How do you choose what path to take?

Alismuffin

There are so many things I want to do in the media industry. So much that I enjoy doing. And I really want to be good at it all, but there is simply no time to be professional at everything unfortunately. I have come to the realisation that I HAVE to pick a particular area and stick with it!

I have deep interest in:
-Concept art
-Programming
-Modelling for games/movies/animations
-Texturing
-Story creation
-Film
-Special Effects
-Sculpting

And I have a distaste for:
-Animating

And right now I really don't know which to pick!

How did you choose your path? And are you happy with the path you chose?

Dan!

very carefully...HIYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

just head in A direction, you'll find out what you really like or don't like.

Alismuffin

I've had experience in all those things so far and so my interest in them is based on my experience with them. But yes I shall be very careful about what I choose!

Bigjohn

You don't choose the path, the path chooses you!

Did I just blow your mind?

sama.van

Well, if you are still to your parents home, give a try to each.

But yeah, you won't be able to learn all of them at the same time.
Plus I think that is overload of work for brain capacity

Best advise is too start on something you like getting skill to something and to spend a few time on the other when you'll have the time.


To develop stuff on your own into a garage is still something you can do, but will require a little more experience and cash as well to continue living on your own .


I would say learning programming is better pay that artist job that let you create a budget and take a little more time to learn the other specialties.


But really choose something you like first or that will be an huge lose of time o_<.

Ace-Angel

Programming and FX are two areas in demand it seems.

aajohnny

Pick what you love doing... you find that out by trying. I first tried programming... that didn't work out too well, then I tried modelling and I loved it.

Alismuffin

haha yeah well I guess you're right BigJohn, but what if they're all fighting over you?

Yeah I definitely can't handle learning everything at once! My skill level is not rising fast enough in one particular area to be industry standard by the time I need to be! Yeah programming does seem to be the choice that is easier to get a job in.

C++ programming I'd imagine Ace?

EDIT:
I tried out programming, modelling, film, special effects and animating and I loved them all except animating. That's why I'm stuck :c

Snowfly

Hehe, ADHD much? I'm in a similar situation, I enjoy concept art, comics, web design, Flash programming, music recording...concept art just happened to be the first interest I got paid to do, with a few stints as UI artist here and there, so Big John's right the path does choose you. Having multiple skills just lets you cast a wider net. In my head professional just means you're quick enough and work at a good enough quality at a certain skill to justify taking money for it. It's got very little to do with enjoyment. If you're lucky you'll end up at a smaller studio that lets you dabble in all those things.

Steve Schulze

If you've got a handle for both coding and art you could always go indi. That's the only way you're ever going to get to do all of those things you enjoy on a single project.

MrHobo

The longer you try each thing out the more you'll realize how much you love (or dont love doing it).
Right now it sounds like everything you've tried out is still in that new and shiny period. The question is, what have you:
-Done Concept art for:
Or has it been monsters? Mechanical stuff? Environments? Anything figurative? Thats usually when it stops being fun...
-Programmed:
Basic stuff or have you tackled the complex stuff yet?
-Modeled:
Props? Low poly? High Poly? Characters? (Characters is when a friend of mine realized that she might not want to do game art as a career.)
-Textured: Flesh? Mechanical? Current gen spec? Low spec? Hand Painted?

I think you get the idea. It sounds like EVERYTHING is still new to you.
When that period passes and the dust settles, then you'll really know what you love and what you just like the idea of doing. So just keep doing stuff and the rest will fall by the wayside.

BojanStankovski

I am struggling with the same issue here. I really want to be environment modeler, you know, modeling whole world, props and assets for games. But at the other hand, i really like special effects, like, smoke, dust, destruction, fire,water creating spells etc etc. But i am not really good at programming.

I too have distaste for animation, concept art, drawing.

Jessica Dinh

If you like them all equally, pick one from a hat, and GO! :poly142:

thatanimator

Alismuffin wrote: »

And I have a distaste for:
-Animating

Alismuffin

thatanimator wrote: »

Hey now! I respect people who are great at animating or who have passion for it! I just don't enjoy doing it myself!


Anyways thanks for your insight everyone! I'm definitely going to explore each medium more before making a choice!

Mark Dygert

You're not picking which one to learn and ignoring all the others. They won't forever be dead to you and you'll never have any contact with them again.

You're just picking which one you're going to learn FIRST. Once you get good enough at that one thing that you are employable, you can branch out into the other areas and begin to master them.

Don't like animation... why I otta...

leslievdb

maybe find a smaller company where you get to try a lot of things?

i try to learn a lot of things since a lot interests me. I showed those interests at work and got to try some different stuff each for a couple of months, whatever they needed at the time.
Now about a year in (including internship) i've modeled mechanical stuff , sculpted , concepted , designed interfaces and implemented them in flash and scripted tools with maxscript.

It does give you a clear view on what you like better if you'd have to choose eventually.

Geezus

I can't speak for everyone, but it's more about what you want to do to get your foot in the door. Once that happens, you may find that you like one discipline more than another. At that point, you could work internally towards that path.

