it all depends.... I think there's no universal answer to the specialization question. What works for one person may not work for another. In general the majority of people seem to have specialized in one area to a certain degree. Doesn't mean this will get you a job. Nor does being a generalist prevent you from getting a job.
Just be good at what you do and market yourself according to the position you're applying to.
If generalists can compete with specialists in quality? why not? There's really kickass generalists out there (and a lot of mediocre "specialists"). The range of your skills isn't necessarily related to your skill level. Sure being a specialist gives you more practice, but then again talent also counts for a lot in our business.
I figure the logo thumbs stick out like a sore thumb enough as is, should be plenty to grab first attention if pro samples is what someones watching for. At least I think so.
I think they do a good job of standing out and grabbing the viewers attention.
Xoliul, Vahl, website says he was responsible for shaders/environment textures in Vegas and environment props in Avatar.
Btw, I don't want to derail thread but my question is kind of similar to what has been discussed in this thread for past couple of pages.
How important is specialization in game industry? Like Art-Machine, I've been doing lots of characters in my spare time, but my resume suggests I might be better off doing environment art (have worked as lighting/rendering/scene assembly guy in advertisement/archviz fields)
I've checked lots of game artist portfolios - some show wide range of subjects and skills from normalmapped assets to iphone stuff, some specialize in environment props or weapons while others pretty much sculpt fulltime.
Is there some sort of rule of thumb? Looks like too much specialization has hurt Art-Machine's career. On the other hand, can generalist compete with specialist in terms of quality?
I think if you are just out of school,never worked in the industry having a focused portfolio is better. Unless you have immaculate talent you will likely have talent at a junior level and you need an area of focus to show potential employers where to place you job wise. Having alot of varied junior level work does not show well in what aspect of game art you would like to start your career in.
years ago i had an unfocused portfolio until Pak advised me to focus on environments and after a marathon 1 month long environment art creation orgy i landed my first gig breaking close to 4 years dry spell in jobs.
Sorry AM, I just jumped in and didn't read everything because per was nonstop moaning about polycount etc etc.
If you mean I'm somehow frustrating per with this thread, I'd be happy to talk it out with him in PMs...
I understadn you want to be a character artist and only a character artist, (maybe i'm wrong though).
Actually I'm fine working on props at work, I would do character but in no way would state that I'll 'only' do character. Actually at Ubi at least it doesn't pay much more and it's a ton more headache and pressure.
on your website, all I see from your pro stuff are screenshots
What else can I show? I would LOVE to show all my meshes and textures and hi-res from Avatar for example. But Ubi denied everyone the right to take those out of the building, even as images. Yes it's a huge handicap and should be illegal to do, but it happened and I'm working with what i can get which are screen shots. Internally I have an entire portfolio presented the same way as my personal work : Final product, mesh, textures, hi-res... All to waste.
Good points by Vahl, especially on the Vegas stuff. It really does come across as you not caring about it, and I also had no clue whatsoever what exactly was your work in those shots. Might come across as harsh but worth considering.
As for my Vegas shots, I wrote in the top bar what my contributions were. In most cases since this was 75% polishing and optimization work, most of the textures in the screen is what I had my hand in. On a typical day of vegas 2 I was creating or passing on 7-10 textures per day. I could recognize ones that came across my screen but couldn't tell you exactly what I did to them unless they are particularly memorable somehow. Such as the chinese props, the flowery panel, certain animated or glowing textures etc. I corrected the normals on every brick texture, certain ones i corrected the diffuse that was too obviously tiling etc... But ask me which brick wall that was and dude, I looked at dozens of brick textures on that project, I don't know. Same for all the wood, plaster, floors, doors, windows, railings, stairs, pipes and so on...
If i walk face-up to a tiling cement wall and took that screen shot, telling you that's one of the textures I made, that would be an incredibly boring and unimpressive image to show wouldn't it? I took shots of scenes where a variety of 'mundane' textures I took part in come together to create the more interesting greater picture. Where certain textures are worth presenting on their own like the carved flowery panel, I did close-in and take those shots. But by and large, tiling cement, tiling metal, that was Vegas 2 and it presents far better as scene shots than nose-to-the-wall. Especially since that's how they were meant to be enjoyed anyway. That project didn't put "looks good up close" as a priority in their texture budget as you remarked from the weapons.
