Career Advancement tips
polycounter lvl 11
So I'd like to become an artist in the gaming industry. I've got a portfolio, and I receive critiques on my art regulary from you awesome polycounters, but what I'd like to know is what did some of you do to land that position? They say it also has to do with who you know, and being at the right place at the right time.
Currently, I have a QA position specializing in pre-integration checks for 3D models at Electronic Arts. After talking to the artists, art directors and technical artists, they all seem to agree that I am, at the very least, a competent 3D artist. But due to the nature of my contract (I'm a 3rd party contractor) and internal issues caused by the recession, I'm finding it almost impossible to be granted a chance. This isn't even taking into account how I can improve as an artist.
So my question is, am I doing everything I can? Or should I be doing more to get my name out there? Lookin for advice
Currently, I have a QA position specializing in pre-integration checks for 3D models at Electronic Arts. After talking to the artists, art directors and technical artists, they all seem to agree that I am, at the very least, a competent 3D artist. But due to the nature of my contract (I'm a 3rd party contractor) and internal issues caused by the recession, I'm finding it almost impossible to be granted a chance. This isn't even taking into account how I can improve as an artist.
So my question is, am I doing everything I can? Or should I be doing more to get my name out there? Lookin for advice
Replies
Again, i'm going to recommend the UT3 engine, you work for EA, you should know why
Just keep at your 3d, and do as much networking as you possibly can. Get involved in local groups. Sometimes there are like Autodesk user groups, Photoshop user groups etc. in cities that will meet monthly or quarterly and those are great events to just show up at, become a part of, and do some serious networking with artists and other industry ppl. Meet enough people and get them to like you and they'll remember you when opportunities come up. Goto the Polycount GDC meet up this year in San Fran. Stuff like that.
A simple combination of being persistent in your 3d artwork and persistently trying to network as much as possible and sooner or later, an opportunity will come your way.
Be willing to move across the country or to a foreign country. That kills a lot of artists that I know who refuse to leave San Diego or SoCal. Bad idea IMO>
Best of luck!
How does one become awesome: Observe, Practice..repeat
Even though I should do this more myself, go to networking events. QA jobs like you are doing are great for this too. While I worked a short contract in QA at EA I met and made friends ton of people looking to work in the same industry.
And yeah, lastly, don't stop improving your art.
What if you're generally unlikeable and your attempts at being likeable just make you even more unlikeable?
There are loads of competent artists all desperately looking for a chance as well, the only thing that can really set you apart from the rest is if your work was clearly better.
Sure you can meet people and make friends for a day but if your skills aren't good enough compared to the "hundreds" of applicants they receive, then I seriously doubt they will hire you based on your personality alone.
I got my job directly through someone I met at a networking event at GDC. I knew a person who knew a person who met me in San Fran to look at my work. This person liked me alright and agreed that my portfolio was at a level of quality that he referred me directly to his HR. Within a few weeks I had a job at Cryptic.
Simply wouldn't have happened for me if I wouldn't have had those network connections, nor would it have happened if I didn't have a folio to back it up.
Exact same situation with my prior job at SCEA. Totally got it through a guy who know a guy who agreed my portfolio was in line with the work they needed done.
Not doing any networking and making friends with people because you don't believe it will help further your career is like shooting yourself in the balls. I guess here's the catch... It won't do anything for you if your portfolio sucks.
1. Ditch the flash portfolio website, they're annoying and slow and the screenshots always look blurry.
2. Focus all your work on what you want to do in the industry, I see character, environment, all types of stuff on your site. I can't tell by looking at your work what you want to do. Pick a discipline and remove all the other work that conflicts with that discipline.
I guess it depends on what kind/size company you want to get into...Alot of the smaller companies want to see people that have a diverse skill set because you could be doing an iphone game where your doing all the characters, environments, UI..etc etc. I agree with what your saying if you were planning on working at a big studio with a very specialized pipeline...but not everybody is looking for that.
Malcolm is right about this increasing your odds of being hired at most studios. It's a trade off, you gotta hedge your bets as you see fit.
Am I wrong and you actually chat for much longer? Or is that 10 mins really enough to establish a "connection"?
These kind of events also cost around £200-£400 right? Anyway the main reason I don't attend is because I'm socially awkward
I think that is one of the main reasons I've failed all my interviews too
The interviewers never give concise feedback saying anything negative about you though, I have a feeling its because people are too nice and just generally don't like telling people the "harsh" truth.
Kinda annoying since its the "harsh" truths that help the most. I hate saying "harsh", makes me feel weak for using it even when its in quotation marks. Its a word for weaklings!
GDC was instrumental in helping me obtain my current job. I met my art lead there and he's the one who helped me get my foot in the company.
It's a great place to meet people. Go if you get the chance and are looking for a job. Bring business cards and your portfolio if you're serious.
This has gotten me confused lately. Not necessarily how to organize my portfolio, but where to focus.
I want to do character modeling, but I've heard that it is very difficult to get a job like this unless you've been in the industry for a while. One professional says I should go 110% into it, ignoring everything else until I'm super awesome at it. Another professional says it might be useful to pick up a secondary focus that hedges my bets a bit better to break into the industry, but to keep the portfolios separate.
