Trouble specializing

4leaf

Hello, my name is Bryan Willis. I'm an artist and art is my passion. I have aspirations of one day working in the video game industry, as games are a passion of mine as well.

I've been in an Art school in a video game based major for 2 years now. Along the way I've been introduced to traditional 2D art, Character modeling, hard surface modeling, aspects of level design, and animation.

I feel like my true love is art. No matter if it's sculpting up a figure study in Zbrush, gesturing a nude model in an open figure drawing session, or painting a beautiful flower field, the sense of purpose and euphoria I get from art and the creative process in general is amazing.

Aside from visual art, I feel like I also have a passion and a big talent for level Design. One of my teachers loved my level layouts so much, that he made me the lead level designer of the Game Development Club at my school, and I was only in my first year and I was directing/working with juniors and seniors.

I love writing as well... Writing is another wild card passion of mine. My peers and teachers alike have been known to give me good comments and positive feedback on the lore and stories that I love to create with my game concepts and characters I create. The very same teacher who loved my level designs, loved my writing in the same way.




In general... I just don't know what to decide on. I am in general a very creative person, and am caught between many things that I am passionate about. I feel as if picking one thing to do and only one thing to do will kill me, because I truly love and feel as if I can do all and any of the above mentioned positions for the rest of my life. I have heard the term "Generalist" being thrown around in the game industry from time to time, and was wondering if this was a realistic goal?


As a budding artisan, would any veterans here have any advice they could offer? It would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much~

PolyHertz

Don't confuse the fact that the industry looks for people that specialize in one area for meaning you should ignore everything else. They're not looking for robots, just people that can hit the ground running for whatever they're hired for (character art, environment art, animation, special effects, etc.).

Bigjohn

Sounds like you're still exploring. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think you should keep doing just that.

Eventually you find something that you just can't help but nerd the hell out over. I mean REALLY nerd out over it. It'll just happen on its own. For me, it was anatomy. That's when I knew that while I love all of it, environments, texturing, animation, it's figures where I really belong.

I know this guy who absolutely nerds out over what makes materials look like what they are. What makes metal look like metal? What makes wood look like wood? etc etc. He makes some of the best textures I ever seen.

Andreas

If you aren't sure what art side to specialize in, try it all, and show it to people on here, and they'll give you some advice on what you seem to be best at.

4leaf

Thanks for the advice guys, as it has helped me out a lot. I will be sure to keep searching and exploring.

Right now I really really love anatomy myself, to the point where I feel like if I was paid to figure draw/gesture draw, I would be in heaven.

I love level design as well because I love the aspect of creating a senario and making that senario work in an original and fun way.

I'll keep searching! Thanks.

chrisradsby

You can always do both man! I love creating characters and I love creating environments and assets. No one is forcing you to only be good at one thing. I plan to master a lot of stuff in my lifetime.

System

While your still scratching the surface it's difficult to decide what you like best, more time spent and indepth knowledge will enable you to make a choice later. Keep going at it and enjoy

Mark Dygert

Well you specialize in one thing, it is so you become proficient enough to get a job, pay your bills, put food on the table and have a spot to call home that isn't a cardboard box in an alley. After you're proficient in one thing, you can keep on learning and mastering other things. The point to specializing is so that you don't spread your self too thin and know a little about a lot of different disciplines and aren't employable because you aren't proficient in any one thing.

You're not making a choice that will lock you into only that one thing for all of eternity, you're free to master many things over the course of our career.

Also know that working at smaller studios often means you wear many hats and get to try out many things.

Mark Dygert

4leaf wrote: »

I love level design as well because I love the aspect of creating a senario and making that senario work in an original and fun way.

Careful with this, often its not up to you to create something original, but rather bring another persons vision to fruition. You normally get to add to it and go above and beyond the described details but free range is typically not given lightly, not until trust is earned anyway.

It's true with a lot of disciplines, characters, props, environments, even code. He who holds the purse strings has creative control.

Normally the bigger the studio the tighter the creative control. The smaller the studio individuals are typically given more control, its easier to build trust quickly and distinguish yourself in a smaller studio.