For myself, I had a love for environments. So, I got my foot in the door doing environmental/prop modeling. Typically, that's an easier entry level position to obtain. That is not to say that environmental work is any easier or harder than any other discipline. It's simply easier to get an entry level position in, upfront. I always loved design, and knew that I would work towards a design position of sorts. So, I started leaning more towards world building. Depending upon the studio, a world building position can be a hybrid design/environment art position. It's a happy medium, and will continue to help me grow as a designer.

So yeah, find something more specific that will land you your first entry level gig, and work your way towards some sort of "end goal", internally. Chances are, even when you reach that goal, you'll want to dip into other disciplines as well. Game Development, in general, is a very fluid industry. Your prospects are only limited by your drive. Good luck!


Edit:

BojanStankovski wrote: »

I am struggling with the same issue here. I really want to be environment modeler, you know, modeling whole world, props and assets for games. But at the other hand, i really like special effects, like, smoke, dust, destruction, fire,water creating spells etc etc. But i am not really good at programming.

Again, this boils down to working from within. In most cases, you don't want to present yourself as a jack of all trades developer. You should be hired for one purpose. Using this example, depending upon the studio, it should be relatively easy to work towards VFX as an environment artist.

Scenario: You land work as an environment artist, making props/assets. You learn the in-house tools, and want some cool effects on the assets you make, bam... you spend time doing it on the side. You slowly become the person that can help out with VFX when needed, possibly turning into a full time VFX position, having a background in the environmental pipeline at said studio. It shows initiative, and can do nothing but help your career goals.

Again, I can't speak for all studios, but I've never been chastised for taking the initiative to learn a new tool/pipeline on the side. In-fact, doing this is what has continue to grow my career. Your passion and drive will take you farther than any other asset you possess.

TortillaChips

The one good thing about university I found was that my course made you do various areas, and it wasn't like "oh I'll just try a bit out of each catagory" you had a full module for one of them. So that's how I chose my path. Only downside was if you've picked your path you still had to do some modules that didn't help with what you wanted to do, like narratology.

seth.

in addition to the above I say pick what you have a natural ability for, wanting something is very different to sitting down with yourself and deciding what you can do. I would put the list in order of what, in your eyes, will take the least time to become industry level profficient in, have a go at it and if you are still enjoying what you are doing in a year then bonus... as an example a lot of people may want to be concept artists, but without the ability to draw then persuing that route may be a fruitless excercise.

Two Listen

Whatever you choose, be sure not to take an arrow to the knee.

Saman

It's always good to keep an open mind on what you want to do. Don't make a definite decision, you can always change your mind later on if you feel that whatever you've decided on now isn't making you happy. It took me 5 years to try on different fields before I finally decided.

@thatanimator & vig: What are you guys so sad about? This means more jobs for you :thumbup:

Jeff Parrott

Try everything and you'll figure out what you don't like. It took me making about 10-14 characters till I realized I didn't enjoy character creation. It took me 1 environment to realize how much I enjoyed the process. Even in that I've whittled down over time what style of environments I enjoy creating the most.

Just try a little bit of everything till you look at the clock and 10 hours passed by in what seems 20 minutes. You'll be working in an industry that is dependent on deadlines and you need to enjoy what you're doing if you have to do it under crunch and large deadlines.

DrunkShaman

Bigjohn wrote: »

You don't choose the path, the path chooses you!

Did I just blow your mind?

In Soviet Russia? o.O

Jokes aside:

To be honest, you should know what you want to achieve and what paths you should follow to do so.

For example:

If it is about games: programming is good bot not necessary today. Learning a game engine is, 3d arts and 3d animation are also good for games so.

There you have four things you can learn for the games. Including Story writing, etc.

I dont know about film tho.

Tobbo

I would stay away from story creation. Unless you want to pursue Indie. But even then I would pick something else. Story creation is not good enough to run on alone.

Kwramm

are you just interested or have you DONE any of those? Usually by doing you find out what you enjoy doing and what not (just what everyone else suggests on this thread). If you're for example in college, then it shouldn't be too hard to try different things and then to specialize...

Dylan Brady

It seems odd to me how many people come to games with this
"I know I want to work on games but what field should I choose?" attitude.
for me Ive always drawn characters, since I was a kid. I went into games only when I learned I had a talent for modeling also.

Your really going to have to find something you have a talent for. because you have to really enjoy do what your doing. not just because your working on games but because you actually enjoy the process and daily struggles of what your doing.

what would you be doing if you couldn'nt work on games? would still want to model? or program?

Alismuffin

I have done all of what I said so my feelings towards those are based on experience. I enjoy doing all of them not because Its for a game. I enjoy them because I find satisfaction in them. I wouldn't mind modelling for games, movies, commercials or whatever. Same with concept art.

But anyways for the time being I am going to try out the path of concept art for models that I will produce and texture.
IOf I find that Im not enjoying those things as much as I have been, Ill try out another path.

Thanks for all the input guys! Appreciate it

DrunkShaman

......What kind of satisfaction...o.O

jks.

I strongly suggest that you should pick one or two things at a time, otherwise you will burn out and endup hating 3d entirely..