Need advice from people in the industry

[Kickflipkid687]

Hi,

I need some advice from you guys, more so modelers, for someone about to try and get a job in the industry.

I am currently a student in Minnesota in the game design field, and am about to graduate in 5-6 months. I am a skilled 3ds max user, and know photshop very well. I also am working on learning Zbrush in my spare time.

My question though is weather it would be wise to concentrate on prop modeling or to work on character modeling/organic. I have made quite a few characters now, anime and realistic for games and animations for school, but I am not sure if it would get me anywhere right now.

I guess I just want to know what kind of competition I would be up against or what kind of skills I would need to get a decent job. I know I can't rush character modeling and I need to have a very good grasp on it. With me gradating soon, I want to get a job ASAP but I know how that goes. But I'm just thinking that prop modeling would probably be a safer bet at first.

If you go to my site, http://matthewlichy.com then go to artwork, you can see my recent 3D/2D stuff and let me know what you think I could do....

thank you,


Matt :brick:

[TryForce]

Envoirment Artist are always the most searched ones if i remember right. Prop modeling may not be that important because most of envoirment or character modlers can also do that.

Im not in the industrie as i wont get there even in 3 years but from my point of view you should aim on what you have more fun with and try to match a companies style wich you like. Thats what i'm kinda doing rightnow. Doing characters and trying to make them in a style of Kingdomhearts game by Square enix.
Nonethen less im doing Prop modeling/texturing aswell besides that.


Edit: neat portofolio... the Animation in the demoreel was... well graphicly not the best but emotionaly it cought me up.... i had this adrenalin push while he wanted to cut the me. Good one!

[Euphronios]

If you've played any games, you know exactly what type of competition you're up against: Fierce. Internships are few and far between but your best bet is to shoot for one. Be prepared to pimp yourself out constantly while consistently pumping out model after model. It's like hollywood out there. You could make it in a day or it could be years. Don't bank on either and don't lose focus.
Environmental art is going to get your foot in the door faster. There are tons of threads in every game art forum on this very subject.
And. . . remember that the pros you're up against are working 50 hours in a light week. They're doing it for the check (or direct deposit or whatever. . .) but you've got to use your desire to get "IN" as a carrot on a stick.
I'm sleep deprived and rambling. . .

[Kickflipkid687]

Ya, I want to be a character artist, but I just don't think I would be able to get myself up to par in that amount of time. I work 30 hours a week usually, then drive 65 miles to college 4 days a week. I am moving closer though in a few months when I start my internship.

I have some good people at my school that can help me get a job, but ya, I know its fierce. I feel kind of bad for the other guys in my class and in the school, because alot of them I dont think know how fierce it can be. I take it alot more serious than they do.

But thank you for your comments, I will definately work on modeling more props and vehicles and whatnot. But I still would appreciate more input on this subject....

[Gavin]

Hey dude,

I'm pretty opinionated, so don't take what I say too seriously :)

Most schools I've attended, looked up and hear about generally do fill the students' heads full of misleading information. Or at least, because most people going to school for this stuff probably don't have prior experience...so they just assume it's fairly easy to get the job as long as you have a resume. So, good on you for keeping your eyes open :)

In my opinion you should just stick to what you want to do. Even as a character artist, you'll probably be required to do a prop here and there, but just because the competition is fierce doesn't mean you should change directions. I just think it's hard to manage your time and come home to work on characters if you have a full time job as an environment artist. Ask almost anyone who works in the industry, if you're cramming away at work for 8+ hours a day it can be really draining and unhealthy to come home and continue to plug away.

A few years ago (4...I think) I started a testing job, I pushed and pushed to make personal work in my spare time and eventually got an art position at a local company. It wasn't at all what I wanted to do, I was making interfaces and playing pieces for puzzle games with the RARE occasion that I'd get to make a character. To me, it was lame. Not only did it occupy 12+ hours of my day, it left me feeling like shit and because I was so frustrated with how things were going, it really screwed with my personal work and portfolio development. It wasn't until I bit the bullet and just took a leap of faith...quit the job with nothing and just went into hermit mode, locked up in my apartment creating characters and just focusing on what I REALLY wanted to do. 3 Months later I got a gig fulltime as a character artist. I had to do an art test and my portfolio had, I think, 2 finished and 3 unfinished characters. So, in my experience, it pays off to just stick to what you love doing, don't just "settle" for something, y'know?

I say, just keep pushing. Join (and FINISH) some competitions...*cough* Dominance War 3...*cough* and polish up some personal projects. I remember a lot of your work, you have more than I had when I got my first character art job. Of course, it really is up to you, do what you think is the best career move...in my case, I might have just got really lucky :P

Anyways....

END TRANSMISSION!!

