Needing Some Career Advice
Howdy!
I'm new to the boards, checking out the various artists' websites on the net for some expert opinion.
Essentially, I've come here to ask you more experienced artists if you could give me a little advice on career choice. I'm 24, and I've been doing a lot of research lately, trying to assess what I want to do, and I've always been drawn to 3D in both art and programming, but I'm not sure what the 'artistic' pre-requisites are, and I have a mix of other skills, so I'm wondering what my best path would be for movie/game industry.
To make it simple, this is what experience I do have (apologies if it looks like a CV, I'm just trying to illustrate a skillset):
- Writing: strongest skill, have published numerous novelettes online and negotiating a book contract
- Programming: day-time job & degree (C# UI development), also strong. Did graphics in OpenGL
- Maya: fair. Did my uni project with it, focusing on MEL. Have been doing tutorials...etc mainly in animation and a little rendering
- Visual arts: weak. I have basic drawing (self-taught landscape drawing but no human anatomy), very basic Photoshop
Now, I have a 9 hour programming day, which leaves me with about seven hours of real free time. Four of those already go into writing, which leaves me with three hours a day of self-learning. I'm very interested in either animation or visual effects, and considering compositing. My thoughts:
- Animation: weak drawing skills: how much will this hurt me? I keep hearing it's fundamental for modeling. How about animating?
Since I only have three hours a day, learning visual arts and Maya would take a long time. On the flip side, I'd love to eventually combine an art role with writing experience and move into design.
- VFX: seems like programming experience would help with MEL programming and RenderMan in particular. Again, speculation given it's C-based syntax.
- Compositing: again, not sure what artistic background is needed, though of the three I think this is the one I'm least enthusiastic about.
To make a long story short (for whomever is still awake), I'd love to get into animation, but I'm not sure if three hours a day.
I'm enthusiastic and determined to put those three hours a day in (and more on w/end), religiously, and I know I have the discipline for it because I've sustained it with my writing schedule. I've looked into training programs like Escape (I live in London) and considered doing one-two years self-taught, and then drop the C# job and start the training course. If I get a job, I would then be able to focus on animation/VFX full time.
My question for you guys, then, is whether you think animation is a viable route for me, or if you think I'm 'blatantly suited for VFX programming' or maybe should just stick to my day job and writing and stop writing wall-sized posts.
All advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
--Will
I'm new to the boards, checking out the various artists' websites on the net for some expert opinion.
Essentially, I've come here to ask you more experienced artists if you could give me a little advice on career choice. I'm 24, and I've been doing a lot of research lately, trying to assess what I want to do, and I've always been drawn to 3D in both art and programming, but I'm not sure what the 'artistic' pre-requisites are, and I have a mix of other skills, so I'm wondering what my best path would be for movie/game industry.
To make it simple, this is what experience I do have (apologies if it looks like a CV, I'm just trying to illustrate a skillset):
- Writing: strongest skill, have published numerous novelettes online and negotiating a book contract
- Programming: day-time job & degree (C# UI development), also strong. Did graphics in OpenGL
- Maya: fair. Did my uni project with it, focusing on MEL. Have been doing tutorials...etc mainly in animation and a little rendering
- Visual arts: weak. I have basic drawing (self-taught landscape drawing but no human anatomy), very basic Photoshop
Now, I have a 9 hour programming day, which leaves me with about seven hours of real free time. Four of those already go into writing, which leaves me with three hours a day of self-learning. I'm very interested in either animation or visual effects, and considering compositing. My thoughts:
- Animation: weak drawing skills: how much will this hurt me? I keep hearing it's fundamental for modeling. How about animating?
Since I only have three hours a day, learning visual arts and Maya would take a long time. On the flip side, I'd love to eventually combine an art role with writing experience and move into design.
- VFX: seems like programming experience would help with MEL programming and RenderMan in particular. Again, speculation given it's C-based syntax.
- Compositing: again, not sure what artistic background is needed, though of the three I think this is the one I'm least enthusiastic about.
To make a long story short (for whomever is still awake), I'd love to get into animation, but I'm not sure if three hours a day.
I'm enthusiastic and determined to put those three hours a day in (and more on w/end), religiously, and I know I have the discipline for it because I've sustained it with my writing schedule. I've looked into training programs like Escape (I live in London) and considered doing one-two years self-taught, and then drop the C# job and start the training course. If I get a job, I would then be able to focus on animation/VFX full time.
My question for you guys, then, is whether you think animation is a viable route for me, or if you think I'm 'blatantly suited for VFX programming' or maybe should just stick to my day job and writing and stop writing wall-sized posts.
All advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
--Will
Replies
Technical Artist would be a nice use of your mix. If you get really good at setting up skeletal rigs, that skill would be applicable to both industries. Or you could take your programming skills and develop good art-bridging tools in C# and/or Mel and/or Python. Tech Artists are in demand in both industries, and it can become lucrative with a few years' experience.
Poke around in Tech-Artists.Org, see if you like what you see.
I'll take a look at that website. Just to understand it right (google isn't giving me much) tech artist is basically one who uses MEL and/or scripted tools to aid his rigging process?
Thanks for the reply!
The more prominent tech artists I can think of are; Bobo, Neil Blevins, James Haywood, Paul Neale, Rob Galinakis, Paul Hormis, Ben Croward. There are a lot more but I'm drawing a blank or they don't have sites.
I have a friend in that position that survived the Mass of EA layoffs awhile back. Although he was gearing for a modeling position (with a previous history in scripting), that quickly turned into a TA position.