Where do I go from here?
polycounter lvl 10
hey folks I figured I'm almost at a crossroads in my career as an artist and should probably seek some direction.
I was trained at algonquin college's animation program and am a graduate in traditional animation. I was hired by a local animation studio before I was able to finish the academic program, but my being hired was put into the books as a coop term, so I got school credit for it.
I enjoyed character animating in tv production for about a year before moving into the post production side of the studio. Where I really enjoyed doing the compositing.
Sadly, I was unable to walk away with anything for my portfolio, we were forbidden by the studio director and producers to remove any material out of the studio before the show had aired, and by the time it had concluded airing, the files were long gone and I was no longer an employee.
When the animation studio work dried up, I was hired at a mobile games company doing sprite animations for cellphone games, this is sort of where I've been for the last 3 years.
While I've learned a fair amount of being able to communicate on a technical level with developers (I've always been technical) what we're doing here isn't exactly leading edge.
Now I know life is not an excuse, but we're all busy people, suffice it to say, I was not able to build on my tv production portfolio in my own time.
In another year, I will have been with the current company for 5 years, crawling at a snails pace to up my technical skills (mainly in 3d)
When I browse the work here on polycount, I realize that when I graduated, even my 2d skills were sub par to the industry, hell when I got accepted into the program I realized I was subpar, but I made the best of it.
The question is, where do I go from here?
I have barely scratched the surface of 3d and every day I learn more, there is more and more out there to take in, and the further I feel left behind. My 2d portfolio hasn't been updated in years and even if I did update now with what I've been doing at work, it would consist of a lot of 16x16 or smaller pieces... just how does that stack up in a port these days? I doubt the work experience of the last 5 years will mean much of anything to the modern gaming industry.
I know at this point, I have a lot of work to do, but at 27, I feel I should be much farther along than where I am now. I'm probably a year or two from being able to apply confidently to a front line 3d position, but that would also mean I have to move out of the city as there are very few opportunities in this field here, and I've grown roots here so to speak.
The bottom line comes down to this:
I bust my ass for 2 years to get my portfolio up to snuff (and I really think I'm getting too old for this already) and apply for an entry level 3d position somewhere... or be somewhat decent enough to go for a mid level position.
Or I dump art all together as a primary career and go for an entry level government job (with ever increasing pension and pay scales) and do freelance art or independent animation on the side.
It's sad, and I would hate to have to give up the great pursuit, but I have to objectively look at this as a investment/reward situation.
In 2 years I'll be almost 30, and I just don't think an entry level spot is worth it at that age, I need to be able to support a house and all that jazz plus save for retirement, kind of hard to do on entry level salary, duking it out with the young guns in the industry for promotions.
I figure though that my prior work experience of 2 years in a highly competitive and demanding field as tv animation and 5 years in a game studio should amount to something, even though the portfolio might not show artistic level equal to that of work experience.
What's everyone else's take on this? Am I in this slowly sinking boat alone or was someone else in a bit of a slow spiral before they managed to get a good position somewhere?
How old is everyone here and how well off are they? I'm just looking to be comfortable with bills paid and savings growing, not worried about where the next paycheck or contract will come from.
Or am I just really really over-analyzing my situation and freaking out over nothing?
edit: holy crap long o_o
I was trained at algonquin college's animation program and am a graduate in traditional animation. I was hired by a local animation studio before I was able to finish the academic program, but my being hired was put into the books as a coop term, so I got school credit for it.
I enjoyed character animating in tv production for about a year before moving into the post production side of the studio. Where I really enjoyed doing the compositing.
Sadly, I was unable to walk away with anything for my portfolio, we were forbidden by the studio director and producers to remove any material out of the studio before the show had aired, and by the time it had concluded airing, the files were long gone and I was no longer an employee.
When the animation studio work dried up, I was hired at a mobile games company doing sprite animations for cellphone games, this is sort of where I've been for the last 3 years.
While I've learned a fair amount of being able to communicate on a technical level with developers (I've always been technical) what we're doing here isn't exactly leading edge.