I don't know how it seems that I don't care from those screen shots. I thought I took some pretty nice ones there that show a variety of props and environments. Now I'm wondering if I should take them back down if they look so bad?
As for the ego comments, the side you're seeing in this thread is me venting deep down frustrations about the current situation. If you knew the exact story of the past year of my life you'd know better. I don't think I'm a superstar especially since I have many friends at work that kick my ass on a daily basis. I'm in a constant state of thinking my stuff is crap and not good enough, always trying to get better and impress myself which is usually a fleeting moment.
But I know what I'm worth to a company and it's more reaction than 1 interview in 1 year. Ego, I wouldn't think so, but I certainly have a chip on my shoulder that's getting heavier with time. I took a leap to save my own life literally, and expected the industry i devote myself to wouldn't let me down but it did and i fell flat on my face. Would be hard to have an ego after that kind of thing, I'm just really frustrated. Maybe venting in this thread is a way to keep it from creeping into an interview or whatever.
I would LOVE to show all my meshes and textures and hi-res from Avatar for example. But Ubi denied everyone the right to take those out of the building, even as images.
Errr what?! Thats outrageous. Way to treat your employees "leave and we'll make it as hard as we can for you to find another job", I bet that inspires loyalty...
machine.. Many of us understands your frustration. but it is not going to do any good if it is the only thing you think about. try to find part time job while working on your craft...may be you are already doing that,,,, and go out and do some pysical activities like there is no tommorow.....it will make you feel 300% better......do not think too much mate! with your talent and extra work, you will land something pretty quick..
Errr what?! Thats outrageous. Way to treat your employees "leave and we'll make it as hard as we can for you to find another job", I bet that inspires loyalty...
Not that uncommon from my experience
In a way it does create loyalty though - you just don't leave if you have a hard time finding another job /sarcasm
Errr what?! Thats outrageous. Way to treat your employees "leave and we'll make it as hard as we can for you to find another job", I bet that inspires loyalty...
Not outrageous at all, in fact most companies work like that, most people i know just use the stuff they can and hope that they dont get busted.
Not outrageous at all, in fact most companies work like that, most people i know just use the stuff they can and hope that they dont get busted.
in the case of avatar it might also be a movie-license specific thing. at least the assassins creed characters that seem regularly featured all over the web indicate to me this might not be a general ubi policy.
I would LOVE to show all my meshes and textures and hi-res from Avatar for example. But Ubi denied ...
If this had happened to me, and I had access to the PC sku, I would use a grabber to extract the mesh and textures. It does work, I've used it to examine game assets up close and personal.
I agree with vahl about your presentation problems, those screenshots are very hard to judge your work by. If I'm trying to hire you, I want to see the flats and the isolated model. You can't get the high-res back of course, but you can show a raw model next to the same model with normalmaps on it.
machine.. Many of us understands your frustration. but it is not going to do any good if it is the only thing you think about. try to find part time job while working on your craft...may be you are already doing that,,,, and go out and do some pysical activities like there is no tommorow.....it will make you feel 300% better......do not think too much mate! with your talent and extra work, you will land something pretty quick..
well, i offered him a part time-freelance stint via PM, but i guess he's not interested.
Lol you may not get one now after calling him out.
was trying to be nice, but meh, more monies for me.
seems like whatever i do i stumble upon some unwritten law of social conduct that i somehow was supposed to have already known about.
was trying to be nice, but meh, more monies for me.
seems like whatever i do i stumble upon some unwritten law of social conduct that i somehow was supposed to have already known about.
Is it really that mysterious that a potential business partnership is a private matter? The fact is that you have no idea why he may not have responded to you yet and by calling him out you make him look bad for no good reason.
