3D Artist: Focus vs Variety ?
greentooth
Hey guys,
so im currently looking for a job as 3D artist, preferably character artist.
Now im facing the problem that im from germany, i dont have any gameindustry expirience, other than my education - wich was a 2 year art study at the games academy - and im focused on 3D character creation. That sort of limits my job opertunities to kinda 0 cause i may only get jobs in the EU.
Now thats not everything i got, my skillset includes lp modeling, hp modeling, 2D concepting, texturing (both handpainted and photo), rigging and animation.
So the choice i am facing is, if i continue putting in my portfolio what i am best at - wich is Character modeling and texturing - or i try to show more of a variety wich might not look that awesome.
You know my portfolio is meant to look totaly badass... but is it worth that if all the companies allready got theyr character artists?
To give you an idea of what im talking about, heres my portfolio:
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]http://prezi.com/p1gm9o6omdnv/tinko-wiezorrek-portfolio/[/FONT]
so im currently looking for a job as 3D artist, preferably character artist.
Now im facing the problem that im from germany, i dont have any gameindustry expirience, other than my education - wich was a 2 year art study at the games academy - and im focused on 3D character creation. That sort of limits my job opertunities to kinda 0 cause i may only get jobs in the EU.
Now thats not everything i got, my skillset includes lp modeling, hp modeling, 2D concepting, texturing (both handpainted and photo), rigging and animation.
So the choice i am facing is, if i continue putting in my portfolio what i am best at - wich is Character modeling and texturing - or i try to show more of a variety wich might not look that awesome.
You know my portfolio is meant to look totaly badass... but is it worth that if all the companies allready got theyr character artists?
To give you an idea of what im talking about, heres my portfolio:
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]http://prezi.com/p1gm9o6omdnv/tinko-wiezorrek-portfolio/[/FONT]
Replies
The generalist v specialist comes up a fair bit, and there isn't a correct choice. Look at the jobs around and what you want to do. Choosing to focus on characters will mean you have less chance of getting a 3d generalist job and doing a bit of everything will mean you're less likely to get a character artist position.
I noticed that I prefer to make characters as well as the fact that there seems to be more specialised jobs in the UK than 3d generalist ones (just from the job openings I've seen, anyway). I'm choosing to focus on characters, so that I get better at them faster. I can get better at other things later.
To be honest that doesn't look like a portfolio to me. Mine isn't the great as it's just a simple blogspot page with pictures but yours is strange. I can imagine lots of people not bothering to look at it. I'd suggest you improve your site.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87950
Not really sure if it's the same thing you're wondering but in my opinion you shouldn't just focus on characters. Your work looks ok but the gallery on that site is just horrible. Navigating is a pain.
And yeah, it's really really hard to land a character artist job, you have to be really talanted, very skilled in your craft even for a junior position. It's all about how much time you have really, I didn't have the time to specialize in characters so I decided to go the environment route,now I really love environment art. I do create characters from time to time though.
escpecialy at my location. i mean there maby somewhere exists this opening that i would perfectly fit into. but i also have to find it.
also thx for the advice about the site... i wonder evertime how people can not understand how to use it - no offence here to you guys -
i mean there is a play button. and if you klick it, it takes you to the next sheet. you can also go fullscreen and zoom in on every sheet.
honestly thx, i always thought it was kinda intuitive but it obviously is not.
think i must reconsider that page... had a blogspot page before but i thought it looks kinda cheap, and its vertical align is kinda not suited for gallery presentation.
ima look into alternatives.
@chrisradsby
time is actualy no issue for me right now, i have about 3 months till i run out of money, but no dutys or anything.
the thing is, is it gonna be worth putting so much time into making a better character portflio, or would it be smarter to invest that time into creating some more environment, or animation stuff.
Well 3 months is not a long time, it'll probably take more time than that to land a job honestly. The site is not hard to use, it's just not effecient for the sites purpose. You want to show off your art, the easiest way to do it is to have an ART-IN-YOUR-FACE portfolio. Big images showing off all the good stuff without having to zoom in.
I'd say it's smarter to invest your time into environment art and assets, 3 months to land a character artist job will be very very difficult, not impossible but without the right connections it'll be really hard.
Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
It also froze my browser - not a trick you want to play on a recruiter having 10 tabs open at the same time. Seriously!
As for the original question : just work your ass off. If you manage to get as good as the best in the business, then you'll find a job. If not, you won't. Simple!
Well that just ain't true
I'd look into carbonmade for a simple portfolio
http://carbonmade.com/
Something like this but with bigger thumbs and more love
http://brunazanardo.carbonmade.com/
all i am saying is that you shouldn't pretend that you will walk straight into valve and not bother considering all the other job offers that exist if you are willing to work on something you don't exactly love.
If you haven't heard of Wipeout and Motorstorm then you've missed critical game-series. Wipeout being a Ps1 hit and Motorstorm was the flagship for the PS3 as a launch-title.
I jumped on the offers that were presented to me? A job is a job, my dream job was to become a pro game dev and to be the best game artist that I can be. It's not about where you work. It's what you do. You're overly cynical, all of us won't have the luxary to get to stay at a company with a permanent position in my case I got the chance to work at SCEE Liverpool after Evolution Studios released Motorstorm Apocalypse+DLC, so I went for it. Life is what you make it, if you get a lot of chances to improve and learn new things then why not? I was a contractor in England for my first jobs, I took a chance, I spent 1 year starting from scratch to try and become a pro game-dev. I got a job offer a year later and left Sweden 2 weeks later with 1 suitcase packed. I helped out during the production of these games, and got to know a lot of cool people, see new places and got lots of experience.
We have people here on these forums that I landed awesome jobs at awesome studios being their first jobs. IF you are good enough then you can land a job at your dream-company, if you're not then you won't. That's all I'm saying.
Most people who spend their time learning and posting here knows exactly how hard it is to find work.
Yes finding work as a character artist makes it almost impossible, and if you read what he wrote again you'll notice that he actually realizes that, therefore asking the question of : specializing vs generalist.
Just because all studios doesn't necessarily create AAA-blockbuster games doesn't mean that there isn't an abundance of experience to gain and new things to learn.
--
In the end Tinko focus on the feedback you get here, update your portfolio, maybe dive into environment art/props to get a better chance of finding work, get to know people in the industry, try to compare yourself to others here who just got a job and try to get to the same level as them. It will be a long and hard road but I'm sure you can make it. I've seen some stuff on your portfolio and it's way better than what I produced at the start. You just need to work some more on the presentation, maybe read up a little bit more about lighting etc.
Good luck man. :thumbup:
i actually read all of this and while i agree with some of your points, we may be misunderstanding each other.
i am encouraging the fellow to not decide that he must give up his desire to be a character artist because he thinks there aren't any game studios in germany. there's shitloads, and many work on projects that require a lot of character work, so he certainly stands a chance if he sorts his portfolio out and applies to studios to gauge his chances.
Yeah I think we misunderstood each other too, all good
Oh yeah, Tinko one of the best things you can do it to get to know people in the industry, spend time around this forum, showing off your progress and skills. It'll help
this might help you a little as well... http://gamedevmap.com/
http://gamedevmap.com/index.php?query=germany&Submit=Search
yeah wow, this is even more than i thought there would be. but most are not AAA studios but like i said, you need to take what you can get OR make your portfolio so mind bogglingly incredible that you get hired right off the bat at wherever you apply.