Great episode! Also, very cool Adam. I went to Sheridan for illustration as well. Oakville is a soul-sucking, bland place.
Oh yah? When? I think it was 2001 ofr me. Once I learned it wasn't what I was interested in it quickly became a place for me to hit a bong and talk about art stuff with like minded people. :thumbup:
2002 to 2005, I think. Just missed you. The painting and graphic design courses were awesome, but the business side of illustration can be a huge pain in the ass. And yeah, the other students there were amazing for just hanging out with.
I am listening to the podcasts - awesome! Thanks for the bump, acanaday, and to all else who participate. Cool podcasts are hard to come by without membership fees and hellish websites. Looking at you, new gamasutra. :<
I just checked out your blog, awesome stuff. Why the interest in going from animation to environment creation for videogames?
Thanks! To keep 'er short, I've wanted to get into environments since the Myst/Riven days, but it was only after working in Yaletown for a few years at a non-games production studio that I realized it was time to get off my ass and learn 3D fo' reals.
This episode we discuss what it takes to be part of a community management team! I am joined with Sean Dahlberg, Community Manager at BioWare Austin, and Chris Mansell, Director and Community Manager at Trion World Network.
You should have an episode on outsourcing and how lame it can be working in a studio where all you do is worldbuild and rely on the chinese to make the art for you. That is one i would love to hear. Keep up the good work brother!
You should have an episode on outsourcing and how lame it can be working in a studio where all you do is worldbuild and rely on the chinese to make the art for you. That is one i would love to hear. Keep up the good work brother!
Ha ha ha... touchy subject, but yeah I'll see what I can talk about without people getting too upset. In all honesty though, I think it really depends on the scope of the game. I can how that would suck working on a single player game with a smaller gameplay areas, because MOST of your work would be feedback on outsource work. And even though the environments aren't built to as high of fidelity as single player games, I like working on an MMO just because there is PLENTY to do outside of providing outsource feedback. Tons of area to build, light, prop, etc.. so that keeps my artistic side happy.
I should try and track down some artists who have a variety of experience...
I really like how you talk about a wide spectrum of jobs. I'd like to hear more about going to events like GDC or PAX, what to expect, what you should/shouldn't do. I don't know if its worth an entire podcast though. I know you talked about it a little bit after the portfolio thread.
iTunes somehow managed to delete all my GIM podcasts today on both my iphone and itunes...i tried to redownload them all but it seems that in the itunes store only episode 7+ are available to dl now.
I downloaded them from your site but itunes wont add them as to the podcast list even if i edit the tags so they are identical.
I dont suppose you know why they have vanished from the store do you? that was so convinient just in case of disaster.
Awesome! Downloading these on my Iphone now. These will be fun to listen to at work. Question though....
On Itunes, your podcasts only go back to like...number 7. Do you know how to get the old ones from Itunes...or if you would have to reupload them or something? I'd especially want to listen to the environment art one, since thats my trade .
"I have been running into difficulties completing the podcasts due to a handful of reasons, not the least of those being a broken laptop, a baby on the way, and work. I'm not sure when I will be able to replace my laptop, but that seems to be the biggest hurdle for me right now. So I regret to inform listeners that I will be going into a bit of a hiatus."
Ohh that kinda sucks to hear, buuuuttt it sounds like he has much more important things to look after right now
I'm sure we all appreciate everything you've done so far Aaron, hopefully once your life settles down some, you'll grace us with some more informative podcasting.
Latest from Aaron is he might be remotely hosting the podcasts... so keep checking the site and itunes... there may be more episodes incoming shortly. Can't wait! I've enjoyed every episode (portfolio/character art episodes in particular!)
Aaron, I just want to say that the time and effort you've put into making such fantasticly informative, and friendly, podcast is just amazing.
I've been listening since the first episode and even more since my question got on Episode 5.
I've been avidly listening to every episode and I've currently listened to most of them two times over : ) Probably cause I'm sad...or they are just so awesome.
I love the friendly environment that you and your guests and co-workers create on the show. The intro music is fun and happy which always helps
I fully understand the hiatus situation. Hope you get more free time soon.
