:

Right now, I'm dealing with what's called Impostor Syndrome

This is healthy - people who aren't willing to learn don't suffer from it. 

also, congratulations

NikhilR

torrrents11 said:

Hello everyone!!

First of all, I would like to say that after a lot of time and effort, I have landed my first position in the industry as a Junior Character Artist, and I am super excited about it! I would like to ask for some advice, as right now I feel very nervous and a bit scared. My biggest fear is that I will be given tasks and won't know how to fulfill them, but maybe it's all in my mind, since I'm a Junior, and I understand that they won't ask too much of me at the beginning until I adapt to the job. But the fear is still there, fear of not meeting their expectations and not being good enough. What advice would you give me to be more at ease?

Thanks to everyone!

Great! Happy everything worked out.

I would definitely network as much as possible in the studio especially with coworkers who aren't in the art department.

And learn about the career track available at the studio, how to level up and communicate often with your assigned senior/manager.

Keep that linkedin updated!

torrrents11

poopipe said:

torrrents11 said:

Right now, I'm dealing with what's called Impostor Syndrome

This is healthy - people who aren't willing to learn don't suffer from it. 

also, congratulations

Thanks dude!!!

torrrents11

NikhilR said:

torrrents11 said:

Hello everyone!!

First of all, I would like to say that after a lot of time and effort, I have landed my first position in the industry as a Junior Character Artist, and I am super excited about it! I would like to ask for some advice, as right now I feel very nervous and a bit scared. My biggest fear is that I will be given tasks and won't know how to fulfill them, but maybe it's all in my mind, since I'm a Junior, and I understand that they won't ask too much of me at the beginning until I adapt to the job. But the fear is still there, fear of not meeting their expectations and not being good enough. What advice would you give me to be more at ease?

Thanks to everyone!

Great! Happy everything worked out.

I would definitely network as much as possible in the studio especially with coworkers who aren't in the art department.

And learn about the career track available at the studio, how to level up and communicate often with your assigned senior/manager.

Keep that linkedin updated!

Thanks man!!! Maybe is more difficult at the beginning, because I will work from my  home, and the studio is in another country (9h difference) but I'll do my best, for sure!

NikhilR

torrrents11 said:

NikhilR said:

torrrents11 said:

Hello everyone!!

First of all, I would like to say that after a lot of time and effort, I have landed my first position in the industry as a Junior Character Artist, and I am super excited about it! I would like to ask for some advice, as right now I feel very nervous and a bit scared. My biggest fear is that I will be given tasks and won't know how to fulfill them, but maybe it's all in my mind, since I'm a Junior, and I understand that they won't ask too much of me at the beginning until I adapt to the job. But the fear is still there, fear of not meeting their expectations and not being good enough. What advice would you give me to be more at ease?

Thanks to everyone!

Great! Happy everything worked out.

I would definitely network as much as possible in the studio especially with coworkers who aren't in the art department.

And learn about the career track available at the studio, how to level up and communicate often with your assigned senior/manager.

Keep that linkedin updated!

Thanks man!!! Maybe is more difficult at the beginning, because I will work from my  home, and the studio is in another country (9h difference) but I'll do my best, for sure!

You'll get used to that time difference and there's usually some fexibility in meeting times. What studio did you join?

torrrents11

NikhilR

torrrents11 said:

I think the text went missing lol

littleclaude

Hi

Well done and best of luck for the future. Enjoy the process, looking at your work I think you will be fine, you have a good eye for detail.

As well as asking if your work is going in the right direction, I would encourage you ask other people how they did something if you see anything you would like to know more about, obviously not all the time. And don’’t worry about imposter syndrome, it will always be there, think of it as a good thing, it means your excited for the job and you want to do your best.

Good luck and best wishes Neil 😀

torrrents11

NikhilR said:

torrrents11 said:

I think the text went missing lol

Yes, sorry!! I prefer to don't say nothing yet because I signed an NDA (I understand that nothing happens if you say on which studio are you working, but I'm not sure about that hahaha). So let some days to be comfortable with the job, and if the studio let me say that I'm working with them, I will tell you

torrrents11

littleclaude said:

Hi

Well done and best of luck for the future. Enjoy the process, looking at your work I think you will be fine, you have a good eye for detail.

