An interesting talk on design! One thing I was still curious about is what input you as an artist may have? As is i'll probably make my entrance as a conceptartist but the thing that is most important to me is to make a good game, pretty visuals are of secondary importance if the encounters are dull and the content lacks depth.
WoW being a perfect example of this... while I love the art I find myself able to come back into the game after 7months and experience/clear all the content i'd missed in the mean time. Maybe im elitist or bias I dunno heh.
Eitherway, you did touch a little bit on how the design team are always interested in input, and im wondering if this includes most people in the company - from Q.A to Conceptart?
Hey LoM, we actually finished recording our next episode (environment art) yesterday, and it should be up Friday sometime. We actually mentioned your schooling question on the podcast. Thanks for mailing in!
As to Jackwhat's question, My experience is limited to only a couple studios, but from what I have seen, everyone can help steer the game design a little bit. The degree of influence is what probably varies from company to company. For example, I hear Valve has a good reputation of valuing employee design suggestions heavily. The studios I've worked at are pretty good about seeking feedback from the whole company to try and find useful information. As mentioned in the design episode, your suggestions may not be used, but at least they are considered as valuable.
Fresh off the presses. This episode we talk about environment art! I'm joined with my good friend Mike Harnisch, Environment Artist at BioWare, and Adam Bromell, Artist at Relic and Head Administrator at Polycount. We cover quite a bit this episode, including: school advice, illustrative talent, what makes a successful scene, and lots more. So sit down, grab a snack and give it a listen.
hmm never thought of making business cards before. Do people who have no job actually go around handing out business cards with a web address to their portfolio on it?
I suppose its easier than going around handing out your CVs or to actually print your portfolio and show it in front of them~ But then again the printing whole portfolio thing sounds like the best idea since they'll definitely see your work that way
Making business cards seems like such a pretentious thing to do. Sounds like something people will laugh at instead
Like Aaron was saying, you don't want to hand them out like crazy, but after talking with someone who you want to keep in contact with, its great having one unless you plan on them pulling out a notepad to write down your portfolio address. IMO the guy with the business card isn't pretentious, he is just prepared.
I'm not much of a podcast listener but yeah, I really enjoyed listening to the latest one. I hadn't listened to any of the previous ones before so I got some catching up to do
Hey chaos I have an idea, just put it in your sig, that way you dont have to keep editing your old posts just to reannounce it.
And at first I didnt notice much umming from Adam, but now that I listen to it over again I am noticing all the umm's All 3 of you umm/err a lot
Keep up the good work! These are good to play in the background while working on stuff
Good idea. But it was not actually what you think I was trying to do.
I was actually just making sure he see's it.. hence the stupid red/bold/ and underline ; )
Once again, it was indeed, a great podcast.
Glad you all liked the last episode! The next one probably wont apply to most polycounters, but it should be interesting nonetheless. I talk with Alexander Freed who is a senior writer I work with.
It's all about the story! This week we have Senior Writer at BioWare, Alexander Freed, talk to us about what to expect from writing jobs within the games industry. How hard is it to find a full-time, in-house writing position? What are other types of jobs that include writing? Really great info for you wordsmiths out there.
New episode is up!! Sorry if you were waiting around on Friday. As mentioned on the blog, we have changed our publishing day to Tuesdays. So look for new episodes then.
Episode 7: Portfolios!
You've been asking for this episode, and it's finally here! Our first dive into the topic that keeps you up at night - your portfolio. This week I am joined with Isaac Oster, Environment Artist at BioWare, and Riki Babington, President of Eat 3D, which provides some great tutorials focused on game art & the Unreal Engine. We discuss what to put in your portfolio, as well as what to leave out, common mistakes, presentation advice, and a lot more! This is our longest episode yet, with plenty of awesome info, so don't miss this one!
We also mention a free portfolio template that you can download and use! Isaac was cool enough to put together a simple, no frills website that shows off your work well. To find that, just head over to http://www.isaacoster.com and you can download the source files there!
Still not up on iTunes in the UK. Looks like you've got some great guests on for this one and from the reply above seems like it isn't just the regurgitated portfolio info that many people are used to reading etc.
Really looking forward to listening to this one for sure. Many thanks acanaday, keep up the great work with this.
I used to listen to this podcast called Filmspotting where one of the hosts would call out donators and give them nicknames on the podcast. I always thought that was funny. Maybe we should start something like that.
lol Dan Carlin in his "common sense" podcast does this thing where he makes up some sort of bogus disease that his producer "Ben" has for each episode and the magical cure is ofcourse listener donations.
For those who are into game design, but also into touch with their technical side, this episode is for you! This week I am joined with Will Wallace, Senior Game Designer at BioWare. We discuss what technical design is, the best way to get on that career path, as well as what necessary skills are required. Will is an extremely talented individual in his craft and provides plenty of great information. So don't miss it, or we'll have you hanged, drawn and quartered.
