Game Art – Advice From Someone In the Industry

[Seedling]

So, you love playing games and you love art. You’ve got a sketchbook full of ass-kicking robots, and you’ve got an idea in your head for a whole computer game, right down to the shape of the swords and the bone-chips stuck in the monster’s teeth. And maybe you’re looking at college, or maybe you’re in college and looking at the end of college. Or maybe you’ve been out of college for years and you’re looking for a change. At any rate, you’re probably unsure of what to do next.

Perhaps I can help you. My name is Michelle Clay, and I am a modeler/texturer/environment builder at a company called Turbine. My specialty is environment art, and I like helping aspiring artists figure out where to go next when they want to be where I am.

I give out a lot of the same advice over and over, and all too often I’ve thought of the perfect nugget of wisdom to share only eight hours too late, when I’m in the shower and the conversation is long over. So I figured, why not dump it all somewhere here on Concept Art? I’ll just throw it all out in one disorganized heap, and by golly, if anyone thinks its important enough they might actually sift through and find some words to help them on their way.

So, anyway, here goes. The following includes rambles from me, and from other folks in the games industry who have been kind enough to share some of their knowledge, and some highly unorganized assignments at various levels of difficulty. Please feel welcome to join in the discussion!

**************
Table of Contents
. . .because this mixed-up mess of information has grown very large. . .


Assignments
Concept Art for Environments (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1015222&postcount=2)
Assignment #1 - Analyze a Game Environment

Process of Working with Concept Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1015605&postcount=4)
Assignment #2 – Monsters and Concepts
#2A - extra credit
#2B - more extra credit
2D Versus 3D (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1019050&postcount=18)
Assignment #4 – Draw a Chair
Simplicity from Complexity (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1019184&postcount=19)
Assignment #5 – Carousel
Photo Realism – Where to Begin? (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1022036&postcount=25)
Assignment #6 - Photorealism
Composition (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1023382&postcount=34)
Assignment #7 – Composition
#7 B
From Observation to Concept Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1026870&postcount=40)
assignment #8 – From Observation to Concept Art
Game Design (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1027532&postcount=41)
Assignment #9 – Game Mod
Environment Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1036249&postcount=72)
Assignment #10 – Rocky Environment
#10 Extra Credit
Low-Poly Doo-Dads (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1037060&postcount=78)
Assignment #11 – Low-Poly Doo-Dads
How to make the most of your (lousy) education (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1039003&postcount=80)
Assignment #12 – Make a Dull Assignment Fun
Paintovers (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1044968&postcount=110)
assignment #13 – Paintover
#13A – Drawing in Perspective
#13B – Paintover an Existing Game
Environment Art: Dungeons (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1045775&postcount=112)
assignment #14 - Modular Dungeon Pieces
Trees (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1062242&postcount=146)
Assignment #15 – Trees
#15 A – Concepting for Trees
#15 B – Modeling and Texturing a Tree
#15 C – Expanding on What You Have Built
extra credit


Advice
Rambly Rambles about College (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1015223&postcount=3)
The Process of Working with Concept Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1015605&postcount=4)
Two-Year Schools and Technical Artists (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1016308&postcount=7)
I’ll chime in about exercise, too. . . (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1017033&postcount=15)
More on an Art Education Versus a Tools Education (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1017055&postcount=16)
Having a Tough Time Getting Hired as a Concept Artist? (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1021542&postcount=22)
Internships (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1022087&postcount=27)
Jhartford’s take on Internships (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1023138&postcount=31)
Game Industry Salaries (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1025826&postcount=38)
Maya Versus Max Versus Other (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1025858&postcount=39)
Portfolios, Reels, Resumes, and Cover Letters (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1032650&postcount=61)
More on Portfolios (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1035859&postcount=68)
Tips from Dr. Memory (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1036278&postcount=73)
Qitsune on Pixel Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1040098&postcount=85)
ConCrete’s link to game mod stuff (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1040644&postcount=91)
DoInferno shares more on Pixel Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1042157&postcount=97)
Djobuk on Paintovers in Concept Art (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1042507&postcount=100)
Chirp Chirp’s Tips (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1052890&postcount=114)
More from Chirp Chirp (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1053413&postcount=117)
Chirp Chirp on Normal Maps (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1053477&postcount=119)
Schmoozing (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1054485&postcount=123)
Loads of Useful Links! Thanks Chirp Chirp! (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1057678&postcount=138)
Chirp Chirp’s Book List (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1057748&postcount=139)
Maurice on Moving to Where the Jobs Are (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1072012&postcount=151)
Game Dev Mapper Link (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1078554&postcount=156)
DeBlackKnite on Indy Games (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1078901&postcount=157)
What makes an art department? (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1240336&postcount=210)
Masque’s UV Tutorial (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1270943&postcount=222)
Games versus Movies (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1339385&postcount=237)

By the way, the thread in the Communities Activities forum that goes along with this thread never got off the ground. Oh well. ( http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1053297#post1053297)

[Seedling]

The first thing you have to know is that all games are made on a budget. Not just a money budget, but a manpower budget, and, most importantly, a technical budget. As a concept artist, you can’t just draw up ten thousand acre vistas and just hope the artists who build it in 3D are going to be able to pull it off. You need to know that the monsters in your game have a vertex budget, and that certain things, like dressing them up in a necklace of twenty skulls, may be impossible to do within that budget. Textures are also budgeted. The modelers/texturers will have to convert your environment drawings into a few tiling textures, and if you throw too many crazy ideas into your art, they just may show up at your desk saying “we can make either the shiny rock-things or the trees, but not both. Pick one.”

*****Assignment #1 - Analyze a Game Environment*****

Pick a game with not-pushing-the-envelope art. Examples would be We Love Katamari, Disgaea 2, Diablo 2, or the New Super Mario Brothers game for the dual-screen. For this exercise, the point is mostly just in looking. I want you to study the environment of the game *intently*. Don’t worry about the monsters trying to shoot your character; I want you to look at the *dirt*. And the rocks, and the trees; and the architecture and the dungeons. Look at everything on the screen that isn’t a player, a monster, and NPC, or the user interface. And then answer the following questions:

What sort of pieces is the environment assembled out of? Is every rock and chair and wall an individual object? Are the same individual objects, such as trees or chairs, used over and over? How many objects are there on screen at once? Is the entire ground and the buildings on it all just one big object? Where are the tiling textures, and how many of them are there?* How does one tiling texture transition into another tiling texture? How large are those tiles, compared to a human? Where are non-tiling textures used, and how often are they used?

Look closely at as much of the game as you can access. Get to know the boring bits – especially the boring bits! Grass is one of the most important and challenging textures that can go into a game’s environment, so give it lots of attention.

If you are wondering why I’m suggesting you pick a game that isn’t pushing the envelope with its art, it’s because there is less going on for you to unravel. It also happens to be more challenging to do concepts for, because there are fewer elements. Simplicity can be really tough – just try drawing an egg to find that out.

Now, with your new knowledge of how the environment in your game are put together, it’s time to have fun. Break out Photoshop or the pencils and go design a new environment for this game. Draw draw draw! If you’ve been looking at a snowy landscape, design a tropical landscape. If you’ve been looking at a tropical landscape, design a snowy one. Stick as closely as you can to the technical limits you have observed in your game – the same number of objects, the same number of textures. If one drawing doesn’t get across your idea, then do two, or five or ten. I’m not going to fuss at you about the particulars of your drawings, because mostly I just want you to look at an existing game, and really see the pieces.

There are two versions of this assignment that you can pick from, too. Either make your environment match the existing art style as closely as possible – or, using the same technical limits, make it a completely new art style. However, don’t try to emulate the existing art style and then change your mind halfway because it’s hard. If you start it, finish it, even if it goes badly.

Good luck! If you try this, feel free to post your results here.



*A tiling texture is a texture that repeats in one or both - like wallpaper.

[Seedling]

I graduated from the illustration department of RISD in 2000. If I had known when I was headed for college that I wanted to make computer games when I grew up, I might have gone looking for a college that had a games department of some sort. And I’m glad I didn’t go that route. A traditional fine arts education is necessary as a game artist. It doesn’t matter if you get that education from an overpriced school, or piecemeal from community college night courses, or if you are teaching yourself. A diploma doesn’t matter. What matters is years spent focused on those bloody boring academic exercises that you would rather rush past in order to get to the dragons and robots. (Not that I didn’t litter my own time in college with robots and dragons, mind you *cough cough*.)

Anatomy, perspective, color theory, and above all drawing from observation over and over and over – it doesn’t matter if you want to be a concept artist or a modeler of monsters or a UI* artist, you will need this stuff. (Okay, maybe if it’s UI that floats your boat, graphic design classes would help you more than illustration courses.)

Colleges are beginning to catch on that A. there’s an industry out here that needs artists, and B. there are hordes of artists who want to be making games and who need some training first. So there are new colleges and classes dedicated to getting these artists into those jobs. Buyer beware! A two-year school that teaches tools** is no substitute for four years of fine arts basics. You can realistically learn the tools on the side, but you can’t realistically learn how to be an artist on the side.

I don’t know much at all about specific schools other than the one I went to, but in time I suspect the new game schools will be a good source of a game-art education. Perhaps the two-year ones will start marketing themselves as graduate programs for those who already have a bachelor’s in fine arts. That would be cool, because the downside of a traditional fine arts education is that it’s hard to learn enough of the tools! I limped along by wheedling my way into classes in another department, skipping an intro-to-computers course I would have had to wait until my senior year to get into, taking a class at a community college, and messing around on my own.

Wherever you go, take charge of your own education. Identify what it is that you need to learn, and then make sure you learn it, even if it means taking courses for no credit or teaching the dang teachers what it is you are doing. Because, by golly, sometimes the teacher is wrong, and sometimes the institution forgets that it is there to be the tool by which you get the job that you want.

Anyway, rant over; more to come later.



*User Interface: all the buttons, text, pop-up windows, inventory panels; it’s the means by which you interact with the game.

**A 2D or 3D art program, no matter how many bells and whistles it has, is just a tool.

[Seedling]

When I talk with college students about the possibility of becoming a modeler/texturer in the game industry, usually the first concern they express is this:

“Where is the creativity in working from concept art? Doesn’t the concept artist have all the fun? Isn’t building someone else’s idea just tedious technical work?”

And very good questions those are. However, this question springs from the very flawed assumption that the concept artist has carte blanche to draw whatever she wants for the game. The truth is that the concept artist, like any illustrator, is there to provide images for someone else. The art director or the design director or some other person on the top of the food chain is going to say “we need a monster with five heads and two tails, riding on a purple motorcycle and dressed in a toga.” It’s up to the concept artist to fill in the details between those words, and then to start over or revise when the feedback rolls in. Then, it is up to the 3D artist to fill in the details between those details.

I have worked from concept art that is crazy-super-specific and detailed, and concept art that is crazy-super-vague. There are advantages and disadvantages. Vague concept art can leave a lot of room for creativity on my end. But it can also mean more problem-solving on my end. Vague concept art puts in my hands the responsibility of going back to the art lead to say “look, this is a beautiful idea, but if we’re going to pull it off I’ll have to shrink it to a third of the size and leave out this part. And what’s supposed to fill up this giant space? I could fill it up in this manner. Or I could take this part and break it up like so, and then instead of one thingy we’ll have a whole set of thingies.”

The above conversation can lead to an annoying number of back-to-the-drawing-board headaches; or it can also lead to everyone turning to the 3D artist and saying “you’ve got some good ideas. Go start building, and do what you think will be best!”

Specific concept art can reduce the need for that discussion, and the reworking of concept art that can follow that discussion. Specific concept art can make building a beautiful object swift and fun – you, the 3D artist, get to start with a rock-solid idea and turn it into a very tight finished product that will look good in your portfolio and will bring smiles to the faces of everyone who has had creative input in it. But specific concept art can also lead to its own frustration. “Argh,” says the 3D artist; “there are so many doo-dads on this character, and he is only going to be three inches high on the screen! And I’ve only got until Friday to finish making it. There isn’t any wiggle room for me to make decisions or simplify, so I’m going to struggle with the technicalities, and as a result the final art isn’t going to be as pretty as the concept art, and that makes me sad!”

So, that’s what the process is like. It’s full of happy mediums and little frustrations. I enjoy it – it’s teamwork. But to really find out if working from concept art or as a concept artist is something you would love or hate, you should try I yourself.

*******Assignment #2 – Monsters and Concepts*******

Grab a buddy, because this assignment requires two people.

You are going to design, model, and texture a monster. First, each of you must produce concept art of a monster. Each of you needs to do quick sketches until you settle on a design that you like. Then, do a drawing of the monster from the front, and another of the monster from the side. If it is humanoid, draw it with its arms sticking out like it is flying. If it isn’t humanoid, just get it in as neutral a position as possible. No action poses.

Now swap drawings with your buddy. You must build each other’s monsters. If your buddy’s concept art doesn’t communicate to you what you need, then you will need to ask for clarification – either verbal or drawn. If the concept artist feels that the 3D artist is doing it all wrong, then you need to talk about why.

The purpose of this assignment is to learn about how to effectively communicate to another artist through drawings and through talking, and to learn what it is like to be on the receiving end of this communication.

*******#2A - extra credit******

So that wasn’t enough work to keep you happy, was it? Try this: do the assignment with technical limits. Make your monster with a maximum of 1000 vertices. Use a texture space that is 1024 by 1024. Within these limits you should be able to wrangle up a monster with four limbs and one head fairly easily. With more limbs or heads, however, it’ll get very tricky. The 1024 texture will give you lots of room to paint in details that are too small to model, so take full advantage of that.

********#2B - more extra credit********

You’re still standing? Good. Let’s turn that one monster into a variety of monsters. In the concept art, try changing the colors and markings on the monster to make four or five varieties. Don’t change the shape of the monster, because this will be a texture-swap only.

You did work in layers in your 2D files, right? For both these concept art and the texture, you will save yourself hours and hours of work if you work in layers.

Anyway, use that concept art to then make different versions of that 1024 texture your monster is wearing. Or, skip the concept art, and just mess around with the texture. Have fun!

[Izi]

Hurrah, I've been hoping for some game oriented talk on CA for some time now. Thanks for doing this Seedling, I will definately keep an eye on the thread. I'm trying to post in my sketchbook most of the art Westwood is making me do for their game art and design degree. I think you have made me decide to turn it into a student's experience journal. I feel a bit like a guinea pig, since I jumped into it without checking the water temperature...no one was talking much except that certain schools sucked. I just picked the most expensive and oldest that had a game art course.

I had the opposite problem you see...realistic fine art training while looking like a complete neophyte when staring as blankly as a headcrab at the Blender or Maya interfaces.

In your opinion is it important to know 3D and 2D at once, even for large corporations? (I know how to sculpt, I just don't know how to use 3D programs to do it)

[wanwan]

WOW! Thanks!

It's a really big world out there and a few pointers can save someone from going mad!

This is getting printed out and stuck on my wall - thanks again :D

Oh, and a good point on the 3D side. When I was at uni we had the option to do 2D or 3D animation. I chose 2D because a) its what I wanted to do, b) the tutor's degree was in fine art and had ironically never animated in her life, c) she was reading from a maya book & she didn't have a clue and d) I fell behind due to an inner ear infection and decided 2D was a good option!

I don't regret not learning Maya - as I have found that (in my experience) game co's tend to use 3D Max (shoot me down if i'm wrong here). Would it be advantagous to learn a bit of Max or stick clearly to the design strategy & maybe team up with someone who knows Max - or would a knowedge of Max be a mandatory requirement?

Also should one focus on the drawing side BEFORE one ventures over to the dark 3D side or have a go at both at once?

Rowena x

http://wanwan.deviantart.com

[Seedling]

Thanks guys! I’ve – yoiks – already been getting questions from folks in my PM inbox due to this thread. I’m going to try and address all questions here, because otherwise I’ll have to give up sleeping or eating, and I happen to like those activities.

Somebody PM’ed to tell me that they have already applied at a two-year games school. The school apparently claims that 80% of their graduates get jobs making games. This person wants to know if the two-year school is a better choice than a media design course of study at a large university.

The short answer: I don’t know.

The longer answer: I am only somewhat familiar with one two-year games-oriented school – Full Sail. My husband is a graduate of Full Sail, and he was hired at Turbine first to be a technical artist, and from there he went on to be an art director for a while, and is now a game designer. Our company has several tech artists, and if I’m not mistaken, all of them are Full Sail graduates. But I have never met a concept artist or modeler/texturer who graduated from FullSail – at least not that I remember.