As well as asking if your work is going in the right direction, I would encourage you ask other people how they did something if you see anything you would like to know more about, obviously not all the time. And don’’t worry about imposter syndrome, it will always be there, think of it as a good thing, it means your excited for the job and you want to do your best.

Good luck and best wishes Neil 😀

Thank you Neil, for you words! I hope that all will be fine...But I've always considered that I don't do anything spectacular or worthy of admiration. I'm still nervous about the job; I don't know what I'll have to do yet. I understand that a Junior is not expected to do as much, as they are learning, and that takes time. However, I feel like I'll have to prove my level, as if I were a Senior, haha. It's probably all in my head, I don't know.
Could someone share experiences as a junior? It would be quite helpful.
Thanks.

NikhilR

torrrents11 said:

NikhilR said:

torrrents11 said:

I think the text went missing lol

Yes, sorry!! I prefer to don't say nothing yet because I signed an NDA (I understand that nothing happens if you say on which studio are you working, but I'm not sure about that hahaha). So let some days to be comfortable with the job, and if the studio let me say that I'm working with them, I will tell you

All good! The probation period should go smoothly, its really only there to reduce studio liability. 

NikhilR

torrrents11 said:

littleclaude said:

Hi

Well done and best of luck for the future. Enjoy the process, looking at your work I think you will be fine, you have a good eye for detail.

As well as asking if your work is going in the right direction, I would encourage you ask other people how they did something if you see anything you would like to know more about, obviously not all the time. And don’’t worry about imposter syndrome, it will always be there, think of it as a good thing, it means your excited for the job and you want to do your best.

Good luck and best wishes Neil 😀

Thank you Neil, for you words! I hope that all will be fine...But I've always considered that I don't do anything spectacular or worthy of admiration. I'm still nervous about the job; I don't know what I'll have to do yet. I understand that a Junior is not expected to do as much, as they are learning, and that takes time. However, I feel like I'll have to prove my level, as if I were a Senior, haha. It's probably all in my head, I don't know.
Could someone share experiences as a junior? It would be quite helpful.
Thanks.

I can share mine though it was a while ago.
I'd say it really depends on the studio and how well they have organised their onboarding process and what a junior is expected to take on as responsibilities.
Usually there is the studio wide onboarding where they will cover everything from studio overview, projects, codes of conduct and leveling up matrices and also inform you of studio heirarchy and social events.
There would be an onboarding for the project and then one with the team through your project manager.

I did notice that there was flexibility depending on your experience and ability. For example while all were encouraged to do their own research some were given more assistance navigating through more interaction with onboarding mentors.

That said from my colleagues I have heard this to be lacking on occassion. Can't say that there is dedicated assigned time in every case. A senior assigned to you would balance onboarding with their work responsibilties at their discretion.

And when it comes to learning I can say that everyone was learning. I didn't meet a single professional had didn't need to learn more regardless of how long they had been working there.
It did make me question somewhat about what was expected of me as a junior since many seniors didn't know what I was meant to be learning, so it was a group learning experience.
Where the learning really mattered was the studio pipeline which because of its proprietary nature was something you could only learn in the studio and getting experienced at this likely impacted the levelling up matrix more than any personal artistic potential in my perspective.

Its definitely a team effort and time is provided to learn, in general I understood that the studios like to maintain lower costs, so its considered cheaper to have someone at a lower compensation learn and grow than hire a specialist at a higher price point. Though the latter is done on occassion mostly through outsourcing. (example hiring a dedicated outsourcer for character art)

A lot of assets are reused/repurposed so much of the work felt more QA in art than actually making art, but again this really depends on the studio and the project.
It did make me question how the budget was adjusted towards inhouse and outsourcing. 
Like for me personally its simpler to buy a tufted couch asset for 50$ and modify it than to have an employee take a month to build one following tutorials at 30$/hr, ($960/month) but that's just me.
I think it works this way since the focus is more on the profit than any saving incurred in operation cost, much of which is subsidized by government grants or offset by other investments. 
Could still be optimised further in my perspective.

Being in a studio means access to mentorship programs. You can also join different groups depending on your interests that can help in networking.