Hey Aaron, are you guys working on Star Wars or were / are you working on Dragon Age / Mass Effect 2?
Would love to hear some talks with some of Bioware's writers.
Will listen to this when I can Thanks again Aaron!
Yeah I'm working on Star Wars: The Old Republic - the Edmonton studio handles the Mass Effect and Dragon Age stuff currently.
If you are interested in writing, episode 6 is all about that. As usual we stay on topic about entering into the industry as a writer, and what that means. We don't really go over the "BioWare" process.. although I am sure there are plenty of GDC talks or Game Developer magazine articles you could find if that's what you are interested in.
Not too interested in writing myself, I'm going along the environment artist path as well, I just wanted to hear how Bioware writers go about it, I'll have to give it a listen.
Episode 9 now up! Sorry it ran a bit short. We will most likely do another character themed one somewhere down the line.
On this weeks episode, we sit down with two great Senior Character Artists: BioWare's Pedro Toledo http://www.manufato.com/ and Blizzard's Vitaliy Naymushin http://www.t3h-v.com/, to talk about what it takes to work in this competitive job. Luckily the episode remained peaceful and no Blizzard / BioWare battles ensued, which hopefully proves we only have the utmost respect for each other. Unfortunately Vitaliy's rabid dog was not on board with the anti-aggression pact, and decided to turn on his owner. Don't miss all the action, adventure, and of course, great information.
I've got to say thank you too.I just stumbled across these recently, so I'm going back through the rest of them, but the character artist one is a great addition.
The dog part was pretty funny. He surprised you at one point, "ah jesus"...lol
After listening to this latest podcast I am actually feeling really discouraged trying to break into the character stuff. Sounds like there are so few positions and it is just too competitive.
The other thing I'm frustrated with is this dumb ass idea that I should only put characters on my portfolio or I should only put props on there. Some people say having a mix tells employers you aren't sure what you want to do. Well no goddamnit I just want to break in.
Who cares if I have a mix as long as the stuff is cool?
Also shouldn't doing characters have some overlap for doing props in terms of the accessories a character can wear? I hate the idea that I might be overlooked for a 3d art position doing props if my portfolio says "3d character art". I think a 3d character artist with nice looking accessories should be looked at as "hey cool props, and he can also handle some anatomy too".
Sorry for the grumpy post. Layoff anxiety is creeping up on me.
I don't think it's all bad to have both characters AND props. I think the assumption is that if you spend most of your time making characters (and perhaps guns or accessories), you might ONLY be good as a prop artist, and be a bit limited on other environmental work, such as building modular sets, putting together a scene and lighting it, etc. Conversely, the more time you spend on this environment stuff, the more likely it is that your character work will suffer. That's not to say it's impossible, but I do think it would require a TON of work to do a dual portfolio right. Ideally you would want EVERYTHING a character artist would want to see, as well as EVERYTHING an environment artist would want to see. Most people end up falling short on one of those areas, which is probably why you hear that "stick to one thing" advice.
To be fair, none of this stuff is set in stone. (as our portfolio episode hopefully addressed).. you may end up finding some art director who LOVES seeing a bit of anatomy or character stuff in environment art portfolios or visa versa. But my general gut feeling is, if you are going to do both, they better BOTH be awesome and comprehensive.
yeah man, i had a portfolio of just character stuff and my first job was as an environment artist because thats all that i could find, you take what you can get.
Replies
WoW being a perfect example of this... while I love the art I find myself able to come back into the game after 7months and experience/clear all the content i'd missed in the mean time. Maybe im elitist or bias I dunno heh.
Eitherway, you did touch a little bit on how the design team are always interested in input, and im wondering if this includes most people in the company - from Q.A to Conceptart?
As to Jackwhat's question, My experience is limited to only a couple studios, but from what I have seen, everyone can help steer the game design a little bit. The degree of influence is what probably varies from company to company. For example, I hear Valve has a good reputation of valuing employee design suggestions heavily. The studios I've worked at are pretty good about seeking feedback from the whole company to try and find useful information. As mentioned in the design episode, your suggestions may not be used, but at least they are considered as valuable.
Fresh off the presses. This episode we talk about environment art! I'm joined with my good friend Mike Harnisch, Environment Artist at BioWare, and Adam Bromell, Artist at Relic and Head Administrator at Polycount. We cover quite a bit this episode, including: school advice, illustrative talent, what makes a successful scene, and lots more. So sit down, grab a snack and give it a listen.
http://gim.acanaday.com/
I see adam is in it!!
Like Aaron was saying, you don't want to hand them out like crazy, but after talking with someone who you want to keep in contact with, its great having one unless you plan on them pulling out a notepad to write down your portfolio address. IMO the guy with the business card isn't pretentious, he is just prepared.
Thanks Aaron, it was a lot of fun
I didn't notice. It's the sort of thing you tune out when people talk. Everyone says ah and umm a lot.
