Companies where you got started

BradleyWascher

Hey guys I was just wondering what companies were the first to employ you in the games industry. I'm currently trying to break in anywhere I can really and just wanted to know which companies were willing to take on junior artist or even consider them when deciding on new hires. Oh and if you need or know someone that needs a junior artist or someone that not afraid to take on any challenge, send them my way thanks! www.bradleywascher.com

Bal

Most companies need junior artists at one point or another during production.
Your portfolio looks fine, you should just send it around to all the companies you're interested in really.

To reply to the topic, my first job was as an intern at MonteCristo, working on Silverfall, unfortunatly, they've closed shop since then, rip.

Justin Meisse

don't restrict your search to junior positions - it's typically only broken up into your standard position or lead position. My first position was environment artist at Mythic where I worked on Warhammer Online. I have about 3 years of experience, alot of places consider that junior still.

Autocon

Never sell yourself as a junior artist or that is how you will be treated. Sell yourself as best you can without lying about your qualifications as it is a great way to get fired once they find out you cant do the job.

My first job was at Bungie on Halo Reach as an environment artist. Also did an internship at Sony Online Entertainment on EverQuest one while I was in school for about 3 months. Also an envio artist there.

BradleyWascher

Hey sorry for the confusion.... I'm not trying to sell myself as a junior artist but just trying to make sure I send my time in the right places when trying to apply. Not saying I don't feel like I'm not skilled enough to work at a AAA studio I just wanted to see which companies out there were more likely to look at portfolio's of people that haven't shipped a game before. Thanks for all the feedback by the way.

Jesse Moody

Yep. My first studio gig was filling a Sr. Env Artist spot at Midway in Chicago.

BradleyWascher

I guess a question I have to ask myself is, how many people apply for senior art positions and get them without shipped titles? lol

glottis8

Its not as bad lately as it was a couple of years ago. Companies are starting to expand and they are gathering people. You should try 38 studios... they are hiring i think. Try some smaller companies, since those are the ones that reply to you much sooner than the rest. But be prepared for the whole interview process to take like a month... unless they really need someone asap. Anyways. Your portfolio looks great, i am sure you'll get callbacks right away.

In my exp, i got into movies before i got into games. Movies require more people per project right away. Later to work at a video game company, and now im in NY.

Mark Dygert

Jr = we can afford for you not to play a major role in the game. You'll make some junk, make some friends and basically have very little responsibility. We hope you grow into a Sr but we're not crossing our fingers. For all of this low pressure, we expect you to either find a better job or we'll lay you off at some point or like we said grow into a Sr role.

Sr = We need you to play a pretty big role, you'll need to mange your time and responsibilities well, more than likely there won't be anyone who can easily step in and replace you.

Notice no mention of shipped titles experience or other bean countery yard sticks. Those are highly inaccurate and just because someone got in the credits doesn't mean they're what you're looking for.

If you show Sr level work, you can land Sr level positions without ever having worked in a studio. Experience shows through in your portfolio, not your resume...

skylebones

That's probably one of the best jr./sr. breakdowns I've heard.

BradleyWascher

Yeah that was a perfect breakdown... Never heard it put like that. Thanks for the insight!

Uly

vig, i'd have to disagree a bit there. don't forget the 'senior level attitude & ethic'. that IMO is what makes or breaks the role, and a little experience goes a long way towards a good senior.

Kwramm

agreed. don't restrict yourself to junior positions! Happened to me once - I applied as junior many years ago and the HR dude goes " we checked your stuff, we think you're not right for this position, but what do you think about this other position as...", turns out it was a regular non junior artist position.

vcortis

My first job was at 38 studios... as a junior artist. Now I'm an environment artist here. While I ultimately settled here, when I was applying for work I applied for literaly every position I thought I was qualified for despite having only 1 shipped title.

I heard back from companies offering me internships, junior positions, regular positions, but no senior ones though (not surprising).

The way I see it, most companies if they like your work but you aren't qualified for that position will hold onto your information so they can contact you when they need someone. This has happened to me twice so far, where I've been rejected for positions that I knew I had a slim chance of getting, but the companies come back a few months later with an art test or offer on a new position that fits my qualifications.

Good talent is hard to find, especially when its coupled with a friendly, competent person.

As for 38 studios, yes we are hiring environment artists. While we currently have filled up our "junior artist" slots, I encourage you to apply anyways as per-mentioned by all of the above comments.