Now I know life is not an excuse, but we're all busy people, suffice it to say, I was not able to build on my tv production portfolio in my own time.
In another year, I will have been with the current company for 5 years, crawling at a snails pace to up my technical skills (mainly in 3d)
When I browse the work here on polycount, I realize that when I graduated, even my 2d skills were sub par to the industry, hell when I got accepted into the program I realized I was subpar, but I made the best of it.
The question is, where do I go from here?
I have barely scratched the surface of 3d and every day I learn more, there is more and more out there to take in, and the further I feel left behind. My 2d portfolio hasn't been updated in years and even if I did update now with what I've been doing at work, it would consist of a lot of 16x16 or smaller pieces... just how does that stack up in a port these days? I doubt the work experience of the last 5 years will mean much of anything to the modern gaming industry.
I know at this point, I have a lot of work to do, but at 27, I feel I should be much farther along than where I am now. I'm probably a year or two from being able to apply confidently to a front line 3d position, but that would also mean I have to move out of the city as there are very few opportunities in this field here, and I've grown roots here so to speak.
The bottom line comes down to this:
I bust my ass for 2 years to get my portfolio up to snuff (and I really think I'm getting too old for this already) and apply for an entry level 3d position somewhere... or be somewhat decent enough to go for a mid level position.
Or I dump art all together as a primary career and go for an entry level government job (with ever increasing pension and pay scales) and do freelance art or independent animation on the side.
It's sad, and I would hate to have to give up the great pursuit, but I have to objectively look at this as a investment/reward situation.
In 2 years I'll be almost 30, and I just don't think an entry level spot is worth it at that age, I need to be able to support a house and all that jazz plus save for retirement, kind of hard to do on entry level salary, duking it out with the young guns in the industry for promotions.
I figure though that my prior work experience of 2 years in a highly competitive and demanding field as tv animation and 5 years in a game studio should amount to something, even though the portfolio might not show artistic level equal to that of work experience.
What's everyone else's take on this? Am I in this slowly sinking boat alone or was someone else in a bit of a slow spiral before they managed to get a good position somewhere?
How old is everyone here and how well off are they? I'm just looking to be comfortable with bills paid and savings growing, not worried about where the next paycheck or contract will come from.
Or am I just really really over-analyzing my situation and freaking out over nothing?
edit: holy crap long o_o
Replies
im in the same boat,
i have a house and wife and job non related 3d right now,
im trying for a entry position at the moment,
ive had 2 art test this yr and i guess i bombed them,
so still looking for a new job,
my wife told me she wouldnt mind moving back to shanghai china sometime,
so im starting to look for 3d jobs over there,
really i would move to anywere to get my start,
maybe someday you and i will both get our breaks,
Chris
But it just all depends. I got my first PC in 1998, and started doing 3d towards '99. I spent nearly all of my spare time teaching myself 3d while working 12hr days as a glass cutter. It was exhausting to be sure, but I wanted it bad enough so I did it. I got my first contract gig a little over a year later, then got a full blown industry job a few months after that. From there, it's been up, up, up. You have to start somewhere.
Try making 1 new prop each week and in a month or so you'll have one nice piece to put them all in.
I'm 33 going on 12
I've only been interested in becoming a artist about 7 monthes ago, so thats when I really started to work on building a portfolio... I think my skills/knowledge is good enough for entry level right now - but then again I still haven't got a job yet, so maybe I'm completely wrong
Another problem is that the opportunity for career expansion in art will lead me away from ottawa, and leaving might be too difficult, I suppose if the right opportunity is there, I could and would leave, but that is reflective of my portfolio which is only a matter of time if I decide to move on it.
Bottom line though, at this point I'm not willing to relocate for an entry level position even when I want to do art. If it's between say moving to edmonton or vancouver for a 40k/year job vs staying here in ottawa for 40k at the government being some desk whore and coming home to make another few k a year doing art that I want to do and not having to answer to a director or some producer, would probably be for me, a more fulfilling artistic experience.
