Portfolio advice for getting into the Games Industry - Character Artist

MagicMeister

Hello fine folks of Polycount,

I'm looking for some advice on how to pick concepts to work off of that are appealing to recruiters and the artstation community to get noticed and hopefully network and find opportunities. I've made 2 finished portfolio pieces so far (that are far, far far from perfect) but even in their imperfection they generated almost zero attention or community engagement. I know that's not really "necessary" to get hired, but I think making a splash certainly helps.

The problem is, I don't know which concepts to pick from to make something that is simultaneously "my style" and "appealing".

For context: I want to be a character artist that ideally works on semi-realistic fantasy games like Baldur's Gate, Diablo, Monster Hunter, or even more stylized fantasy like Final Fantasy type games.

Here's a link to my current portfolio (only 2 pieces, I know, I'm workin on it!), so that you can get some reference for how far along I am. https://www.artstation.com/dylan_swint

Here's some concepts in the running for my next major portfolio piece: left to right, A, B, C

I like A because it's more practice with armor modelling, which I just started working on in my last portfolio piece. I like B because it's simple and I like her "fighter" type of character. I like C because the illustration is just gorgeous.

I'm considering going with A, but combining the armor with design elements from C.

The reason I'm worried that A won't be "appealing" on art station or to recruiters is because the character might appeal to me but not to others, stylistically. I mean, most of the top trending 3D works are focused on hyper-attractive characters that have a lot of idealized physical features and I feel like the character in A is a bit omore niche than that. She's not "cute" or "sexy", but definitely a badass kind of "deep" character.

Anyways, I hope to get some advice here, because I'm starting to really get lost in the sauce.

Alex_J

Have you made a lot of character models already? If not, I'd suggest:

Do all three.

Do a quick version of each, not trying to make it perfect, just like 70%. Do your best work but do it within a schedule - like 4 weeks per character, going from beginning to having it posed and rendered in your portfolio. Just cut out whatever you have to in order to reach the deadline. don't worry if it turns out bad.

Once you have all three in your portfolio, then a few things will be accomplished:

- you'll have a tight handle on your workflow

- you'll have "finished" art which you can study in order to identify specific things to fix and you'll be able to get specific, detailed feedback on it from others

- then, in order to take the models to the AAA level, it will just be a matter of refinement, which is a lot easier and less stress (and more fun) compared to going through an entire character, trying to get it right in one go

this model versus that model is not really important, as long as you faithfully represent the concept and model is technically solid and appealing

zetheros

I think it's important to work on what you want to work on. The games industry isn't really a good place to make money in my experience, so you might as well enjoy the process of creation.

Just keep getting better at art, and reach out to the companies you want to work at. If you want to work on plate armour, you'll need good references so help yourself to mine https://drive.google.com/open?id=1__zLVV-USCzPH32HP3dzviU3N1g8Lkz7&usp=drive_fs

Good luck!

MagicMeister

Thank you both for your feedback! I think it's a great idea to try to churn out a few models, get them through the whole pipeline, and worry about dialing them in to that perfection point later on. I have made a pretty fair share of character models so far, but not nearly so many that I don't need to walk through the pipeline another 6 or 7 times.

As far as your point about enjoying the process, Zetheros, thanks for the reminder! I think it's easy to get lost in chasing a goal that's secondary to just having a good time making art. I do make character models for the love of it, but recently I've been caught up thinking about my future and I would love to have a career as a games artist. I work on indie games with a small team right now, and I absolutely love it... but one day I would hope to pay the bills that way too.

If you don't mind me asking, Zetheros, do you have a personal, negative experience with the games industry? I know it's an extremely volatile industry with low job security, but landing a job as a Character artist doesn't seem impossible, and the salaries can be quite high compared to what I'm used to.

Also, thank you for sharing your armor reference, that's a huge help! I'm motivated to dive in to these new characters.

zetheros

yeah man, I fucking hate our industry. A lot of our leaders (none at the companies I've worked for) are completely out of touch, and - through action or inaction, demonstrate they are unwilling or incapable of learning from their mistakes. Meanwhile highly cherished IP and entire companies are being strip mined and sold for scrap to the lowest bidder, while highly skilled workers are thrown by the wayside to be replaced by some guy in India working for 10-12 dollars per hour. Which is fine, good for the dude in India, but the lack of regulation and respect is disgusting.

Love the job though. It's quite sedentary, that's basically the only downside.

NikhilR

zetheros said:

yeah man, I fucking hate our industry. A lot of our leaders (none at the companies I've worked for) are completely out of touch, and - through action or inaction, demonstrate they are unwilling or incapable of learning from their mistakes. Meanwhile highly cherished IP and entire companies are being strip mined and sold for scrap to the lowest bidder, while highly skilled workers are thrown by the wayside to be replaced by some guy in India working for 10-12 dollars per hour. Which is fine, good for the dude in India, but the lack of regulation and respect is disgusting.

Love the job though. It's quite sedentary, that's basically the only downside.

The people in india are overworked with studios overwhelmed with work outsourced to them. 
Outsourcing studios cut costs like crazy from using unlicensed software to subcontracting to independent contracters to further reduce costs.
This is because the companies have to underbid to get AAA outsourcing contracts.

To add to the insult, many outsourcing studios have NDA's that prevent any mention of projects worked on even after the end of contract, let alone show any work even if it is public.
Like say you worked on a fortnite skin as part of Lakshaya Digital, you can't say you worked on Fortnite, nor can you showcase the skin you worked on in your portfolio once it is release.
You are made to sign that you will never ever reveal what you worked on ever.

Personally I wish this one aspect of the game industry would get infected, rot and die.