Gav

[Kickflipkid687]

Hey, thanks alot for that, that honestly really does help :). I really do want to be a character artist, and I feel I have an ok grasp on it, but ya I will join some competitions. I have been looking at them and thinking about them, but didnt really do alot of them yet. I will look up the Dominance War 3, and more than likely do that. Not sure if I will come up with anything good... I am not an awesome concept artist, but I can try :P.

But like you said, not "settle" for something instead of trying to get what I want. It is hard to come home and do work though like you said. I wake up at 5:15AM usually, leave by 6 for school, get there around 7 or so, then do w/e until 8AM for class. Then get out 12 or 1pm, then get home around 2pm, then work 4-10 quite often. So there really isnt alot of time to do anything :(. But now my schedule is getting a little better, but still not great.

I work mon, wed, thurs, friday usually at one job, then work sundays all day at another job, leaving 2 days open during the week to do homework most of the time. I am hardcore when it comes to college, and really put alot of time and effort into my assignments and games. But I don't want to be giving excuses, I can still find time to work on this stuff.... somehow. I am on break now from school which is nice though, i've been working my ass off the last 6 months on our game and other programming and whatnot, so it's nice to take a short break. But I think it's time to get crackin. So I will look up that dominace competition and see what I can come up with.

I appreciate your post like I said, and also if anyone else still has comments, please post :).


thanks,

Matt

[sage]

Well just be aware that if you try to do something you are not interested in you will lose interest and just hit a road block. Just because there is more demand for environment artists it does not mean that doing that kind of work is any easier or demanding than doing character work. If you love doing characters and not so much environments you might end up having a hard time motivating yourself enough to do good environment work. The worst thing you can do to yourself is end up doing something that is very demanding but don't enjoy doing. I think you should try doing both and see how it feels. Then focus on what you like better if you don't really know already. If you haven't fully done an environment before you should try it and see how it goes. Good luck.

Alex

[Draxxuss]

I'll start off by saying 2 words, practice and patience. Skills don't just happen overnight no matter how great a tutorial is :) and I have seen a few good ones out there. I've been at this awhile and have worked at every stage in game development except programming. I was trained as an animator and hired as an animator about 8 years ago but within my first week I was concepting, modeling, and texturing my first of dozens of characters for Shrek on the Xbox. Man did that throw me for a loop. So on top of having to learn MAX since I was a Maya user when I started.. I also had to learn how to model and rig using a package I had never even tried... it was quite a lot all at once. I was able to get on track within a few weeks and got a lot of advice from my work peers as I was training. My employer also new and hired me under the assumption of my needing to get up to speed and that I wasn't fully trained in the areas that I may need to be working in. Anyway... I guess my point is that you can still get in the door with "one" skill and then turn around and train a few more skills while at work. This isn't ideal and many employers aren't as patient as others since "time IS money" and all, however, if you have great character skills by showing consistent modeling and texturing proficiency, great photoshop skills, an eye for detail, and above all a great attitude and willingness to learn, then you should be able to get in. Besides that you will probably need to do some type of art test to even get considered so as long you can pull that off you should be ok.


Things to make sure you know...

Low poly modeling/High poly modeling
Z brush/Mudbox
Normal Map baking
Spec map/coloured Spec Map
Occlusion/Glow/Alpha maps
Roadkill is a great app for unwrap
Xnormal is also good to know.

If you know what these are and how to create them you are at least in a step in the right direction no matter what field of content creation you wish to go in whether it is environment or character or prop. They all use the same solutions for creation.

Also... as I said before, an eye for detail goes a long way. Being able to actually "see" what you are looking at and bring that into a manageable state of art.... be it photoshop or MAX etc. Many times I have seen a great artist make a mess out of a very simple object because of terrible proportions. These kinds of things can make or break an artist. Look at angles, negative spaces, distance between objects, scale versus weight, the list goes on and on. It is a very important thing in our industry.

I hope some of this helps.

Dan Rickard

[Kickflipkid687]

Hi,


Actually yes, that does help :D. I kind of figure that I would have to help do other tasks besides modeling, but I am use to this. For our last 6 month group game in college, I was the producer. But I also was character modeler, prop modeler, UI/2D Artist, programmer, and well everything lol.

I know how to use Max very well, and have used maya before, so I could get into that pretty quickly I think. I am working on learning Zbrush 3 now, and I have used mudbox beta for a while and kind of got the hang of it. I am also learning Unreal 3 editor now and working with normal maps and whatnot.

I still need to work on the human form more, as well most people. I guess I can always improve in any area, but I am confident in my modeling for the most part. I try to not use tutorials anymore, as they really show you only 1 way to do something and it makes people think that is the only way to do it. If I do look at tutorials, I just try to look at it as more of a general thing,and try to put my own spin on it or something. I generally just play around with things and figure them out pretty quickly, then just go from there.