Technical artists at our company are the folks who rig models for animation, maintain the pipeline from art to game engine, maintain file structures, write MEL scripts, teach the artists the more complex bits of Maya, troubleshoot problem files, determine and maintain technical limits that the artists must follow, and other important and bewildering odds and ends. A good technical artist is very hard to find. If you love the tools more than you love making art, then you are a possible candidate to be a tech artist, and the industry could really use you.

FullSail produces good tech artists because it focuses on teaching the tools.

FullSail also, I suspect, produces a lot of artists who are largely unemployable in the games industry, because they know the tools but don’t have a solid background in art. Someone who wants a job as a modeler/texturer, concept artist, or animator, but who knows only the tools, is in trouble. I suspect the only way to assure yourself one of those jobs is to also get an education in fine arts or traditional animation.

So, to the person who says they have applied to a two-year school that claims to have an 80% success rate of placing their graduates in games industry jobs, I suggest that you ask the school for a list of those jobs. Those jobs might be as technical artists, or something else that isn’t what you had in mind. If you have the option to get an education in illustration, or figurative fine arts, I think that would help you more. I don’t know what is in a “media design” education, but it may be closer to what you need.

Good luck.

[Barrett]

I fully agree about where to start. The best game artists have fundamental art and design skills. Don't even think about picking up a 3d Program before drawing from life, understanding color theory, design, composition, etc. Working on mods is a great way to get your foot in the door once you have the art background also.

[Stupidity'sUglyHead]

No matter what school you go to, you will get out what you put in. A good attitude, and a need to do art as strong as breathing are what I recommend.

Great excercises you have there. If anyone would like to get in on the creature modeling with me, pm me.

[mikko]

HI,
i was the one who pm seedling those questions! Thanks for you help, these are also the thoughts i had. tomorrow i'll apply for the game-oriented school and talk with the teacher about this! don't know whether i'm going to be accepted.
the problem of the other school, where i can study mediadesign, is that i only can apply between may and june every year and it's very difficult to be accepted! especially because i have no time to make a portfolio for this school because i have to learn for my school leaving examination at this time!
this means i have to wait one year, but could make a portfolio. but if i don't pass then i loose much time!

don't know exactly what to do next!

[wanwan]

Hey - well I just did 1 yr foundation art at college, then did a 1 year basic art course then 3 years animation and electronic media - 5 years to get my degree - phew! I can say that it was actually one of the best courses out there - although my only qualm would be the fact that it was a bit too general and one never got the chance to focus on anything.

Thankfully because there was a range of people in there, from people who created amazing backgrounds to those who woke up with a blue pencil in their hands to people who just knew how to model we all rubbed off on each other & now I find myself wanting to do art for games + film! (my original intent was just to become an animator!)

So although I would say that definately look for the right course, but make sure there is a good balance between the technical side & the artistic side. We had mandatory life drawing once a week from 1st yr at uni til the end of 3rd year and I wish we'd had it in forth year.

So in a nutshell my advice would be - find a good course & somewhere you'd feel comfortable going to - if u dont want to leave eg Canada - don't! If your mind isn't comfortable - its hard to concentrate. If the course doesn't tick all but most of the boxes and u have a gut feeling about it - do it. Remember that a degree will NEVER guarantee you a job - it's what you do while ur at uni and after uni that counts. I'm only out of uni since May, and I knew that fact years ago - I didn't get as high a mark as I would have liked but what it did give me is a bit of focus on what I wanted to do & gave me some confidence that although my 1 1/2 minute film wasn't academy award winning - I got some satisfaction from the fact I did 90% of the work myself and the fact that it was finished - which was the main criteria of the brief!

Personal work has been a little slow - but it has been a shock to the system since this is the first time since I was 4 that I haven't been in education (22).

Good luck with what you do - It's not always what's written on the paper - it's something that comes from deep inside you that'll make you who you are :D

[wanwan]

Hey mikko

If you make a portfolio you won't be losing time. In fact that's probably the best idea tbh. You say that you have exams to pass - I am by no means saying they are not important but they are. Life is about balance, if one day it's not exams that's in the way, it's driving test, or you need to go to France to some...thing - basically what I'm saying is that if you want to do it - you'll do it.

If drawing is something you want to do and enjoy - do it in a break while u study - no one is a machine and the human body can reach a saturation point of knowledge - you can only study for so many hours. I dunno maybe say - every day I will draw/work on/write a brief for something to work on and do it. Maybe take every Sunday off, or 2 afternoons in the week to stop you going crazy!

Even set yourself a challenge of 1 piece of finished art per week - or while u study, every 2 weeks.

If your future is in game design, I'd go for it - if you can even show the college/uni what your working, even if its nowhere near finished that'd be great - they'll like that as it shows enthusiasm - but of course your studies come first, atm! (they will understand that!)

Good luck :)

[darkwolfb87]

On top of what wanwan said about studying hard, please take care of your body! I don't think it's mentioned enough (if at all) when people are talking about thier education. I find it necessary to set aside 3-5 hours a week getting some fresh air or an intense workout, as well as being conscious about what you're eating. If I don't it usually becomes the cause of my laziness, lack of motivation, and physical and mental fatigue.

~ Stephen

[wanwan]

yeah definately excercise! during my honours year i forced myself to go to the gym every day - & i can honestly say it's what stopped me going mad @ after effects :P (& everything else!)

and if you cant think - go for a walk :), if your getting agitated with working on something, take a break - get the hell away from it!

the temptation to sit in the same spot at ur PC/mac and think oh ill have a break now, ill play battle for middle earth 2 for a bit is HUGE!

Don't do it - it's naughty! get away from the pc, have a walk, go for a shower, sit and read a book - ESPECIALLY if it's got nothing to do with what ur doing!

Don't let yourself get bored. Ever sat at a drawing thinking "wow this is looking really great" - then all of a sudden, bam, everything u do is a mess?

Seriously fresh air rocks. Take a bottle of water & ur mp3 player & go out for a walk. Obv be careful at night or in a strange area! if you dehydrate by as little as 5% your concentration can go - I sit with water next to me ALL THE TIME.

I don't want this to turn into a health lecture, but when We, as creatives, spend so much time on our asses at tables, at computers - I think it's an important step and to make sure people keep their body and mind healthy.

Time to follow my own advice :D

[Seedling]

Yes, what you guys are saying about exercise is absolutely right. If you are looking forward to a future of making art for games, then keep this in mind: sitting at a computer all day making game art, plus extra hours sitting at a computer playing games or dorking around on the internet, equals a large bottom if you are not conscientious about getting regular and adequate exercise.

I ride my bicycle to work during the warm months of the year, and every other day I work out with a friend - weight-lifting and sit-ups and such while watching episodes of science fiction. Plus most days at work I get out and walk a mile with some of my coworkers. Not only has it kept me healthy, but I’m more alert when I work because of it.

Oh, and having an exercise buddy really, really helps. If we weren’t constantly reminding each other to exercise, we would both slack off.

*******Assignment #3 – Establish an Exercise Routine**********

If you don’t already get enough daily exercise, then try this. Find a route to walk that starts and ends at your home, workplace, or school. It should take you about twenty minutes to walk that loop – which would make it approximately a mile. Then, rain or shine, walk this route once every day. In particular, if you get the middle-of-the-afternoon sleepies, or you are thinking of grabbing a soda to wake yourself up, then that’s the time to take that walk. Even better, take a friend with you. You can brainstorm solutions to concept art problems as you walk, or figure out how the landscape around you could be turned into game-art.

[Seedling]

Darkwolfb87 asked me the following in PM, and (I hope you don’t mind, Darkwolf) I’m going to repeat the question here:

“I am simply following advice I read from somewhere long ago that said to create the best opportunity for yourself in fine arts study and leave modeling and texturing for self-study. My "problem" is that I'm also full-time in college and I overwhelmed even thinking about learning modeling and texturing. I'd really appreciate hearing what you have to say.”

It sounds like your only problem is that you are overwhelmed with what you are currently doing! Really, your situation is a good one.

Being overwhelmed by your education happens now and then, and maybe this will help you to fight the panic:

Remember that even though your school had requirements of you, that ultimately you are not beholden to them to meet those requirements. You are only beholden to yourself. Identify what you need to learn, and use your education to get those things.

There are two good ways to approach getting a good game-art education from a fine-arts school. One is to march to their drums. Do everything that they tell you, jump through their hoops. Get your degree. And then spend another year or two at a school like Full Sail, so that you can learn the tools.

That’s the expensive way. The shorter and cheaper and perhaps more difficult way is to amputate the frills from your fine arts education. Argue your way out of basket-weaving, and replace it with whatever games-relevant education you can squeeze in. If you have to write a paper for some irrelevant humanities course, then convince your professor that you need to either write about games or you need to drop out of his useless class. Take classes in other departments. Take classes at other schools. Don’t worry about transferring credits or about grades – just get the education. Do independent studies. Educate your professors on what concept art and game art and digital 3D art are. Above all, tell them loudly and clearly that you want to be making games, and remind them that it is their job to help you achieve that.

Along with this, apply for internships every summer. And apply as an intern after you graduate, if you don’t yet have the skills to be hired as a regular staff artist.

I’ll write more on internships later. . .

[Zaknafain]

really interesting. I will do the first assignment tomorrow.

[Seedling]

I suppose it would be possible for someone to begin their art education not with pencils and crayons, but with a 3D modeling program. In theory, since it is just another tool, someone could go from novice to professional sculptor without ever touching 2D art.

But, this does not take into account several things. In games, for one, you need to be able to texture as well as model, and texturing is a 2D art. You also can’t iterate on a model the way you can iterate on a drawing, because modeling takes longer. You can’t carry a 3d modeling program around the way that you can tote a sketchbook.

Drawing teaches you to think in a hybrid of 2D and 3D – and I think this is the most important reason to learn how to draw while learning to model or, preferably, before you ever touch a 3D program.

This assumes that you aren’t spinning your wheels by copying photographs. If you do that, then stop. Copying from photos is a shortcut for illustrators who already know the ins and outs of making the illusion of 3D space on a 2D surface. In someone just learning how to draw, copying photos is a crutch. You need to draw from life precisely because it is harder to do. It teaches you to take what you see in 3D and translate it into 2D. It teaches you to think in 3D without the need for expensive software. It teaches you to set up 2D compositions using 3D elements.

But my ranting is no fun to listen to, so instead, here’s an assignment.

*******Assignment #4 – Draw a Chair*******

Got a chair and a sketchbook? Good. Put the chair in the middle of the room. Draw it. Turn it upside-down and draw it again. Spin it around and draw it from the other side. Break out the two-and three-point perspective. Get way up close and draw that chair like it’s a mile high. Get to know that chair so well that there is a perfect 3D model of it in your head.

Now put away the chair and draw it again entirely from what is in your head. This time, make it a galactic space-going chair, or a predatory Amazonian chair, or a Muppet chair. Draw it rightside-up and upside-down and sideways, with all the same perspective love that you used on the last one.

Do you see? With only pencil and paper, you can practice both concept art and 3D thinking at the same time.

[Seedling]

What if your boss told you “we need a carousel, and we need it completely modeled and textured by Friday?” Rather intimidating, yes?

*******Assignment #5 – Carousel********

Yup, that’s right. Make a carousel. It has to be entirely populated with horses – each of a different color. It has to have a round base with some details around the edge, a column in the middle with a calliope, and it has to have an ornate canopy. It also has to be completed, finished, wrapped up, from soup to nuts, AND it has to be finished in a reasonably short time, so that you don’t get frustrated and abandon it halfway done.

Okay, you can stop having a heart attack now. I’ll walk you through it.

Step one: Your boss is leaving the style up to you. This is unlikely to happen in the games industry, but for the sake of the assignment, you get to pick. Since you want to be able to actually get this assignment done in a reasonable amount of time, I suggest you pick a style that is highly simplified and isn’t realistic. Low-poly is a really good idea. Sketch it out.

Step two: Model and texture one horse. Do you remember the extra credit from the second assignment? That was where you made one monster and then fiddled around with the texture to make different varieties. You can use that same trick to generate a fleet of horses from only one horse model. You can even rig your horse and pose it into different positions if you want.

Step three: the canopy, center column, and base. Think of it like slices of a cake. You only have to model and texture one slice, if you plan it right. Make sure to get it scaled so that all of your horses fit nicely on it. Throw together some test cylinders before you begin in order to gauge how many cake slices you will need.

Step four: the calliope. After all of that, figuring out a strategy for this last bit shouldn’t be so intimidating. Be sure to give it character!

[Seedling]

I see a lot of you looking at this thread, but not so many posting. Don't be afraid! Come introduce yourselves. :-) I'll do my best to answer your questions or concerns about the games industry. You don't have to do the assignments; I'm just putting them here so they are available to whomever wants 'em.

[darkwolfb87]

Hey Seedling,

Thanks so much for answering my question, that is exactly the kind of prioritizing I'm failing to do right now. I'm eagerly awaiting your upcoming post on internships. I have no knowledge of 3d programs right now, and finding out what I should be capable of before applying for internships (and beyond) is something I haven't looked at seriously enough. Turbine is definitely a place I'd love to intern at so I'm very ready to address these issues and get prepared.

[Seedling]

Once a year I go review the portfolios of illustration seniors at my alma mater, and it never fails – ninety-five percent of them want to be concept artists. And of those, only a few even have an inkling that there are other types of jobs available to them with their shiny new illustration educations.

Consider this: one concept art can keep a small fleet of modelers, texturers, animators, tech artists, effects artists, and level builders very busy.

Consider this: in some companies, or within the teams of larger companies, the position of “concept artist” is not full time. Sometimes that role is filled by a freelance artist, and sometimes that role is filled by members of the team who spend the rest of the time modeling, texturing, animating, etc.

Consider this: when you are applying for a job as a concept artist, your competition is not a bunch of kids who doodled in their notebooks during Chemistry. Your competition is illustrators who are well established in the field and who have some very serious fine-arts training.

For these reasons, I advise you to look at what other jobs are available in the games industry before giving up and switching career objectives. Because if you would be happy in some other games industry job for a few years, your chances of moving into the role of concept artist within a company or at another company will be higher.

Here are some other options for you to investigate.

Low-Poly Modeler/texturer. This combination is the meat and potatoes of any art team. Some teams do have artists who do only one or the other, but it is the artist who can do both of these things who is the most likely to get a job. There are two basic subsets of this job:

Low-Poly Modeler/texturer of Characters and Monsters – The competition is higher in this group.

Low-Poly Modeler/texturer of Environments – These folks make architecture, landscapes, rocks, trees, furniture, even whole game levels. Because there is less glory in saying “I made a building” then “I made a three-headed dragon”, there is a need for good environment artists in the games industry. I will write more about this niche later.

Tech Artist – I wrote a bit about tech artists a few posts back. Basically, these are the folks who rig models for animation, maintain the art pipeline, enforce technical discipline in the artists, and lots of other technical stuff that I barely understand. If you love and know the tools well, and aren’t so wild about making art, you might be a good candidate for this job. Tech artists are always in short supply.

Effects or Sprite Artist – I know very little about this position, except that it can be technical enough in nature that several of the tech artists I have known have spent time in this role.

UI Artist – Have you spent time as a graphic designer? This might be a job for you. The User Interface artists make every button, slider-bar, and pop-up window in a game. UI artists are always in short supply.

I hope this helps in your quest to get the job you want. . .

[Maurice]

Michelle Clay, good job bring this issue up on CA. The advice you are giving is certainly informative to those looking into being a Concept Artist in the game industry.

I am a full time Lead Concept Artist for Radical Entertainment, the makers of the Simpson's Hit & Run, Hulk Ultimate Destruction and soon to be release Scarface.

For those who are interested I will be a guest lecture at The University of Louisiana, Lafayette on October 6th. My presentation is called "The Mind Behind Your Eye, an artistic guide to concept design". My talk will focus primarily on concept design in the gaming and film industry.

I have been working as an illustrator and concept artist professionally since 1993 for games, film, TV and theme parks.

Thanks again Michelle for starting this thread.

[Seedling]

Oh cool, Hi Maurice! Feel free to add your perspective to this thread. The more points of view from people in the industry we can get in here, the better!

