Trying to break into the industry when not fresh out of school?
So basically my story is I'm 28 and have been trying to get into the business of making video games professionally for the better part for 4 years. First as a character artist, and now as an environment artist. Ive had one 3D related full time job in my life working with a company doing 3d laser scan models as a general 3d artist. Then allot of unrelated jobs.
Over the years I've basically "given up" for 6-8 months at a time, but I've basically sent my stuff to every place In the US that I could find that makes games.
other then my first job I got after a 5 minuet interview, that ended up with me starting in 2 weeks and life being good. I've had maybe 5 art tests and 0 interviews,not even a short one over the phone, nothing. I stopped counting after contacting 300 companies and that was along time ago. I've tried "head hunters". lots of them, nothing. I know I have the skills to be a professional game artist, I really just want a chance to prove myself,how do I get that chance? Doing this is really all I've ever wanted to do for as long as I can remember, I think I wanted to make games when I played super mario 3 when it first came out, so that's a few years.
knowing that the internet is the best place to ask advice about your life, I ask you polycount. I've lurked here forever and this is my second post.
How do I get my foot in the door without a school/anyone backing me up, and little 3d related work history?
thank you for reading all those words if you made it this far...
Over the years I've basically "given up" for 6-8 months at a time, but I've basically sent my stuff to every place In the US that I could find that makes games.
other then my first job I got after a 5 minuet interview, that ended up with me starting in 2 weeks and life being good. I've had maybe 5 art tests and 0 interviews,not even a short one over the phone, nothing. I stopped counting after contacting 300 companies and that was along time ago. I've tried "head hunters". lots of them, nothing. I know I have the skills to be a professional game artist, I really just want a chance to prove myself,how do I get that chance? Doing this is really all I've ever wanted to do for as long as I can remember, I think I wanted to make games when I played super mario 3 when it first came out, so that's a few years.
knowing that the internet is the best place to ask advice about your life, I ask you polycount. I've lurked here forever and this is my second post.
How do I get my foot in the door without a school/anyone backing me up, and little 3d related work history?
thank you for reading all those words if you made it this far...
Replies
There is no perfect formula but finding a way for people to identify you with a piece of work (or an entire body of work) really goes a long way.
Good luck!
- BoBo
However, as I've said to several people in the past, there is enough meat there to work with, you just need to work on completing some assets and learning how to present them.
Lensveld 794 - that rolling door is just pasted onto the wall, not recessed, no mechanism. th stop sign inside a building wouldn't be so damaged. Everything just stops, there is no blending between objects, too many hard edges.
Barrels are just reusty scratched metal, but you've given no indication or real weathering, leaking contents etc.
The tree is fairly nice - why not do some more of them?
The building facade is so generic and cloned. There wouldn't be so many aircon units, they need more variation on them.
....If you are SERIOUS about wanting to get into the industry, then put your head down and churn out some awesome folio work. Stop lurking and post some work for crits and feedback. There is no magic formula....
As has been said - you've done the groundwork, it now needs polish. Have you considered joining a mod team? That way you can see your assets in a top tier game engine like unreal or HL2, and get help, feedback and encouragement from the other members - some of whom could already be game pros. And of course you can pimp your stuff here for appraisal too.
Coming from the professional side of IT, I'd have to say the Game industry seems rude, cold and lifeless. Out of about 300 emails and applications I would say only about 5 emailed me back even to say they got my resume.
One company cold contacted me for an Environment Job but it was just a recruiter and the dev folks didn't want me.
Other thing is I only know Maya, so not knowing Max hurt me. So, now I'm teaching myself that.
I'm 35, and feel like I'm getting too old for trying this myself. I have a wife and two dogs and thankfully no kids to put through this, but I'm really thinking of going back to IT myself and going back to doing this for fun.
I can't realistically think my wife would want to move with me every few years to keep finding 3d game jobs across the country. That's the other thing that limits my entry into the industry, knowing I can realistically only get a position in Orlando,Tampa area or Dallas/FTW area as my wife job she makes good money and I'm the slacker.
Keep your chin up and keep in the game, at least you can find a 3D job. I got a BFA and still can't even do that.
Keep pushing your folio, get it to a good level, and then apply everywhere again. First impressions are important, as far as quality of your work goes. I'll point you in the direction of some freelance places if you like, once you think your folio is ready.
and dont rest ..eat, sleep, breathe your portfolio. Learn
Its disheartening being rejected everytime,in my case i never even got to know why my work didnt grab their attention! but the silver lining is that the hard work does pay off in the end,ive finally got a job in this industry,..start in just over a weeks time.
good luck
About your portfolio:
Over all, the art is pretty good. But the lighting needs to be improved, the textures are noisy and often too big for the object they are covering and the meshes are not optimal and the use of polys is sometimes out too high for the objects they represent. The lack of modular design on the buildings facade hurts the overall strength of that piece. If you don't mind I'm going to rip it apart, if you do mind you should stop reading at "Awesome job."
Site Design:
Is great, the layout is perfect and the navigation is a breeze. Awesome job.
Gallery:
Garage: At first glance it looks pretty good this is your strongest piece. Looking at the poly distribution the pipes, wires, and lighting fixtures are really dense and can be done with much more optimized geometry. Different sizes of pipes could help. The sprinkler system isn't the only system in the building.
