studying aboard or portfolio or what?

[Vikkie]

Hi guys,

I have an opportunity to study one semester at Sweden, Malmö University. I was wondering if I should do it or not. When there, I can also apply for a internship at Massive Entertainment. The downside is I won't be having enough time to work on my portfolio.

If not, I will be staying here and keep building my portfolio for a summer internship overseas.

My question is, in the long run, does it matter to the companies that I have studied abroad for a semester or is my overall portfolio more important?

In order of importance how should these be?

-Portfolio
-Company I worked as an intern
-Academic success

Thanks in advance.

[TryForce]

most important is your Connection to other artist. Means if other people allready know about you and your work they can suggest you to your Chef if they're looking for someone.

Go to the university if you dont know to much of Game Art go studiyng in sweden. If you know enough try to get somewhere a apprecentship (or somehow liek that its called) and try to showoff yourself there and maybe apply for a job. In the Mean time you are able to pull up a Portofolio for yourself.

Im not myself in the industrie as im still to young to go studying, but i asked several fellas out about this, this is what i have gathered.

[Vikkie]

Thank you TryForce, that makes sense :)

here's a more complete breakdown of the situation:

while here, I have a place to live, enough resources and time to work on my portfolio.

while there, I will be in a dorm with a laptop, in an unfamiliar place.

I'm in my 5th semester and I have 3 semester for my graduation. To graduate I also need to complete an internship.

So staying here is good for my portfolio, and hopefully I can nail an awesome internship somewhere this summer.

But spending 5 months this winter in Sweden, I'm not sure if I'll have the energy to work on my portfolio and if I can not get an internship while there, I'll have to do my internship here, in Turkey in a non game-dev company. Ending up with a not so good portfolio and an internship on something I'm not really dying for.

it seems like a big gamble and I can't really process the odds.

edit: oh I also e-mailed Massive Entertainment about if they'll be accepting internships this semester but haven't heard from them yet. And the deadline for the student mobility program is tuesday :S

[butt_sahib]

WHat i suggest is, stay in turkey, work on your portfolio crazy. You mention that you have to do an internship inorder to graduate- so i guess location dont matter either.Though doing an internship at a high rated company is better than a low profile one- just doing an internship is MUCH better/helpful than not doing one at all. Hopefully you catch my drfit.
After all, an actual JOB is more important than any kind of internship.

As far as the priorities go, i would definately say, from what ive gathered :):
-Portfolio
-Company of internship/ or is you have done an internship or not
-Academic

Good Luck :)

[Deto]

I'd say... Academic and Portfolio are about as important, but Company intership/such experience are WAY more important than either of them. Portfolio is nice show, but... guess what, there's always someone better than you, and if there's someone as good as you, but they got either experience or academic behind their 'skills', sorry, they win...

You can always 'skip life' later and do the portfolio, but if you've been given change to get experience and schooling, I'd pick them anytime.

Most of industrial 'experts' and professionals say you portfolio is most important thing... Guess why? By the time they were emplyed (5+ years ago), there wasn't so many school out there, there wasn't so many 3D company experience on people, all recruiting was done by their individual portfolio alone... Sad, but true in most cases.

And really, the most shame is, your portfolio only wins against people of way below skill than yours... Where as your academic and back experience can beat better portfolio :)

[Ramseus]

If you do an internship then you'll be building a portfolio while working at an actual studio, so you shouldn't have to go home at night and work on personal projects for your folio while you're there.

[ShadyD]

I'd put portofolio last.
You can always do that one, whenever you feel like it and build it as you go.

[Tiax]

aww a fellow turkish artist , hello vikkie :D

to be honest if you're planing a career as a game-artist , sitting at home&working on your portfolio wont help u much in turkey. as we got only 1-2 game studios here , and probably their salary etc are way under world standarts ; you may wanna go aboard when u got chance.

i think studying game-art in a well-known uni & internship in a well-known game studio is much better then portfolio in this situation.
i mean cmon , 2 year from now , when you're gratuated ; you'll find it much harder to go&settle in another country just for a "starter artist" job.

honestly thats why i buried my game-art dreams and keep it only as a hobby , but who knows , you may find your way in industry :) but again , there isnt a gaming industry in turkey , if you want it , try to go aboard as soon as possible...

