Gaming Industry (help)
Im a tattoo artist looking to get into the field of 2D concept art for games or what have you. I have no college background, but a pretty strong sense of form balance and lighting. I did a search on blizzard to get a feel for what is required of concept and 2d artists.
What im getting at here, is what are the odds of landing a job working for a major company like blizzard without a degree? And what knowledge of programs is generally expected for a 2D Artist? What kind of elements should i showcase in a portfolio for this type of job? What kind of pay can you expect doing this type of thing? This is not something i plan on jumping into right away. Im trying to collect some information so when the time comes i can do it properly. Any resources that have helped you, or information would be greatly appreciated.
What im getting at here, is what are the odds of landing a job working for a major company like blizzard without a degree? And what knowledge of programs is generally expected for a 2D Artist? What kind of elements should i showcase in a portfolio for this type of job? What kind of pay can you expect doing this type of thing? This is not something i plan on jumping into right away. Im trying to collect some information so when the time comes i can do it properly. Any resources that have helped you, or information would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
2. Photoshop (Or whatever program you perfer)
3. Whatever you want to focus on, Character, Environment, Vehical/Props
Your best bet would be a larger company, lots of times for smaller studios, concept artists also have to do other things like texture work.
For a portfolio you'd need lots of real world applications of concept art, anything from character/prop concepts, to full scenes.
Just look at some of the concept art already out there.
http://www.igorstshirts.com/blog/conceptships/resistance_concept_ships.jpg
http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/images/05/92/59297_Brink-ConceptArt-01_normal.jpg
http://www.splashdamage.com/images/content/dev/091009_04.jpg
http://static.bethsoft.com/blog/bothcharactersdevdiary3.jpg
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.massively.com/media/2009/06/danieldociuconstructionsiteat580.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GBEAY.jpg
http://www.uncharted2cheats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/uncharted-2-art.jpg
http://ui11.gamespot.com/2346/drakesc3_2.jpg
http://www.uncharted2cheats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/uncharted-2-art-2.jpg
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/uncharted-2-concept-art-wallpaper-mountain-railroad.jpg
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/uncharted-2-gompa-wallpaper-concept-art.jpg
Concept artists help to everything from developing the mood and feel of a game, and creating color plattes for the game and levels, to developing the style of key locations, characters, and props. Some times you gotta be quick and just capture the mood, and basic look of t scene, other times you may need to go into detail and decent how buildings are going to look.
To be honest, Majority of the Game Industry've moved on to 3d but they still require a 2D traditional artist. Since creating a tattoo is your profession right now you shouldnt have any problem creating a 2d traditional art portfolio.
Your odds of getting hired with a good portfolio is same as someone whoz a graduate with only one downfall. You may not be able to find any work outside the country that you live in.
I have somewhat experience with the tattoo stores and their catalog(s). I'd suggest that you should take a look at them or the Digital Sketchbook on the Polycount, and you will see what exactly you need for your portfolio.
You should create Characters, Environments, Objects of any type be it a real life, or a fantasy.
Anyways. Good luck
I got called out a while back (which I deserved) for acting like I knew what I was talking about and I think the same should happen here.
'The industry has moved on from 2D'?
Erm, what?
Concept art has, is, and probably will be for the forseeable future PRIMARILY
produced in 2D. Also 2D games still exist ya know. Ok so 3D skills won't hurt a concept artist to have, but the OP stated specifically he wants to be a concept artists, so 2D is gonna be his realm.
The only applicable comments you made were basically just reworded versions of other peoples comments and to be honest that's all I ever see you post really.
Seems to me you are just post count spamming, heh, you even admitted it in ZacD's Valve thread. Even if that was a joke, it seems true.
Anyway, I'm not gonna pretend I'm experienced enough to offer a decent response but here's my thoughts.
You might want to explore the difference between art for tattoos and other artforms. You're gonna suddenly have a lot more freedom in terms of your medium and the scope of your work because you're not bound by the ultimate intention of tattooing. So where art for tattoos need to be kept within the limit of 'tattooable', you don't have to think about that with your concept art.
That sounds like a very good thing, and it is, but it may be a challenge to break out of that 'tattooable' train of thought if you've been doing it for some time.
Just enjoy the new found freedom and you should be golden. Looking forward to seeing some of your work!
In clear words I said game industry have moved on from 2d to 3d, meaning, the Majority of it create their games in 3d. Do you see many 2d games around? Aside from free 2 play online web-based games? No, not many.