Is it really that mysterious that a potential business partnership is a private matter? The fact is that you have no idea why he may not have responded to you yet and by calling him out you make him look bad for no good reason.
yeh. well, i figured he'd be strapped for cash, and in need of a quick job where he could put his skills to work, and get some mechanical stuff into his portfolio, but i guess trying to help a fellow artist in need is frowned upon around here.
yeh. well, i figured he'd be strapped for cash, and in need of a quick job where he could put his skills to work, and get some mechanical stuff into his portfolio, but i guess trying to help a fellow artist in need is frowned upon around here.
well guys let's all jump off the Dejawolf hating bandwagon for a second, he is offering him a way out of a sort. Now tbh we all know that there are loads of artist's out of work I'm sure who would jump at the chance that Deja is presenting Art-Machine here.
From what Deja said in his post, he is offering temp freelance work which he could do offsite making mechanical possibly photorealistic art pieces which could help to break up the fantasy theme that you guys have been talking about.
Now whether or not Deja should have outed him is neither here nor there as it has happened, we have already established the fact that Art is a very talented artist with years of experience and a vast skillset but one thing will be clear by the end of this.
is Art Machine cherry picking for jobs in a turbulent job market?
I'm a nobody on this forum and I will probably get ignored or flamed, but I had the courage to say what I felt.
well guys let's all jump off the Dejawolf hating bandwagon for a second, he is offering him a way out of a sort. Now tbh we all know that there are loads of artist's out of work I'm sure who would jump at the chance that Deja is presenting Art-Machine here.
From what Deja said in his post, he is offering temp freelance work which he could do offsite making mechanical possibly photorealistic art pieces which could help to break up the fantasy theme that you guys have been talking about.
Now whether or not Deja should have outed him is neither here nor there as it has happened, we have already established the fact that Art is a very talented artist with years of experience and a vast skillset but one thing will be clear by the end of this.
is Art Machine cherry picking for jobs in a turbulent job market?
I'm a nobody on this forum and I will probably get ignored or flamed, but I had the courage to say what I felt.
A potential business deal or work arrangement is a private thing and not fodder to be used on a forum, I would think that anyone with even a bit of professionalism or professional experience would find this a really easy concept to understand....there really should be no more talk about this and I am sorry I derailled this thread.
Dejawolf he might not have looked at his account for a few days or simply missed the notification. I contacted Bobo the Seal once for feedback and he missed it. IT HAPPENS! We did eventually talk. Art Machine might be busy.
Canadian ink, who the hell are you? Dejawolf is a bit of a dick but when did you become games industry forum etiquette police?
if art machine isnt interested or finds the presentation unprofessional he can choose to decline or ignore it.
There is a good mix on industry folk, non industry folk and lots of wanting to get into the industry folk on this forum. Alot of the forum is focused on Artists helping Artists navigate the industry..Professionalism and appropriate things to talk about is all part of that.
There is a good mix on industry folk, non industry folk and lots of wanting to get into the industry folk on this forum. Alot of the forum is focused on Artists helping Artists navigate the industry..Professionalism and appropriate things to talk about is all part of that.
And you are an authority on professionalism and appropriateness? I've seen tons of casual discussion of job leads in the forums here, from artists both far more successful and much less successful than dejawolf.
You are trying to act like you're in charge on something you have no place to talk about and know nothing about. The only one being unprofessional and unproper here is you. Draw more, be polycount jobs cop less.
And you are an authority on professionalism and appropriateness? I've seen tons of casual discussion of job leads in the forums here, from artists both far more successful and much less successful than dejawolf.
You are trying to act like you're in charge on something you have no place to talk about and know nothing about. The only one being unprofessional and unproper here is you. Draw more, be polycount jobs cop less.
Just offering my opinion like everybody else, people dont have to agree, read it or even care.
Dejawolf he might not have looked at his account for a few days or simply missed the notification. I contacted Bobo the Seal once for feedback and he missed it. IT HAPPENS! We did eventually talk. Art Machine might be busy.
SupRore and I have buried the hatchet and decided to hug it out like suggested, I got my wife to take a picture to prove it to you guys...Now I will cease and desist all retardedness.
Hey dude don't give up!
to be honest it's really hard to know what you worked in your folio(less screenshots)
So you know the rules you need post maps, textures, AO etc And Wires ok
Put your folio on the center of screen plz, I'm using wide 16:9
and your page still in the left far way of my screen.
