DWIV - Slipgatecentral #2

Rules & Regs - Prizes - Judging - Clans - Mini Challenges - Mini#1 - Mini#2

To get this entry done must have been no easy feat. Tell us about your working habits? Basically, what's your secret to your apparent success?

Yeah it was HARD, the further I got into my work the harder it became to handle. I think the lack of thorough planning significantly hurt the entire process. At some point, I realized I was about to miss the deadline. Lucky for me, it was extended. About 50% of all my work was done in the last 2 weeks of the competition and not a day went by during those two weeks that I wish I could have achieved this speed from the beginning.

Success? Was due to Details and functionality I believe. At some point during the compeititon, I stumbled upon Jfletcher’s entry. The Amount of details he put into his character made me go nuts with mine. I said to myself “There is no way that this guy will make more cogs and wires than me.” Remember what I said about competition being one of the best motivators? This is the case. Actually, the greatest idea behind the DW series is rival forums. It’s fun to go here and there spying on participants, spotting good ones who are moving in same direction, and trying to make a better move. I personally see it as a big huge game, full of joys and frustrations, thrilling, and cool.

What would be your advice for aspiring game artists out there? What type of training do you think would be helpful in becoming a successful 3d artist?

I’m not the kind of guy who gives great advice. The best I can do is point my finger to some mistakes I did and hope others will avoid them in the future.

1) Online competitions are cool. They are a fast and rewarding way to fill up your portfolio with some of the best artworks you have done to date, so don’t skip competitions. If you have spare time, do them.

2) Do your best to finish your work, because the worst thing that can happen is your work gets trashed because you were too lazy or lame to finish it. Even if it's not perfect, a finished piece is better than awesome. An unfinished piece is simply forgotten, period.

3) Don’t be lazy and just google for tutorials and master classes all the time. The generation of artists, which started making CG in the 90’s, didn’t have any video lessons or helpful 3d websites. Instead, we had to read a 5-kilo book. Nowadays, 90% of info needed to solve your immediate problems while working and to improve your skills, you can find all over the web, lying on the surface.

4) Learn how to plan. It’s really important, although it might seem boring. It helps A LOT! Modern game art is about producing crazy amount of artwork in short amount of time, so the better you plan your workflow, the more success you will have.

5) This is no mistake of mine, but kind of actual advice: If you consider yourself a game artist: know games and play them. It’s not very common, but I’ve seen quite a few artists in the industry who have a very distant relationship with games - needless to say, they often fail miserably.

6) And finally, my biggest fail and I wouldn’t wish this to happen to any aspiring 3D artist out there: get a solid 2d art education. The main reason for most of my mistakes is a lack of a professional education, I regret that I was foolish enough to skip it.

Was there someone, or some thing that helped make you who you are today? Is there anyone you would like to thank, or at least give a shout to?

I guess almost every decision I’ve made in my life, good or bad, affected my career in some way. I cant really tell if there was one thing in particular that made me go into game development. On the other hand, there was many good people, friends and co-workers in my life who helped me in various ways, and I’m extremely thankful for having them. But best credits goes to my wife, Tamara "FirstKeeper" Salatova, who made year 2009 the best year of my life.

What did you learn from the experience and would you do it all over again next year if you could?

As I said before, bad planning almost made me fail. I will not make the same mistake again. Also, I noticed that good presentation makes, like, 50% of overall impression of any entry. So what I need to do is become good friends with Mental Ray... finally.

And yes, if nothing interferes with my life in next few months, I’m entering Dominance War V, it’s going to be epic and I’d a total fool to miss it.

Any final thoughts/words?

I'll never get tired saying this: thanks a lot Fred, for hosting such an amazing contest, a great opportunity for every game artist out there, and it only gets better every year, keep it up!

Your work in Dominance War IV was an inspiration to all! Thank you for your time and I am positive that we are all looking forward to seeing more of your fantastic work in future Dominance Wars!

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