your role?
polycount lvl 666
what is you role at work. I seem to have turned in to a purely 'head' artist. I model and texture about 4 heads a day 5 days a week . Sometimes I find it a bit repetitive, but mostly I enjoy it.
Oddly though of late, I have started to model heads in my sleep rather than actually sleeping properly
Oddly though of late, I have started to model heads in my sleep rather than actually sleeping properly
Replies
Accually, my job bleeds over into the technical side too as I am the the technical artist for the Source engine since my co-worker is only familiar with 8-month old Source tech and is busy on other stuff.
Today i'm trouble-shooting a strange flickering black effect on an asset Ren (my tech artist) made yesturday that has a heavy env/spec mask.
About every 3 months here we learn a new engine. Since I've been here I've learned Doom3 tech and for this project Source. I would imagine the boys at Liquid Development have a similar day-to-day as me.
-R
Someday I'm hoping to be "character animator" again.
Our network monkey hates me and flings poop my way when ever he gets a chance cause i cause him grief and more work.
So ive ended up being the man to goto with MP issues. Its nice to have a niche I guess.
Lots of hats for me.
One day I'd like to be the guy that gets to work slower and make myself happy with the quality of my work and experiment with new ways of doing things more.
Until then I just take pride in my ability to get the job done faster than most and cross my fingers that this will translate into a bigger bonus
Lead Designer is my official title. Basically, I write design doc, translate education information from the professors into gameplay, then build all the level, manage other artists on the team, etc. I also get to build/implement/test vehicles. It's tons of work, and a lot of fun.
Scott
Congrates DAZ !! So are you one of many Art Directors on that title or are you thee Character Art Director on many titles ??
I'm the ONLY person where I work for designing all aspects of jobs that come through. Everything from business cards, resumes, wedding invitiations, calendars, posters, mailers, ravecards, logos, websites, mousepads, the works. Everything.
Everyone there can output, but no one is qualified for design work and it fucking SUCKS.
I work @ Kinko's. Help me.
Oh yeah, I also do a lot of zbrush high poly creatures in my "spare time".
I also just found out I will be tutoring the new maya professors in how to use max at the local AI. So I guess I can finally call myself a teacher for real! 8-)
Ohh and learning to full parry super fireballs in Street fighter 3.
IRL (In Real Life) I am a Sergeant in the NYPD in Brooklyn NY. Currently my role at the precinct is the Supervisor of the GLA (Grand Larceny Auto) team. I basically deal with stolen cars, chop shops, investigating the reports of larcenies of autos or from autos, or criminal mischief to autos.. PHEW !! Depending on staffing I can be assigned any number of jobs for the day from Desk Officer to Patrol Supervisor, and sometimes I even get stuck shmoozing with people at Community affairs meetings. I also have a "side assignment" of being involved with the training of all new "rookies" that come to the precinct. As some of the Polycount vets know, I spent a great amount of time in Ground Zero after the whole 9-11 aftermath...(shudder)
Damn.. I just realized I do way too much work for being a member of the one of the LOWEST paid Police Departments in the country. I better slack off a little more from now on.
However, I do like my gig since I can make my own hours (for the most part) and I get to run around in plain clothes with an unmarked auto.. WHOOHOO..
( I still envy alot of you and all the great talent we have within the Polycount community) I look forward to reading more about our members..
I make environment textures and the accompanying shaders, do some modeling for static meshes and unwrapping
Remember that cop show "Hunter"? they filmed an episode at my school. wierd.
My role? Im the guy who makes wise cracks in company meetings. Im they guy who's always talking about comics with the testers, Im the guy surfing polycount when he should be making levels and whatnot, Im the guy who brings up lame 80's cop shows to hardened N.Y.C. Cops.
And congrats DaZ, you the Man!
Personally, I got hired on for World Design but I'm currently writing missions and doing other Game Design stuff, and it looks like I might have the option to stay on Game Design if I want to (which is starting to look more and more fun).
:::
So ndcv, does that mean sometime in the distant future you might have the option to resurrect Thief?
I work for an animation company - which is part of a movie studio. We used to do traditional hand-drawn cartoons, and I moved up the ranks there to lead animator.
Then we went 3d, and I became texture/concept artist/modeler.
Then we got into games, and I added level designer (I have an architecture degree)/character design/ animation checker to my resume.
My role at the moment is graphic design/webdesign and implementation, while the games company we work with concentrates on building their portfolio for a stock floatation.
My last art task was to put together a video for a pub games cabinet (poker game) which plays while the machines not being used - to entice people to it - called an attract video.I had 5 hours to complete and upload the finished thing, starting from scratch by grabbing screenshots. The very last thing I did before leaving work yesterday was to show a producer round the movielot. Never a dull day.....
...but I'm looking forward to getting back into the gaming saddle.
Well done Daz.
recently, i had to forego creating content and concentrate 100% on purely technical stuff - i don't mind though, it's quite satisfying, i could even say i'm enjoying it. Spending hours sorting out a problem that's preventing someone else's graphics ending up in the game, and succeeding, is decent buzz.
At my last job I was the one who had to figure out new clients engines and editors and work out how to get certain effects out of it. I do like that. It's the tinkerer in me.
Good to hear about Hunters job too, someone from the real world he he.
Congrats to Daz also. I envy you.
BTW I have done about 180 heads so far on the 2 projects I have worked on, most of them likenesses.
I was quite slow at first and got pulled up for it, but now I am the opposite,churning out the heads like a madman.