It says realtime, which engine where you using? The lights and shadows say "Hi I'm from 1996 taint I purddy?" At some places the enviro guys are also doing the lighting, and this lighting makes a strong case not to hire you. Lighting is VERY important and it can make or break a scene. Taking the time to learn basic lighting techniques will help you not only in Maya but when doing level art.
Barrels:
The texture is so noisy that its actually working against the normal map. The lighting isn't helping to show off the normal map at all. They don't fit in with the background. Something that rusty, that banged up would fit in a much more banged up dirty world. It might help to flip the board after you copy it?
Tool Box:
Looks great. But why three of them viewed at roughly the same angle? Why not rotate the copies 90 & 180 degrees?
Boxes:
On a box that has rolled metal edges you can chamfer the edges and round it out a bit, boxes don't always have to be "boxes". The texture is very noisy. I'm not sure how all of these noisy textures are going to stand up at different sizes? Some of them are pretty big for standard props, 1024x1024 for a barrel?
Building Facade:
Looks pretty good, a little cloned in places and could use some trim but thats to be expected with modular design, overall looks pretty good. Then I look at the wires and I'm left scratching my head. Its not nearly as modular as I thought. Instead of 4 modular pieces copied 16 times, there is 1 piece copied 4 times. If you wanted to do a variant AC unit you would have to do an entirely new unique piece. Doing the base piece in 4 chunks instead of one, gives you much more flexibility to insert variants that break up the cloned look.
If this was for an current game you should breaking it up even more and do it as a set of pieces you can use to make a building with. Window frames, ledges, air conditioners. You can create one detached window frame, make a few variants and save yourself a lot of texture space, and you're then leveraging the full power of instancing. Not to mention you now have a bunch of pieces you can arrange any way you like to make more unique buildings.
Resume:
The text is on a noisy background, its kind of annoying to read through.
I would say that the universally accepted qualifications for most jobs in the digital industry and many other areas reside in experience and not the academic.
Having worked on a couple of mods I know this is a starting point but be sure of whom you are working with even if it's non paid work, let's be honest you want your name in lights and publicised as much as possible so don't get caught out!
I found my current job through IGDA's local chapter website. They had a long list of local developers some I had never heard of. I check out each one and applied at the ones I liked.
I'm not sure about your area specifically but we have 2 agencies that find artists work and a few that find other industry related (non art) contract work. One of them is hard to get into unless you have prior experience but its not impossible. You can also email the companies directly letting them know you're available for contract work. Some places would rather sign someone on for 6mo and if it works out hire them after the contract. But its harder to get hired away from an agency. But then agencies often come with benefits and have wide resources to find you that next gig.
I toughed it out for a year doing art outside of games before I broke in. I found one thing that helped was keeping close friends with another talented artist, so when he got into a game company, he was able to refer me. Networking can go a long way too.
Good Luck
Take you're Artwork and put it side by side with a well known 'or' holy god of an artist. And see what you are missing. Then simply after comparing just go out and seek the knowledge and train yourself if you don't already know it. Because it will boost you pretty high up to be able to get jobs in the industry.
Generally speaking any job is not hard to get. If you know yourself and you know the company you're going for, with you're work. I wouldn't stress too heavy thinking your chances are slim.
-Also, modding helps too. Some agree and some disagree, but if you're portfolio lacks what employers want to see in a future hire. Join up on a mod team and you'll be sure to get some work for a portfolio.
As I have known quite a handful of fellas that have gotten jobs just because of modding. It's a real Plus
Make Something Unreal.
http://www.makesomethingunreal.com
build a level. Contests like at that level, and dom war, are watched. But MSU is great simply because epic is looking, and if you prove you can use the technology, make great art, and a level that plays as good as it looks, then that's something to get hired over. Not a shoe-in of course, but nothing like international recognition to help further those career goals.
Secondly: Look for internships if you can qualify. I just applied to Amaze Austin seeking an artist internship. Even if it pays like any other semi-skilled hourly job, its still a foot in the door and a way to practice your craft 8+ hrs a day rather than do something unrelated all day to pay the bills and then try and fit in lots of art time.
Otherwise I think your work is good enough to get in at an entry level as an environment artist and I am surprised that after so many applications you weren't able to get anyones attention. Try looking at how you are pitching your work and to whom!
Edit: Your texturing work seems to be the strongest, perhaps you should tailor your portfolio towards it, and find a studio big enough that it stills hires texture artist to work along side general environment artists.
You just need better environment work and more of a focus toawrds a portfolio that shows that.
I looked over the few assets and a few recommendations.
The oil drum is a case of too much detail with no real purpose on the detail,the details all gets muddled up and you lose the shape and features and in alot of places you have details which are constant over a large change in the height of the objects topograhy,scratches are fine but when a large scratch goes over an area the way you have them mapped i think overlay. Good detail on an object should show age as well as defining the basic shapes instead of muddling it all together.
Your crate is plain,when i see it i see a standard primative box,art directors will see tons of crates and if your gonna place one in your portfolio, make it stick out,model more details into the box and think of its silouhette as well
The tool box is alright but looks too plain and too generic.
But keep your head up man it took me a long time as well to make it in but you have what it takes,you just need to polish your techniques