Need Some Advice
polycounter lvl 17
So, I'm a recent college grad...
.... well... sort of recent.
Ok, I'm a college grad, who has spent the past 3 months freaking out because I don't know how to find a job as a modeler in the game industry.
I transferred schools in the middle of my sophomore year from Eastern Kentucky where my Major was Graphic Design, to a school in northern Ohio where my major shifted to Digital Arts.
I had never touched maya before, and since I was a transfer student I had to work my but off learning maya and ended up taking a hectic classload to graduate on time.
My Junior year I took a class called Virtual Environments. My Instructor gave the students the assignment of forming into groups and our task was to create some sort of environment/game using the Blitz3D engine. This was the class that sealed the deal for me; I wanted to work in the game industry.
Fast Foward to graduation. I take the first couple of weeks off to defuse a bit from the 4 years of college. In June I participated in a Poly Count Challenge; and more or less in July I lost steam. I didn't have any sort of structure to my life, no team of students, or colleages to keep me company or to motivate me.
Towards the end of July I got a breath of fresh air; I completed a demo reel, made some resumes, and buisness cards and headed to Boston to Attend Siggraph 2006 had a blast, met some contacts, and gave out 22 Reels/Resumes Yaddah Yaddah Yaddah.
So it's the end of August now, not replys, 1 rejection, and 21 Demo Reels Just Floating around.
I'm at a loss, I plan this week to do some follow up calls, but I have a feeling I allready know what their responses are going to be:
a. Lack of Job Experience in the Game Industry.
or
b. Weak Demo Reel
Does anyone have any advice. I have a degree a BFA, and I do NOT want to spend a year or 5 working at some crappy job like Wal*Mart, or serving to repay my Student Loans.
How did you guys and glas get your start.
Does this happen to everyone?
What should I add to my reel:
http://www.jakeart.com
(not promoting)
How weak is my reel? What do I need to work on. What are these companies looking for. Bowling Green has a wonderful faculty, I learned a lot, and the students are motivated early in the program to seek answers for themselves.
However, our job placement services at the school had no clue how to handle the game industry, or cover letters/resumes for this field.
DOes anyone have any links/articles ANYthing?
I hope I'm not comming off as lazy/whiney/ect. I am willing to do the work that is required. It's now september, and I need to get things together.
Thanks in advance guys
I know I don't post a whole lot.
.... well... sort of recent.
Ok, I'm a college grad, who has spent the past 3 months freaking out because I don't know how to find a job as a modeler in the game industry.
I transferred schools in the middle of my sophomore year from Eastern Kentucky where my Major was Graphic Design, to a school in northern Ohio where my major shifted to Digital Arts.
I had never touched maya before, and since I was a transfer student I had to work my but off learning maya and ended up taking a hectic classload to graduate on time.
My Junior year I took a class called Virtual Environments. My Instructor gave the students the assignment of forming into groups and our task was to create some sort of environment/game using the Blitz3D engine. This was the class that sealed the deal for me; I wanted to work in the game industry.
Fast Foward to graduation. I take the first couple of weeks off to defuse a bit from the 4 years of college. In June I participated in a Poly Count Challenge; and more or less in July I lost steam. I didn't have any sort of structure to my life, no team of students, or colleages to keep me company or to motivate me.
Towards the end of July I got a breath of fresh air; I completed a demo reel, made some resumes, and buisness cards and headed to Boston to Attend Siggraph 2006 had a blast, met some contacts, and gave out 22 Reels/Resumes Yaddah Yaddah Yaddah.
So it's the end of August now, not replys, 1 rejection, and 21 Demo Reels Just Floating around.
I'm at a loss, I plan this week to do some follow up calls, but I have a feeling I allready know what their responses are going to be:
a. Lack of Job Experience in the Game Industry.
or
b. Weak Demo Reel
Does anyone have any advice. I have a degree a BFA, and I do NOT want to spend a year or 5 working at some crappy job like Wal*Mart, or serving to repay my Student Loans.
How did you guys and glas get your start.
Does this happen to everyone?
What should I add to my reel:
http://www.jakeart.com
(not promoting)
How weak is my reel? What do I need to work on. What are these companies looking for. Bowling Green has a wonderful faculty, I learned a lot, and the students are motivated early in the program to seek answers for themselves.
However, our job placement services at the school had no clue how to handle the game industry, or cover letters/resumes for this field.
DOes anyone have any links/articles ANYthing?
I hope I'm not comming off as lazy/whiney/ect. I am willing to do the work that is required. It's now september, and I need to get things together.
Thanks in advance guys
I know I don't post a whole lot.
Replies
you should really sit down and think of how to simplify your website, so it's more acessible and more direct to a potential employer or other visitors.