About visa, it's really hard for everyone
I know a guy, he is one of the most über modeler in Brazil, he got a job on blizzard but unfortunately he don't have a degree, and it was painfully for 4 years to get the visa.
Canada for -> Usa is easy
Latin Americans -> Usa is the hell, you need prove you are not a terrorist first to get the visa Basically
Damn I said terrorist, FBI will create account here /o\
seriously Man I posted something similar to this I get 2 pages and a "Go make better art you baby" speech from everyone.
But jesus some of these responses are delicious
Art-Machine: I have complete faith in you if things square out for me where im at maybe in the future I can pull some strings...im still to much of a newb where im at and I dont even know if there gonna bring me on after next week is up! (though I got a good feeling)
EricChadwick - what exactly is wrong with his website that needs the better presentation? I think it looks ace(except the avatar/R6 stuff if thats what you meant).
About the presentation of the Avatar/R6 stuff, a nice idea would be the overlay and highlight certain parts, vassago's portfolio has a nice example of it http://www.ivassago.com/catalunya.htm
Good luck with the jobhunt, hope it goes better this year because alot of your works are inspiration-folder worthy imo!
This sounds so much like what I went through, I just have to comment quickly on how bad that makes me feel for you ArtMachine. Not because I feel like I'm on the same level as you (obviously), but because I badly miss your WIP threads!
Once you get a job, I hope you can continue to take that kind of artistic liberty.
EricChadwick - what exactly is wrong with his website that needs the better presentation? I think it looks ace(except the avatar/R6 stuff if thats what you meant).
OK I'm going to be direct, even though it looks like the OP is going to ignore this. Maybe someone else can learn from it?
I've hired artists for art teams, so I've been thru this process from the employer's perspective, for many years.
The OP has shown he has anger issues that will probably preclude him from employment in a team situation. Most teams wouldn't want to work with someone that has this kind of chip on his shoulder. Might just be a short-term thing, might not. Hard to tell. If you keep publicly venting frustration, you'll dig yourself deeper.
Be positive in your correspondence, even if you feel like shit. Right now I personally would avoid hiring you for a team position. That will fade in time though, if the anger doesn't keep manifesting itself.
Thumbnails are crops (vague). Sketchbook thumbs aren't the strongest pieces from their pages either. Some great work, buried in there, not IMMEDIATELY evident on the front page.
Poor navigation. I want to drill into the actual artwork, then be able to move laterally through it. Instead I have to go back up to the gallery, and back down again.
Avatar & Vegas2 are hidden... I can only see the logos on his front page, not the actual artwork. Hiring managers will click on the first thing that grabs their eye, usually whatever is the artist's strongest piece, followed by whatever seems to be the artist's weakest piece. Employers judge the applicant's strength based on their weaknesses, because everyone tries to hide their weaknesses, but some are quite serious from an employer's perspective.
Avatar & Vegas2 shots aren't branded with the artist's contact info, nor are they clear what's the artist's contribution. I like Vassago's idea, really cool, might work here.
Also the portfolio has too many shots. Wean it way the heck down, just the absolutely strongest pieces. No employer has the time to view every single piece, they will judge your work on the first five or so shots they see, because they have 12 other portfolios to judge.
Jon Jones said it very accurately: "Hiring managers look through dozens of portfolios every day. All the portfolios they see blend together. It's just a job. You are either on the "Portfolios To Review" list, or you're not. A poorly designed website makes this poor hiring manager's job a little more annoying. Accordingly, he is less likely to invest the time into looking at your entire portfolio."
Jesus guys, I step away from the PC a couple days to relax and come back to a bunch of people telling me i ignore help and cherry pick job offers?.... The more this thread goes on the more I feel like everything I say or do is being twisted into bad interpretations and making me look unfairly bad, so be careful about that plz.
Fact is I didn't reply to the PM because I was taking a break from all this. And freelance isn't a solution for me right now. I need to start a new life in a new place and have stability to form an independent life again. There's no need to take it personally if I don't take up any offer you guys pass my way. I always state my gratitude for the gesture and decline with a clearly stated reason if so...
Most of the offers of help i got were freelance temp work, or US on location. We already established the problem with US jobs for me, sadly. I can't take them. If i could I'd be at Naughty Dog or Insomniac right now, like i wanted to be.