[FredH]

If you are applying for a programmer or some form of a technical job in a game company, I would say an academic background is really good to have on your resume. But, if you are applying for an artist position, only your portfolio can open doors for you. They won't even read your resume if they don't see some art that suggests you are convicted and passionate about games. Art directors simply don't have enough time to read the enourmous amount of applications they get every week. It's true that there are more and more schools popping out of the wood work these days, but this only increases the amount of applications employers get, so this makes it even worse for jobseekers with no art.

A portfolio is absolutly number 1 on the list. Nothing else even comes close to it.
A portfolio does the following things;
- Gives you credit as an artist
- Shows that you are capable of getting stuff done, on your own or at work
- Shows that you are passionate about creating game art
- Shows that you are capable of learning new things
- Shows that you can enter into their company and start producing work quickly.

A resume does the following:
- Won't be read unless you have an ok portfolio

If I had to list them in order of importance, it would be:
1. Portfolio
3. Connections (online forums, friends etc)
6. Personality (If you make it to the interview, be nice:) )
.
.
.
25. Acedemic

If I were you, I'd skip sweden. Stay in turkey, but do not work on your portfolio at home. Only a very small number of people have the will power to resist watching tv, eating, sleeping, playing games, or do something else rather than sitting down and working on his/hers portfolio. Try to find a cheap art course somewhere that will let you work on your 2d or 3d art. Then try to create game art during these courses. A friend of mine here uses gameartisans' competitions for a substitute for his projects in class.

The choice is up to you;) Whichever method you choose, I just hope to see some of your art as your progress:)

Good Luck

[YdoUwant2know]

Wow, some very useful information Fred.

Just out of curiosity, for someone looking at getting into the industry, what are the other 21 points? Some of us could use all the help we can get :D

I agree that a portfolio is very important, but getting out into the world can be critical too. The big question that you have to ask, is what do you want to do with your life? if this study abroad program is a once and a life time thing, can you really give that up for the chance that you may get an internship over the summer?

[Vikkie]

Thank you for all the replies everyone :D

I'm studying Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design here and I'll be taking Interaction Design courses there. Verry little relation to game art in both schools (at least in a technical aspect).

As Tiax said, there's no industry here and If I want to get into the games industry, I'l need to make a good portfolio, do a kickass internship at a good studio this summer overseas and make contacts etc.

I agree with the general idea that I can do the portfolio anytime I like, but to get a good internship overseas I'll be needing something impressive for the studio to accept me. They can always go hire somebody else from their country and not work on any visa stuff.

Things are a bit more clearer now, thanks everyone.
Also I should be working on my portfolio no matterwhat, enough with my bitching :D

[TryForce]

so you have decided to do what?

I mean there are alot of opinions with a few different directions.

Even if you are Studying you can do your Porto, even while working. So?
Sitting home and making your porto? ;P

[Sordid23]

I have to agree with FredH on the point that portfollio is most important, but on the other side it think it would be allot of fun to go abroad and learn stuff from the people there witch may in the end lead to a better portfollio. I am a firm believer that if you don get good feed back you dont learn alot and it is going to thake allot of time to put a portfollio together that matches your ambition.

[Antimagic]

25. Acedemic? I think is should be in the 20th position at the very least:p

I think the only thing that wasn't mentioned was, it's critical to find a good artist as a friend or even a mentor. Someone good who is an msn friend. Then ask that person for 5 minutes of feedback whenever you can. First you will try your best to impress him, and second, he will give you honest critiques that will surely raise your level in art.

[Vikkie]

I am still not entirely sure but here's my current plan:

- I'll apply for the student mobility program and take the necessary tests.
- Meanwhile I'll wait to hear from Massive Entertainment for the internship. The studio is in a mile readius of the campus.
- If Massive Entertainment replies my e-mail with a positive approach I'll go to sweden and study there for 5 months and do my internship at Massive Entertainment.