Assuming his first goal should be to become better and get a job, I'd say focus on one thing and kick ass at that. No reason spreading yourself thin when you want to get your foot in.
I'm a generalist myself but I've had 20 or so years to practice
[ame]
just be confident. find the best examples of what you're trying to do and match it. I THINK.. it's all about your portfolio. i dunno. maybe i'm crazy, but that worked for me.
obviously you're interested in lighting and composition.. which you're getting pretty damn good at! also, your texturing is coming along well. here's my advice.
Johny says do better art-- and he's right i think. but that just means better in terms of what the group agrees with right?
do what Ghostscape says and sell out. This is easy for me to say because i just automatically subscribed to the trends, but there is some popular stuff out there.
look at what the great artists on this forum are doing.. MoP, Peppy, B1ll, those guys... people love that shit.. it gives them errecshuns. if you want to get into the industry, just find out what gives people bonners and DO IT. rip MoP off... but only what you like. find something that you like, and everyone likes, and find out why you like it.
take every little good feeling inside yourself and amplify it.. bring it to the surface and put it into your art. for the first while, i thought i was just being a cheep hack and imitating everyone.. but shit, it works, and that's what all artists do anyway. if they don't suck.
big rant, but what i'm trying to say it.... artists do what they love.. but be a little sensitive to what OTHER people love.. and ssee if you can find something that overlaps.. and then hit that shit baby. HIT IT!
Anyways, point being, some artists get a job right out of school, but this is extremely rare imo. With how competitive things are currently, it's almost a rite of passage to struggle for a while before you land a job, and hopefully you will look back on your experience one day, and be proud that you made it!
Like others have said, just work as hard as you possibly can on your art. Attempt to do a little networking a couple of times a week and attend any local meets or stuff like that. If you do this, the networking side of things should be covered. If you're doing QA at EA I'm guessing you have met enough people that if your art was indeed good enough, you would get a job.
I think you know what you need to do to keep improving your skills, so just keep working at it. Eventually you will make it and I think you're on the right track. Good luck!
pangarang that's interesting you work in qa at ea that's how I started out at the burnaby campus, worked there for 2 years testing games while practicing 3d at home after work before I landed the art job.
Being socially adept means fuck all, imo and if someone doesn't like me because I'm shy they can fuck off, too. I do my job, do it well and my employers are ecstatic with my work. I can work with my fellow artists just fine, but it's nobody's damn business how I socialize.
As for the topic, it's the same shite that's been said over and over. PRACTICE. Make friends with artists online and (preferably) in reality. Regardless of studios being all over the world, our industry is small.
Especially in these times, it's all about who you know. If you apply through the typical HR process, you'll be lost for weeks in a sea of other applicants. But if you know someone, they can hand your resume right to their art director and skip all of that. Make sure you're up to snuff on the latest art tech that's being used by the studios you're applying for (something I'm also working on). As others have said, there's also expos like GDC. It's a great opportunity to hand-deliver your work to the people that matter.
*EDIT*
Oh yeah, like Vassago said, it's a HUGE bonus if you have contacts...you'll leapfrog past all the typical HR application craziness (at least that was my experience).
And people need to know about you or they can't hire you. So make sure everyone knows about you. You can do this by attending open houses and asking anyone you do know at studios if you can come to a Friday party type situation. Don't bring your reel. Just meet them and offer to email them your web site. Getting around your contact and into direct contact with the team is a good idea as long as it's not in an intrusive or naggy way. Remember that a week in your time is a day in theirs when you're looking for a job.
You can also get out there by doing things like this... Get all over the forums with undeniably good art though.
Also, if you're trying to get a job in Vancouver. Don't bother with the mod scene. No one plays mods here. Aim for near movie quality game art.
What I should of said is I'm introverted. http://giftedkids.about.com/b/2006/07/13/shy-or-introverted.htm
I don't get nervous in social situations, I just don't have any interest in small talk.
I do like to discuss topics that I'm involved in like making a game, giving comments about any aspects of games/game art/martial arts/whatever I'm interested in.
I just don't care much about other peoples personal lives, which results in quite a boring character. Of course I'm not rude enough to tell whoever is talking to me to shut up because I'm not interested, I just stand there and endure it but deep inside its like "yea whatever, don't care..."
But thats not to say I didn't listen to them, because I usually do, and I have pretty good memory so I tend to remember all this "useless" information they tell me
So all of my "social awkwardness" comes from lack of interest rather than lack of intelligence or confidence.
I have been trying to fix it lately though by visiting/going out with friends more often but it doesn't seem to be working.
*edit
well, nothin i can really say to help you there then. I think it would be a great benefit if you actually did honestly care what people talked to you about though. Although it's not something you can force. Industry networking is a lot easier if you can at least feign interest in what people are saying to you though.
i guess i'll just say this:
I'm an extrovert that works best with other extroverts. This behavior has always been completely beneficial to me in my professional career. It's resulted in extremely fast and effective professional and social networking.
i may go back and censor some of my posts as to not come across as a jerk or something.
this.
as an addition, I'm quite the introvert person, but I've worked hard to be extrovert, just as it is the best way to get to know people, work with them, and learn things.