In the case of using 3d environment they still require to make stuff in 2d first.
Practically you called my post a bs and posted the same idea of "2d arts."
You were the last person I'd expect to blow out on me
You are correct, you are not experienced at all, and a mature being would ask what I meant by posting what you call a BS, before claiming its a BS.
Anyways Moving on.
To Tattoo art, Do you know many the concept art are also tattos? for example:
http://www.juanpuente.com/TATTOOS/tattoos_main2.jpg
With that in mind, Since the OT is coming from that side of the world, I was trying to encourage him that he will not have any problem make stuff in 2d...AKA Concept art.
The OT also asked what are his chances to work for some big company without a degree and I gave him my opinion also.
Anyways, enjoy and good luck reading my spamism on PC if you think thats what it is.
PS: Yes the compatitor to ZacD was a joke, if you ever learned to take one.
With kind regards to creationtwentytwo.
gbf,
Something to keep in mind is a timeframe aswell.
Most of us take years to get up to speed, and that takes quite the commitment.
Like Pior said, post some work, that way these guys can tell you where you are and how to go from there.
Absolute crap. 2D Art is all over gaming still. Concept Art... Texturing... Flash Games... also, ever visited the App Store?
Not necessarily true. Firstly, I know a lot of tattoo artists who couldn't put a portfolio worth shit together. Just because they draw on people's skin, doesn't make them an artist. Ok so a lot of them are great artists, but a portfolio full of tattoo flash is very different to a portfolio of concept art.
Again, not entirely true. There are quite a few companies who will look upon a degree as very favourable, even from domestic applicants. Look on jobs boards, some companies suggest in ads that an art related degree is 'preferable'.
The dude is a tattoo artist... you think he hasn't looked in 'catalog(s)' before... and he's not likely to find what he needs for his portfolio in there anyway is he?
Really useful info, Captain Obvious.
Ok so you're post wasn't totally useless.
Lets move on to some of your posts outside of this thread:
WOW... not sure if that's the language barrier but that sure sounds kinda... homophobic.
Wait, here's a good one:
I could go on.
You're a full on asshole for the comment about me 'being not experienced at all'. That pissed me off to no end since you know NOTHING about my background. Here's a heads up. I've worked for an Arch Viz company for almost 5 years working on projects worth 7 figures, been involved in many of the hires made over the last 2 years, and I've clocked about 80 hours in a tattoo shop getting tattooed. So while yes, I may have no game industry experience, saying I have 'no experience at all' was a badly worded, dumb thing to say.
You post all this chatter and yet there's barely a single piece of your work. As someone mentioned in ZacD's thread the other day... Less QQ More PewPew.
EDIT: You're also obviously quite young... 17-19 I'm guessing?
Man I wish I could waste that much time again chatting about nothing on here. I'm 25, and lemme tell you this, if I could go back to being that age, I'd spend a LOT more time doing work and a lot less wasting time.
true story.
get a conceptart.org account, it's free and it's giving you a bunch of useful tools like a custom gallery, hosting up to 18 images and a personal sketchbook;
also, you'll get involved in the community and will be able to both promote your work and look what's going on around.
look at other artist's work and see what trends are currently in, what kind of work you like and what direction you'd like to pick yourself.
http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5 - tonns of top-class works here.
majority of 2D artists work with photoshop where you either draw/paint from scratch with your graphics tablet or scan in your sketches/paintings and colour/edit them;
some artists use painter, a much less stable and retardedly developing, but still very nice program. Also, cheaper than PS.
any other program you can learn ( like maya/sketchup/3dsmax for making 3D prototypes for overpaints) will help you with your work, but focus on producing the best possible 2D work.
it's hard to tell how long it will take you to get used to digital art, though. we haven't seen any of your works yet too.
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ALSO NICE DRAMA, GUYS
Not to drag out my whole life story or anything, but i was planning on doing 3D modeling before tattooing. Tattooing was a way to pay for those expensive tuition fees. After a while i just kinda forgot about my end goal. I used to be pretty decent with Maya, i know my way around photoshop. And i enjoy working on real paper over digital. Markers, watercolor, graphite. Im into it.
For the past 4 years i have just been tattooing, and like stated above. Its extremely limited in terms of tattooable imagery so switching from figure drawing to traditional tattoo was mind blowingly simple. Personally i feel it has improved my balance and composition tremendously. I will start putting together some of these elements, scenes, characters, ect. When i get back in the groove ill post some stuff thanks for the advice!