HEY there! After a bit of a hiatus, A new episode of GIM is up! I am still planning on doing episodes once every couple months or so, or as often as a topic comes up that is sufficient to do an episode on.
This episode - The Job Interview.
Special guests this episode are: Jason Rosenstock - contract environment artist at BioWare, Mike Sheidow - senior environment artist at BioWare, and Alex Thomas - cinematic designer at BioWare. I'm really happy with the quality information this episode provides, so give it a listen!
Apologies for the inconsistent audio quality. In an attempt to make things easy, we did our best using one central microphone, which didn't turn out too hot. Perhaps our future efforts using a central mic will be more successful.
Yeah, I looked into adding more items in my feed that is submitted to itunes, but I cant figure out how to do it through the blubrry wordpress plugin I am using. For now a workaround would be to visit the site and download all of the episodes you are missing. They are all archived there.
Maybe blubrry will update their plugin to more easily set this.
Speaking of Games Industry Mentoring, would anybody be willing to participate a mentor thread/program in Polycount for students or independent amateurs? For each mentor there would be assigned 1 student, or however many the professional thinks they can handle.
As a student working on modelling and texturing it would be pretty fantastic to be able to send stuff to a designated person already in the field I'm going for so they could give criticisms in real time via AIM, MSN, email, skype, whatever.
Canaday, when you say environment artists rarely work in their program do you mean they aren't making their own assets? That's one of the reasons I wanted to an EA. Is it like dragging and moving preexisting modular stuff?
Yeah, I looked into adding more items in my feed that is submitted to itunes, but I cant figure out how to do it through the blubrry wordpress plugin I am using. For now a workaround would be to visit the site and download all of the episodes you are missing. They are all archived there.
Maybe blubrry will update their plugin to more easily set this.
This episode we discuss the ins and outs of getting a job as a concept artist. Our special guests this week are: Paul Adam and Ryan Dening, both Senior Concept Artist at BioWare. Our returning guests are Alex Thomas and Jason Rosenstock.
Oh, my God. I've been waiting for a new episode with my butt cheeks clinched.
Aaron, I wanted to email you, but since you're here, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for these podcasts. I only found the Games Industry Mentor podcast a few months ago. At that time I was thinking about giving up 3D because I was so frustrated. I was about half way through to my Game Art and Design degree at Art Institute Seattle when I had to drop out of school to provide for my kids. After I dropped out I felt like I was all alone, and searching in the dark for every little problem I had, just questions I had about the industry, or Maya, or Mudbox felt like I could never find an adequate answer. I had been an Illustrator for years, and 3D was a challenge for me, especially on the tech side. Your podcast helped immeasurably in informing me about the industry in general, and gave me direction in deciding what I want to do as a 3D artist. I re-listen to the podcasts regularly every week as I walk to work. Even the ones that have nothing to do with prop and environment art are so informative to me.
Heck, the only reason I'm on Polycount is because I heard about it in one of the podcasts.
I just wanted to let you know because you do these podcasts to help people, and I can say you probably helped change the direction of my life for the better. I still haven't gotten in the industry yet, but I'm confident that I'm no longer taking a stab in the dark, and so I will get there eventually.
Have to say, though, I'm surprised that a Concept Art themed episode didn't come out earlier. Since it's pretty much one of the big jobs in the game development process.
Thanks for sharing that barnstable. I remember when i was going through that process, it was so much work without an end in sight, and it was hard to even notice any progress. I told my wife one night that it was like walking through a swamp in the fog with no sign if the shore in sight. mostly that situation was due to my lack of knowlege about the industry and not being able to predict my own marketability, that uncertainty was terribly frusterating. I started this podcast to help others to see through the fog better, because that was a tough experience for me. So undersandibly your story means a lot!
Oh and i agree! i cant believe it took me this long to do a concept art episode!