From the brief time that i browsed your site i noticed that there are a few nice pieces but the presentation was making it difficult to absorb them ..
I major in graphic design myself, and i think you could have done a better job designing your website to be more direct and more aesthetically pleasing..
Dont lose hope and best of luck !
http://www.thejonjones.com/2005/10/07/your-portfolio-repels-jobs/
If you don't want to have to think about it:
Photoshop > File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery
It took me a full twenty-five seconds to get through the initial load, then another four for the site to finish unfolding. It took around five seconds to go to the WIP page and have that load.
My first instinct was to close your page after the first five seconds of loading, but a morbid curiosity pulled me further in.
Honestly? Throw away the entire site, abandon all Flash content, and do what Chris says.
You're not applying to be a web designer.
I hate waiting for pages to load. I hate navigating through flash menus and thumbnail pages.
Just a simple html layout with lots of thumbs on a page is enough.
Your layout is extremely cumbersome. This is enough to turn off most people from actually viewing your art.
As far as your art goes. It's not bad. Some of it is rather nice, but it's just hidden within the flash. You still have a little ways to go. Try looking at smaller companies for work, as they can't afford to be too picky. That will get you experience that you will need.
Also, in my opinion, I'd take the animations off. They're not that great. You're a much better modeler than animator. Stick with one and showcase that instead. It's not bad to show off animations, but you should really take a step back and decide if they're good enough to actually show off to an employer. Either way, you can always mention that you do animation during the interview or whatever.
Your texturing needs work. Cant put my finger on it since you have a lot of toon characters. I'm sure someone else here will know what to tell you there.
Your modeling could use work in the areas that bend, like the knees and such. Take a look at other people's wireframes and see how they build theirs. People here will be more than willing to help you out. Again, I'm not the best at giving critiques, but I'm sure someone will come by and give you one.
Although, I can tell you this, I really like seeing your stuff in game. It's always good to show that you are competent enough to get your models in a game.
My two cents.
Good luck.
Re-do your site at this point. To be honest I couldn't be arsed looking through your work, the site just pisses me off.
These are my thoughts on your reel:
It's vague as to what you want to specialize in. On the title page it says 'character designer'. That suggests conceptual design to me.
Lose ALL the animation, it's really not helping you.
Nearly 3 mintues is too long. Keep it under 2.
I think you need stronger models. I hate to be this blunt, but I just don't think the content you have there is going to get you into the industry as is. Most of it is in a strange place stylistically. Not realistic and not any particular style either. Some of the 2D really isn't helping you either, but I really like the sketch of the kid with the spiky hair and glasses. That at least has some kind of aesthetic appeal.
axe the flash. you're now a game developer not a design student. simple is best, *really show those design skills.
way too many clicks to get to your works and the mouse over to scroll things, quite flatly, suck for navigation of images
i think you need to trim down your images to 15 or 20 *extremely good ones. get rid of the ones that you have written on with "pwn!" and "ass" and the like.
personally i think the strong points of your site (reel is still downloading) are your drawings. if you want to model then get a move on modeling (which you should have been doing these 3 months instead of panicing).
start busting your ass in the Challenge forum.
i would fill out the retail work a bit more with some duties you had. right now it sounds like you *only worked to finance your college. which may be true but you should show you were responsible and knew your job(s). you have little actual job experience so make what you do have count. maybe even leave out that you only worked in summer. list each store and responsibilties seperate.
btw: what school in Eastern Kentucky did you go to? I'm *back at Morehead State for my MA. i'm also a former design student who decided to go after game art.
oh, and fuck walmart. worked at the one in Mt Sterling, Kentucky for 9 months in Frozne foods. unless you live with your parents who dont charge you rent or a significant other who has a good job to help out, you will not be able to afford rent/utilities AND your loans. even with the SO it will be tight, unless they have a really nice paying job. I know from personal experience.
In short, the best portfolio design for an artist is the one you don't notice, the one that gets out of the way and just puts the art in front of the viewer. People go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, not to see the frame it's in.
To follow Snemmy's question, where all are you from? I gre up in Columbus and went to school in Cincinnati.
It means so much more hearing it from people in the industry, opposed to friends and professors from school sugar coating everything and telling me everythings going to be allright, when everything is probably the opposite :-(
Thanks for the advice on the flash website; and the article, I'm really going to look into that. The flash website was the spawn of a Visual Communications and Technology class. I wasn't aware your website was as important as your demo reel, if not more.
skankerzero, thanks for the input about the reel itself. I only did one of the animations for the reel, I think I should add a reel breakdown to the site (the NEW site, I have an older HTML one I can just addthe new stuff too.)
As for newer things to model. What would a be a good addition to the reel. A hyper Realistic Model? A self Portrait? Something to Show Muscles, Objects, static meshes?