Mark Dygert

Uly wrote: »

vig, i'd have to disagree a bit there. don't forget the 'senior level attitude & ethic'. that IMO is what makes or breaks the role, and a little experience goes a long way towards a good senior.

Heh so by that you mean jaded and stressed out and or insanely over confident? I kid!

Yea you bring up a good point, you can't totally discount production experience, there are only some things that are learned under fire. There is something to be said for being able to stare a deadline in the eye and not blink as it threatens to swallow you whole. Where an intern might cower in terror, a jr might develop a nervous tick a Sr will get shit done and wonder what all the noise was about.

I think a person can prepare themselves pretty well by working on a deadline and putting their stuff in any number of engines. Those two things end up working out so many kinks. It can go a long way in separating them between a Jr and a Sr at least in workflow and knowledge which can help build of the confidence.

If they're an assclown slacker who doesn't know what they're talking about, that normally comes out in a phone interview. There isn't much I can offer in the way of advice, other than don't be an assclown =P

Am I a Jr or a Sr?
Are you going to be the guy answering questions or the guy asking them?
If you're guy #2 just don't be so cocky as to think you know it all and things might just ship without someones tires being slashed... =P

Joshua Stubbles

1st jerb (2001): http://www.lanterngames.com/

(well technically I did contract work for a military sim company called Titan, some months prior to working at Mlantern).

evilblah

First gig was Disney Interactive/Buena Vista Games.

Super lucky break.

Ruz

if you're like me you will start off as a junior, become a senior then become a junior again.
it's like you are a baby in diapers, you grow up and throw them away, become old, then need diapers again.
first job was at blitz games as a junior texture artist.

d2king10

This is actually a pretty interesting topic. I just applied to 38 games because of this topic

crazyfool

I started as a junior VFX artist at Climax Studios. Learned shed loads and made alot of amazing friends, still cant believe the difference it made being in a professional working environment. The best thing was due to the wide spectrum of VFX I was able to work in characters, environments, concepts and animation aswell and they loved it haha as I could fill in for people when production slowed down. I also ran all the DS VFX while still being a junior and working on their wii projects at the same time. They were thinking of jumping me to characters but I had to leave for personal reasons (nothing to do with climax or their employees).

Im now in limbo though where Im not a junior but Im also not a senior. companies at the moment are mostly after seniors and juniors but just normal artists not so much. Gonna start applying again after xmas though.

best of luck to you man, my advice is make sure your CVs awesome and your portfolio shows potential. And then when you are happy post it everywhere, even if they havent advertised for junior roles. took me about 20 CVs to get my first job, got one phone interview and several rejections but it happend eventually.

kind regards
Tom

Gav

I've never actually been anything other than "staff." Like I've taken on lead roles and senior roles, but I've never been formally a senior or lead. At the same time, I've never been a junior artist either. Honestly, I find people get caught up on job titles a lot and I wouldn't let a non-junior job description stop you from applying if you think and can prove that you aren't a n00b.

I started doing mobile and casual game art for a company called Magellan Interactive - though I don't think they necessarily hire "junior" artists as much as a general artist. At the time, I didn't have focus and eventually realized I wanted to do character art as my main job. I left the company, worked on my portfolio for a few months, got a job with another indie company called Piranha Games - then went freelance (real freelance not "unemployed" freelance) then have worked for a few big companies since then...

Emil Mujanovic

I actually started off as a Junior Environment Artist at Big Ant Studios (Melbourne, Australia) even though I applied and sat an art test for a Character Artist role. They didn't need Character Artists at the time, but needed additional staff and I wasn't going to turn it down.

After about 3 or 4 months, my "Junior" status was officially removed.

Nearly a year later, my first project was complete (Spyro The Dragon - The Eternal Night), I asked if I could move onto a Character Artist role and was fortunate enough that the team needed one.

During my period there I underwent a lot of role change (much like Gav), lead and senior roles without the official titles.

At the end of the day, I was happy to take on a role I didn't apply for to get my foot in the door and showed my worth throughout my time at that studio and eventually moved to a role I wanted and was happy with.

Hazardous

Started freelancing straight out of uni, did that for about 3 years, ran out of money because I got shafted 60kUS by a client so I got a job inhouse as a character artist at Fuzzyeyes Studio in Australia. Got promoted to Lead 3d Character Modeller - though the title meant nothing, I wasnt do anything that I wasnt already doing, modelling, texturing, importing / exporting, setting up pipeline for character production, shader pipeline, material library, looking after other artists, working with the Lead Animator etc etc Stayed there for 3 years almost.

Now in the US and loving it.