OK I'm going to be direct, even though it looks like the OP is going to ignore this. Maybe someone else can learn from it?
Again, can we stop making allusions at me being a bad guy of some sort? I babysat this thread for like a week on a 10 minute basis, gimme a break.
The OP has shown he has anger issues that will probably preclude him from employment in a team situation. Most teams wouldn't want to work with someone that has this kind of chip on his shoulder. Might just be a short-term thing, might not. Hard to tell. If you keep publicly venting frustration, you'll dig yourself deeper.
Be positive in your correspondence, even if you feel like shit. Right now I personally would avoid hiring you for a team position. That will fade in time though, if the anger doesn't keep manifesting itself.
Youre probably right that it's a bad idea that i let some stuff vent in here, but thought we were all colleagues in here so it was ok. I don't have anger 'issues' and at work I'm the most patient guy. It should be clear that the chip on my shoulder is about the job search not going well, so it's a little much to assume it would make me an angry person still if i got a job... Seems to me I would instantly have all the pressure lifted and feel a whole lot better and in fact be very happy to be at work. So your reason for 'not employing' me is a little wonky. Not to mention this thread is the only place I've let it vent, not like I go into interviews like this.
I'm just the kind of person where if I tried everything I can and spent everything I have in me, and have nothing come out of it, I get frustrated which is normal. And when I don't know what to do anymore and everything seems 'stalled', I do something big and impulsive to stimulate some movement: ergo this thread.
Thumbnails are crops (vague). Sketchbook thumbs aren't the strongest pieces from their pages either. Some great work, buried in there, not IMMEDIATELY evident on the front page.
Poor navigation. I want to drill into the actual artwork, then be able to move laterally through it. Instead I have to go back up to the gallery, and back down again.
Personal opinions. I can't pick a thumb that everyone will consider the best piece across the board. So i chose thumbs that represent what's going to be inside. I could use whichever images you tell me are the 'best' but someone else will come along and disagree anyway.
As for the navigation, again personal choice but when i posted this portfolio up for review here most people gave kudos for its easy navigation that being able to open sections in tabs. If more people make the same remark as you I'll take it as more of a true problem to address.
Avatar & Vegas2 shots aren't branded with the artist's contact info, nor are they clear what's the artist's contribution. I like Vassago's idea, really cool, might work here.
I'll be sued if I brand any of these images as anything that can make them seem like 'my own'. These are Ubisoft's images and I'm not putting my name on them with a 10 foot pole.
Anyway I'm not ignoring all your advice, I'll contact an admin about closing this thread because honestly I feel like this is turning into a character assassination. I just stepped out for a couple days and already most of the 2 last pages are people arguing or labeling me all kinds of things that are very untrue.
As i keep saying, thanks for all the good discussion guys, I definitely got the info i was asking about and then some, and glad everyone got something out of it. And as always thanks for all the offers of assistance.
i live in san diego and it would seem there are more game dev jobs here then other places but most people i talk to who are currently working say their studio is in a hiring freeze.
i think just before summer is a better time to job hunt?
Replies
Just be good at what you do and market yourself according to the position you're applying to.
If generalists can compete with specialists in quality? why not? There's really kickass generalists out there (and a lot of mediocre "specialists"). The range of your skills isn't necessarily related to your skill level. Sure being a specialist gives you more practice, but then again talent also counts for a lot in our business.
I think they do a good job of standing out and grabbing the viewers attention.
I think if you are just out of school,never worked in the industry having a focused portfolio is better. Unless you have immaculate talent you will likely have talent at a junior level and you need an area of focus to show potential employers where to place you job wise. Having alot of varied junior level work does not show well in what aspect of game art you would like to start your career in.
years ago i had an unfocused portfolio until Pak advised me to focus on environments and after a marathon 1 month long environment art creation orgy i landed my first gig breaking close to 4 years dry spell in jobs.
Actually I'm fine working on props at work, I would do character but in no way would state that I'll 'only' do character. Actually at Ubi at least it doesn't pay much more and it's a ton more headache and pressure.