As for what I like doing in 3d? I'm still fairly new, I haven't done enough in depth projects to know what I like more than the other, plus I haven't been under a gun of delivery dates for 3d, so I don't know which I would hate more under those conditions :P
I liked character animating in 2d, but I enjoy the technical side of modeling props and locations more than I like animating or modeling characters, but, I've really only gone in depth once in each category, with the exception of environments... which I haven't done at all, and none of which were at current gen console/gaming tech specifications, so no normal maps, basic texturing only and very light on rigging, basically just figure out how biped works.
I'm not saying you should do it, but to achieve more than the mediocrity most people settle for, a person is most likely gonna have to start by taking some risks and struggling. As for a retirement plan? Yeah, I'm workin on it. But at the same time, if I spend every day doing what I love, why would I want to retire from that?
All I know is art is a wonderful way to experience life.........
Good luck
EDIT: I forgot to mention that looking for another job while already having one let me side step a few contracts I might have taken if I was out of work. Having a job while you hunt around for another one is a great position to be in.
Honestly if this is something you really want to do, it will haunt you, nag you and you will always wonder what if.
Also don't get hung up on what society says will make you happy, expensive car, big house with a wall dedicated to the biggest TV you've ever seen. That's a recipe for debt, unhappiness a phone book full of shallow friends. You'll get stuck on a never ending wheel of "my penis is too small" ever few months.
Personally I find great happiness doing what I love and it just so happens it has afforded me those things comfortably. They come easy when they aren't your sole purpose for living. I guess what I'm getting at is, learn to be happy with whatever you have, wherever your at, of course don't settle for crap and always strive to get better, but stay off the hamster wheel of disappointment.
Being in tech support for a few years gave me enough down time to train up and switch. It was fully encouraged where I worked to train up and get familiar with the tools I now use every day. It was either play games between spurts of work or learn. I personally couldn't have asked for a more supportive way to learn.
If you're of the mindset that you can teach yourself and learn on your own with a few nudges from some more learned people, then find a cushy job with some down time and work on honing your skills and post your work here. Start up projects, give yourself reasonable deadlines and finish what you start. And yes there are legal free or low cost apps that you should be able to install. Silo, Gmax, Maya PLE, Gimp, Easy Paint tool SAI bla bla bla...
Once your ready it won't be hard to crank out a few really good portfolio pieces in 1-2 months time, even if you only work in your off hours and weekends.
I'm working on an animation preproduction project right now, and hopefully when the scripts are done, I can move into environment modeling in conjunction with the storyboarding. When I get to boarding, drawing and 3d will probably resume as I'll have a context to work within. in the mean time, I need to save up for a new computer... need to buy some house stuff first (doh)
Then figure out a way to be able to take the hit to your budget when you get that entry level position. Negotiate your contract, cut back on expenses, pay off debts beforehand, etc etc. Once you get the job your salary will increase quickly if you're successful at it.
Really, where there's a will there's a way. If you're passionate enough about it you will make it happen.
I went back to school at 27 and graduated at 31. I was in the game industry previously my whole adult life doing something besides art QA and Producer. I decided that I wanted to do game art and went and did it. Sure I am in debt and had to work full time while I did it, but I always think no matter what happens
1. I am a college graduate and
2. I was able to leran the tools that allowed me to ask the right questions about art and 3d and understand what I was doing while asking. I was very discouraged when I was first learning 3d.
Man my stuff was CRAPPPP! I finally started improving when I started understanding why I needed to do what was needed etc. Man you are sounding like your life is over..
Crap man it is only beginning. Do not give up and just do what you want and figure out a way to get it done. Do not settle for mediocrity and start slaving with the herd. Carpe Diem my friend, life is only over when you want it to be. If you want to go sit in a boring ass gov position that you know you will hate, then that is the fate YOU choose for yourself.
You can look back at this time grab yourself by the boot straps and say hey I want to do game art and I want to be good at it and go fucking do it. YOU are the commander of your ship, get busy doing art or let your soul rot in a place you know you dont want to go....... Good luck though man...