[edit] My thread got stickied? Rawk! :D

[Seedling]

*******Assignment #6 - Photorealism*******


So, you’re on a team that’s making a game with a steampunk theme. The style is already established, and it’s a dark, grimy realism, full of rust and peeling paint and dirt-in-the-cracks. And your art director wants you to make an old junker robot that’s been rusting in an abandoned lot for the past several years. Since it is an old robot, it needs to have especially quirky bits that are made out of unusual materials, like for instance wood or leather. And, I don’t know, maybe it’s even grown some moss, or been graffitied, or something.

This assignment assumes that you have three things: a 2D art program (with tablet – that always goes without saying), a 3D art program, and a camera. Yes, a camera. Digital is preferable, because if it’s analog you’ve got, you will also need a scanner.

Step one: go forth and photograph textures. Yes! You must leave the safety of your womb, er, room, and you must go on a scavenger hunt. Look for the following:

Tasty delicious metal! Try to find a minimum of at least a dozen samples of different metals, because, after all, metal is what robots are made of.

Wood. Look for old, weather-beaten samples. You get bonus points if you can find an antique shop that displays its wares out on the sidewalk in sunny weather.

Peeling paint. Mmmm, peeling paint! Don’t actually eat it.

Dirt. Very useful stuff, that dirt.

Anything else that strikes your fancy.

By the way, the best time to photograph textures is on a bright but overcast day. Direct sunlight is no good, because all the little bumps and bits will cast shadows that become frustrating to work with. Make sure the resolution is set to high on those digital photos.

So, you have your very own texture library. Pop ‘em into Photoshop or your Photoshop substitute, and see what worked out best. Then draw yourself a robot designed specifically to use these textures. You can even slap those textures right into you concept art, to test out how well they work together. But don’t fuss over it too much. It is, after all, just a sketch to help you figure out what the 3D version will look like.

Next, build your robot! If you want to really practice for the games industry, then keep the poly count low. Say, 2000 or less. The less, the better. Only add geometry where it is needed.

Lay out the Uvs in a 1024 x 1024 square, and then start adding textures from your brand new texture library. Always always always work in layers.

I’m assuming for the time being that you have never made a photorealistic texture before. Using layer effects and photos and your drawing skills, you can make a fantastic array of textures from other textures. For instance, I took a picture of the ice on the Charles River from the top of the Hancock tower, and later found that it made a wonderful base for creating monster skin when color-changed and combined with a lot of hand-drawn wrinkles and things. But for now, just mess with the colors and brightness to get the different textures to look like old friends. Draw edges, draw cracks, draw bolts and weld-joints and jazz. Put dirt in the cracks.

A long time ago I exchanged some e-mail with an artist at Cyan. I had just barely begun to make 3D work, and what I made was all glossy and plastic-looking. I stank, and this guy took the time to give me some feedback on my work. He told me to put dirt in the cracks, and by golly if that bit of advice didn’t make all the difference.

If you are reading this, you whose name I have forgotten, here’s a big belated THANK YOU!

[jtran]

Hi Michelle, great post! (I actually signed up for CA to reply to this one)...anyways, there's 1 question I'm itching to ask...well, 2 actually.

Anyways, I was curious what's the stability of the job like and what kinda income levels do these jobs pay, roughly? Someone once told me it was roughly around $40k but it was never confirmed. I'm currently a college student and am very interested in joining the gaming industry but I'm kinda hesitant since I'm a bit worried about being able to support myself.

Thank you greatly for the valuable information you've given so far!

[Seedling]

Doctors have internships as a required part of their training. The games industry has internships too, but they aren’t required, and they aren’t nearly so organized. Here’s the lowdown.

Some companies offer formal internships that match up with college semesters or summer breaks. Other companies are too busy trying to get their product out the door to deal with the nuisance of having a novice underfoot. Many are in-between, with no formal program, but a desire to start training a noobie or two, and along with that, looking for someone to do some boring grunt-work, like making crates.

The pay ranges from crap to squat. It’s minimum wage if you’re lucky, and nothing at all if you aren’t. However, it’s worth it. I’m not saying this because I would like another intern to take care of crate-level tasks for me; I’m saying it because I did it myself at LucasArts. They gave me some work to do that was challenging and not even particularly grunty, and I got three months of being right there in the middle of things, seeing how game production was done. Never once did I have to fetch coffee. At the end of it, they even asked me if I would like to stay. My parents would have killed me if I had skipped out on that last year of college, so I didn’t take them up on the offer, but I still got to put the name of a big company on my resume, which really helped when I was looking for work later.

Internships aren’t just for students. Most of ours, in fact, have been recent graduates. This is because it is rare to see a fresh college graduate who is ready for a full-time artist position. Either they are weak on modeling skills, or they’ve learned one 3D program decently, but the company uses another, or the technical stuff specific to the company coupled with their inexperience just means they need some serious ramp-up time. Or the intern is a risky hire that the company wants to test out for a few months. Or some combination. In any of these cases, an internship fills the role that graduate school does in other industries. The pay is training and experience.

And as you can probably guess, this leaves interns open to a bit of abuse. In the case of the risky hire, the company might intend to either hire the intern as a full-fledged employee at the end of a set period of time, such as three months; or say goodbye the intern who didn’t pan out and try again with another noobie artist. But a company can find itself undecided at the end of that period of time, and offer to continue the internship. . . and continue the internship. . . with the dangled carrot that there will be a real job eventually. . .

This sort of thing can be an innocent mistake on the part of the company: somebody in charge thinks that they are helping you by not firing you. But it really, really stinks for the intern. If you ever are this intern, you have to cut your losses and leave, or proclaim loudly that you need them to make a decision, and kick people in the shins until they do. It’s scary to get back out there and do the job-hunt again, but once you’ve got that internship on your resume and those crates in your portfolio, finding a real job should be much easier.

Finding an internship: they’re sort of like small bugs under rocks. You have to go looking for them. Some companies, like LucasArts*, have fancy internship programs that are publicized on their website or elsewhere. I found information about that internship through my college’s Career Counseling Services. But, I suspect, most internships are more ghetto. The company has a budget for about three and a half new hires, so after the three full-time hires are made, they start asking around the company if anyone knows anyone who would make a good intern, or if anyone has a connection to local art schools. Why local? Because there is no budget to help relocate the intern, and asking them to do it on their crappy pay is just mean.

So look hard for local opportunities. But, what the hell. If you really want to work for a company on the other side of the country, call them up. Or e-mail. Ask if they have any openings for interns. Or go ahead and send a portfolio and resume and cover letter that states you are looking for a position as an intern. In fact, send several to different companies. The same rule applies for interns as for any other position: portfolios are tossed in to a drawer. When a position opens up, out comes the heap for review. A rejection letter one week can result in an unexpected phone call months later. And relocating yourself for a crap-paying job for three months is sometimes worth eating a lot of peanut-butter.



*I don’t know if they still have an internship program. They did go through a rough spell not too long ago.

[Izi]

Photographs! ooohhhhh nooo. I can barely hold a camera still! :O

I started school in January of this year. I had actually gone to the school thinking that I just wanted to get the degree to learn 3D programs but they are teaching me some good stuff that I didn't know about, like speed drawing and animation techniques, as well as actual game design, which is interesting.

They made me do a course that had nothing to do with art or gaming, but instead made you do research to decide what you might like to do in the game industry. I picked texture artist and 3D modeller as the most interesting. Do most texture artists use altered photography samples for textures instead of making them by hand?

What about 3D programs, is it bad that Blender and Maya totally confuse me?

(I mean, I can put a cube in Maya. I can load Blender. That's it.)

[NoSeRider]

Low-Poly Modeler/texturer of Environments – These folks make architecture, landscapes, rocks, trees, furniture, even whole game levels. Because there is less glory in saying “I made a building” then “I made a three-headed dragon”, there is a need for good environment artists in the games industry. I will write more about this niche later.

Hey, I think my 3 headed dragon looks cool.....Joey Jones, the instructor, told me so, he works here:
http://www.shadedbox.com/

Just because I don't have a passion for making map objects don't mean I can't do them.

However, I realize the need for environmental design....which should not be neglected, just as much as drawing the human figure.

[Seedling]

Dang, you guys keep bringing up more and more good topics! I'm getting behind! :-) More later. . .

[jharford]

Hi seedling,
Thought i would drop by and give a couple of my opinions.Hope that is ok.
****************************

Internship.
An internship is a fabulous way into the games industry , it allows you not only a dramatically increased chance of making it into the grounds of a large and popular company, but also allows you a lot of freedom and flexibility for learning the trade in the environment.
After 6 months of an internship, your fully aware of the scheduling, expectations and limitations of the position and the company, and will be sure to learn almost everything you need to know to do your job efficiently. ( If you work hard and absorb everything ).
I started an apprenticeship in the games industry years ago, and while the pressure is not so much on you , you get a great chance to learn and absorb everything from the super talented people that are around you. Your workload is usually reduced from what a regular employee may have, and the flexibility is there for your progression and education within the fim.
I recommend this route for anyone who has the ambition and a solid base of good personal work, but without the experience to apply for more senior positions .

While intern's in some companies can be open to abuse, in the fact that they can be overworked or put onto tasks such as uvmapping all day every day..A lot of companies are not like this. When you show yourself as a profficient artist, able and willing to take on larger more important tasks, usually the opportunities to do that are there.
There will always be situations where this is not the case and interns are relegated to making coffee and fetching sandwiches, but even then , you are inside the company and ready to take on higher tasks and positions when the time arises,
Ea and lucasarts both have internshop programs, usually lasting 3-6 months, and can put you in a position to show your profficiency, and give you a taste of the industry. But 3 months in my opinion is not long enough to grasp enough experience to move into another company when the former let you go.

many smaller studios will take on talented interns for a lower wage, without the phone/on-site interviews, callbacks, second interviews and so on. The process is quicker, and once there.. well.. the same as previously stated.
I'd recommend emailing and ringing around all the games studies in your area, but also take a risk and email/ring companies in other area, countries.. continents even. Sometimes a new start, in a whole different place, can really motivate you even more to make a go of the new internship. I believe this is especially true for college grads. Moving country really pushes you into believing your new life, new job, and new stage in your life has come, and you can move forward from here with a fresh outlook.

Straight applying
You may think to yourself that your too valuable to go for an internship, too old, or too experienced. Well applying for a regular position is just like with any other job. The less senior the position the more the company may be open to 'warm hiring', hiring on your potencial to grow within the company as an artist. Some companies have a strick no warm hire policy ( I believe Blur studios is one ) , And will only hire new people on recommendation , experience and solid kick-ass portfolio. Of course, knowing someone in the compnay is always a great way to get your foot in the door, which is why i strongly recommened networking at cg/tech/games events, keeping on top of the technology and companies in the industry, new techniques and software.

[woodbert]

Thanks for the help seedling. Picture this, a high school where there are only a general art 1 and 2 class that pretty much are only able to cover the basics with some elaboration in art 2. In these classes there are a number of talented students who want, need and deserve a better arts program. What courses do you think would be the best?

[Seedling]

Zaknafain – Awesome! I hope you will share your progress here.
Darkwolfb87 – did that answer your questions on internships?
Jtran – Okie dokie, I’ve added that to my list of topics. Good thing I haven’t tossed the stack of Game Developer magazines just yet. Thanks, and stay tuned.
LadyHydralisk – Textures are made in every conceivable way. I would love to hear a play-by-play of the games courses you are taking, by the way.
NoSeRider – you can’t throw a celestial rat around here without hitting someone’s three-headed dragon.
Jhartford – Woot! Thank you for chiming in. Please feel free to add more to this thread. The more industry insiders who join in, the better a resource this will be for folks wanting to get into the industry.
Woodbert – I’m going to have to think a bit on that . . . too sleepy tonight to give you good answers. . .

[Seedling]

Whether you are a concept artist painting color sketches of a game level, or a modeler/texturer building the silhouette of a spiky suit of armor, an animator figuring out the extreme poses of a three-headed dragon in its death throes, or a level designer setting up a landscape so that you get a luscious view when you round the corner with your guns blazing – if you do any of those things, then you need to have a basic knowledge of composition. For this, we’re going low-tech.

*******Assignment #7 - Composition*******

Go forth and spend a buck-fifty on a glue stick and a pad of construction paper. Grab some scissors, roll up the carpet, and turn up your favorite tunes. It’s time to make some non-representational art.

Here’s the drill. Pick out four sheets of construction paper. Cut each of those into four smaller rectangles of the same aspect ratio.

In the next hour, I want you to turn each of those sixteen little rectangles into a small collage. Tear paper, cut paper, stick it together with glue-stick and trim the edges. Don’t fuss over any one of them. The goal is to try different crazy things just to see what happens. Try minimalism. Try confetti. It’s about using color and shape to move the eye around, and it’s about finding what works through trial and error.

Ding! Time’s up. Line up your collages and take a good look. What works? What doesn’t work? Is there one that you would stick to your fridge with a magnet so that you could ponder it a bit longer? Is there one that makes you think “ugh, straight to the trash”? Why do you have these reactions? What it is that’s pleasing or not pleasing in these scraps of cheap randomness?

********#7 B*********

Pick a game from your collection, and play through to some point that you find particularly pleasing to the eye. Take a screenshot, pause the game, or just make sure you’re parked somewhere that a monster won’t maul your level 20 masticator. And roll up the carpet again.

This time, I want you to replicate the composition that you see on the screen. Use that same old cheap construction paper. Don’t try to make a perfect paper-doll of your character – just hack out an approximate shape. Use big blocks of color – no agonizing over details. Don’t worry that the colors don’t match so well. Don’t spend too much time on this.

The final product shouldn’t be identifiable to anyone but you, because, in theory, you have reduced that complex image to its essentials. It’s so abstract that all that remains is composition.

What works about this composition, and what doesn’t work? What works or doesn’t work about the colors and the patterns?

Keep this as quick and fun as the first time. Repeat it a few times with different scenes or different games. Or venture forth from games and try it with photographs or paintings.

Be sure to sweep the floor and wipe up stray glue when you are done.

[Izi]

LadyHydralisk – Textures are made in every conceivable way. I would love to hear a play-by-play of the games courses you are taking, by the way.

Ok when I update my sketchbook I will try to add all of the nitty gritty, such as essays they make us do and so on. I'll also recape what I've been doing since January (my freshman starting month)

Great exercise in composition! I would never have thought of using composition like that in a game! I always regretted that this didn't get covered at the CRA as a rule, I always struggled with composition, bordering on paralysis.

I already have black construction paper and a glue stick on hand, I have kids. Omg they are going to love this, after they are done being banned from drawing on the marble table with glitter glue yesterday.:dead:

[Shaolin7]

Hello, thank you so much for posting as you did in Seedling's game industry advice thread jharford. That sort of in-depth viewpoint is very valuable and greatly appreciated. Big thanks as well to seedling for starting this thread, and posting all the informative and helpful information (and for humouring us with the PM bombardment).

As far as cold calling goes, would it be considered unprofessional to e-mail a company out of the blue asking about what they have set up, and where one can go about applying? From what I gather, alot of companies do not really advertise for interns, and often these sorts of positions are hidden away from the average job seeker. The website disclaimers politely asking people to avoid making unsolicited calls, and professional culture overall, would seem to deter this sort of thing?

As well, aren't internships usually reserved for fresh graduates? I don't consider myself too good for such a role at all, quite the opposite, and would humbly welcome such an opportunity. As an older guy, though, and with zero professional or practical industry experience, how inclined are companies to take a look? It seems even less likely, the farther (geographically) one is from said company, that they'd consider it. Forgive me if the tone seems argumentative, that's certainly not what I want to convey considering you've taken the time to post all this great information. I'm earnestly wanting to know where to go to find these sorts of spots, to get an opportunity somewhere.

Thanks alot for taking the time guys, it really helps outsiders like me.

Cheers

[Seedling]

Hiya Shaolin!

Mmm. . .comp day! Our team had to do some crunching a little while ago, and in compensation they gave us today and Monday off. So I am doing some painting and being an internet monkey. Woo!

To answer your questions – I don’t think it is unprofessional or unreasonable to contact a company in order to ask about internship opportunities. After all, the information may only be available from the source. Just make sure that you are polite in your request. If the company’s main phone number leads to an answering service, then don’t start dialing similar numbers in the hope that you’ll hit a real person – because chances are you’ll dial my desk and I’ll be befuddled and annoyed and unable to help you.

The other option is to go ahead and send a portfolio (or a link to an on-line portfolio) and resume and a cover letter saying you are looking for an internship, and follow up with a phone call a couple of weeks later.