The total secrecy and lack of any transparency, hiding all development until release in 5 years is counterproductive to building momentum and recognition for the artists. So much of WIP content is marketable, but its all hidden behind a shareholder sucking corporate forcefield.

Look at the state of Humanoid Origin and Worlds Untold
Worlds untold was barely a year into development and Humanoid Origin was 4 years in and with both dead we will never get to see what they were working on because of NDA.
And the artists don't get to show anything either.

Atleast with the Concord disaster the artists did get to show something, at the very least an NDA clause should include terms that if a studio implodes all the art is released to the artists for use in their portfolio, its not like they have to sign over ownership of the content.

Where NDA's make sense is in creating FOMO and hype for live service titles. Like in the case of fortnite there was a leak which reportedly robbed Epic of the element of surprise. 
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/another-tester-is-being-sued-by-epic-games-for-leaking-fortnite-chapter-2

But this isn't the same as a curated approach to share development progress and build player engagment similar to a kickstarter or patreon. 

MagicMeister

Damn, I knew job security was bad and that outsourcing was popular... I knew that the stakeholders were generally blood sucking suits and that companies were being gutted, but I had never thought about how shitty those NDA's are. I mean it holds the entire industry back because we can't see cutting edge art and development, which might inspire someone else to make another amazing game.

From the sidelines of the industry, I find it baffling that a company can spend so many hundreds of millions of dollars on shit like Concord and just watch it burn in the end. How many small teams of insanely creative artists and developers could they have funded, giving them the green light to make something original and fresh with that money?

Honestly, thanks for laying it down so matter of factly. At this point, I'm just hoping that my indie team finds it's stride and that our game builds some momentum for us, but I would sign on with a AAA studio if the opportunity ever arose.

I think it's kind of funny that my aim is to impress such a toxic industry with a portfolio just to get shuffled around and discarded the moment it suits someone with the funds, but in a sad way that's the reality that I'm contending with. I love art and 3D art, I'm completely consumed by my drive to pursue it on a daily basis... but it is rather bleak that the industry is in such a shit state.

I think if I'm taking one thing away from this thread it's that I should focus on the love of making characters first and foremost. I don't necessarily "want" to be at a AAA studio... I just want character art to be my full time job.

zetheros

work to impress yourself; after all you are your own harshest critic. That said, don't forget to look at what your peers are doing. Personally I've been studying the character & creatures art from the new Wukong game. You can also try recording your progress so you know how much you can make in a given time frame, and if you ever feel like you're in a rut and not making any progress, you can look back and see if that's actually true or if your brain is playing tricks on you.

The industry will get better as soon as we get more leaders who know how to make games and communicate with their audience, and who aren't hamstrung by inane corporate decisions.

Alemja

I think any of the concepts are completely fine. There is room for more grounded and realistic forms of armor, and I think that would really kick your work up to the next levels is paying attention to

• construction: making sure it feels believable and real
• presentation: really knock it out of the park with lighting and render to make it shine

I think a lot about Paul Widelski's work, which is very grounded but absolutely kills it on the construction and presentation front

MagicMeister

There is a font of wisdom in here. Seriously, I'm grateful for all of the amazing feedback. Alemja, I appreciate the honest review and some concrete critique. Most people I share my work with are either colleagues who just say "wow, nice job!" or friends / family who have no reference for "good" 3D art and they're just like "whoa, you can do that?!". I really need to hear things like your feedback that will help to push me to the next level as an artist.

It might seem like a simple thing to you all to write a few responses in here, but I am really grateful that you're taking the time to give me advice and some critique.

Also, Paul Widelski is a huge inspiration. I remember asking him about how he approached some of the texture construction on his latest character, Persian Guard, and he was super nice and broke down his process for me. That's the kind of level I aspire to reach someday... hopefully sooner than later, but I'm willing to put in the effort and years that it takes to get there.

When I look at my current work, I get this sense that things just aren't quite gelling together, as if my character is made out of tens of separate pieces, carefully placed together, rather than one cohesive "person". Like, clearly I put a lot of effort into the characters, but the pieces of armor don't quite rest on the bones and silhouette the way they would if someone were really wearing them. My grooms have straight up jankiness in them and I feel like I undersold some of the portraiture in the sculpt, lending my latest piece to have a kind of "blank" expression. The textures look a little flat, which also ties in with my lighting and environment in the final renders. I want to improve all of this in my next real-time character. As Zetheros said, I should take all of this and impress myself with it, and fortunately I can distinctly see areas where I'm just not doing my best.

Some of that is technical know-how, just not being comfortable in navigating the software, but I'm learning. I feel very comfortable in Zbrush and Maya at this point, and I'm studying substance designer to get a deeper understanding of material construction. Once I finish up my current project in the next week or so I'm going to dive in to one of these concepts with the aim of making it feel like a real person from another world.

I'll try to post on here more regularly and I'm always open to critical feedback. Thank you for taking the time to give me some excellent prompts to improve my work.

NikhilR

One advice I'd like to share is that once you have a 3D character that demonstrates process and technical details such as high -> low, UV mapping, texturing and presentation, for future models I would focus on making detailed high res sculpts that show anatomy and also include creatures and hard surface characters.

The reason I recommend this is because if your portfolio is full of characters that show the process from start to finish, that's information a reviewer already has, they know you can do a character from start to finish.
And with many senior and leads being from film background they keep insisting on quality and while that can be a fully finished game ready character presented in game engine, they usually want to see good attention to detail on hi res sculpts.

Many AAA game studios have proprietary tools and pipelines so you will very rarely work on a full character from start to finish. A lot of your work may be finishing content that is outsourced and giving feedback, in that sense the team wants to know if you have a good eye for quality and detail.