Education vs Work - Ever gone back to school?
polycounter lvl 17
Title pretty much says it all. Have you ever gone back to school after you´ve gotten a job in the industry?
I´m on of the lucky ones that have gotten the chance (Been working 1.5 years soon) and I do a good job and all that and I´m sure I could get a job at another place etc etc so that´s not the problem but lately i´ve been thinking abit more about my future and what i would gain by going back to school (Fine arts and art in general).
I´m a lousy 2D artist and I see concept artists as rockstars. Mastery of the pen is quite frankly... awesome!
Hell maybe I would gain more on just sitting down on my ass. Taking some courses while staying in the industry and work on it in my sparetime.
So... yeah. I´m interested in hearing what other people has to say.
I´m on of the lucky ones that have gotten the chance (Been working 1.5 years soon) and I do a good job and all that and I´m sure I could get a job at another place etc etc so that´s not the problem but lately i´ve been thinking abit more about my future and what i would gain by going back to school (Fine arts and art in general).
I´m a lousy 2D artist and I see concept artists as rockstars. Mastery of the pen is quite frankly... awesome!
Hell maybe I would gain more on just sitting down on my ass. Taking some courses while staying in the industry and work on it in my sparetime.
So... yeah. I´m interested in hearing what other people has to say.
Replies
I have been thinking about switching to a sculpture program lately. I think going to an art school would provide more motivation to work on my skills as I'll be surrounded by people with similar aims.(I have like only 2 friends who are interested in visual art, let alone game art) Online communities like this place are nice and very helpful indeed but talking with real people would be better I guess.
And probably a degree in a related field would be useful when applying overseas. But I'm not sure this applies to you as you already have some work experience. I wonder what others have to say about this.
Here is a little of my background:
Personally, I have 1 associates, and 2 Bachelor degrees all from different colleges. One of my Bachelors is a BA in multimedia and the other is a BS in computer information systems. I recently got the BA and come early 09' when I get my portfolio and work in general looking better, I plan to start looking for my first job in the game industry.
Any ways, just from my own experience I have found that getting an actual degree these days doesn't mean a whole lot when it comes to getting a job. Portfolio, connections, and experience is what really matters.
So it really boils down to why you want to go back to school.
If you want to better yourself and become better at 2d art, I would suggest just take a class or two in your free time at a local community college or find a good online course. I don't know how you learned the skill sets you already have, but chances are you could probably find a good DVD set and get your 2d art to the level you want. Most importantly you would save lots of money and time doing it this way Here is one such DVD set that I like: http://the-structure-of-man.blogspot.com/
In conclusion, the last thing I would do is stop working in the game industry as a trade of to go back to school and get a degree. IMO, it simply won't pay off, and you will probably wish you hadn't. As for me, I would probably be far better off never even going to college, and simply learning 3d on my own from the start and getting a job in the game industry when I turned 21. I'm 26 now and just getting started and have a crap load of debt. Wanna trade places? lol.
Good luck
I'd agree with your assumption about concept artists being seen in higher regards. My ability to make some nice digital paintings has helped me tremendously in my career. I think there is a general consensus that defines a good artist by these terms, essentially leaving less chance they will suck as a game artist, the idea that, if they can make a beautiful painting, they are more likely to make beautiful game art.
However, school is really fucking expensive.
However, instead of seeking another full college course I think I'm going to take local art classes, which are MUCH cheaper and usually are either one shot or for a few weeks at a time, and just in general have a steady schedule of when I work on my skills. If I keep it consistent and focus there should be improvement.
My biggest problem is that I try to generalize myself too much which I think is impairing the rate I learn it. I want to do more high poly, I want to do more drawing, coloring, sculpting. This is all fine and dandy but I keep trying to do them all at one time, where going one at a time is probably a better choice and would allow more improvement in less time, and would in turn help improve the other skills as well. I guess this turned more into a brain splurge, hope you got something out of it.
Now for some classes, like say a math class, this isn't quite the same as the course book does tend to teach you some new things, however if you are looking to improve your art skills, specifically in illustration, why not go talk to the concept art lead/art director/big paint poobah at your job and ask if they could simply forward you one of the assignments they've given one of the other concept artists already that you can do in your spare time, and have it due each week. Pitch the director person the deal that if they'll do this for you, and agree to critique it, you'll do a piece a week. If you fail to turn in a piece (crunchtime not withstanding) you don't get any more assignments. Its just like a school course but several thousand dollars cheaper.
so i decided to quit the job and applied at an academy of fine arts in germany and am now studying industrial design.
and i must say it was a great decision. i've improved so much within just the first semester.
my goal is not to get a better paid job in the end but to improve my skills and give more thought to what i am creating.
might be a different experience for other people but i guess i would still recommend it if you think it will help you. it probably depends on what you expect to get out of your education
Last week I left my industry job and will be going back to art school in the Spring (to study traditional art). Like Sa74n, the work I was doing just wasn't cutting it, creatively, even though I did love what I was doing. I don't care about fancy and expensive degrees, I'm going back to school for the experience and to broaden my creative horizons.
Going the way he has is a good option, but only if you go to a good school. Pick carefully, because many (including the one at which I got my BFA) are not so hot.
I'm a concept artist, and I learned the majority of what I know on my own time. I did go to art school, but for the most part it was just an exercise in frustration. In spite of that, one thing it did do for me is give me the time to improve on my own, when I didn't have to work full time or have any obligations to anybody but myself. If I'd had to have a real job during that time, I'm not sure I would've been as successful as I was.
Biggest thing to learn to draw/illustrate/concept design stuff better is just to actually do it, and look at how other people do it. If you find your job gets in the way and it's something you really want, school might just give you the time to focus on it as well as offer you help. But if you want to keep your job and think you have the discipline to learn on your own out-of-work time, then it's entirely possible to do that with the right support and resources. There's a lot you can get from hard work and peer critiques on conceptart.org or here on polycount.
I dont know what your background education wise is. But if you already have a BA of sometype. Why not use this as an excuse to go for a MFA MDA of some sort? You have more chance of getting subsidies/grants from the school, earning credits and mulah teaching the BAs what you know (and being a game person inside the University system will really give you some in-roads since they are still catching up). MFA degrees dont require you to be as long as a BA, nor all the BS classes, and with most schools programs, you have more personal choice on how your degree pans out and where you want to go with it.
Beyond that, governments are more willing to give out work visas and such to individuals with Masters from what I have been told in the past.
A masters on the other hand in this industry as many have said here before means nothing. In fact, could possibly hurt you if they hiring manager thinks you would automatically be expecting more money than other applicants. So it is a trade off (maybe hide your masters on your resume, but make it clear when applying for work visas?).
I've also wanted to further my 2D skills, because they are no where near the level I want them to be.
Having gone to the Concept Art.org/Massive Black workshop in NZ a few weeks ago was a real eye opener and the techniques, skills, workflows and ideas I learned in those 4 days were amazing. My 2D stuff has improved atleast 300% since then.
I've thought about furthering my education and going back to school to study a traditional/fine arts course and have been heavily considering it for over 6 months now. And after the NZ workshop, it has made me want to do it even moreso and the only thing stopping me is my current job.
Good luck with what ever decision you make, and sorry I can't really be more helpful because I'm torn between the two options. But the only way you will improve is just practice and more practice, pushing yourself to do things you've never done before.
-caseyjones