I don’t know of any internships that are reserved for fresh graduates, though I suppose it’s possible. We don’t have such limits. Our oldest intern’s children were all grown up when she joined us. She switched over from a career of costume-design and costume-making, and was taken aboard to design costumes for our characters. She learned Maya and Photoshop on the job, and was long ago promoted to a full-time modeler/texturer.

Geographic distance from a company can lower your chances. Sometimes a company needs low-hassle hire in a hurry, and in that case, you just may not fit the bill. But then maybe you are exactly what the company is looking for, even though getting you there will be inconvenient.

If you really are hot stuff, you might even get lucky enough that a company will create an internship just to get you on board. We did once create an internship specifically for someone with whom I had gone to college. Because his drawing skills were phenomenal, and because I was able to vouch for his incredibly good work ethic, he was offered a position that hadn’t previously existed.

[Seedling]

To celebrate tax season, every April Game developer Magazine publishes the results of a survey of game developer salaries. Here they are:

The typical salary for a game animator or artist with less than three years experience is $45,675. For artists and animators with three to six years experience, that number goes up to $61,065, and greater than six years is $69,457. The totals are higher for lead artists and art directors. (But please note that there is no data on lead artists or art directors in the less-than-three-year category, presumably because there are none.)

Game designers make slightly less, and programmers make a good bit more. Quality Assurance (game testers) with less than three years experience can expect to make about $24,797.

This reminds me that I should actually read more of these magazines, instead of just letting them stack up in the bathroom.

[Seedling]

When it comes to 3D art programs, there’s Maya, there’s 3D studio Max, and there are other various programs. Which one should you learn? It depends. Some companies use one, some companies use another. Some companies have different teams that are each working with a different tool.

When it comes to getting hired, some companies will need an employee who absolutely knows a specific program. Others will have the resources to train a new hire with whatever program they are using.

An no, you don’t get to pick which software you use as a 3D artist, that I know of. (Though things can be a little more flexible with 2D programs and plug-ins for 3D programs.)

So, do you learn a little of as many 3D programs as possible, or do you throw all of your eggs in one basket? Well, I’m afraid I can’t answer that for you. But I will point out that you will need to learn at least one program well enough to create samples for your portfolio. And that if you want to be an artist, you also should be sure not to neglect your fine-arts education in favor of learning tools.

If you have a favorite company that you would like to someday work for, then it might be in your benefit to find out what software they use.

A note about 3D programs: there are so very many buttons! So many tools-within tools! It’s so overwhelming! Here’s my secret: I only know how to use about 5% of Maya. That’s all you need to do professional low-poly modeling.

In other words, figure out what you need to accomplish your 3D goals, and then do not waste your time learning the rest of the 3D program. Because, seriously, you could spend months just gaining an understanding of every blasted button - and then never use those buttons. Your time is better spent doing figure drawing, unless you are interested in being a technical artist.

It used to be that Maya was available only to professionals, due to it costing about as much as a small car. That meant that students had only two options: find a class that taught Maya, which was a rare find; or, learn on a pirated copy. The makes of Maya finally addressed the hypocrisy of forcing their future users into stealing the program by releasing a free learning version, which, I suspect, can be downloaded from their website. The learning version has a giant, ugly watermark across the screen. However I can assure you that if you submit a portfolio that includes samples with the watermark, you won’t be thought any less of for it. It tells the company that you don’t use pirated software.

I don’t know if Max has a free student version.

If anyone has links to sites where free 3D programs can be downloaded, feel free to share!

On a final note, it is fairly standard when going from one company to another to have to learn a new program. It is very typical for a new employee with several years experience to whimper and whine that “it wasn’t like this in Max! This is confusing! Argh!”

[Seedling]

Drawing or painting from life is like eating your vegetables: sometimes it just makes you want to whine “I don’t wanna!” while lusting after ice cream. However, unless you are willing to push forward with life drawings, then your drawings from imagination are likely not to improve much, either.

*******assignment #8 – From Observation to Concept Art*******

Find a real-life object that is made up of one or more interesting materials. Light it, and draw or paint it. Make your rendition of the object be as realistic and life-like as possible. If you are painting, then focus on colors. If you are drawing in black and white, focus on rendering details that reveal what the material is.

Done with that? Spiffy. Now come up with something out of your imagination that is made of the same materials. If what you painted was made of metal, you could design a suit of armor or a robot. If it was cloth, perhaps a costume would do. Wood? How about some wooden machine with gears and whatnot. Get creative.

Now do a second drawing or painting of this thing you have dreamed up. Use your still-life as reference for your colors or details. Try as hard as possible to get the quality of your from-imagination piece to match that of the still-life.

If you like the results you got from this exercise, repeat it with different materials to build up your own internal materials library.

[Seedling]

There are three general categories of jobs involved in game-making: artists, programmers, and game designers. Artists make the game pretty, programmers make the game go, and designers make the game fun.

Most of what I know about game design I’ve learned by osmosis, so it isn’t the best information ever, but it’s better than what I know about programmers. (As far as I can tell, programmers type lines of voodoo and brackets, and poof, there’s a game!) At any rate, a little second-hand info about game design might be useful to you, so I’ll add what I know to this pile, and if a real game designer comes along and fills in the details, great!

By the way, I know artists in some other industries go by the term “designer”, but in the games industry the term really doesn’t apply to the artists, except for the few oddballs who have one foot in art in the other in game-design.

Designers work in spreadsheets and word documents. Sometimes they have to know some programming, and (at our company) they are in charge of assembling the assorted bits and pieces of art into playable areas.

At this point I should probably add that I’m one of those oddballs with a foot in art and a foot in design. I’ve been building landscapes for our game for some time, and on Tuesday I’ll be moving from a desk on the artist’s side of the room to a desk on the designer’s side. So hopefully my pathetic knowledge of what game designers do will increase.

Anyway. . . getting into game design from the art team is rather indirect and odd. The typical route is. . . well, there isn’t. Even more so than with art, there is no such thing as a college course that leads tidily into game design, that I know of. A typical game designer went to college to study something else, and while he was at it he played a lot of games and got into running D&D campaigns and modding* computer games.

Working on an indy game project is, from what I understand, a great way to prepare for a career as a game designer. And modding. I have asked the designers repeatedly what advice I should pass along to students wanting to learn this stuff, and they always say modding. Designers aren’t required to show portfolios, but I don’t think it could hurt for a potential designer to have a portfolio of one or more well-put-together mods.

Aside from that, I know of one guy who wrote his thesis paper on Massively Multiplayer Online RPG’s, and I know of three guys who founded their own tiny little company, worked for a time on their own MMORPG, and then used that as leverage to get designer and programmer jobs all together, as a team.

Traditionally (not that an industry so young can have much in the way of tradition) people also work their way into the design department from QA – Quality Assurance. Otherwise known as Game Testers. Those poor souls have to sit in the dark and play unfinished and not-yet-working bits of games over and over and over and over, and then write up reports on what’s broken. I have all sorts of admiration for game testers, because I could not do what they do and remain sane. However, it isn’t a bad role for someone in need of an entry-level job and willing to start at the bottom and work up.

From what I understand, QA departments have a hard time holding on to experienced testers, because the pay is low and because so many of them use it as a stepping-stone to design. So there’s another opportunity for those eyeing the games industry for any opportunity: lead game tester.

**********Assignment #9 – Game Mod**********

Make a game mod. Go!

Okay, that’s a pitiful set of directions, and I apologize. I’ve never made a game mod, and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about how to get started making one. But if it weren’t so much like what I’m already doing at work, I suspect I would be doing it for fun.

One thing, though. If it’s game *art* you want to make for a living, then it may not be worth your while to get deeply into modding. A little modding could probably teach you a lot about the overall process of game-making, and about how art is used in games. But if modeling characters is what you really want to be doing, then focus on learning how to make the best dang characters you possibly can. Be cautious about getting significantly sidetracked by fun activities.




*Some games ship with tools that allow you to build your own modules out of the game engine and art assets. Such player-assembled versions of the games are called “mods”.

[Seedling]

Shucks. . . I guess my bad breath scared everyone away. . .

[Nyx702]

Shucks. . . I guess my bad breath scared everyone away. . .

No way. This is just great information that everyone has to maul over. I guess you are covering everything so well that no one else needs to chime in.

But I totally agree with what Stupidity'sUglyHead said:

No matter what school you go to, you will get out what you put in. A good attitude, and a need to do art as strong as breathing are what I recommend.


I read that you wanted to know what LadyHydralisk's course were like. I also am going for a "game design" degree at the Art Institute. Much like Full Sails, I expect, in that it produces technical artist...only crappy ones. The courses are somewhat not art oriented and are very 3D heavy. Every year there are more and more drawing class cut from the curriculum...I think we are down to about three or four??? Like mentioned earlier, you get what you put in. I draw mch outside of school and it really helps but unfortunatly 99% of the other student do not.

[ConCrete]

Alright, first off, you rock. I have been researching game developement, colleges, books, art, resumes, and everything about concept art for the past year. I have sent emails everywhere, to colleges, game dev companies, and modders. Everyone not in the industry was always quick to respond. No one in the industry has responded to anything I have sent. So to have someone 'in' helping those not 'in' is truely unique...thank you from all of us noobs.

Helpful things I have discovered:



www.gamecareerguide.com - This is an offshoot of the popular game developer magazine. Its still really new so its not visited much but I think thsi will become a core for noobs to get help on becoming developer ready. You can also come up with a fake companie and get free subscriptions delivered to your house...I don't think its illegal and the informaiton is....invaluable...

Modding games is awesome experience. The game dev section of conceptart is a great place to start, the next best thing to do is pick a game you enjoy and google mod teams for that specific game. Every game has some sort of a mod community.

Most game developers are elitists...who own noobs so much they don't talk to us...ever...

Things I wonder about at night...

Is the game industry saturated? Honestly, does it need anymore concept artists?

Should I be really really good at just concept art, or should I learn basic 3D modeling and some programing and take some game theory courses? I have gotten mixed responses from people on this topic.

I have an online portfolio (a real sad excuse for a portfolio) www.anabele.deviantart.com and its composed of entirely finished polished drawings...should I toss some rough 20 minute life drawings in there or some abstract graphic design posters?

I am thinking about spend some money on books from www.cgsociety.org on concept art, matte painting, and character design for games. Is it worth my time or should I just draw my hand one hundred times...

I love drawing guns, ships, cars, guns, and metal pointy things. I suck at drawing environments, anatomy, and organic stuff...should I be a jack of all trades or just try to get hired as a real specific concept artist...

Final question. I figured out real fast that concept art schools, majors, or classes don't exist...so I went to the cheapest school with a digital arts illustration degree I could find...I have yet to regret this...in any case...should I be putting all my time and effort into my course work or concentrating on the stuff I do outside of the classes, which is more concept arty...if that doesnt make sense let me know....its hard to talk for me sometimes :er: ....

Okay I cheated...Hows is music handled in games? As in, is it a permanent department? If I love remixing techno would that be something I would want to put into my portfolio?...Long story short I have been yelled at by employers for not telling them every skill I have retained throughout my life...or will that just bog down the resume...

Do you think you could put a link up to your resume/portfolio so us noobs know what we need to do to make the cut...:bashful:

And to end this wonderful spewing of questions frustrations and muttered curses, I would again like to thank you for all the time and effort you put into caring about we the down-trodden noobs...:)

[tensai]

i still don't understand why this thread is A; not stickified, and B; doesnt have ten stars.

all i can say is its great that somebody is sharing this and takes the time to write this all down. i personally do not desire a position in the field but appreciate the info nonetheless. very interesting to see how people from different industries work in their field.

so a big thanks and props to seedling - i think it just needs time to grow for people to become aware.
edit - is it in the wrong section? i mean, it's in the right section but not if this is to be discovered by a big group of people. people are a bit lazy browsing to different sections in the forums. how about the 'fine art studies & discovery' or 'education and learning' sections?

[Qitsune]

It was stickied last week... ahem...

and props to Seedling and the other contributors to the thread.

[tensai]

It was stickied last week... ahem...

:nohope:
must have been one of those days..

:bashful: :bashful: :bashful: ...

and there are stars now too!

[Seedling]

D00d. . . my thread got stars! *humbled*

Wow, thanks for speaking up, everyone! Questions, questions, so many questions. I’ll start addressing some of your questions later today, though I am afraid the best answer I can give to many of them is “I don’t know”. I’m afraid the path to any job is paved with a lot of crossed fingers and educated guesses.

Speaking of education, I would love to hear more from anyone currently in a “games” school or course of study. What classes does your course consist of? What is the ratio of fine arts education to tools education? Are they lumping subjects like game design or programming in with game art courses? What are your textbooks?

And if any other folks currently (or formerly) in the games industry are reading this, I would like to learn about your education as well.

ConCrete, thanks for the link! I’m sorry to hear you have had such trouble contacting industry folks for advice. :-(

Thanks everyone!

[Maurice]

ConCrete, best that you're able to conceptualize environments, know human & animal anatomy and be a bit of an engineer. Drawing just military instruments will not be enough to land a full time concept position in gaming. Most of us concept guys who are 35+ started off in the film, TV and theme park industries working as a layout artist or a production illustrator. We learned concept / visual development from mentors at a particular studio.

It is a shame to hear that colleges are getting away from teaching 2D skills and focusing more on 3D. The result is not having enough solid concept artists in an industry where more concept artists are needed to support it’s growth.

It would be nice and perhaps Seeding can chime in from here but, I would like to see potential concept artist who are attending one of these colleges hook up with a seasonal concept artist / mentor. I would guess that these colleges would have to be part of its initial conception to make this idea work.

[Thaelys]

Hi Seedling, first of all your thread is fantastic and very timely. Many thanks for sharing with us.

I'm one of those people currently studying game art & design at a "non-traditional" college. My profile - mid 30's veteran interactive media developer trying to break into the game/electronic entertainment industry. Degree? Heh, about 6 years of college mishmash - going from industrial design, interactive media and finally game art. I'll add my experience to this.

I had started with Art Institute this year after years away from college. I had participated in the foundation classes at AI in the Spring. While it wasn't a total waste of time, I didn't get out of it what I was putting in. While my peers were spending 2 hours drawing with a #2 pencil, I poured 8 hours+ into each assignment with lighting studies, charcoals, pastels, pencils, masks, etc. Basically pushing the envelope as much as I could. I even posted my own .pdfs on how to draw in perspective, how to use different media, good books and references, etc.

It finally came to a turning point when my art teacher said "I cannot critique anything in your assignment*. It's perfect". Another student said "What are you doing in this class? Are you a stealth TA?" I knew my work wasn't "perfect". But, I knew I had to find another peer group and another instructor(s). After asking some other students, it seemed I was headed for similiar experiences further into the program. At $1,200 per class, it would be a very expensive set of experiences.

I finally found another school which is cheaper, does not hand out degrees, but is very promising regardless. It's taught by industry pro's. PM me because I won't turn this into a bash/promo thread.

What I'm trying to communicate with you all here is that there ARE alternatives to the AI's, the Westwoods, the $$$ schools. It took a long time to find one that could help me. It's worth it to do the research. These alternatives may not hand out degrees, but they may be the difference between being stuck in Art School hell, and really learning something that benefits you creatively and professionally.

----------------------------------------

Anyway, I'm going to start practicing with your assignments, Seedling. These will definately help. Normally, people charge big bucks for this sort of thing. Again, thank you. I'm subscribing to this thread.

*The so-called "perfect" drawing class still life :rolleyes:http://home.comcast.net/%7Emk1anton/fart/thaelys_newbie_still_life.jpg

[Shaolin7]

I empathize with you ConCrete, it can be tough trying to get in contact with industry artists willing to take the time; sometimes I feel like I'm being a nuisance, and not wanting to cause more trouble for myself I often just don't bother bugging them. Thankfully we have a thread like this. Very grateful to all of you guys for starting and contributing all this info for us newbies.

As far as educational experience: I was enrolled in a 1 year digital animation program at a smaller fine arts college. The first four months was comprised of learning classical animation basics, and getting acclimated in Photoshop, Maya and Premiere (mind you this was 6 years ago). The last eight months were used to work through Maya and on the reel. There was life drawing on Fridays, but that fell to the wayside when it came to Maya as most people really honed in on the 3D side of things. Our classical animation instructor did a good job trying to prepare us, I believe, considering the program itself was rather hastily put together and everyone was scrambling to get loans, housing etc. situated and taken care of (there were 4 of us that moved from another city to take this program).

