The Job climate for character artists
polycounter lvl 13
Hey guys,
I wanted to throw this question out there, I was having a debate with a friend of mine on the topic the other day. Right now, I'm trying to work on getting a spot as a character artist. Characters are most definitely what I enjoy the most.
Problem I see is, everyone and there mother feels the same way. For every 1 character artist, there seems to be 10 environment artists. Some people have said, if you wanna do characters do characters, if you wanna do enviro, do enviro, but I'v ebeen thinking to secure a spot with the way the job market is now, is it worth considering, broadening out to almost become a 3d Generalist, to apply for both enviro and character positions?
I mean, my ideal would not be to start workign on enviro, but if it were to help me land a job...
My logical thinking is that you could then even make a lateral move to a character spot if one should open up in the company you work at.
I'm sure everyone has opinions on the subject, I'd be interested to hear them. Right now, personally, I would rather do characters and hope for the best, but I don't know if I would say that a year from know if I don't have job.
I wanted to throw this question out there, I was having a debate with a friend of mine on the topic the other day. Right now, I'm trying to work on getting a spot as a character artist. Characters are most definitely what I enjoy the most.
Problem I see is, everyone and there mother feels the same way. For every 1 character artist, there seems to be 10 environment artists. Some people have said, if you wanna do characters do characters, if you wanna do enviro, do enviro, but I'v ebeen thinking to secure a spot with the way the job market is now, is it worth considering, broadening out to almost become a 3d Generalist, to apply for both enviro and character positions?
I mean, my ideal would not be to start workign on enviro, but if it were to help me land a job...
My logical thinking is that you could then even make a lateral move to a character spot if one should open up in the company you work at.
I'm sure everyone has opinions on the subject, I'd be interested to hear them. Right now, personally, I would rather do characters and hope for the best, but I don't know if I would say that a year from know if I don't have job.
Replies
If you're just as good at Env as you are at Char, then it's easy to start off in one and move to another. Just depends on what they have available at the time.
Too true.
There are fewer positions and more competition for character artists in this industry. I'm not saying you can't break in as a character artist but you're gonna have to be pretty bad ass at it. It will probably be easier for you to get in as an enviro artist and then, eventually, move over to a character artist position when a slot comes available. By all means do NOT mention in any interviews for enviro art positions you might land that is what you want to do, though.
You probably don't want to hide that you can do character art, as it does come in quite handy, you'll be the go to statue guy. Which in theory should satisfy quite a bit of the character itch unless of course you're looking to get into character art because like Dekard pointed out, character artists get all the chicks.
Once you start taking environments seriously you'll find they're just as engrossing if not more engrossing than characters.
And yes, too many people are trying to get into character art positions, so your best bet is environment art, where there's still too many people trying to get in the door, just not as many
this is a good read though.
if i had the time to invest into switching over to enviro work, i would do it in a heartbeat... so if you don't have a TON of responsibilities ATM, then i recommend you take the plunge so you can get in.
Certainly a great thread, but would you say it's still relevant as much now? It seems that there's much more environment work being posted in WIP threads, more people advertising their sites / skills as environment artists, and more people asking questions and seeking advice on environment art.
I wonder how many people really want to do environment work, and how many see it as an 'in', or a means to get a gig while they work on their character portfolio.
1) to be a character artist and employed at a dev?
2) to be employed at a game dev as any kind of artist?
3) to be employed at mcdonalds and work on developing your char art skills until you get the job you want?
4) none of the above?
Spark
??? It's the other way around.
I assume if your portfolio consists of mostly characters then you will be passed on for any 3d art positions doing props? Do hiring managers ever consider the time it can also take doing the accessories that a character can wear? That should have some overlap with environment props I'd think.
I am depressed beyond belief lately. Being laid off sucks and reading threads like this doesn't really help much, especially when I thought I might be ready to start applying soon. The idea of starting all over kinda chaps my ass.
In any case, if you add some enviro assets, make sure they are more than an after thought addition to you portfolio. Avoid making alleys, barrels, and dumpsters=----oh yeah, and those concrete roadblock thingys
where the hell are you working where you have 10 character artists to one environment artist? Maybe on a fighting game?
I think he means the amount of people wanting to do characters versus environments.
Lateral moves are difficult. You'll still have to build a kick ass character portfolio.
Then again, would it be worthwhile spending some time doing enviro work, or using that same time to get more character work done.
My end goal, is I want to be employed in the industry as quickly as I can, and if that would mean enviro would get me in quicker, or lets say give me a higher chance, it's something to consider.
I wonder how 3d generalists are looked upon by hiring companies. lets say my folio consists of 5 characters, 5 props/weapons, and a few buildings, does that make me a jack of all trades master of none, therefore hard to get any job, or make me more appealing because I would have diversity, and therefore could apply for both character and enviro art positions.
I don't necessarily agree that this constitutes as 3d generalist.
IMOH, generalists are people who can model, rig, texture, light and render. They can do it all but perhaps there not pro in all category's. What they can do though is take something from from concept to final product. Something that is sometimes overlooked and often very valuable.
