More/Less Saturated Artist Positions

eef · Sep 2018

Hello everyone,

After just graduating from college, I am currently looking to finally follow what I've wanted to do since I was little and pursue a career in the entertainment industry as an artist, so I've got a long road ahead of me. I'm coming from a completely unrelated engineering background (traditional, not software/computer), so I apologize in advance for not being very literate or knowledgeable when it comes to this industry. Initially, I wanted to try to become a 3D environment/prop artist, but upon delving further into the options, I'm finding myself interested in several other things, such as matte painting, vfx animation, etc. I have heard that in general, the industry is quite saturated, so I was wondering, just out of curiosity, what roles and positions are more/less saturated compared to others? Also, are there any roles or areas of expertise that have strong prospects for the future? Any advice is much appreciated, as I hope to look into a multitude of things before deciding on something I'd like the most.

Thank you!

Zack Maxwell · Sep 2018

Last I knew, everyone was saying that character artist positions were aggressively over-saturated, which makes sense. Everyone wants to do character art.
You're casting a really wide net here, though. You haven't even decided if you want to focus on modeling, drawing, VFX etc. I feel like that should really be the first step.

NikhilR · Sep 2018

Interestingly, I see more actual openings for character artists than other specializations, but the portfolio expected needs to be quite broad.

Also everyone wants to be a character artist initially, but very few actually put in the work and become good at it, and I mean a full character, not a characters boots even if they end up making only boots on a character team while on the job.

The saturation is more related to the location, it isn't the same everywhere, so that is one way to narrow your search.
Perhaps post a current portfolio to give us a better idea of your skill set.

TheGabmeister · Sep 2018

Yeah, it varies on different locations. A quick search in my city in Artstation for example shows that there are a lot of great Character and Prop artists, but not many environment lighting or texture artists that stand out.

garcellano · Sep 2018

Hmm, yeah it's interesting, seeing how things are. Just how I saw it, the quickest and easy field to break in is or was QA/Game Testing. This is off-topic a bit, but imagine doing that for years, and being able to at least have exp in a game production cycle, on that end. This is similar to film/vfx, depending on the field. Compositing/vfx in film is another thing, but Stereoscopic Compositing/vfx, back when stereo 3D movies was booming, was becoming an easy way to break in, since many were hiring a lot in that field. It may be relevant, but either way, it's production exp.

It's a toss up if you want to spend the time to polish your portfolio for that specific role, or take a role, not exactly what you want, just for the meantime, and work on your portfolio on the side.

Back on the main topic lol, yeah Character Art positions might be harder to get. Environment Art positions are similar, but there are more roles in that field, and there are many other roles that revolve or relate to Environment Art, like a Texture/Material Artist, Prop Artist, Modeler, and Outsource Artist (more on the review/feedback side, with some time for 3D work).

NikhilR · Sep 2018

Its always been my belief that a company worth working for would look at your strengths and your weaknesses in a balanced way and value that you're great at something your passionate about.

While there are the greats among character artists, the actual character production pipeline in a game studio (especially AAA) takes a lot of hands and a variety of skill levels.

Not a lot of industry people are willing to talk about this openly however.

I know several character artists that have never managed to get a face to look right, let alone have the speed to see a character through to the end quickly. But they do make nice props for characters. So the correct term for them is model artist.

Are they character artists? For the time being they probably are, and obviously if they're trying to get ahead in that, they'll likely list that on linkedin/resume, even if they're not exaclty right for a full on character artist job.

A good company would let the portfolio be the ultimate judge. I heard that in a talk from Blur studio, where the recruiter was talking about a portfolio from a very experienced artist that basically had banners of the games he worked on, on his portfolio showing a variety of assets, though all he really worked on was a few small props.

Suffice to say he didn't get the job, but it does attract attention if that counts for something.

Ashervisalis · Sep 2018

I've heard a lot of art leads in podcasts and interviews mention they'd like to see more demo reels for VFX, so I'd assume that specialty is less saturated than others.

PixelMasher · Sep 2018

vfx and technical artists are always in demand.

A word of caution though, looking for positions that are more available because you think it might be an easier in is a big mistake, and a great way to waste a lot of time trying to learn stuff you are not really passionate about, just to get a paying job. thats an quick recipe for burnout.

find whatever aspects of video games really speak to you and just focus on getting insanely good at that. might take longer but your happiness and job satisfaction will be a lot higher in the long run.

Meloncov · Sep 2018

garcellano said:

Hmm, yeah it's interesting, seeing how things are. Just how I saw it, the quickest and easy field to break in is or was QA/Game Testing.

It's certainly fairly easy to get an entry level QA role, but I don't know if that counts as "breaking in", as moving from entry-level QA to any other position in the industry isn't much easier than entering the industry as a complete outsider.

eef · Sep 2018

Thank you all for the responses! And yes, I am fully aware of falling into the trap of doing something that's more available. This was mostly just out of curiosity.

Would anyone be able to share with me a resource to look into getting started with vfx? I want to give it a try and see how I like it. Does matte painting fall under this category?

pangaea · Sep 2018

Do you want to do movie vfx or game vfx?

PixelMasher · Sep 2018

sorry shoulda clarified, when I said vfx artists i meant games fx artists, like particle wizards. the guys who can create explosions, hit fx, magic spells etc. If you can get fired up about that kinda stuff and get really good, you will never be hurting for a job.

pmiller001 · Sep 2018

I would not suggest switching over to something If you dont like it. It shows in the quality of your work, and ultimately does more harm than good IMO.

More/Less Saturated Artist Positions

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