- Meanwhile I'll keep modelling and drawing/painting and start building a portfolio, so if I don't go to Sweden I can do my internship this summer overseas.

But whatever the time puts on my plate, I'll have to start building a portfolio for my internship application soon. So it's go time for me! I'll start a thread so I can get feedback from you awesome people as I start building my portfolio.

I wish I hadn't registered for 8 classes this semester :D

[Tiax]

I think the only thing that wasn't mentioned was, it's critical to find a good artist as a friend or even a mentor. Someone good who is an msn friend. Then ask that person for 5 minutes of feedback whenever you can. First you will try your best to impress him, and second, he will give you honest critiques that will surely raise your level in art.
true but its really hard to find a friend&mentor to be honest. most of those good artists are busy people afterall , if you're not good friends , its hard to ask someone for such mentorship.
but yea , a mentor is probably the best thing for anyone not in industry or a self-tought newbie like me. but still , forums are just as good ; just slower :P

vikkie-good luck with all your plans vikkie :D you're the first low-poly artist i know in turkey , with serious plans to get in industry . i hope you'll find your way in ;)

[Antimagic]

Yeah, you are right about the difficulties in finding a mentor. You would really have to impress them with something before they'd let you talk with them on msn. Still though, it never hurts to try I guess:)

Vikkie, 8 courses, that's quite a bit:s

[Tiax]

hmmm if i understood that right ; 8 course , which will prob take 25-30 hour a week ? in fact its even low for universities in turkey . i got 12 lesson & 39 hours a week , its easier for me tho ; i know i'll fail most of them anyway so i dont study&attend any lessons :P ups anyway , srry for offtopic

[Vikkie]

hmmm if i understood that right ; 8 course , which will prob take 25-30 hour a week ? in fact its even low for universities in turkey . i got 12 lesson & 39 hours a week , its easier for me tho ; i know i'll fail most of them anyway so i dont study&attend any lessons :P ups anyway , srry for offtopic

hehe I know what you mean:) I have 22 hours of class every week and around 80 hours to work on my homeworks. I take Motion Graphics, 3D animation, 2D animation, Computer Aided Graphic Design, Web Design, Digital Video Processing, Literature and History, it's quite a load :D

True, we have very few low poly artists here, one you would know teaches my 3D course, Cetin Tuker.

I studied 3 years in Computer Science Engineering then I switched to Visual Arts, I'm that serious :D

[Deto]

Uhm... you'll probably kill me after this but... We got 10 hours of class each week :D Rest we do at our own time, but I like doing 3D nonstop anyways, so its only 10 hours per week to study :)

[TryForce]

it fun huh? <_<

you lucky dont have to do the "whole" school now .... now you learn something in your subject :'( !!!!

Owell I dont think a Mentor is important or? I mean, look up how many Tutorials are out there..... geez. GOod luck :D

[iworkat]

I'm going to go out on a limb here... I know for a Fact that the good old face to face... Connections, Hey remember me... is probably top 'o' the list.

Why?

Because your connection will alert you to when positions are even available... and most of the time will pretty much help you tailor your portfolio so it will even be looked...

Scattered and unfocused portfolios are often from "School Work"... and some art directors, depending on time may spend the time to find your greatness... So even if you are studying in school, as soon as you can; focus your studying... Don't allow YOUR portfolio to be a mish mash of "SCHOOL WORK"... you know it has the name of the class, etc...

So my list would be

1) Industry Contacts / Friends/ Mentors
2) Quality Portfolio ( Focused on a primary area of skill, and a couple minor ones)
2a) Related Internship / Work Experience
3) Schooling

Schooling in my opinion is to give you an opportunity to network and also develop your skills and understanding of core art concepts.

I would say, if you need to do a MAJOR body of work for your portfolio... I'd take Fred's advice and use form contests to develop a body of work... it will also show a potential employer you can meet deadlines... and skip the trip...

If you need to do a few more pieces to put the extra shine in your portfolio... take the trip, it may make for an interesting story in an interview...