What your taking about, having a portfolio of some characters, enviro with some props is more or less, showing that your a talented modler/texture artist.
The way I see it, character art and environment art; they fall under two different trees: Modeling/texturing. Organic and hard-surface modeling is just the two different kinds of fruit. If you can model organic shapes and crazy hard-surface then that makes you a much more valuable artist.
just my two cents.
Yep.
A bit off-topic, but I totally agree on that. I used to be one of the few artists in the whole art team that was able to make a working asset out of a concept.
I've always enjoyed knowing a bit more about the whole game-making process than just being able to create art. Also it's good to not having to rely too much on others when creating an asset. Unfortunately such skills seems to be of little value.
now that said... my first job was as an environment artist, for your first job take whatever you can get, don't just sit there in hopes of landing a character artist gig right off the bat, the whole lateral move to characters is not quite as easy as it may seem, and sometimes you may even have to change jobs to make it happen, but then you already have experience and thats a huge plus.
btw CJE: after checking out your stuff i have to say its really not too bad at all! You should be able to find a job out there somewhere, just keep applying! and apply everywhere!
I think for me, it comes down to what I am passionate about. I love characters, and even though it seems harder to land a gig doing it, I can't see myself doing other things. I could spend this next year doing environment art, trying to get good at that and maybe land a gig, or I could spend the same time working on become a better character artist.
I think either carries with it associated risks, just hard to determine which is going to work out for yourself in the end, and I dont think anyone could ever tell you that.
I don't suppose you guys know of any game developers who need a web design guy? I make 3D models as a hobby, all my work experience is in web design and production.
Yah, I was in a doctorate program last year to be an Audiologist and decided I really wanted to be in the game industry, as an artist as my dream job, I had always been interested but never had the guts to try for it. I eventually tho decided life is short and back in Feburary I wanna say, early Feb, I went and got a tablet, and zbrush/max and started from there.
What did you guys' portfolios look like at the time? Was it all character, did it have environments? Did you specifically apply for environments or did you apply for something else?
I learned more valuable things in the field as an environment artist, some of which are directly applicable to character art, than I have in my time of being a professional character artist.
If you're looking to get into the industry, there are many more spots open for environment related art.
Rawkstar's story isn't so uncommon... there are many people who have made a switch one way or another, and sometimes back again :P
Valve has had a few postings for web stuff up for a while, actually a steam update last week had a few too.
After a long time doing characters, there is not that much work around right now so it has crossed my mind.
I think the danger here is seeing env art as some second best endeavour which it is blatantly not, though I suppose if you are stuck knocking out background objects then it might become a bit of as chore eventually.
recently as a freelancer I have done everything from morph targets to environments to animation
imo you should be focus on one thing but be able to do other things as well .. but saying "yes I wan't to a character artist" is a good thing, but be able and open to do other work as well
But I've have read something similar on other forums as well so it really makes wonder whether to change my web portfolio to concentrate on one thing only. In my case that would be environments. Anyway, good luck finding a job! And be sure to tell about it here.
Totally agree, everyone's shooting for game industry jobs, the market's over saturated beyond hell. I'd love to work for an architecture or even a 3d Design company doing pre-vis stuff if I could find it.
Game art would be a dream job for me though. I've been out of school for almost 9 months now and I've gotten a couple of call backs but they just didn't have any open positions. Those were before the economy tank and studio closures. Now it feels like it's even tougher though with all those who just lost jobs and already have experience. Makes trying to break into it all really tough at the moment for anyone.
To be a rockstar is one who works for the fame & profit, not the love of it.
I personally have never seen or heard any form of popular media make a reference to a specific character artist before (interviews by game art-related sites do not count as popular media).
Most cool characters I've seen outside of forums I wouldn't be able to name the artist of. For example the WoW intro cinematics and the ones made by Blur studios all look awesome, but the credit/praise goes to blizzard and blur instead of the many individual artists' names.
So... if you really want fame and work in the games industry then be a game designer
On the flip side, I don't know of really any character artists that like to work on customizable assets. It ends up being like env art is, where you're making lots of small chunks that have to be generic enough to be used in a lot of ways. it sucks all the unique creation aspect out of characters that is normally present.
Any time I've been doing unique env chunks, I've had just as much fun as when making characters, and more so than making character customization pieces, but making little env chunklets that will be used by level artists a million different ways isn't as much fun to me.
This is exactly what I've been doing with my latest character, ha! I love working with modularity and making a variety of things from the pieces.
I know for me I would like to branch out into prop and environment art and I'd be happy getting a job in any 3dart related specialization. I don't feel right applying for those other positions positions with no actual environments though. I am just wondering now, after spending a year polishing my portfolio for characters, how to show that I have an interest and skill in the rest without watering down the message that I enjoy characters the most.
I agree with you poop, my first real character artist gig was just that; making zillions of individual customizable character assets that aren't allowed to be anything more than generic lol, I still found it enjoyable tho
Just Love what you do CJE, I'm not at my dreamjob yet but I lovin makin my way there.