Thanks for sharing that barnstable. I remember when i was going through that process, it was so much work without an end in sight, and it was hard to even notice any progress. I told my wife one night that it was like walking through a swamp in the fog with no sign if the shore in sight. mostly that situation was due to my lack of knowlege about the industry and not being able to predict my own marketability, that uncertainty was terribly frusterating. I started this podcast to help others to see through the fog better, because that was a tough experience for me. So undersandibly your story means a lot!
Oh and i agree! i cant believe it took me this long to do a concept art episode!
Yeah, I have to echo all those sentiments. That's exactly what it feels like, especially just starting out.
And really, thanks for doing these. They help a lot.
For this particular one, the part I found kinda depressing is where you guys talked about how it's much more likely to get a job through connections, rather than by just applying for it. It does mean that for someone like me who doesn't know anyone it gets even harder.
Also, I found the part about getting a start abroad to be really interesting (one guy who got his first job in Germany). I always wondered about that, as it seems like there are more outsourcing studios in Europe than in the US which may be more likely to hire juniors. But I don't know how to go about accomplishing that. What do you guys think about that?
Thanks for sharing that barnstable. I remember when i was going through that process, it was so much work without an end in sight, and it was hard to even notice any progress. I told my wife one night that it was like walking through a swamp in the fog with no sign if the shore in sight. mostly that situation was due to my lack of knowlege about the industry and not being able to predict my own marketability, that uncertainty was terribly frusterating. I started this podcast to help others to see through the fog better, because that was a tough experience for me. So undersandibly your story means a lot!
Oh and i agree! i cant believe it took me this long to do a concept art episode!
That's exactly how I felt. I had no real direction. I was adding things to my portfolio in a really unproductive manner as I wasn't good enough to make each piece killer, and I had no real focus. It didn't help that Maya wasn't second nature to me at that time.
But now, after listening to your podcast, and hanging out in polycount, I feel like my knowledge has really shot way up. I find myself even modeling much faster just because I'm not second guessing myself anymore, and I've come across most challenges and have a solution mapped out. I'm in the process of redesigning my portfolio, and I think I actually might know what I'm doing this time.
The new podcast is great as usual. I'll listen multiple times just to let it soak in. I looked it up, and Ryan's portfolio is insane.
I know you must have a ton of work at BioWare, but these podcasts are a great resource for people like myself who want to get in the industry. Keep up the great work.
For this particular one, the part I found kinda depressing is where you guys talked about how it's much more likely to get a job through connections, rather than by just applying for it. It does mean that for someone like me who doesn't know anyone it gets even harder.
Well to clarify, both Ryan and myself have landed jobs without any prior contacts. To explain how I got my job a bit more in detail - I applied for a Pandemic job cold without knowing anyone. This was right before the EA - Bioware/Pandemic acquisition, so BioWare and Pandemic were working together quite a bit. The art director at Pandemic must have thought my stuff would be good for what BioWare Austin was looking for and forwarded my stuff on to them, which is how I got the contact.
So, simply applying is still very useful. I know that applicants that send in their stuff get looked over and get jobs that way, but if someone passes you on as a referral, it comes off a bit stronger.
I also really enjoyed this last episode. Felt very informal and a lot of very very great information came out of this one. I've listened to it a good few times now. One of my favs thus far.
Speaking of Games Industry Mentoring, would anybody be willing to participate a mentor thread/program in Polycount for students or independent amateurs? For each mentor there would be assigned 1 student, or however many the professional thinks they can handle.
As a student working on modelling and texturing it would be pretty fantastic to be able to send stuff to a designated person already in the field I'm going for so they could give criticisms in real time via AIM, MSN, email, skype, whatever.
I'd be willing; I'm more of the independent amateur game artist.
It's been a while since my last episode! Been a bit busy at work. But here you go - a new one!
Episode 19 - Women in the Industry.
This episode I talk with a few of my BioWare Austin coworkers: Lisa Garrison - Senior Project Manager, Toni Phillips - Associate Project Manager, and Jackie Marroquin - Associate Project Manager. We discuss what it's like working and getting a job in an industry dominated primarily by men, as well as provide advice for any female trying to break in.
