Creating a Winning Game Industry Art Portfolio
Nice article that came up on gamasutra today,
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/165645/creating_a_winning_game_industry_.php
covers a lot of basic stuff that people tend to miss/forget
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/165645/creating_a_winning_game_industry_.php
covers a lot of basic stuff that people tend to miss/forget
Carefully choose what to include in your portfolio. Quantity is important to demonstrate you can keep a consistent level of quality and to show variety. However, quality is more important than quantity. You will be judged on your worst piece of art.
Replies
Definitely seems to be a lot of good points consolidated within this three page article composed by the great mind of Gamasutra.
I was under the impression (from podcasts and GDC) that it's usually better to specialize as a 3d artist than try to go the generalist route. Is the author really saying that even environment artists should always have a character model or two in there to prove that they aren't just hiding their lack of skill? :poly114: What about people who just prefer to create environments? Haha. Am I misunderstanding something?
especially this is a bit wtf:
If it's a well made bush, building or landscape, hire them to do this sort of stuff instead of characters?!
Apart from that there was some pretty awesome bits of advice in there!
Maybe im being overly sensitive though.
Initially I thought all he was saying was that it's harder to portray a realistic human realistically than it is a building or other man-made object. The article does seem to focus a bit more on the 2d/concepting side so it's possible he's just referring to concept artist who would be expected to do both?
There was nothing mentioned in the comments section so I've registered and asked for clarification. Hopefully once the post gets approved we'll get an answer.
I think the point he was making since his topic is about effective portfolios is, if you're not good with one aspect of modelling don't risk rejection by mixing it with stuff you're not good at.
You can see this from new grads of so-so "game design" schools, a lot of them jam their stuff without being aware of streamlining their presentation. A watch model, nexto to an F1 race car, next to a monster. etc.
why do people get to just say how the industry works and get it seen by millions of perspective artists.
@DeadlyFreeze: ouch, granted that is a pretty old title, I agree that has to be the ugliest game ever released on Xbox 360, doesn't even have textures?
I kinda get what he's pointing at, but it should be phrased differently.
Two birds, one stone; model/sculpt a realistic character statue with realistic anatomy!
As for portfolios, I'd say it's pretty obvious that quality wins over quantity, and there's quite a few cheesy quotes that would also fit perfectly into the 'how to make a badass folio' topic.
This is one of the few articles that I endorse in it's entirety:
Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39516
http://www.jonjones.com/2005/10/07/your-portfolio-repels-jobs/
edit: I found a link to the basic bullet points on that talk
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014812/Killer-Portfolio-or-Portfolio-Killer
Also the semi-attack on environment art and env artists hide because they can't do characters or however he worded it is a total douchebag thing to say.
Perhaps a long time ago characters were the bread and butter and got all the glory and were a lot harder to do but the challenges are completely different for each discipline.
Environment and prop guys need to learn how to do a huge range of things and do it smartly. Depending on the studio this could include modeling, texturing, level building, sharing textures across multiple pieces, modular asset creations, lighting, collision, destructible meshes, LOD models, vehicles, weapons, and the list goes on and on.
I'm not in any way attacking character guys here as they two are so different and each has it's own challenges but to say an env guy hides behind it is just completely douchebaggery 101.
Anyways... some points are decent and on point but for the most part I didn't really read anything that stuck out as damn this was a good article and helpful...
Perhaps I misinterpreted it, bit odd. I think just badly written. But other than that, some good points to take on board ^_^
/agree
I actually felt pretty insulted when I read that.
Its quite logical isn't it. I mean if your work is crappy, an art director doesn't think.. well at least he has a fancy degree, so it will work out!
Talent means everything in a creative industry. If your portfolio is kick ass nobody cares if you don't have fancy art school degrees.
Yeah same here, it's some really uncalled for obsession with character art that seems to skew his perspective completely.
He's not just downplaying the importance of environment artistry (when in fact it's more important than character art because you can make a successful game without visible characters); he's also making it seem as if environment artists are failed character artists which is just moronic.
Sorry to detract but why do people keep saying this ??
Dude, the immigration department of SEVERAL countries you may want to get to, gives a shit. A BIG SHIT.
You cant just whisk away to another country because your an awesome artist.
There are legal hoops to jump through, and a company that SPONSORS you for a visa is the TINIEST but first step in MANY steps to proove you are eligible to the IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT.
And believe me, they dont give a shit if your folio is sick - perfect example:
Marko Djurdjević was denied a Visa to live and work in the US originally.
Hed only been doing marvel comic book covers and sick illustrations and climbing his way to the top of the concept art world with Massive Black.....
It irks me when people keep saying that degrees are pointless.