What else can I show? I would LOVE to show all my meshes and textures and hi-res from Avatar for example. But Ubi denied everyone the right to take those out of the building, even as images. Yes it's a huge handicap and should be illegal to do, but it happened and I'm working with what i can get which are screen shots. Internally I have an entire portfolio presented the same way as my personal work : Final product, mesh, textures, hi-res... All to waste.
As for my Vegas shots, I wrote in the top bar what my contributions were. In most cases since this was 75% polishing and optimization work, most of the textures in the screen is what I had my hand in. On a typical day of vegas 2 I was creating or passing on 7-10 textures per day. I could recognize ones that came across my screen but couldn't tell you exactly what I did to them unless they are particularly memorable somehow. Such as the chinese props, the flowery panel, certain animated or glowing textures etc. I corrected the normals on every brick texture, certain ones i corrected the diffuse that was too obviously tiling etc... But ask me which brick wall that was and dude, I looked at dozens of brick textures on that project, I don't know. Same for all the wood, plaster, floors, doors, windows, railings, stairs, pipes and so on...
If i walk face-up to a tiling cement wall and took that screen shot, telling you that's one of the textures I made, that would be an incredibly boring and unimpressive image to show wouldn't it? I took shots of scenes where a variety of 'mundane' textures I took part in come together to create the more interesting greater picture. Where certain textures are worth presenting on their own like the carved flowery panel, I did close-in and take those shots. But by and large, tiling cement, tiling metal, that was Vegas 2 and it presents far better as scene shots than nose-to-the-wall. Especially since that's how they were meant to be enjoyed anyway. That project didn't put "looks good up close" as a priority in their texture budget as you remarked from the weapons.
I don't know how it seems that I don't care from those screen shots. I thought I took some pretty nice ones there that show a variety of props and environments. Now I'm wondering if I should take them back down if they look so bad?
As for the ego comments, the side you're seeing in this thread is me venting deep down frustrations about the current situation. If you knew the exact story of the past year of my life you'd know better. I don't think I'm a superstar especially since I have many friends at work that kick my ass on a daily basis. I'm in a constant state of thinking my stuff is crap and not good enough, always trying to get better and impress myself which is usually a fleeting moment.
But I know what I'm worth to a company and it's more reaction than 1 interview in 1 year. Ego, I wouldn't think so, but I certainly have a chip on my shoulder that's getting heavier with time. I took a leap to save my own life literally, and expected the industry i devote myself to wouldn't let me down but it did and i fell flat on my face. Would be hard to have an ego after that kind of thing, I'm just really frustrated. Maybe venting in this thread is a way to keep it from creeping into an interview or whatever.
Errr what?! Thats outrageous. Way to treat your employees "leave and we'll make it as hard as we can for you to find another job", I bet that inspires loyalty...
Not that uncommon from my experience
In a way it does create loyalty though - you just don't leave if you have a hard time finding another job /sarcasm
Not outrageous at all, in fact most companies work like that, most people i know just use the stuff they can and hope that they dont get busted.
in the case of avatar it might also be a movie-license specific thing. at least the assassins creed characters that seem regularly featured all over the web indicate to me this might not be a general ubi policy.
If this had happened to me, and I had access to the PC sku, I would use a grabber to extract the mesh and textures. It does work, I've used it to examine game assets up close and personal.
I agree with vahl about your presentation problems, those screenshots are very hard to judge your work by. If I'm trying to hire you, I want to see the flats and the isolated model. You can't get the high-res back of course, but you can show a raw model next to the same model with normalmaps on it.
If someone at Ubi subsequently happened to get their panties in a bunch over it, which is actually very unlikely, well then you just pull the images off your site, and reserve them for in-person display during interviews. This is done quite a lot, for just this situation. You could also brand the extracted art with Ubi © verbiage, if you wanted to placate them ahead of time.
Extract your work, show it properly. Also do change the website, your talent deserves a better presentation.
Keep a positive outlook!
well, i offered him a part time-freelance stint via PM, but i guess he's not interested.
C'mon man, thats between you and him and is nobodies else's business.
well, technically i'm still waiting for a reply.
Lol you may not get one now after calling him out.
was trying to be nice, but meh, more monies for me.
seems like whatever i do i stumble upon some unwritten law of social conduct that i somehow was supposed to have already known about.