Daz, as allways you are the the voice that slaps me back into the right direction.
Is the Unreal 2K4 stuff not needed? Should I just remove it from the reel?
As for newer things to model. What would a be a good addition to the reel. A hyper Realistic Model? A self Portrait? Something to Show Muscles, Objects, static meshes?
[/ QUOTE ]
Can't help much with the other stuff, but for this you should be trying to think about first what you want to do (Wanna be a character modeler? Model Characters, wanna be an environmental/prop modeler? Model environments or props.) From there I'd look at where you want to work. Pick a few companies. What styles do they use most? Aim for that.
Anyways, good luck.
The other pros here can correct me if it's not true at their studios, but model and paint tend to go as a package these days. Do both well and you've got a better chance at getting in.
Your next go round of samples should be "imitations." Pick some currently popular games and make models that could plug and play stylistically into those games. Give the AD the sense that you could do the type of work he or she is looking for.
Show what you can do in the way of props and environment objects. Superstars can walk into studios and be doing character art in short order. Most entry level artists are going to find themselves doing other tasks. Make sure you've got what it takes to do those "other tasks." To be blunt, I don't see you doing character models out of the gate.
Finally, don't give up or get discouraged. The drive to get in make take you farther than raw talent and a lackadaisical attitude.
But that said it's also important to only show off your best work, even if that's only two or three pieces. The whole 'less is more' thing certainly is true in my experience. Show off your strengths and hide you're weaknesses.
And don't be discouraged either. I sent out demo reels to 13 games dev houses in Australia early this year and out of that I got two knock backs and luckily for me an interview which led to a job. Before that interview I'd pretty much resigned myself to spending a year doing folio work and short art courses. If you keep at it, you'll make it.
Don't show things that you didn't do yourself.
Get rid of the Flash and go with simple hierachial HTML. Don't call the 3d section Virtual, what is this.. VRML?
List things like 2d, 3d, Concept, Textures, etc
As for what kinds of models would be relevant, think of games you have enjoyed recently.. That kind.
I am partial to a Swat team member, myself, I think it animates well and is generic enough to fit into any universe.
NPCs, Characters in the background, think GTA pedestrians
Map Objects, phone booths, mailboxes, fire hydrants, Benches, Boiler Room, etc (modern games tend to use a lot of pipe-y bits)
Ditch the wireframe models of static meshes you have, that is not the best way to represent those models
as far as animation, if its not your strong suit, ditch it and emphasize your ability to rig your characters for animation, everyone loves a Multiskilled artist.
Ditch any sketches that aren't useable as concept. You can put these in your personal gallery somewhere else on the site (not linked to)
Some additional points: if you want to be a character artist, you ought to show some good examples of drawing from life. Some nice sketchbook pages of life drawings will complement your character drawings well. Also, if you're willing to do anything, environments are a good starting point towards working in the industry.
I was in almost the exact same situation you are in when I graduated - 3 months later and no word from anyone. I settled for a QA job on site with a small company and that was my foot in the door. I made it very clear to them that I wanted to be an artist in the industry, and they helped me with my art while I tested their game. It still took me another 8 months to earn my first full time gig as an artist, but it was a good experience.
Dont make the mistake some artist make who only want to get that first job doing characters because theres tons of characters artists but not tons of character artist jobs. Once your in keeping improving yourself to eventually work in whatever aspect of 3d art you wish to get into.
Dont give up also.
i'm in work so decided to look at your portfolio as if it had landed on my desk. After the first load had finished i saw the words "virtual" and "art" next to each other, clearly pointing at different pages. Bad move. Clicked on one. It didn't do anything. Closed it down before i saw any work other than the background and thumbnails.
22 other viewers could well have done exactly the same thing. If you're poroperly committed to landing this first job then really, seriously, you've got to start over on the portfolio.
And now i'm gonna go back and have a look at your work ... heh
http://www.rsart.co.uk/2006/08/26/setting-up-a-quick-portfolio-site/
Is this better, or is it WAY WORSE.
The Website isn't completly finished (missing text, descriptions, and 2D gallery) But the 3D stuff and the layouts are uploaded (- links for bigger pictures which I'll do tommorrow)
But just for general Navigation, and Looks; how is it
Also, color :-\
Been gitting a sort of hit or miss on the orange background; some people like it a lot some people hate it a lot.
http://www.jakeart.com/main/index.html
Next step is to work like a dog, getting some better work, experiment more, and push off the older work from the top site (i.e. The Ninja, The Viking.... well... yeah)
I read poops article about putting your money where your mouth is and I got motivated!