I look back with great regret on my time there, because I made so many mistakes personally and even on a professional level with my choices. I really struggled, in and out of class, so to echo the sentiment: make sure to put your work in, and do not get complacent. The onus is definitely on you to prep yourself as best you can, because regardless of the quality of the program nothing will beat hard work and dedication.

Beating a dead horse again with regards to internship inquiries: If you're asking about a general interning spot, would it help to submit images in the e-mail or is that just an annoyance? Also, when submitting to any concept position, is there an ideal number of pieces you should be putting in? For instance, would 8-9 pieces suffice (not including life drawing / anatomy studies, sketches to show your process etc.)?

*edit* Thaelys, tough luck there but good on you to make the change you felt you needed to. That's a really nice still life work!

[Miss Wiggle]

Thanks for making this thread. :D I've loved reading all of it.

I've basically just been drawing the past 4 years wanting to eventually get into gaming/film, but not really having any tangible idea of exactly how to get there..or better yet, just where "there" is. You would think if I really really wanted to know this stuff, I would have looked harder.

*smacks forehead*

Anyways, I suppose I'll need more than just drawing skills. :) *disappears into lurking once more*

[Thaelys]

Hi again Seedling,

Would you like to see our output of the assignments here? Or would it be better to move this to the game development forum?

Just curious. I'd like to know if you are interested in seeing this yourself, or if it's just purely for our own eyes and benefit.

[carlosranna]

At night i wonder a lot of those thing Concrete talked about too... And many others that you propably dont want to hear about...

Also i have this situation. I´m located in Brazil and the game industry here is very new and have very few companies, most of them are small ones strugling to get a share of the market making advergames and mobile games. Very few of them are working for the consoles, wich i guess is where a good concept artist would really be necessary...

I have a fine arts degree in painting, and i have been studying a lot to be able to make as good art is i can. I still haven´t send my portfolio to the companies in my area because i´m trying to learn so many different things i don´t know where to go next, hehe... Shoul i try pixel art? Learn how to make good tiles? Try to learn 3D? The reason i ask is that i´m afraid being able to paint, drawn and create might not be enough around here... What would you guys say about that?

[Seedling]

Would you like to see our output of the assignments here? .

Sure! :-)

Everyone - I'll try to find the time to answer more questions later. Sorry I'm so slow. . .

[Beonarri]

Great thread Seedling!

It has a butt-load of information, and is very clear in saying so...or it's very rambling on-and-on and I just understand ramblings better than normal speech.

I think that Autodesk now owns both Maya and Studio Max. I think my main problem is I don't know any 3d programs at all. And they have educational downloads on thier site. I tried it once but the files are monsterous in size (270mb). And when I opened the installer it bombed. :\
With all the hoops they make you jump through to get it, you would expect it to work.

I have a question.
What is your opinion of listing programs on a resume? Is more better? Would you rather see more proficient or more knowledgable? Proficient being a whizz with the program, knowledgable being you know it but don't put me behind it because I'm not good with it.

I had someone say knowledgable was like gold wrapped in chocolate icing.

(For the record my is Proficient: Photshop, Illustrator, Painter. Knowledgable: Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, InDesign, Word, OpenOffice, HTML, CSS...not exactly game world material, but I've always thought it showed a reasonable ability to learn computer programs easily.:\ )

[ConCrete]

Very few of them are working for the consoles, wich i guess is where a good concept artist would really be necessary...


Every game, basic flash side scroll, all the way to the most complex 3d console needs concept art, the better games just have the budget to hire the best, you become the best by doing it...so don't worry about getting a job for a 'lesser' platform if it means experience and exposure...

Thaelys - WHERE!?! WHAT IS IT CALLED! ( oh and the composition in your 'perfect' drawing was so bad it offended me...spiritually...)

Send emails to [email protected] to start up this conversation, PLEASE.

Alright so I am hearing form all sorts of people that they are afraid of not being prepared enough to get into the industry...this I know from machining...the first step to find out if you are good enough or not is to send out those portfolios and get your name out there...if no one hires you then get better and send them again...I know as soon as I have either a job offering before I graduate or graduate I am getting into the first internship or job thats intelligent because doing it makes you learn it better than anything else...if not I go to more drawing classes and keep doing unpaid work...

I am going to extend this out because I am believe I can help some people...I am part of....2 going on 3...mod/build teams right now doing concept...and they are always looking for more people...If you want to do unpaid work on a real relaxed basis and not only build that portfolio but get real good experience as to how games get built send me an email at the above address...this is not only for concept but for all parts in the development process, 3D, programming, etc...

[Tec]

thanks a lot for this enormous bunch of information and answers...this thread is just great :tihi:

i am currently studying industrial design (i am also involved in a mod-project and 2 illustration projects) and i hope to get a job in the game industry one day....

so why do i study industrial design instead of game design? i think i will learn more valuable stuff this way....lots of constuctive drawing, material science, etc....in the end information like this will help you to come up with convincing designs, which at least seem as if they could work :P ....most game academies teach every aspect of game development....programming, 3d, 2d, leveldesign ...and i think it's of no use to learn all those disciplines at once.....in the end a specialized 2d or 3d artist is of more value than somebody who is able to do everything a little, but nothing on a high level...


1st assignment:

here is my quick try to draw a disgaea-esque lava environment + 3 little monsters...i have only played the first 4 levels of disgaea2...i hope there is no level like this later on :^^:

http://www.artrocity.de/activities/disgaea_lava.jpg

[Thaelys]

Hey Tec, this is a really nice sample. I like the style. For a quick sketch it reads well.

I'm working on a Fallout Screen Redux from Seedling's first assignment. I choose Fallout because it has an editor (Fallout Tactics) which allows me to dissect the map tiles. Fallout also has a distinct visual identity.

[Seedling]

Dood! Tek, I knew which game that was at first glance! :-) You get bonus points for being the first one brave enough to post a picture!

I’ve got loads more stuff I intend to dump in this thread. . . soon. . .ish. . . And I’ll try to get around to as many of the questions that have been answered as possible. . . And THANKS you guys for sharing your own experiences! Keep it coming!

BTW, the assignments I’m suggesting are in no significant order whatsoever. Feel free to pick and choose.



Is it okay if I share my own attempts at some of the assignments? I’ve been doing a couple of them on and off in my quest to become an oil painter. Here are the results of my stab at the “Observation to Concept Art” assignment. It took a few tries to get to this point. The entire trail of carnage can be found in my sketchbook.

[Seedling]

If you are asking “how many images I should have in my portfolio”, then you are asking the wrong question. Your portfolio or reel, and accompanying resume and cover letter, have two purposes: to tell the company what sort of work you want to be doing for them, and to demonstrate that you are capable of doing it. So the question you need to ask is “what do I need to include in my portfolio or reel to demonstrate that I am capable of doing what I want to be doing?”

There really are no rules other than that.



But I feel like I should fill up more space on the subject, so here are some additional unorganized rambles on the topic.

Having a web-page will make your life easier, because then you won’t have to assemble and mail physical portfolios.

But physical portfolios can be fun, too, and they don’t get lost in a busy art director’s e-mail. It took me two rounds of portfolios to get myself a job, and mine were of the physical variety. Sorry, I don’t have either of them on line, but I can tell you about what I did and didn’t do right.

The first portfolio was the dreamy product of my senior year of college. It was a hand-made book that folded open like an accordion, and every square inch that wasn’t taken up with color images was squashed full of drawings. It was beautiful; it was also extremely work-intensive to physically assemble, it couldn’t be expanded upon, and the images were all way, way too small. Some woman at Disney told me “that’s nice, now can we see your portfolio please?” But on the other hand, I made a limited edition of these as hand-made books complete with wooden covers and glossy prints. Two years later, someone found one of them in a drawer at a company where I would have given a limb to work at right out of college. They wanted to know if I was still looking for work. With a sigh I said no.

The second portfolio was strictly utilitarian. It consisted of multiple loose pages capable of being passed around a table easily. Each page contained one or two color images or drawings, and my contact information in case the pages got separated. I added content to this portfolio as the post-college months went on.


Reels. If you don’t have animation to show, a reel isn’t necessary. But, *shrug* if you feel happier spinning your models around instead of just showing screen-shots, it’s your call. See paragraph one.

Keep in mind that when reels are reviewed, it is the last thing the art director or team wants to be doing. There’s a pile of tapes. Most of what is on those tapes is painful to watch. The experience is like sitting down to deliberately watch commercials. So keep it brief – under a minute - and show only your best work.


Showing 3D work. Are your models so deliciously low-poly that an art director of games will drool? Show that. Are you skilled at laying out Uvs? Show that. Have you written a tutorial on laying out Uvs? Heck, show that too.

Do not hesitate to put text in your portfolio. And absolutely include text if you are showing work that is only partially yours. “This thinamjiggy was an extracurricular team project. I made the blah and textured the bloo.” This sort of brief and clear information is extremely helpful to whomever is hiring you.


Concept art. Show that you can do 2D images at every level from thumb-nail to polished painting. Show that you miraculously transmit any imagined idea into a drawing that clearly communicates your idea. When I am reviewing your portfolio, I am going to be thinking of what it will be like to make 3D art from your drawings. I want to see versatility and communication.

Since I know how many people there are here at conceptart.org who think copying photographs is good artistic exercise, let me alert you to something. We can tell the difference between traced photographs and original work. Unless you are as good as Norman Rockwell, then having traced work in your portfolio can hurt your chances of getting hired. This is because when you need to come up with sketches of a three-headed giant flying alien by four in the afternoon, there will not be a photograph in the world that can help you.


Ah. . . I have run out of steam on this topic. I can’t think of a catchy way to wrap this up, so instead go reread the first paragraph.

Go on, do it. And then relax a bit. It is that simple. You have the answers already.

[darkwolfb87]

Uh oh, that just reminded me. I need to prepare a portfolio for the next workshop lol. Michelle, is there any way to meet you in person before December?

One question: for physical portfolio's, is it ever a good idea to bring original drawings/paintings of anything or should all your work be photographed and printed?

[Beonarri]

Actually for portfolios I have a little gem of advice.

Make sure you gear it correctly. (Was this mentioned already?)
So if you applying for a concept job, keep it mainly concept art.
Comicbooks, keep it comicbooks.
Storyboards, storyboards.
Etc.

It seem kinda obvious, but a lotta people miss this one.
There was a guy in school who was a really good illustrator. But he put everything in his portfolio. I mean ev-er-y-th-in-GAA! So he had a 40 page portfolio of stuff.

darkwolf, print stuff. So you get the person you send it to can keep it and you don't have to worry about losing originals.

[ConCrete]

This is so invaluable....SEEDLING I want to give you money or my first born or something, you are such a champ!...WAY TO GO!!!!

[Nerahla]

What about using photographs to look at for reference? That's got to be ok... I mean - when you're just beginning and you need to learn anatomy and your neighbors aren't willing to go naked for you for hours on end... looking at a photograph to view (not trace) and reproduce for anatomy's sake can't be a bad thing...??

Better than trying to make it up as you go along anyway -- too many beginners don't reference enough really, and make horrible anatomy mistakes that stick with them for years.

[Beonarri]

Photo reference always helps. It's one of the things used when you can't get a pose or don't know what something looks like. Like, I have no clue what cars look like and can't draw them out of my head, so I go and look from reference for cars.

But, photo refrence is no substitute for drawing from life.

[Ian Mack]

Great thread! I've read it from beginning to end which rarely happens for me. :P

Seedling, thanks for all your input. It can be hard to go towards a goal when you're not entirely sure what that goal is or even how to get there. As you say thuogh, it's all educated guesses and leaps of faith.

I'm currently taking a leap of faith. I've taken a year off from my school to work on my basic fundamentals and pay off the debt I got myself into from my first year of school. It's also a kind of test run to see if I can motivate myself to learn on my own and ramp up my owns skills so that I might be able to bypass School. CA will be invaluable in that goal as it is basically an environment of like minded artists at skill levels equal or much much higher to mine!

What am I doing? I sketch everyday for 20min. I do a daily composition(concentrating on making it looser and more gestural while still thinking of design/perspective). I also do some loose studies from my anatomy book (Peck.) I have two larger projects I'm working on as well. A Redux of the characters from Final Fantasy 6, and a sprite based videogame that I'm making with my brother who is a programmer.

Things I'd like to work on...my sense of composition. This was not covered well enough in school. I also need to find a life drawing class to take on my own time...the best part about last year was that I was receiving 15hrs of life drawing a week.

Nice to know that I'm not the only one who has felt doubts from not having a clear direction. And that I'm not the only one to jump around schools. I'm actually trying to decide if I should head back to my school for the animation part of it, or switch to another school for illustration.

[Seedling]

I know, it’s normal to fret over every last thing that goes in your portfolio. You want to have everything perfect. But it’s art: it’s subjective. There is no “perfect”. Either your portfolio communicates that you can do the job you want to do; or it communicates that you can’t do the job you want to do, or that you can’t do the job as well as the other applicant; or your portfolio mumbles incoherently. Of all the possibilities, when it comes time to assemble your portfolio, it is that last category that you most have the power to avoid.

About tailoring your portfolio to fit the job you are applying for: go reread that first paragraph again. Part of the answer to the question “what do I need to include in my portfolio or reel to demonstrate that I am capable of doing what I want to be doing?” is that you don’t fill a portfolio with demonstrations of your cabinetry skills when you are applying for a job as a graphic designer.

So, about that second portfolio I had made, the one with the separate pages: that one had the potential to be particularly good when it came to sending different portfolios to different types of jobs. I could have left out certain pages for certain types of jobs. (Not that I actually did that. Oops.)

With an online portfolio, you’re stuck more with a one-size-fits-all approach. Make sure that the right people can easily find their way to the right kind of art.

One other note about tailoring your subject matter to fit the job: know what is appropriate subject matter. This isn’t something that you will need to worry about in most cases. Showing pictures of robots or sports to a company that makes high fantasy games is fine. If your portfolio contains nothing but football images, the worst that will happen is that they’ll wonder if you will really be happy making knights and castles – and if you make it to the interview stage, they will bring this up. On the other hand, if you send a portfolio full of sexually explicit imagery to a company who makes PG-rated work, your judgment will immediately be questioned and held against you, no matter the quality of the work.

Years ago we received a demo reel that primarily featured an animation dominated by a pair of oversized breasts which went bouncing around the screen like giant yo-yos. It was so over the top in its inappropriateness that our art director at the time had to restrain himself from writing back to the applicant to say “are you nuts?”

Assuming that not all of you work is digital, you will have occasion to show your original art. Such occasions will typically be at interviews or portfolio review days at colleges. I don’t know of any company that would ask to have you mail your originals to them, and if such a company ever asked that of me, I would politely tell them that I am no longer interested in working for them. My assumption is that letting your portfolio of originals out of your sight is just asking for trouble, unless it is in a very controlled situation.

Oh – one thing I did that helped me at my interview for Turbine, was that in the days before the interview, I made drawings specifically to take to the interview. I showed up with a portfolio of original work, and I was able to point at the drawings and say “I drew this stuff just for you!”

About using photo reference. . . first of all, I notice the term “reference” is used an awful lot around here to mean “I traced this” or “I copied this exactly”. That is not reference. That’s copying. If you want to be an illustrator or fine artist, and if you want to take your own photographs to copy from, then that’s ethically fine, and you could potentially make a good career of it.

As a concept artist, or even as a modeler/texturer, you have absolutely got to be able to work without the scaffolding of a photo to trace.

On the other hand, yes, you can use photo reference, in the true sense of the word. This means that if you are drawing or building a spider, it’s absolutely fine to dredge up photographs of spiders from the internet, so that you can see for yourself how many joints a spider has in its legs, how the jaws attach, etc. In fact, it would be a bad idea not to have some photo reference on hand. But using reference in this manner is to help you build an accurate 3D image of a spider in your mind. It’s the mental spider that you want to draw or model from, no the photographs, so that the result doesn’t look like a plain old tarantula blown up to the size of an elephant. There has got to be something original about the final product, and that won’t happen from relying heavily on photographs.

*phew* Is there anything I’ve failed to cover about portfolios? Let me know.

Post Script. . .

Yes, in your resume, do include a list of what relevant software you know. The company that is considering you needs to know if you will be able to hit the ground running or if you are going to need some serious training.