Wtf is a c++ character artist?
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs/heath-betts/uk-and-europe/senior-c---character-artist--titles-for-xbox-360--ps3-and-pc--id41303
Is it really that mysterious that a potential business partnership is a private matter? The fact is that you have no idea why he may not have responded to you yet and by calling him out you make him look bad for no good reason.
yeh. well, i figured he'd be strapped for cash, and in need of a quick job where he could put his skills to work, and get some mechanical stuff into his portfolio, but i guess trying to help a fellow artist in need is frowned upon around here.
Geez man, go change your tampon :poly131:
what makes you say that.
From what Deja said in his post, he is offering temp freelance work which he could do offsite making mechanical possibly photorealistic art pieces which could help to break up the fantasy theme that you guys have been talking about.
Now whether or not Deja should have outed him is neither here nor there as it has happened, we have already established the fact that Art is a very talented artist with years of experience and a vast skillset but one thing will be clear by the end of this.
is Art Machine cherry picking for jobs in a turbulent job market?
I'm a nobody on this forum and I will probably get ignored or flamed, but I had the courage to say what I felt.
A potential business deal or work arrangement is a private thing and not fodder to be used on a forum, I would think that anyone with even a bit of professionalism or professional experience would find this a really easy concept to understand....there really should be no more talk about this and I am sorry I derailled this thread.
if art machine isnt interested or finds the presentation unprofessional he can choose to decline or ignore it.
There is a good mix on industry folk, non industry folk and lots of wanting to get into the industry folk on this forum. Alot of the forum is focused on Artists helping Artists navigate the industry..Professionalism and appropriate things to talk about is all part of that.
And you are an authority on professionalism and appropriateness? I've seen tons of casual discussion of job leads in the forums here, from artists both far more successful and much less successful than dejawolf.
You are trying to act like you're in charge on something you have no place to talk about and know nothing about. The only one being unprofessional and unproper here is you. Draw more, be polycount jobs cop less.
Just offering my opinion like everybody else, people dont have to agree, read it or even care.
You aren't offering your opinion, you're trying to drum up a silly witchhunt in the middle of a constructive thread.
I'm done talking to you, send me a PM if you have anything else you need to get off your chest.
yeah anyway lets get this back on topic, you're right, sorry.
(but i could totally beat you up)
[ame]
Seriously, hug it out guys...(and I mean in a non-gay way of course)
ok. guess i'll wait for his reply then.
to be honest it's really hard to know what you worked in your folio(less screenshots)
So you know the rules you need post maps, textures, AO etc And Wires ok
Put your folio on the center of screen plz, I'm using wide 16:9
and your page still in the left far way of my screen.
About visa, it's really hard for everyone
I know a guy, he is one of the most über modeler in Brazil, he got a job on blizzard but unfortunately he don't have a degree, and it was painfully for 4 years to get the visa.
Canada for -> Usa is easy
Latin Americans -> Usa is the hell, you need prove you are not a terrorist first to get the visa Basically
Damn I said terrorist, FBI will create account here /o\
this forum need reputation points feature
just like paragorn and renegade points in mass effect for each member ....
But jesus some of these responses are delicious
Art-Machine: I have complete faith in you if things square out for me where im at maybe in the future I can pull some strings...im still to much of a newb where im at and I dont even know if there gonna bring me on after next week is up!
About the presentation of the Avatar/R6 stuff, a nice idea would be the overlay and highlight certain parts, vassago's portfolio has a nice example of it http://www.ivassago.com/catalunya.htm
Good luck with the jobhunt, hope it goes better this year because alot of your works are inspiration-folder worthy imo!
Once you get a job, I hope you can continue to take that kind of artistic liberty.
OK I'm going to be direct, even though it looks like the OP is going to ignore this. Maybe someone else can learn from it?
I've hired artists for art teams, so I've been thru this process from the employer's perspective, for many years.
The OP has shown he has anger issues that will probably preclude him from employment in a team situation. Most teams wouldn't want to work with someone that has this kind of chip on his shoulder. Might just be a short-term thing, might not. Hard to tell. If you keep publicly venting frustration, you'll dig yourself deeper.