You guys rock, and thanks acanaday for continuing this awesome podcast!
Awesome man, I really loved this podcast.
And at first I didnt notice much umming from Adam, but now that I listen to it over again I am noticing all the umm's
Keep up the good work! These are good to play in the background while working on stuff
And i don't know about the rest of you guys, but though I passed my public speeking class it was barely, F+.
Good idea. But it was not actually what you think I was trying to do.
I was actually just making sure he see's it.. hence the stupid red/bold/ and underline ; )
Once again, it was indeed, a great podcast.
It's all about the story! This week we have Senior Writer at BioWare, Alexander Freed, talk to us about what to expect from writing jobs within the games industry. How hard is it to find a full-time, in-house writing position? What are other types of jobs that include writing? Really great info for you wordsmiths out there.
http://gim.acanaday.com
never really listened to podcasts much, but these are really cool to hear for students, and aspiring artists.
Episode 7: Portfolios!
You've been asking for this episode, and it's finally here! Our first dive into the topic that keeps you up at night - your portfolio. This week I am joined with Isaac Oster, Environment Artist at BioWare, and Riki Babington, President of Eat 3D, which provides some great tutorials focused on game art & the Unreal Engine. We discuss what to put in your portfolio, as well as what to leave out, common mistakes, presentation advice, and a lot more! This is our longest episode yet, with plenty of awesome info, so don't miss this one!
We also mention a free portfolio template that you can download and use! Isaac was cool enough to put together a simple, no frills website that shows off your work well. To find that, just head over to http://www.isaacoster.com and you can download the source files there!
http://gim.acanaday.com
awesome stuff.
Lots of good information to digest, thanks for bringing this one out!
Really looking forward to listening to this one for sure. Many thanks acanaday, keep up the great work with this.
Ha ha.. I actually almost edited some of the last 5 minutes. I was afraid I was being too negative or something. Glad you thought it was funny.
im glad you didnt! :P
I love this series!
+1 donor
I used to listen to this podcast called Filmspotting where one of the hosts would call out donators and give them nicknames on the podcast. I always thought that was funny. Maybe we should start something like that.
For those who are into game design, but also into touch with their technical side, this episode is for you! This week I am joined with Will Wallace, Senior Game Designer at BioWare. We discuss what technical design is, the best way to get on that career path, as well as what necessary skills are required. Will is an extremely talented individual in his craft and provides plenty of great information. So don't miss it, or we'll have you hanged, drawn and quartered.
FREEEEEEEDOM!!! (sorry Will, I had to.)
http://gim.acanaday.com
Would love to hear some talks with some of Bioware's writers.
Will listen to this when I can
Yeah I'm working on Star Wars: The Old Republic - the Edmonton studio handles the Mass Effect and Dragon Age stuff currently.
If you are interested in writing, episode 6 is all about that. As usual we stay on topic about entering into the industry as a writer, and what that means. We don't really go over the "BioWare" process.. although I am sure there are plenty of GDC talks or Game Developer magazine articles you could find if that's what you are interested in.
Episode 6 can be found here: http://gim.acanaday.com/?p=80
Not too interested in writing myself, I'm going along the environment artist path as well, I just wanted to hear how Bioware writers go about it, I'll have to give it a listen.
Thanks Aaron.
On this weeks episode, we sit down with two great Senior Character Artists: BioWare's Pedro Toledo http://www.manufato.com/ and Blizzard's Vitaliy Naymushin http://www.t3h-v.com/, to talk about what it takes to work in this competitive job. Luckily the episode remained peaceful and no Blizzard / BioWare battles ensued, which hopefully proves we only have the utmost respect for each other. Unfortunately Vitaliy's rabid dog was not on board with the anti-aggression pact, and decided to turn on his owner. Don't miss all the action, adventure, and of course, great information.
http://gim.acanaday.com
thanks for all your hard work guys!!!:)
After listening to this latest podcast I am actually feeling really discouraged trying to break into the character stuff. Sounds like there are so few positions and it is just too competitive.
The other thing I'm frustrated with is this dumb ass idea that I should only put characters on my portfolio or I should only put props on there. Some people say having a mix tells employers you aren't sure what you want to do. Well no goddamnit I just want to break in.
Who cares if I have a mix as long as the stuff is cool?
Also shouldn't doing characters have some overlap for doing props in terms of the accessories a character can wear? I hate the idea that I might be overlooked for a 3d art position doing props if my portfolio says "3d character art". I think a 3d character artist with nice looking accessories should be looked at as "hey cool props, and he can also handle some anatomy too".
Sorry for the grumpy post. Layoff anxiety is creeping up on me.
To be fair, none of this stuff is set in stone. (as our portfolio episode hopefully addressed).. you may end up finding some art director who LOVES seeing a bit of anatomy or character stuff in environment art portfolios or visa versa. But my general gut feeling is, if you are going to do both, they better BOTH be awesome and comprehensive.