[Seedling]

Otherside – good luck with your leap of faith. If you have the dedication to learn what you need, I think you’ll do fine. Also, if it better fits your life, you could take individual classes and not worry about getting a degree.


Michelle, is there any way to meet you in person before December?

I’m not any more useful in person than I am here. Really. I am extremely shy, and not a good speaker.


This is so invaluable....SEEDLING I want to give you money or my first born or something. . .

Egads, are you trying to scare me away? :-P



Also i have this situation. I´m located in Brazil and the game industry here is very new and have very few companies, most of them are small ones strugling to get a share of the market making advergames and mobile games. Very few of them are working for the consoles, wich i guess is where a good concept artist would really be necessary...

I have a fine arts degree in painting, and i have been studying a lot to be able to make as good art is i can. I still haven´t send my portfolio to the companies in my area because i´m trying to learn so many different things i don´t know where to go next, hehe... Shoul i try pixel art? Learn how to make good tiles? Try to learn 3D? The reason i ask is that i´m afraid being able to paint, drawn and create might not be enough around here... What would you guys say about that?

I have never heard of “pixel art”, but it sounds like very low-resolution art for cell phones or other tiny hand-held game devices. A combination of drawing, modeling, and texturing is the most likely to get you a job making games. But if you specifically want a job at a company that makes cell-phone games, then try to figure out how to make the art that they need. Try getting in touch with an artist at one of those companies and ask them for advice. Good luck!


If you're asking about a general interning spot, would it help to submit images in the e-mail or is that just an annoyance?

*shrug* Just a link is probably the safer thing to do, just in case the e-mail gods are tempted to eat the e-mailed image.



so a big thanks and props to seedling - i think it just needs time to grow for people to become aware.
edit - is it in the wrong section? i mean, it's in the right section but not if this is to be discovered by a big group of people. people are a bit lazy browsing to different sections in the forums. how about the 'fine art studies & discovery' or 'education and learning' sections?

:-) Thanks! Feel free to post links to this thread anywhere that you think would be useful to folks.

[Dr. Memory]

You've never heard of pixel art?

Sigh. Kids these days...

[Seedling]

You've never heard of pixel art?

Sigh. Kids these days...

When you were getting started in the games industry, I was getting started in middle school. ;-) Neener neener!

Got any advice for us kiddies? :-)

[Seedling]

The games industry needs more environment artists.

I don’t know if most companies make any distinction between their environment artists and their character artists. I do know that most applicants have portfolios full of characters and monsters. All of the rest of the stuff on the screen is mistakenly thought of with derision as “background art”, which is some sort of snobby holdover from cell animation.

But guess what? Even with cell animation, “background art” was highly complex even before computers came into the picture. And even when the “background art” is simple, it still takes up a good ninety percent of the screen real estate on any given game.

Environments in most games are 3D, so the word “background” just doesn’t apply. Environments are everything that is not a character or non-player character or monster or vehicle, or user interface. Environments are the ground, the buildings, the dungeons, the landscapes, the architecture; and environments include all the doo-dads that decorate these things. Environments are game levels, and all of the stuff that makes up game levels.

As I said earlier, the games industry needs more environment artists. Hardly any new applicants walk in the door that have ever paid any mind to the rocks and trees and buildings. Even established game industry artists are often of such a character mind-set that they think anybody who has dabbled in Maya can build an environment as an afterthought. (They are wrong.) So, if you are looking for a way into the industry, this might be an option for you.

To help you understand the importance of environments, and the fun, let me tell you about a recent assignment I was given. I was told “we need a desert area for our game. The general color scheme and look should be about like this – (concept art) – and the layout of the area should be about like this – (rough map). We need you to build all of the art assets* and assemble the area. You have a month. Go!”

To accomplish this, I built and textured a few dozen objects in Maya – plants, and lots and lots of different shapes of rocks, mostly. I made a half dozen large tiling textures to go on the ground and cliffs. Then I used our in-house** worldbuilder program in conjunction with a couple of off-the-shelf programs to model and texture the landscape. Lastly, I placed hundreds of rocks and shrubs, along with other art assets made by the other artists.

By the end, we had a square kilometer of playable area, surrounded by another couple square kilometers of “background” mountains. The area has giant chasms and narrow paths that snake up cliffs, and sand-dunes and all sort of secret narrow places. I think it’s cool. And the whole thing is certainly an ego-trip, because in all of that space, the players and monsters are mere blips!

Anyway, I had so much fun making a desert that I think you might, too. As far as natural environments go, a desert is a good place to start, because most of the shapes are solid and simple (unlike trees), and you can get away with having a limited number of placed objects.

***********Assignment #10 – Rocky Environment***********

None of this corresponds to a specific game engine. It’s just practice that can be done with Photoshop and a 3D modeling program. If you can adapt this to work with an existing game engine, great! Unfortunately that’s one thing I can’t give you any advice on.

Part one: concept art. Your assignment is to dream up and communicate a barren, rocky environment for a 3D shooter game. The area must contain one open, arena-type area, with ledges that players can climb up; it can also contain side gullies. Cliffs will keep the players contained. Your first step is to do multiple, quick sketches to develop the color and flavor of the area. Don’t worry about the specifics of the layout yet; your task is to come up with a general desert theme that could be used to make arenas of any number of shapes and sizes. Focus on repeating elements, like large cliff-rocks, or a single cactus which could be used repeatedly throughout the environment. Do one or two more finished pieces when you settle on what specifics you want.

Part two: modeling and texturing. Now’s the puzzle part. How do you really break that art up into a few objects that can be modeled and textured within a reasonable amount of time? Here’s one way to do it. First, think of the ground and the cliffs. For starters you can make one tiling texture for the ground, and another for the cliffs. Don’t build the actual level just yet – instead, make a small test area to look at while you refine your textures. Make a roughly human-shaped model and pop it in for scale reference.

You can then take those same textures and make a small series of rocks and platforms that can be placed within your level. Range them in size from human to house. These, and other large elements will effect game-play, so as boring as they are, they are very important.

Next, make little deco things. These should be from about twice human-height down to knee-height. Again, use your human scale reference. If you make one shrub, you can use the same texture to make three shrubs of varying sizes. The same goes for crystals, cactus, palm trees, whatever. Figure out one or two objects that can be used repeatedly at different scales in your environment.

Lastly, figure out how to make a sky dome. I’m afraid I can’t give you any pointers on this, because I’ve never had to make one.

Part three: build the level. Start by drawing a map. Keep it small enough that you can realistically make it. Think about the exact game you want the players to play, and the tactics they will use. Then start building. Get the ground and cliffs made according to the map. Then add the large, gameplay-affecting rocks, and lastly sprinkle with deco objects. Put the sky dome on and light the scene. Take screenshots. Voila, you now have samples in your portfolio from concept art all the way to game level.

********#10 Extra Credit*******

Got a buddy? When the two of you have built your environment assets and made your textures, trade. You each get to build a game level using each other’s work. It will be frustrating at times, as you discover the shortcomings of what your friend has made. When you discover that something just doesn’t work, ask for clarification or revisions.

This is exactly what you will experience in the industry. The purpose of this drill is both to learn what sort of art works and what doesn’t, and to learn how to communicate. Sometimes is isn’t obvious to the level-builder how an art asset is supposed to be used. It is your responsibility to explain it.




* An “art asset” is a 3D model that gets placed in a game, such as a tree, or a rock, or a statue of a three-headed dragon.

** “In-house” programs are programs which are written right there in the company. Instead of calling up tech support when these programs break, you run across the building and pester the person who wrote the program.

[Dr. Memory]

When you were getting started in the games industry, I was getting started in middle school. ;-) Neener neener!

Got any advice for us kiddies? :-)Advice, advice... let's see...

Just some practical tidbits:

1. The polygon budget may have a number, but the real budget is as few as possible. If you have a general 2000 polygon limit for terrain and cultural objects, don't make a 2000 polygon stop sign.

2. If you get the chance to do R&D, take it! You'll be glad you did.

3. Specialize, but don't forget to learn how the other specialties work. It's a lot easier to build an animatable monster if you understand the animation side of the job. Similarly, it's a lot easier to explain to a modeler what you need changed to make animation easier if you understand the modeling tools.

4. Learn every appropriate software package you can. Max, Maya, and Lightwave all have different wonderful and horrible bits, and I've used all of them on the same project at different times. Personally, I prefer to model and texture in Lightwave simply because I'm so much faster there than I am in Max or Maya. However, I know enough about the other programs that I can get my Lightwave work into them without a fuss.

5. Don't leave Painter alone for more than a month or you'll probably have to relearn that damned interface all over again.

6. If you're freelancing, try to get at least half the money up front. It may help to have a significant other you can sponge off of during lean months too...

7. Do the environment thing Seedling posted. Companies are getting desperate for good environment monkeys - I've gotten a few headhunter calls for full-time environment jobs and the last environment work I did was a few RTS maps for Mechcommander 2. Personally, I'm better at vehicles & props, so I prefer to look for those kind of gigs.

8. When it all stops being fun, quit and do something else for a few years. Life's too short to keep working at a job you hate.

[Dr. Memory]

Oh, one last thing. If your demo reel is just okay, only the lead artist is likely to see it. If your demo real is fantastic, a few more artists will see it. If your demo reel is amazingly bad, every artist in the building is going to see it. >:D

[Destinatus]

I dont really agree with your disdain for photo references. It is by no means tracing as drawing from life is, although I do agree that drawing from life is much more valuable. I have a friend who is a concept artist at a game company and he says they have a collection of reference photos that they use for their concepts. Most of the time the concept part can only be derived from the imagination anyway, so I don't see the harm of using it for a particular pose or some anatomy. Just my .02.

[Zaknafain]

again: thanks a lot for taking your time to write this down. I'm finding it extremely helpful.

[Seedling]

I have a friend who is a concept artist at a game company and he says they have a collection of reference photos that they use for their concepts.

Absolutely – no concept artist knows how to draw every subject off the top of their head. It is imperative for all concept artists, as well as modeler/texturers, to know when to go find reference for the thing they are making. But that doesn’t mean tracing. That means using existing images to understand a subject.

I’m hammering this subject because the sketchbook section of this website is full of highschool and college students who are wasting too much of their valuable time copying photos and deluding themselves into thinking that this will teach them everything they need to be a concept artist. The competition is too stiff for that sort of silliness to be a good idea. For students who are learning, they need to be practicing what is hard – drawing from 3D and from imagination – not taking the shortcuts of advanced illustrators - drawing from 2D.

That said, I would be shocked if nobody disagreed with me. I am only one opinionated artist among many. If anybody with industry experience has a dissenting opinion, I think it would be very cool if they wrote about it here.


Companies are getting desperate for good environment monkeys

Hey, watch who you’re calling a monkey, old man! ;-) Seriously, thanks for sharing your bits of wisdom. If you’re struck with more to say in the middle of the night, don’t hesitate to share!


again: thanks a lot for taking your time to write this down. I'm finding it extremely helpful.

Yay! *happy dance*

[Seedling]

**********Assignment #11 – Low-Poly Doo-Dads**********

The game that you are working on needs a cafeteria. A interior space has already been made, but at the moment it’s nothing but a big, empty room. Your task is to make the props that will transform it from an empty space into a highschool cafeteria scene. Tables, trays, food, flatware, milk cartons, books, vending machines, posters, backpacks – whatever you can think of.

Each item has to be low-poly. I’m talking bare minimum. For example, an open milk carton can be made with fifteen verts. A tray of food could be made with a similarly low number of verts, and the food could be modeled and painted right onto it with the texture. A fork could actually be a spatula with individual tines painted right on.

The reason you want to keep everything so low-poly is so that you can make fifty copies of that milk carton and that tray without causing the game’s frame-rate to plummet. Once your props are made and textured, then set up a few rows of tables and cover them with stuff!

The other reason you want to keep everything low-poly is because it’s a cafeteria, for cryin’ out loud. Do you really want to linger over a milk carton? I thought not. It’s the final effect of a room filled with junk that is exciting – not the individual doo-dads.

Set it up, light it, take screen shots, and put it in your portfolio.

If a school cafeteria doesn’t float your boat, then you could try a film noir fantasy tavern, or a cartoony space-ship canteen, or an impressionist western saloon. Pick a style and a setting and have fun!

[Favila]

Hello! I really appreciate this post. You're of much help, actually this is one of the forum posts that has cleared my mind the most, to be honest.

I'm starting Illustration at the local arts school, its not a 4 year degree but 2 years one. We'll cover traditional arts, even a bit of traditional animation etc. I'll start in October. I guess I should just think about the present, but I've been thinking about what I'm going to do next, I'd really like to get some game-oriented education, like 3d or something, I don't care about moving to other countries (I'm from Spain) actually I would like that.

Now here comes my main problem, I love to draw but, for the last months, I don't know what to draw, I'm not confident with my drawing skills and just can't get the inspiration >_<. I'm not bad drawing but I really need to learn real art (color, composition, perspective, etc) and if I don't draw I can't learn, it's frustrating... also I'm all day in the computer reading webpages, blogs, etc, *losing time* and can't stop it. I'd like some hints on how to stop this hehe.

[Seedling]

Even if you go to the most prestigious of art schools, it is unavoidable that you will have teachers and classes that drive you to distraction with their irrelevancy and foolishness. This is the way of things in a subject that is so thoroughly subjective. You can drop classes, transfer to a better school, take classes in another department, take night classes, take classes for no credit, or quit school all together and learn on your own.

But, unless you are a hardy enough soul to pursue your education entirely on your own, no matter how many schools you try, no matter how much money you can afford to throw at the problem, you will be stuck learning from teachers that you believe to be nincompoops.

Nincompoop teachers come in many varieties. There is the nincompoop teacher who really is teaching because he can’t make it as artist professionally. They give teachers everywhere a bad name. Then there is the nincompoop who believes so deeply in the subjectivity of art that she has you dribbling ink from sticks while giving painfully gentle critiques. Maybe she has something good to teach, but it isn’t what you are interested in learning. And there is the hard-nosed nincompoop who wants you to do drills of exquisite precision that have no creativity whatsoever, and you mustdoitallabsolutelythewayhesaysorelse. I’m sure you could make an entire card-game based on the varieties of nincompoopery that makes up art education.

Add to this the newness of a subject like concept art or computer game art, and you can find yourself in the midst of a very expensive confusion.

Don’t panic. You may not need to transfer schools. In fact, transferring may not solve your problem at all. Part of the problem is that schools lag behind industry and demand. When industries scream for people with a certain type of training, that’s when the schools come trotting up behind shouting “wait for me!” While some schools are now making an attempt at these subjects, they are still inexperienced and experimental. They may be great in five or ten years, but that doesn’t help you any.

The thing is this: you have got to be more responsible for your own education than any teacher or guidance counselor or institution. You need to identify your specific goal, you need to identify the steps you need to reach that goal, and you need to do whatever it takes to take each of those steps..

For example, say you love the work of Michael Whelan. You want to illustrate novel covers with acrylics and paint dragons all the time, just like him. That’s fine. So how do you get there? For starters you need to know enough animal anatomy to make a decent dragon. You need to be able to handle acrylic paint flawlessly. You need to be able to set up a decent composition. And as an illustrator, as much as you will want to paint dragons, you will have to paint humans more often, so human anatomy had got to be a high priority, too. And perhaps some photography, so that you can shoot your own photo reference. And color theory. And lighting. And of course in every illustration there are props or buildings or trees, so you have to be able to render a boring still-life. And then there is the business side: you need to learn what it takes to be your own small business. You need to know how to market yourself, negotiate with clients, and balance the books.

At the same time that you have all of these daunting steps lying ahead of you, you’re going to find that one teacher wants you to paint still-lifes with oil-paints, another has you drawing non-representational stuff with a stick, another has you doing old-fashioned marker layouts for advertisements, another has you illustrating a phobia, and that humanities course you got stuck in has you writing a paper on ethics in health care. These assignments are boring and they don’t seem to be getting you to your objective. What the hell?

It is up to you to make the assignments get you there. Instead of suffering through a task and wondering if you should transfer, turn each of these assignments into a tool to help you reach your goal. Stuck painting fruit in a medium you don’t care for? Use it as a means to study color, light, and the portrayal of a 2D subject in 3D. Stuck scribbling with a stick dipped in ink? Use it as a means to study composition. Designing advertisements? Sneak science-fiction subject-matter into the assignment. Illustrating a phobia? Paint giant friggin’ spiders overpowering a dude with a sword! Ethics in health care? Write about the health risks of the pigments in acrylic paints and the ethical issues surrounding their regulation.

