You'll be in an environment with other people who you can draw from, and there's always Polycount, or Google. The sooner you get more comfortable with finding or coming up with solutions the better.
Confidence will come when you have created an art good enough that you yourself can be impressed with. You'll be pushed to your limits working in studio which will improve your skill and your work speed even further.
These days? My advice would be to make the recap. http://www.polycount.com/2014/08/22/polycount-recap-31/ You need to have something that people go 'oh shoot you need to see this!" or something like that. Every person I personally know that's gotten their first job in the past 2-3 years has a piece in a recap (ok maybe not…
Some places would see his as an accomplishment. Others, yeah could see it as bragging. Personally I don't think you need to add a sticker gif to your portfolio on this page or something. I meant more of that's where the bar is quality wise.
Huh... my original intent was actually to try working on freelance gigs first to get more experience. In hindsight, though... In that situation, you're all on your own without any guidance. Would that actually be a backwards approach? Is it more reasonable to try to get into a studio, and freelance later once you have a…
Hmm.. As of right now, I'm only going to start applying once I am able to create work that is equal or better to the guys doing AAA scenes. I think it's becoming easier and easier with all of this new awesome software too so there's no reason not to shoot that high. So I guess to answer your question from someone who isn't…
You just have to be confident and know what you're doing. Last year, I thought it would have taken 5 years to to get a job in the industry. Today, it feels like I could apply anytime. The reason I'm waiting is I need to sharpen my skills. I'm still very behind when texturing. I need to model more complex objects. However,…