Hopefully I don't have to redesign the site ... again :-\ but I have a feeling a lot of you are going to say, go into photoshop and turn the saturation DOOWN on the website
Heading to bed: gotta work at 5AM :-\
The horizontal stripes running into the black hurt!
And you probably want to change that font.
And it pains me, of all people to say - you need a spell checker.
http://www.rsart.co.uk/content-portal/css-redesign/1/
Why do you have Big Bold Black lines cutting up the background, it looks bad, just have an orange background with your concept in the corner, that looks cool. Take the Scan lines out of the images of your art, You want your art to be as clear as possible. You can use funky scan lines in the background if you want, but not on your art.
Much better than the previous design, Make sure that all your design elements are uniform, theres a huge departure from in design from one page to another.
When I click on Resume, i want to see your Resume in HTML.. right there on the page, A link to a .doc and a .pdf would be nice, too of course, but primarily, I want to see why I should hire you, NOW.
Keep it simple. Try to get it to load as fast as possible. Also, your rollovers on your homepage were a little confusing at first. It took me a while to figure out that those were concepts for your final pieces.
I think you should do more conceptual stuff, some of your later character concept is quite nice really
Include an .rtf and .txt version of your resume as possible downloads ... not everyone uses MS Word.
Edit: Remember the focus ... this is about showing off your MODELING WORK .. not your m4d w3b sk1LLz. An AD would certainly remember your site, but not your work. "Yeah, he's the guy with the orange web site. His work? Can't remember much about it ... but there was lot of orange."
J/k... You rock flaagan.
When I opened your new portfolio site, it immediately reminded me of Rhinokey's new portfolio, so I ran over to Rick's site, found the link to Rhino's site, and ended up closing your portfolio and forgetting about it.
Not that I'm suggesting you ripped off his design, but it is very similar.
My site
My graphic design skill suck ass, but I did my best.
Do NOT show them your bloby masses from ZB as they make you look bad.
Do NOT show your concept art unless its your best work.
All you need to show for each object is the final image in a well lit maybe even posed position, a wire frame shot, and a textures shot.
To me your best work is the first guy on the left, but he looks unfinished. He needs more polish like making his hands look like hands not random bits of flesh. The next thing that gets me about your site is that what seems to be your WIP isnt as good looking as the work that came before it. That makes people think your getting worse not better. This is not something you want them to think.
Basicly think about what your saying with your work your showing, is it really wnat you wnt them to be thinging of you as?
Tho, You need to axe http://www.jakeart.com/ninja/ninja.html
http://www.jakeart.com/viking/viking.html, and http://www.jakeart.com/javendave/jakendave.html
The Viking's proportions are too extreme, and the shading is too extreme, most engines handle shading now a days. The concept art on Jakendave is cool, but the models don't inspire or necessarily look like the concept, and the Ninja is obviously older work and isn't update the Quality of your newer stuff.
Your General, and the Demon are the only characters that I would call your A work. Work some some new stuff for the page, and remove the weaker material. Most people don't get into the industry doing characters, do some Objects.
I honestly thought after ricks last comment this thread was going to be forever lost on page 2.
Thanks for all of the input. I've been asking a lot of people for help and their opinions on the design problems of my new website. Been getting a lot of different opinions and a lot of ideas.
RICK: Thank you again for the advice on the scan lines when I we-work the website (again) this weekend. they're getting the AXE. and I'm goign to read abotu Style Sheets before I work at it some more.
Robert: Thank you so much for the constructive criticism about the content of my website. Everyone I've been asking about the website has said NOTHING about the content about the site.Just, a lot of the industry information, about how to get your start, (no one starts out modeling characters vs objects.) I just never knew :-\
Slum: The new design, is actually an older design from 2004, with some tweaks and size changes to fit my newer work. I got a good response from it back then, so I decided to use it again (... mabye not the BEST idea on my part, but by no means did I copy; I just love the alba,super alba font.)
I feel kind of like I come off as a tourist to the community :-( and I hope non of you will hold that against me. But I really really appreciate all of the input. thanks again.
I'm definantly going to put everything said here to use, and keep trying. Try to simplify (again) so I can update regularly and get up those new models/ and some newer work up there; which honestly sounds like above all what I should be doing now.
I feel like I'm stagnating on this website, but I'll make the fixes and start getting serious and just push some art work ANY artwork out like I should be.
Thanks again so much.
http://www.juantwo.com/portfolio/
I didn't see your original site, but the current one is heavily image based, which still makes it slow. If you notice that my site and the studioflaagan website above are both pretty neutral. A bright orange website with color overlays on your thumbnails just isn't the way to go, in my opinion.
Jesse pulls of a site with orange and red, but you'll notice his is cleaner in general. http://www.skankerzero.com/
In the end your work is what's most important. I once, no twice!, got a job with an autogenerated text based website.