Additionally, use each assignment as an opportunity to discover how to turn a dull task into a fun task. When you are a professional illustrator, or a professional artist of any sort, it’s never going to be fun and puppies all the time. You have to learn how to cope with the dull assignments, or the dull parts of fun assignments; and the best way to cope is to find a way to love them. And if finding a way to love your dull assignments means trampling the teacher’s toes or sacrificing your good grades, so be it. Grades don’t matter. A degree doesn’t matter. What matters is what you learn, and that you love what you learn.

Incidentally, as a result of you steering your own education, you will have to teach your teachers. They aren’t going to understand your goals, or they are going to think that your goals are poorly chosen. Debate them. Print out sources explaining your chosen career and give it to them with the good bits highlighted. They are going to think that what they have for you is more valuable than what you are discovering on your own. You will have to risk their annoyance and derision. You will have to defend your work constantly. You will wonder why you are paying such high tuition for the privilege of rewriting your education. All of these things, however, will make you a more confident artist, capable of continuing your education in any direction on your own at any point in your life. And although you will not be around for the outcome, your own small battles will accelerate the process of getting yesterday’s art schools to train artists for today’s markets.

*********Assignment #12 – Make a Dull Assignment Fun***********

I want you to take the next dull or irrelevant assignment you are stuck with, and I want you to turn it into something you are well and truly proud of, something that both gets you closer to your ultimate goal and something that you have so much fun doing that you would do it again.

P.S. Nick, if you are reading this, I do not think you are a nincompoop. :-)

[Nyx702]

I’m sure you could make an entire card-game based on the varieties of nincompoopery that makes up art education.

Best freackin' line ever!

This is a great post Seedling. This is what I had to figure out awhile ago the hard way. I am sure this could help many people...if only they would listen.

What is your opinion on spreading yourself too thin? I go to school and then do what I really like when I get home. It gets tiresome and I feel as though I do not get quality work. Just want to know your opinion on jack of all trades or specialist.

Thanks!

[Basil]

I just want to know your opinion on jack of all trades or specialist.

nyx, i'm right with you on this.

i'm finishing up a 5 year digital design degree at DAAP, which has a reputation for pounding us poor students' heads with their homework hammers until we become brain dead slug heads or junior designers. on top of this, they want us to learn everything from oop programming and databases, to graphic design, flash design, motion graphics, 3d modeling and animation, ethics, philosophy, and nincompoopery of every sort, shape, and hue.

and here i am looking back on my education and only about 25% of this looks useful on the surface. so now i'm faced with learning the other 75% despite my near slug-headed condition.

fortunately, a lot of what i learned in school was actually learning how to learn and learning how to deal with really tough problems so i know i can teach myself the rest if my brain doesn't explode from the weight of useless knowledge!

sorry for the rant, but i think it illustrates some of the frustration of new media design degrees. :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah:

finally, my question is whether many concept artists in the game industry fill other roles at the same time like texturer, 3d modeler, or animator and visa versa. also, how do you see the role of concept artist changing in the future?

thanks for the extremely helpful thread seedling! <3

[Thaelys]

Pixel Art? Hah! I've done a little of that professionally...does that mean I get a job? :nohope:

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emk1anton/fart/dw_ac.gif

About photo refs. Recently I've been drawing straight from life: people at the mall, people at the park, people on the train. Up until recently, I've practiced with photographs from sources like Virtual Pose 3. My life sketching skills started improving noticeably when I went back to observational life sketching.

However, if someone came up to me and asked me for a picture of a helicopter, I'd do a photosearch for helicopters. Not to copy the photo, just to understand the mechanical construction. There are a bunch of bits on machines that you wouldn't depict if you didn't see the bits or have firsthand familiarity with the subject. That's my thoughts on photoreferences.

I'm sort of happy to hear that there is a distinct LACK of environment artists out there. Most of my drawing experience comes from my industrial design education. I've always had more interest in creating things and places.

Seedling, would you say that someone with one or two decent figure samples but a majority of product/still-life/architectural art samples would be an ideal portfolio? The answer may be easy. Lately it seems that so much emphasis has been placed on being able to draw people exquisitely. ESPECIALLY HERE ON CA! :jawdrop:

[Seedling]

Now here comes my main problem, I love to draw but, for the last months, I don't know what to draw, I'm not confident with my drawing skills and just can't get the inspiration >_<. I'm not bad drawing but I really need to learn real art (color, composition, perspective, etc) and if I don't draw I can't learn, it's frustrating... also I'm all day in the computer reading webpages, blogs, etc, *losing time* and can't stop it. I'd like some hints on how to stop this hehe.

edu1337 – I hope the post on education helped. Something else I should have added: if a part of your education is well and truly wasting your time, then do what you can to amputate that part of your education. Your time is precious; don’t let anyone force you to waste it. Good luck.



What is your opinion on spreading yourself too thin? I go to school and then do what I really like when I get home. It gets tiresome and I feel as though I do not get quality work. Just want to know your opinion on jack of all trades or specialist.

I think the best route is to specialize in one or two things, things that you intend to get hired to do, and on the side to know a little about a lot of other things. Make sure your education is helping you to get what you want. (Even if that means letting them push you through academic tasks that teach you a lot but that aren’t as fun as drawing dragons all day.)



fortunately, a lot of what i learned in school was actually learning how to learn

That’s an important thing to learn, because you have to keep learning after you get a job. But make sure you’re learning, and not beating a dead calculus or Latin horse. (I beat those horses myself.) Some learning is unnecessary. (Hell, I consider about 80% of my highschool education to have been unnecessary. *Grumble*)



finally, my question is whether many concept artists in the game industry fill other roles at the same time like texturer, 3d modeler, or animator and visa versa. also, how do you see the role of concept artist changing in the future?


Yes, concept artists do sometimes fill other roles. And sometimes, even for full-time concept artists, as a matter of job security is can help to have an additional set of skills to offer the team in the event of layoffs or budget cuts. I suspect the skill combination of modeler/texturer/concept artist is the most typical among concept artists who also do something else. If you are wanting a job as a concept artist at a game company, this combination may be the safest to go with, in terms of both getting hired and keeping a job.

As for changes in the concept art field. . . I don’t know. There will probably continue to be a need for highly trained and versatile illustrators to make the initial images for all sorts of subsets of the entertainment industry. The competition will probably stay stiff. For games, I don’t see team sizes getting substantially larger than they are right now, so for those who specifically want to do concept art for the games industry, it is probably safest to either add modeling and texturing to your skill set, or be a freelance illustrator primarily, while keeping an eye open for opportunities to freelance or be hired full-time by a game companies. A note about freelancing this sort of work, though: you have to be very, very good, because you have absolutely got to be better at 2D art than the artists who are already on the game company’s staff.



http://home.comcast.net/%7Emk1anton/fart/dw_ac.gif


That’s “pixel art”? I thought that sort of thing was just, you know, art art. :-)



Seedling, would you say that someone with one or two decent figure samples but a majority of product/still-life/architectural art samples would be an ideal portfolio?

The answer is always “it depends.” If the company is looking for an environment artist, and if your environment art portfolio shows them that you would be a good match for that position, then yes, that could be an ideal portfolio.

[Qitsune]

Pixel art (and other low res, low resource art) is mainly used for mobile games, cellphone, Gameboy advance, Pocket PC and other low resource devices. It doesn't only involve a few number of pixels, sometimes it involved a low number of colors and the swapping of color palettes. For exemple, I worked on a pocket pc beach volleyball game, we only did one female and one male player and we swapped the color palettes to create 12 teams. When your characters are barely 20 pixels high, you don't get into too many details.

As for the state of jobs in pixel art, well there are many (many) games made lately for cell phones, almost as many as there are for consoles. Does this mean that there are tons of jobs in that field? Not really, where a high end 3d game can take 3 years to make for 20 artists, a high end cell game can take 3 months to 1-3 artists. Fortunately the glamour of making pixel games isn't as big so there also are fewer wannabe pixel artists. So it's worth giving a try. You can check http://www.gameloft.com/ or http://www.eamobile.com/Web/Catalog/ for exemples of cell game graphics.

[Seedling]

Wow, thanks for the great info Quitsune!

I just learned something. :-)

[Thaelys]

I was just kidding about the job :D The one I posted was just an example of the ~25 pixel art buildings I created for a client last year. Believe me, I know a little bit (pun intended) about it ;)

[Seedling]

I was just kidding about the job :D The one I posted was just an example of the ~25 pixel art buildings I created for a client last year. Believe me, I know a little bit (pun intended) about it ;)

It was a good question whether or not you are looking for that type of work. :-)

“. . .a little bit. . .” Groooaaaan! :D

[carlosranna]

As for the state of jobs in pixel art, well there are many (many) games made lately for cell phones, almost as many as there are for consoles. Does this mean that there are tons of jobs in that field? Not really, where a high end 3d game can take 3 years to make for 20 artists, a high end cell game can take 3 months to 1-3 artists. Fortunately the glamour of making pixel games isn't as big so there also are fewer wannabe pixel artists.

Yes. That&#180;s what i thought. But i also wonder this field will disappear soon, since cell phones are getting better really fast...

And BTW, great work on that one Thaelys! How many colors did you use? 16?

[squidmonk3j]

this thread is gold:)

thank you very much for your time and effort!

[ConCrete]

Update -

Found a webpage that everyone one that wants to do a mod for anyone should know about...

www.moddb.com

Free to sign up and free to download, this site traverses 200,000 people a day and has circa 5,000 active mods up right now. If you want quasi industry experience this is your new homepage.

Seedling- sorry about the whole first born child thing...I am just grateful...thats all :!

[llothcat]

Interesting read.

I honestly don't know what to add. But then, I'm not in the gaming industy. The closest I've gotten to it is garagegames.com, and the blender3d community.

Oh, and talking to the guys that try to escape AE at the SDCC, by fleeing into the comics portfolio review lines.

[Thaelys]

Thanks for the props DoInferno! This project called for 2 versions of each building...1 big version used for focus panels, and 1 small one that appears on a tileable map of a "town". The big versions are 64 color, the small ones are 32 color.

Here's a sample of a big one that didn't get approved - client said it looked too much like "Guantanamo Prison Camp" LOL

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emk1anton/fart/dw_cc_big.gif

Here's another small one that got revised... one thing to notice here is the greentile square. Also the placement of the entryway. Quite a few of these buildings overlap at certain points, so I had to be concious of keeping the buildings visually accessable. I think that's relevant to the technical points you've been talking about when making tiles.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emk1anton/fart/dw_lb.gif

Seedling, just for relevance these are some of my 2D tiles for a gamelike environment. They're pretty low res/low detail and not really up to the quality of contemporary 2D games... maybe mobile games. However, this project was a very valuable lesson in establishing 3D form first...with a very limited color palette. If someone said "make these 32 bit" it would be rather easy to res up in detail. The form has been taken care of.

[Seedling]

Hey guys,
I’m thinking of starting a thread in the Community Activities subforum, for anyone who wants to post their results for these assignments. Before I do that – are there enough of you who would be interested? Would it be less intimidating to have a separate thread for posting the results of assignments? I would love your suggestions.




Yes. That´s what i thought. But i also wonder this field will disappear soon, since cell phones are getting better really fast...

Nah – when cell phones are as advanced as console games, then wristwatches and cereal boxes will be as advanced as cell phones. ;-)


this thread is gold:)

Thank you very much!


Found a webpage that everyone one that wants to do a mod for anyone should know about...

www.moddb.com


Wickedawesome! Thanks for finding that!



Seedling, just for relevance these are some of my 2D tiles for a gamelike environment. They're pretty low res/low detail and not really up to the quality of contemporary 2D games... maybe mobile games. However, this project was a very valuable lesson in establishing 3D form first...with a very limited color palette. If someone said "make these 32 bit" it would be rather easy to res up in detail. The form has been taken care of.

I guess this is why I’m surprised that anyone makes the distinction between “pixel art” and any other sort of game art. Working with modular units is a task that is always fraught with technical hurdles and limitations, no matter what the resolution level, as far as I can tell.

The words “res up” kind of scares me. I’ve run into situations where someone wants me to take a texture of 256 or 512 resolution, and somehow magically make it as large as 1024. Maybe I just don’t know the proper tricks, but I’ve never been able to do that with any decent quality – not without essentially starting over.


I'm so sleepy. . .

[darkwolfb87]

A Community Activities subforum would be great, but at the moment I'd be limited to the drawing assignments because I have no knowledge of 3d or texturing.

[Thaelys]

Seedling: Just replace "res'ing up" with "add another layer of detail". That should remove some confusion ;) For instance going from a 256 tile to a 512...well, now we might be able to see some variants of sandstone particles IN the masonry brickwork, instead of just tileing the brick modules themselves.

In other words, yep, you're starting over :nohope:

As far as pixel art is concerned, I can tell you that there is a difference. It's easy to create a building that sits on an isometric 256 pixel square. I think it gets more complex when you make something in 3D, not to mention the 32 bit textures. Conceptually the construction is similiar, but then you have to be able to work in the 3D apps. It takes a great deal of time to learn to work efficiently.

I'd be interested in the results sub-posting forum. In my case, I probably won't be posting much. I'm in school learning 3D apps and digital painting ;-)

[carlosranna]

Here is a great ressource for those that want to learn about Pixel Art:

http://petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/

A Community Activities subforum, will be great, since things will get more organized this way, but as i still know nothing about 3D i&#180;ll also have to leave this part out... The best thing in my oppinion is about leting this thread be what it already is: A great source of information for our career goals!

Keep it up Seedling! Thanks a lot!

[carlosranna]

And here is something about Isometric imagery and pixel art:

http://www.pixelfreak.com/v3/en/tutorial0.html

[Farvus]

Great thread Seedling. Lot's of useful info.

I have a question beacause I'm the most interested in enviroment design. How does single pics relate to enviroments in games? Are they just to show mood and colour scheme? For example some FPS maps are usually much more than this. Does it mean that it would be necessary to design whole plan of the level and also single objects like furniture? Do they usually use some level editor for level design or is it all done in 3d program like 3dsmax/maya?
It's not so new to me beacause I'm studying architecture but I'm curious if I should practice something more than just single digital pieces :P

Oh... and I found some interesting freeware FPS game called Sauerbraten (or Cube 2). It looks like clone of Quake but what is very nice about it that the engine is that it allows to create/edit levels during the game. You just push 'e' key and you enter Edit mode in which with only few options you can create whole maps from scratch. I thought it might be interesting to somebody to who want's to have fun and design levels at the same time :).
Here's the link to the game's website: http://sauerbraten.org/

[djobuk]

Hi all,

This is a VERY good ressource for would be concept artists (or other) in the industry thread. She is telling it like it is, Kuddos Seedlings!

I will repost here what I wrote somewhere else:
One of the reason for my posting, other than to introduce myself properly to you all, is to help the would-be environment concept artists looking for a job the game industry. Quick explanation:

In the process of recruiting concept artist for the developer I work for I came to realize that a lot of artists miss on the oportunity to get hired because their portfolio (as beautifuly painted as it may be) lack texture work.
In a nutshell, the industry is evolving. With the next gen it now cost a fortune to develop a game. So to squeez cost it increasingly becomes the job of the concept artist to supply the people building the worlds with every info (within the concept) they will need to build and that includes texture as well. In a word they don't have the time anymore to do research. Just a word of advice.
By the way my company (Crystal Dynamics) is still looking for a concept artist.

Another thing I thought I could shed some light on. Something I gotta do a lot as a concept artist is "Paint overs". What that means is this:

The game designers come up with a crude rendition of the environments they want for the game dynamic (I don't necessarily or at all have a say in this) and my job is to turn it in something worth looking at or going through. I have selected to samples of that for you guys so you know what I am actualy talking about. (Attached below).

It could be a good exercise for you guys to try to make some. Things to keep in mind: Keep some unity within the world you are creating. Try to go super-realistic because this is where the market is at these days.

Voila. I hope that can be helpful.

Regards.

[Thaelys]

Djobuk this is a fantastic contribution! This is exactly the kind of information I've wanted to see.

One of the techniques that I've been researching lately is "5D" artwork. It looks like what you're doing here - painting over a 3D model.