Be positive in your correspondence, even if you feel like shit. Right now I personally would avoid hiring you for a team position. That will fade in time though, if the anger doesn't keep manifesting itself.
Thumbnails are crops (vague). Sketchbook thumbs aren't the strongest pieces from their pages either. Some great work, buried in there, not IMMEDIATELY evident on the front page.
Poor navigation. I want to drill into the actual artwork, then be able to move laterally through it. Instead I have to go back up to the gallery, and back down again.
Avatar & Vegas2 are hidden... I can only see the logos on his front page, not the actual artwork. Hiring managers will click on the first thing that grabs their eye, usually whatever is the artist's strongest piece, followed by whatever seems to be the artist's weakest piece. Employers judge the applicant's strength based on their weaknesses, because everyone tries to hide their weaknesses, but some are quite serious from an employer's perspective.
Avatar & Vegas2 shots aren't branded with the artist's contact info, nor are they clear what's the artist's contribution. I like Vassago's idea, really cool, might work here.
Also the portfolio has too many shots. Wean it way the heck down, just the absolutely strongest pieces. No employer has the time to view every single piece, they will judge your work on the first five or so shots they see, because they have 12 other portfolios to judge.
Jon Jones said it very accurately:
"Hiring managers look through dozens of portfolios every day. All the portfolios they see blend together. It's just a job. You are either on the "Portfolios To Review" list, or you're not. A poorly designed website makes this poor hiring manager's job a little more annoying. Accordingly, he is less likely to invest the time into looking at your entire portfolio."
His article is gold.
Fact is I didn't reply to the PM because I was taking a break from all this. And freelance isn't a solution for me right now. I need to start a new life in a new place and have stability to form an independent life again. There's no need to take it personally if I don't take up any offer you guys pass my way. I always state my gratitude for the gesture and decline with a clearly stated reason if so...
Most of the offers of help i got were freelance temp work, or US on location. We already established the problem with US jobs for me, sadly. I can't take them. If i could I'd be at Naughty Dog or Insomniac right now, like i wanted to be.
Again, can we stop making allusions at me being a bad guy of some sort? I babysat this thread for like a week on a 10 minute basis, gimme a break.
Youre probably right that it's a bad idea that i let some stuff vent in here, but thought we were all colleagues in here so it was ok. I don't have anger 'issues' and at work I'm the most patient guy. It should be clear that the chip on my shoulder is about the job search not going well, so it's a little much to assume it would make me an angry person still if i got a job... Seems to me I would instantly have all the pressure lifted and feel a whole lot better and in fact be very happy to be at work. So your reason for 'not employing' me is a little wonky. Not to mention this thread is the only place I've let it vent, not like I go into interviews like this.
I'm just the kind of person where if I tried everything I can and spent everything I have in me, and have nothing come out of it, I get frustrated which is normal. And when I don't know what to do anymore and everything seems 'stalled', I do something big and impulsive to stimulate some movement: ergo this thread.
Personal opinions. I can't pick a thumb that everyone will consider the best piece across the board. So i chose thumbs that represent what's going to be inside. I could use whichever images you tell me are the 'best' but someone else will come along and disagree anyway.
As for the navigation, again personal choice but when i posted this portfolio up for review here most people gave kudos for its easy navigation that being able to open sections in tabs. If more people make the same remark as you I'll take it as more of a true problem to address.
I'll be sued if I brand any of these images as anything that can make them seem like 'my own'. These are Ubisoft's images and I'm not putting my name on them with a 10 foot pole.
Anyway I'm not ignoring all your advice, I'll contact an admin about closing this thread because honestly I feel like this is turning into a character assassination. I just stepped out for a couple days and already most of the 2 last pages are people arguing or labeling me all kinds of things that are very untrue.
As i keep saying, thanks for all the good discussion guys, I definitely got the info i was asking about and then some, and glad everyone got something out of it. And as always thanks for all the offers of assistance.
good luck for the future dude, I love your work.
ah teh interwebz, where everyone is super human.
i live in san diego and it would seem there are more game dev jobs here then other places but most people i talk to who are currently working say their studio is in a hiring freeze.
i think just before summer is a better time to job hunt?