Special thanks to Patricia for suggesting this topic a long time ago. I always wanted to get to this episode because I feel its important for other women to feel more enabled to be part of this industry. Thanks!
Replies
Oh yah? When? I think it was 2001 ofr me. Once I learned it wasn't what I was interested in it quickly became a place for me to hit a bong and talk about art stuff with like minded people. :thumbup:
Nice podcast though. I'll have to start tracking it.
Thanks! To keep 'er short, I've wanted to get into environments since the Myst/Riven days, but it was only after working in Yaletown for a few years at a non-games production studio that I realized it was time to get off my ass and learn 3D fo' reals.
Episode 15: Community Management
This episode we discuss what it takes to be part of a community management team! I am joined with Sean Dahlberg, Community Manager at BioWare Austin, and Chris Mansell, Director and Community Manager at Trion World Network.
http://gim.acanaday.com
You should have an episode on outsourcing and how lame it can be working in a studio where all you do is worldbuild and rely on the chinese to make the art for you. That is one i would love to hear. Keep up the good work brother!
Ha ha ha... touchy subject, but yeah I'll see what I can talk about without people getting too upset. In all honesty though, I think it really depends on the scope of the game. I can how that would suck working on a single player game with a smaller gameplay areas, because MOST of your work would be feedback on outsource work. And even though the environments aren't built to as high of fidelity as single player games, I like working on an MMO just because there is PLENTY to do outside of providing outsource feedback. Tons of area to build, light, prop, etc.. so that keeps my artistic side happy.
I should try and track down some artists who have a variety of experience...
iTunes somehow managed to delete all my GIM podcasts today on both my iphone and itunes...i tried to redownload them all but it seems that in the itunes store only episode 7+ are available to dl now.
I downloaded them from your site but itunes wont add them as to the podcast list even if i edit the tags so they are identical.
I dont suppose you know why they have vanished from the store do you? that was so convinient just in case of disaster.
Thanks for looking
On Itunes, your podcasts only go back to like...number 7. Do you know how to get the old ones from Itunes...or if you would have to reupload them or something? I'd especially want to listen to the environment art one, since thats my trade
This!
http://gim.acanaday.com/
"I have been running into difficulties completing the podcasts due to a handful of reasons, not the least of those being a broken laptop, a baby on the way, and work. I'm not sure when I will be able to replace my laptop, but that seems to be the biggest hurdle for me right now. So I regret to inform listeners that I will be going into a bit of a hiatus."
I'm sure we all appreciate everything you've done so far Aaron, hopefully once your life settles down some, you'll grace us with some more informative podcasting.
Good luck!
Cheers.
I've been listening since the first episode and even more since my question got on Episode 5.
I've been avidly listening to every episode and I've currently listened to most of them two times over : ) Probably cause I'm sad...or they are just so awesome.
I love the friendly environment that you and your guests and co-workers create on the show. The intro music is fun and happy which always helps
I fully understand the hiatus situation. Hope you get more free time soon.
Once again, amazing podcast.
This episode - The Job Interview.
Special guests this episode are: Jason Rosenstock - contract environment artist at BioWare, Mike Sheidow - senior environment artist at BioWare, and Alex Thomas - cinematic designer at BioWare. I'm really happy with the quality information this episode provides, so give it a listen!
Apologies for the inconsistent audio quality. In an attempt to make things easy, we did our best using one central microphone, which didn't turn out too hot. Perhaps our future efforts using a central mic will be more successful.
http://gim.acanaday.com
Congrats on landing the internship!!
Cheers Aaron
Any news on the iTunes issue BTW?
Maybe blubrry will update their plugin to more easily set this.
As a student working on modelling and texturing it would be pretty fantastic to be able to send stuff to a designated person already in the field I'm going for so they could give criticisms in real time via AIM, MSN, email, skype, whatever.
Ok groovy
Cheers man!
This episode we discuss the ins and outs of getting a job as a concept artist. Our special guests this week are: Paul Adam and Ryan Dening, both Senior Concept Artist at BioWare. Our returning guests are Alex Thomas and Jason Rosenstock.
http://gim.acanaday.com
Thanks
Nice topic also, as mentioned above.