I'm pretty much an and all round artist, got a promotion from a Junior role in December after nearly 18 months of being at where I work.
I'm meant to be doing a bit of everything but recently been assigned to character art as the underling to one of the more experienced artists. I've learnt loads over the last few months from working beside Paul, and hopefully his no bullshit approach will help me improve in the long term as well.
I am currently a graduate student in Computer Science trying to finish up my master's thesis. I am a teching assistant so alot of my work involves grading things like programs and design docs. Due to my professional experience in the industry, I assisted in designing some of the new game-development courses at my school (and the students seem to show a preference for the courses I had a hand in
I hope to someday (soon, goddamit) be some part of the art pipeline, even if it's just animating doors or something. I could even model said doors. I just need to have the time to finish some projects to show to those on the art side. Also hopefully soon.
I'M NOT BITTER OR ANYTHING, THOUGH. NO SIR.
Frank the Avenger
Mindnumbly uncreative.
but I resigned.
So now I freelance, and charge £200 a day for interactive TV game art (pretty good price, but think of it like saving water for a drought). Gonna study Japanese next month for three months while doing some web stuff. Been doing web stuff for around 8 years, so it's like falling off a slippery log for me.
I want to be a professional illustrator... and earn money for it!
Art Production Coordinator (I schedule artists), Assistant Producer (middleman for the Producer on one of our next projects), and Content Manager (testing and organization of the art assets for one of our next projects).
My days are quite full. :P
Shut up and test something!!
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.....
I must now find a present to leave in your office. PREPARE FOR SUFFERING, BITCH.
Or I can just make you crit my stuff. "And lo, he did babble on and on, unto the end of time, about his art; and yea, he did not allow his co-worker to finish his alloted tasks, and thus was the punk-ass co-worker punished for his failure, verily."
Frank the Avenger
Hawken: wish you success in your quest to be an illustrator. I did that job for years. It's fun, but unless you have clients that pay phenomenally well, the hours can be worse than game development in crunch. My office mate, also a former illustrator, used to do 100 weeks as a matter of course.
-R
( http://www.illustrationrgb.com/ are more of their web/multimedia geared outfit ). Thoroughly professional and nice people. I used to make a fortune as a freelance illustrator. Remind me why I went into vidoegames again
I never intended to have this career, but when I was unable to go to college when I wanted to, I had to put myself in the work force. I'm trying to change my career, but the pay cut I would recive is substantial, so I would like to start my game development career a little higher on the ladder. The only way to do that is to start a service myself. I am now starting a game development prototype project, in which my role is CEO/Art Director. I've set aside a decent budget for the project and I'm currently reviewing concept art, and artists for a few freelance positions I need to fill. The studio I'm building should be built, and the company registered as LCC by July this year.
I will be looking for some modelers and texture artists this summer. So I spend my free time lurking here.
Future; Considering moving to the Us/Canada once I have racked up enough years of exp to enable companies to get me into the country. Either that or I learn Japanese and go live under a desk in one of capcoms studio's.
I animate cartoons and help with skits. Anything ranging from after effects work, to 3D animation, to flash cartoons. Very open-ended, and you have to wear many many hats. But SO MUCH fun. I get to meet "celebs" everyday, and I'm always 2 feet from getting on TV.
My job consists mainly of prop/level modeling & texturing. I'm also responisble for getting the artists up to speed on the engine, and getting the artwork to function properly in-game. I also do a lot of level design elements, working with the main design team and the art director to work out gamelevel elements. Other duties include minor animation, as well as building prototype demos and FMV work.
I do layout design and production for contract proposals where the fees are over $50K. I also do internal stuff and collateral pieces, a pretty wide variety of stuff that's actually very common for staff designers working in the marketing field. Occasionally I get to do some Flash work, but it's usually pretty mundane (event announcements), even after I add in some unnecessary interactivity. As a VCN designer, I am responsible for enforcing our corporate brand identity, which frequently means thrashing people about the head and shoulders with Helvetica Neue 55 Roman. I love that. My software environment is InDesign and my delivery system is PDF.
Game art has been my hobby and chosen Path of Bliss for the last five years or so, and with the inspiration and support of the 'leet d00dz of our mighty Dallas Sketch Group, I should be able to execute my carefully-planned mid-life crisis in the next couple of years. Everything I know about that, I learned at Polycount.
/jzero
Congrats Daz, does this mean you have to direct other artists? Hmmmm. Glad to hear you're not getting sick of Bond.
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Im the guy who brings up lame 80's cop shows to hardened N.Y.C. Cops.
[/ QUOTE ]ghost_rider, this really made me laugh for some reason.
My props go out to Hunter. I guess I wasn't around polycount for the 9/11 stories. You and yours are the backbone, and well appreciated for it.
Small company where I work, we're making a real-time 3d content-creation system, sort of a middleware that can be used for games. I dabble in just about everything that's art-related. But mostly I hash through game engine features with the coders, document how artists can use them, create demo assets to show them off, figure out the art workflow, and help out the other two artists with creating game assets. I like the tough challenges, like creating effects, pushing-the-envelope kinds of tricks.
Thanks Ruz for this good thread. Nice to hear from the non-game people too.
I make vehicles, as fast as I can, nuff said (and all I can say due to my NDA ).
Previously I was a prop artist on "The Punisher", which meant I made the various things you fed people to, squished them with, decapitated them with etc etc. I may be something else next year, only time will tell...