You might be anxious, nervous in social situations but you dont know it.
No one(maybe someone) is really interested in other peoples lives, they say things to break the ice, all manner of reasons, rarely to do with the actual content of the questions, specifically.
It appears to me that you have got used to your lack of percieved abilities, social interactions, accepted it and explained it away with, not being interested in anything else.
You dont get nervous because you avoid doing anything that might possible make you nervous.
Thats just my opinion.
Can't help but think it does hold you back a little as most interviews i've been for (not game related) have always ended quite quick because of my personality.
Sometimes i think "just fuck it", it's who i am and can't change that. I am willing to try and compromise and meet people half way though.
This whole 'selling yourself' is something i've never understood and don't think i ever will.
Take another step further back, see a product as the work of a collection of 40+ people ranging from sound engineers, to programmers, to even marketing. No one person made that game good, everyone contributed varying ammounts. This isn't an industry about superstars, it's an industry about teams, company visions, etc. Blizzard, Epic, and Valve employees are human like anyone else, but they have employees who work in tandem to make an amazing, cohesive product, for that your need communication and comrade. No one wants to hire a John Romero game superstar.
The more I come to grips with the fact that the portfolio alone wont get you in, the happier I am. It's like a huge weight lifted from your shoulders. In fact if you're too obsessed with your work, i think you need to take a break, take a couple weeks off the stressing and find that happy go lucky person you were before you were so worried about breaking into the industry, because that's the dude they want to hire. The guy who knows his art's still in there somewhere too.
Dave Attel (not the black dude, the jewish dude) once said ""Laying in bed at night you start thinking, 'What kind of job could I get, what would be my dream job? Manager of a chocolate factory run by big-breasted hookers? Nah, I don't got the schoolin' for that,'. Think about that long and hard. Or don't it's just nonsense to break the tension
so your not shy...your just an a$$hole?
hmm yea but negative in a different way
Calabi thats quite a cynical view, you're saying most people are not really interested in other people's lives and most people are just "faking it" to eachother? Doesn't it kinda suck that everyone is being fake with eachother?
Anyway I disagree with that, I think people make conversations because it genuinely is something they enjoy doing. Whether its for the company/friendship, laughs, discussions, learning or whatever, chatting is something they enjoy doing. Thats why you want to "break the ice", because "the ice" is more boring for you than a conversation - and those who'd prefer not to chat in these situations are defined as boring.
btw pope I'm not denying that social skills help in social situations such as getting jobs in game dev. I'm just saying mine suck
And I read your post before your ninja edit, so now I know where the bots work!
Constantly talk higher and more often than others. Also cut in as soon as someone has something to say. Also, do remember that just because you have absolutely no knowledge about what other are talking about that doesnt mean you should restrain yourself from cutting in and talking pointless crap. As long as you learn some solid value words like "per pixel", "deferred rendering", or even "dynamic lighting solution" you will do fine. Always remember to never take responsibility for anything you've done or worked on. Oh and for gods sake, if you find yourself in a situation where something you approved or signed off on gets questioned, always deny all knowledge of said prop, texture, shader or character.
Its a fair comment, if you dont chat at these things you would be boring, unless you are able to entertain in some way. Juggling, jokes, vulgar habits, shout loudly, bad dancing. I guarantee these talkative people the ones that seem to be the life and soul of parties are usually the ones bored out of there head.
Talking really requires no skills, just takes practice, I'm shit at it too. I have no means to practice at the mo(thats just an excuse) but thats all you need to do. Feign interest, if you dont have anything interesting to say about yourself, deflect the questions back to them, change the subject, probe them for anything that might be interesting about them and that you might have in common.
If you get in on an "act", pretending to be someone else, you're not going to be happy, because you're going to be doing that act for a while. Find a way to be you, but still respected. No one's perfect, and most talented individuals have to put on some bit of an act here and there to fit in. Find the balance that works for you.
JUST SAYING.
Dick.
I won't be telling them to fuck off unless they inquire about my socializing
I don't think being shy is the issue. More like being an asshole.
Being socially adept is HUGE imo. You don't have to be Mr. Popularity, but just don't be a Douche.
I have SEEN the Better Artist Candidate A, passed over because he didn't fit in as well as the Almost as good but the immensely more Sociable Candidate B.
I just realized - aka forgot to mention - that I think a huge contributing factor to me not really getting out of QA and into a development position is that I haven't been APPLYING. I was too busy nitpicking at the little things that I forgot to mention what is likely a major factor, lol.
At least you already are working in a game company. I am a student who is about to graduate at the end of the year, still trying to get better... improving, but probably won't be amazing any time soon. So there goes having an exceptional portfolio. I'm not all that good at networking, so i don't really meet people at conventions either.
Ahh!! I think i'm experiencing a pre-graduation break down *twitch*