Having said all that, looking at it from a lead or art directors perspective, we would barely ever... EVER look at a resume, or check for degrees etc, that was for HR to work out.
There is no idle time to peruse through dozens and dozens of folios at our leisures. (At least at any studio I've worked at)
You get about 10 seconds max to impress.
* If your sites not finished loading in a few seconds - your chance is probably gone.
* If the first thing that loads is not impressive - your chance is probably gone.
* If your site has a flash picture viewer - your chance is probably gone. ( too slow )
* If it looks like more effort was put into building your website than the art on the website - your chance is probably gone.
* If there is a welcome page and an about page before seeing your work, and multiple clicks just to find your gallery - your chance is almost certainly gone.
Pass a link, once that link is clicked it should reveal all that needs to be revealed about your current skill as an artist, as quickly and concisely as possible.
I'm kinda regretting how naive I was choosing to go to a Vocational school for my education, as I didn't really want to work in europe, but as I was naive and young I thought that as long as I was good at my work, and companies wanted me, there wouldn't be a problem, sadly that isn't the truth.
So at the moment I'm visa running to Japan or korea every 3 months while I'm freelancing from Taiwan, while I'm waiting for a certificate of eligibility to go trough with a japanese company which will probably fail.
So the choices I have is to work 10 more years to get the experience required, or marry, or to study something I already know for 4 years in sweden or 2 years in Japan.
So you should think more about this part If you want to live elsewhere,
Have to say though that the reason why I went to a vocational school, was because it was
just so much better, and I probably wouldn't even have a job If i choosed to go to a university to study, might not be like that in your country though.
Depending of your experience it can make you skip some years or so. I know it for sure because that's what I'm doing at the moment.
In my case my experience (based on documents) made me skip the whole 3 years and all I have to provide is the final student project.
It just make your nights shorter when you got to handle your day job as well but I think it worth it.
I guess interested people could investigate about this.
Most of my interviews In japan got really long, just talking about this issue and how annoying it is for both them and for me, luckily some still want to try.
EzMeow: Yeah that is the experience part, which i think is something 8 to 10 years for me to go into japan.
I think for America, every 3years of experience is worth 1 year of college.
Edit: Sorry EzMeow see what you mean now, I actually wanted to do this with my japanese earlier, but they seemed to have scrapped that system in Sweden.
As for me I first came here as an exchange student back in highschool for a year, and been here for maybe 5 years in total, but as most foreigners in japan I got a girl that didn't know english, so I have been using Japanese everyday since then.
But as my Japanese is now "perfect" I changed to a Taiwanese girl :P
As it's known it is very hard to get to the States, how about Canada? Has anybody from Europe (EU) moved to Canada and how hard was that? I did research it and could only find information about how would it work if I apply for visa before I actually have an employer and that way it is not going to be all that easy. ( I can use my economy degree and say I would like to work that kind of work+ they require ti have knowledge of french for that particular kind of job ) I wonder if I manage to find a job prior to moving there would that be easier (is it doable at all?) Would I still need a degree? Any info on that subject would be very appreciated.
I read all other thread and I am familiar with how it works for moving to the states so I am just wondering if it is the same for Canada. Lived in the states for some years but I had to come back and I have to admit I loved it there so I am looking into ways to get back closer to it and obviously Canada is the only option.
Thanks in advance guys and I apologize if it is not the best place to ask this question ( i might start new thread about this at some point)
I disagree somewhat with that, as it will always benefit you. Not all is just brickwalls and trees, often there is sculptures, statues etc, which is part of the environment. So I wouldn't say its a waste learning characters/anatomy, I always thought that know a lot of one thing and a little of everything else, is better then knowing everything about one thing (which is never realistic).
Take a look at a screenshot. Roughly 20% is a FPS gun, 20% is characters, everything else is environment art.
Also "If you are showing off your ability to create textures, be clear that that is your goal, and be clear that you created the textures." - isn't it much more common for one artist to make one prop from start to finish? Model, unwrap, bake, texture... especially if it's specific portfolio work?
think it's a pretty bad idea at most times though.
I think he said that as a "If" though, not that you should only do one thing.
haha, quoted for truth
For both disciplines there's things that are easier and things that are harder.
As far as the article it's possible he's just been at that studio so long he's mistaken things they look for as something common in the whole industry. If ninjabee is a small studio that pumps out games pretty fast, they will probably prefer people that can wear many hats.
My advice for kids looking to break in, focus on one thing and get good at that. I'm just going to pick an arbitrary number: say it takes 5 years to become awesome at characters and environments. You can either spend 5 years building yours skills before getting into the industry or spend 2.5 years getting awesome at one discipline, become a game dev, and work on the other one in your spare time. Chances are, being surrounded by so much awesome, you'll pick up those other skills pretty fast.