Great episode as always. Greatly appreciate the effort you guys put into these.
Aaron, I wanted to email you, but since you're here, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for these podcasts. I only found the Games Industry Mentor podcast a few months ago. At that time I was thinking about giving up 3D because I was so frustrated. I was about half way through to my Game Art and Design degree at Art Institute Seattle when I had to drop out of school to provide for my kids. After I dropped out I felt like I was all alone, and searching in the dark for every little problem I had, just questions I had about the industry, or Maya, or Mudbox felt like I could never find an adequate answer. I had been an Illustrator for years, and 3D was a challenge for me, especially on the tech side. Your podcast helped immeasurably in informing me about the industry in general, and gave me direction in deciding what I want to do as a 3D artist. I re-listen to the podcasts regularly every week as I walk to work. Even the ones that have nothing to do with prop and environment art are so informative to me.
Heck, the only reason I'm on Polycount is because I heard about it in one of the podcasts.
I just wanted to let you know because you do these podcasts to help people, and I can say you probably helped change the direction of my life for the better. I still haven't gotten in the industry yet, but I'm confident that I'm no longer taking a stab in the dark, and so I will get there eventually.
Again, thank you Aaron:)
Have to say, though, I'm surprised that a Concept Art themed episode didn't come out earlier. Since it's pretty much one of the big jobs in the game development process.
Oh and i agree! i cant believe it took me this long to do a concept art episode!
Yeah, I have to echo all those sentiments. That's exactly what it feels like, especially just starting out.
And really, thanks for doing these. They help a lot.
For this particular one, the part I found kinda depressing is where you guys talked about how it's much more likely to get a job through connections, rather than by just applying for it. It does mean that for someone like me who doesn't know anyone it gets even harder.
Also, I found the part about getting a start abroad to be really interesting (one guy who got his first job in Germany). I always wondered about that, as it seems like there are more outsourcing studios in Europe than in the US which may be more likely to hire juniors. But I don't know how to go about accomplishing that. What do you guys think about that?
That's exactly how I felt. I had no real direction. I was adding things to my portfolio in a really unproductive manner as I wasn't good enough to make each piece killer, and I had no real focus. It didn't help that Maya wasn't second nature to me at that time.
But now, after listening to your podcast, and hanging out in polycount, I feel like my knowledge has really shot way up. I find myself even modeling much faster just because I'm not second guessing myself anymore, and I've come across most challenges and have a solution mapped out. I'm in the process of redesigning my portfolio, and I think I actually might know what I'm doing this time.
The new podcast is great as usual. I'll listen multiple times just to let it soak in. I looked it up, and Ryan's portfolio is insane.
I know you must have a ton of work at BioWare, but these podcasts are a great resource for people like myself who want to get in the industry. Keep up the great work.
Well to clarify, both Ryan and myself have landed jobs without any prior contacts. To explain how I got my job a bit more in detail - I applied for a Pandemic job cold without knowing anyone. This was right before the EA - Bioware/Pandemic acquisition, so BioWare and Pandemic were working together quite a bit. The art director at Pandemic must have thought my stuff would be good for what BioWare Austin was looking for and forwarded my stuff on to them, which is how I got the contact.
So, simply applying is still very useful. I know that applicants that send in their stuff get looked over and get jobs that way, but if someone passes you on as a referral, it comes off a bit stronger.
The intro/outro music is catchy, never mind the content!
I'd be willing; I'm more of the independent amateur game artist.
Episode 19 - Women in the Industry.
This episode I talk with a few of my BioWare Austin coworkers: Lisa Garrison - Senior Project Manager, Toni Phillips - Associate Project Manager, and Jackie Marroquin - Associate Project Manager. We discuss what it's like working and getting a job in an industry dominated primarily by men, as well as provide advice for any female trying to break in.
Special thanks to Patricia for suggesting this topic a long time ago. I always wanted to get to this episode because I feel its important for other women to feel more enabled to be part of this industry. Thanks!
http://gim.acanaday.com