A friend that is studying environment design at AAU talked about this. I heard 5D is used regularly in matte painting, and I'm glad to see that this has cross-pollinated over to games.

Wow, thanks for sharing these! Great exercise opportunity.

[djobuk]

I am glad if it helps.

I have never heard of the 5D label but basicaly you paint over a screenshot to dress it up. Sometimes you start a concept from scratch because they have no idea what they want and sometimes it's pretty specific like the samples I posted.

In a word it's good to be adaptable ;)

Good luck

[Thaelys]

Well, 5D from what I understand works something like this. Start with a 3D model. Texture that with something basic, then jump back to an app to do a high-res 3D paint over. The output of that process is a highly detailed 3D scene.

It's sort of what you're doing here, except that you're not immediately going back into 3D to apply textures. From what I can see here, it's still concept but your getting one step closer to texturing the scene.

[darkwolfb87]

Thanks djobuk that was very helpful. It just made me think of a good community activity, where we can be given a basic 3D screenshot and everyone has to paint over the same render, ending up with numerous interpretations of the same space. Would anyone be kind enough to provide these renders?

[djobuk]

Aaahr..unfortunately I don't do 3D But I think it's a good portfolio-building idea.

[llothcat]

come to think of it...the exercise can help with those that are still struggling with 2 and 3 pt perspective.

[Erik1338]

nice thread, thanks for sharing

[Seedling]

Thaelys – Cool, thanks.

DoInferno – Thanks for the links!

Djobuk – Wow! Thank you for sharing all of that! If you find yourself inspired to share more, please do. :-)



I have a question because I'm the most interested in environment design. How does single pics relate to environments in games? Are they just to show mood and colour scheme?

Everything that a player sees in a game is composed as a 2D composition in the rectangle of the screen. So, 2D images are a way to plan for what a player sees when they enter a level or round a corner. A map can tell you the layout of a level, but not many people can look at a map and convert it to a 3D view in their imagination; particularly if the game level has a strong vertical element. (And in a 3D game, a level without a strong vertical element is going to be particularly weak.) So a combination of 2D images and a map is a very good way to communicate a level design to the artist who is going to build it.

Does this answer your question?


Thanks djobuk that was very helpful. It just made me think of a good community activity, where we can be given a basic 3D screenshot and everyone has to paint over the same render, ending up with numerous interpretations of the same space. Would anyone be kind enough to provide these renders?

I’ll see if I can come up with something for you this weekend. :-)

[djobuk]

You are welcome Seedling.

I will post more when I think of more advice. But don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any.
Meanwhile for those interested in seeing more examples I have posted more pictures in this thread:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78295

Regards to all

[Seedling]

As djobuk’s fabulous examples show, sometimes it is the job of a concept artist in the games industry to take a screenshot of a 3D model, and paint changes.

One reason for doing this is because specific dimensions are desired for an area. Within a development team, since there are already 3D modelers on hand, it can make the most sense to start by having one of them make a quick model of the space. Then the concept artist can paint over a screenshot to establish what the details or lighting will look like.

Another reason to use this approach is that art has already been made, but something still needs to be added. The concept artist gets to paint in ideas for additional decoration while leaving the finished portions unchanged. This can be useful in designing additional outfits for characters, putting new spikes and doo-dads on monsters, inventing new decorations for the re-use of an existing dungeon, coming up with new windows and doors and balconies to put on existing buildings, designing rocks and shrubs for an existing landscape, etc.

*******assignment #13 - Paintover******

Attached are three screen-grabs of some very hastily made Maya models. Pick one. This needs to be painted over into a complete game environment. The scale, style, lighting, and type of environment are all up to you. You will do two paint-overs of this environment. The first is a full-blown painting. Go nuts. Make it beautiful. Light it. Put at least one human in it for scale reference. Have fun.

Once you are done with that, make a copy. In the copy, use the equivalent of a white-board marker to start circling pieces and making notes. What you should be circling and making notes on are pieces of your painting that can be built and textured in a 3D modeling program. Such features could be a rock, or a tree, or a balcony, or a grassy ledge, or a chunk of architecture. Look in particular for elements that could be used over and over to decorate similar spaces. In addition to this, look for open expanses of wall or ground that could be covered with tiling texture. Again, circle it, make a note.

In a blank file, sketch out the individual objects and the tiling textures. Communicate them in such a way that the 3D artist will be able to glance at your work and say “ah-hah! I know exactly what you are asking me to make!”

***********#13A – Drawing in Perspective*************

If you like the previous assignment, please listen to this – such paintovers are not a substitute for being comfortable drawing in perspective. The subset of illustration that is concept art is a very competitive field, and the chances that you will never be asked to draw an environment from scratch are small. If you cannot draw in perspective, your chances of being hired as a concept artist are small as well.

And besides – do you want to have a 3D modeler dictating the structure of your environments to you all the time?

So, in this assignment, use perspective to draw the bare bones shape of a 3D environment. What you draw doesn’t have to be much more complex than what you see in these Maya screenshots. Once you’ve got a structure sketched out that far, then proceed to paint over it as you did in the previous assignment.

********#13B – Paintover an Existing Game *********

Pick an existing game. Find a portion of that game that could use a little something extra. It could be as small as an alien potted plant, or a row of statues, or it could be a room redecorated for a birthday party, or it could be a giant fantasy structure perched on a mountain top. Take a screenshot, and paint in this thing that you have in mind. Make sure to match the style of the game.

[darkwolfb87]

Awesome assignments, I'll get started with #2 since the screenshots are missing.

Many thanks for taking the time to post info, Seedling and everyone else!

[Seedling]

When I say “dungeon”, what I really mean is “interior space”. Caves, sewers, castle hallways, spaceship corridors – these sorts of spaces are a standard in shooters and MMORPGs.

These spaces are built in entirely different ways depending on the game engine. Some engines require that a game level be built entirely within a 3D modeling program as one continuous model. But in other cases the dungeons are made up of modular pieces that fit together like tinker-toys. You can see this most apparently in isometric games.

Though our game is not isometric, its dungeons are made from modular pieces. These pieces are essentially cubes with holes through them. A basic dungeon “hallway” set includes a cube with a single hallway through it, a cube with a hallway that turns 90 degrees, a T-shaped intersection, a four-way intersection, a ramp up, and a dead end. Then there are the “multi-room” sets. The pieces that make up this set are like cubes with sides missing. So, for example, a piece might have a floor and one wall, or a floor and two walls, forming a corner; or just a floor, or just a ceiling. Each piece within a set must fit seamlessly with the other pieces. They are technically challenging to make and texture, even when the geometry is simple; and as individual pieces, they are often uninteresting to look at, much like an individual Leggo. The interesting part comes when the pieces are connected together and used to build large and complex spaces.

To go with these spaces, we build accompanying loose architecture. So, for example, a Roman dungeon might have plain stone walls, but to go with those walls it would have pillars, door-frames, bridges, stairs, balconies, and perhaps even entire building facades. In fact one of the most useful elements in any such dungeon set is what we call the “block”: a boring rectangle covered in wall and floor texture that can be placed anywhere in a dungeon to beak up the regularity of the space. Such an object is never meant to stand on its own. It is a piece of the background that shapes the game-play in a level; humble but important.

********assignment #14 - Modular Dungeon Pieces*********

Time to study another game. Choose a game that has dungeons made from modular pieces. Try to figure out how many such modular pieces are necessary to build a complete dungeon. Then, using what you have learned, design a new set of modular pieces for the game. If additional loose objects are necessary, then draw those as well.

[Seedling]

SUH, that’s wonderful! Thank you for being a brave soul and sharing your work. I look forward to seeing how Blue handles the model!

One brief critique (because I am in a hurry) to make Blue’s life a little easier, it may help if you draw the arms with the palms facing down, and the legs, back, and tail pulled out to a more straight position.

The way you sliced the arm off. . . hahah! That’s just right, in fact. :-)

I’ll be putting up a thread in the Community Activities section specifically for posting this sort of thing soon. . .ish . . .but in the mean time, here works fine. :-)

[Chirp Chirp]

Seedling, I have seen your posts around a lot, particularly in advice sections pimping this thread out. I figured I should probably read it as it might save me the time from spilling out my own nonsense. =P Overall lots of good insight for those looking to the industry but if you don’t mind I have some additions.

As far as game industry jobs go… I don’t recall seeing mentioned, the poor Sound Designer. It is an art form in itself unfortunately overlooked until the last minute. Most publishers will have a sound department with lots of sound people doing anything from FX to VO casting and recording. I know because I used to be that guy. I’ll also say that sound is one of the first things to be contracted out remotely. This is a shame because a good sound designer on a team can make a significant contribution to the quality of the end product.

Seedling mentioned early in this thread “low poly” modelers as a staple of the industry. I want to point out that in the not to distance future “low poly” will be more of a nitch aspect of game development rather than the norm. Similar to how pixel artists of the 80s are represented in the industry today. Sure there are experts needed within this incredibly wonderful aspect of game art but it’s not in high demand. As they say the devil is in the details, normal mapping technology has really increased the demand for those who can basically sculpt. I don’t recall seeing Zbrush mentioned in here yet but it’s another modeling program increasingly being used due to its ability to produce high polygon organic models. In short next generation is here now and the demand for 4million poly modelers is not going away. As a bonus, expect more cross pollination of artist between the movie and games industry.

Lighting! Light ties everything together! Good lighting is incredibly important and it’s scary that there are so many poorly lit games. The technology is becoming easier and often this is part of the level designers or environment artist list of tasks but remember Hollywood has this as a specialty all to its own. It’s very complex, requiring lots of study, and most game technology will fight you to the death on this matter.

“And besides – do you want to have a 3D modeler dictating the structure of your environments to you all the time?”
I recommend sketchup if you want to quickly make 3D spaces or anything for paintovers. It is dirt simple and exports black and white line drawings and even .eps files. If a game designer can learn it then a 2d artist certainly can. Its also becoming a staple for level design and layout.

[Seedling]

Thanks for posting, Chirp Chirp! About sound: I haven’t said anything about it because I know so very little about it. If you would like to expand on the topic, I think that would be awesome!

About low-poly going the way of pixel art. . . optimistically, I would guess it will be ten years before four-million-poly monsters are standard to this industry. And even when the monsters are that detailed, a milk carton or tree is still going to be low-poly in comparison. But anyway, my goal is to help people get into the industry within the next two or three years, and to do that, they need to know where the standards are right now. I’ve had to train too many new employees who were shocked to find themselves facing absolute low-poly limits, and frustrated by those limits. Right now, those limits are unavoidable, and those who are entering the industry need to know.

Hey, if you (or anyone else) would like to go into more detail on normal mapping or Zbrush or lighting, those are all things that I have less experience with. Feel free to share what you know! And I’ve never even heard of Sketchup. I would love to learn. :-)

[Seedling]

There is now a thread in the Communities Activities forum to post the results of these assignments. Here it is! ( http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1053297#post1053297) You can use that space to post your games industry practice art, critique and get critiqued, and get to know your future coworkers. Have fun!

[Chirp Chirp]

It’s taken me some time to get all this down on paper and hopefully someone here will find it useful. I give this bit of background often at various talks and colleges through out the year and since you asked I’ll go ahead and spill it here too. First let me say, it took me 12.5 years to earn my bachelors of art and design from NCSU College of Design and I am currently a Senior/Lead game designer. But to take a bunch of steps back in time, in high school I spent 3 years learning architectural drafting and design. Which I loved but it was before the days of computers and they had these things like pencils, rulers, triangles, and drafting tables! It’s good if you want to understand perspective and learn how to write in tiny, tiny print.

Ok back on track, so somehow I started at UNC Wilmington as a piano major! Yes believe it and it helped when I was a sound designer. Then 1.5 years and 2 applications later I finally got into design school, they only let a 100 people in a year and I started as most do there majoring in architecture. I can not recommend enough that if you are interested in level/environment design or game design then study architecture, landscape architecture and the history. It provides a very good foundation for more reason than I am willing to get into here at the moment. In short its all about the flow and design of space for people, people being the critical word.

I switched majors to industrial design about 2 years later but for less than a year. At the time they were not focused on computer stuff which is all I cared about. Screw a good foundation right? WRONG! To this day I regret not being good at drawing and ideation but luckily they forced design fundamentals on us the first year so I am not totally gimped.

Realizing I could get more flexibility in my curriculum by yet again switching majors which to me was very important since by this time I was working in the game industry. I changed to Art and Design, where I did too many “multimedia” studios, learning about interactive design, animation and animation history! (Note the history class theme building) Squash and stretch on zoetrope for the win. Luckily, I also branched out a bit and did a kind of traditional sculpture & installations studio. Which I recommend if you want to get into 3d modeling, as it teaches you a lot about the nature of form and composition in 3d space.

Other classes I took and recommend are Geology and Meteorology as they relate to the obvious level/environment design. It’s teaches the terminology and importantly the fundamentals of the respective fields. The best I can equate it to is like other artist in these forums telling you to study anatomy if you want to draw and render people. Instead of learning the names of muscle groups you understand why an alluvial fan is formed, a river sometimes snakes or why the sky is blue. The same holds true for the Architecture classes I mentioned earlier. In addition to understanding space you learn the language; like what a nave is, why keystones often decorate arch-less windows or even better things like why medieval churches are oriented east!

Also on the top of my list, Art history! Yes both semesters. Any despicable errr respectable artist in these forums better back me up on this! I have mentioned a lot of history classes but I don’t regret a single one. Even Asian or World history it’s all important and relevant. Thanks to Art history, I have a vision of one day creating a game world based on the art of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau architecture. Again, it it’s also critical to know the language of art which is also something Art history teaches you. It’s almost shameful when an artist doesn’t understand chiaroscuro or why contrapposto is important to character. Ever wonder why WoW characters are expressive and inviting but Dark Age of Camelot character aren’t? Take art history and you will understand the difference.

I know people will probably slam me but if you want to get ahead and call the shots in any part of game development, especially in game design then learn to write. I still suck at it but now it’s less scary than drawing. In addition to the courses I mentioned earlier, for game design take classes in technical writing, business & proposal writing, script writing & dialog, creative and fiction writing. God I am probably leaving something out, but trust me, all of them are useful. Like Seedling said earlier and as much as I hate to admit it, I spend most of my days in word or excel trying to communicate the vision of the game on paper in order to disseminate it to the development team. But I’ll often break out with Photoshop, Visio, or Sketchup to graphically illustrate or backup verbiage. Most designers typically do not have these skills and I personally believe it’s an advantage in communicating. One of the big changes in development over the last 20 years is the increased team size and global game production. Trying to verbally communicate the game vision to over a 100 people across the US, Canada, France and China is not possible and even the best written document will still have problems. This is why you do everything within your power to incorporate ideas from the team, document everything, and then focus on spreading the vision through communication and any other skills sets you might have. Enlight of that, learning to write is the foundation of being a lead in modern game development.

If you want to focus more on game system design also add in a healthy does of math. At least algebra trig if not calculus and physics for good measure. Whether it’s coming up with rules for a RPG combat, inventing ballistics damage algorithms for a weapons system or just figuring out the moment of inertia for a 15ton truck, knowing algebra is a must. Additionally, the amount of games using physics as part of game play is increasing. So also having a foundation in physics is also good. I spent a lot of my game design career making car games and I unfortunately know more about the vehicle physics than I ever thought was possible. Lateral coefficient of friction combined with the longitudinal slip can be the bane of your existence if you are trying to get a car to behave in a fun but realistic way. I bet those good’ol Duke boys never had to think about that!

The job of game scripting or scripter as they are often referred to, is yet another job usually included under design. My experience with this is typically editing text files and piecing together scripts programmers create or sometimes using poorly conceived visual scripting tools. If making gameplay real is your thing, then I would say at least take a basic level programming and logic course as it will help tremendously. Some companies treat the scripting job as programming. There isn’t that much difference between writing Unreal script, Lua, or C. The language is different but the principles are the same. The more you understand the more power you have to create your vision and you can’t always count on the technology being on your side.

Other courses I wish I took are graphic design and typography because another part of game design is selling the vision. Page layout and typography are the first thing people see when they open a document regardless if they are aware of it or not. If your document or presentation looks unprofessional then you are already fighting an uphill battle. Some people don’t think knowing your serifs from your sans serifs is important but even the little things add up to create a professional image. Think of it this way; imagine trying to convince someone to spend 15million on the development of your game idea but your power point presentation looks like it was created by a blind person. They’ll have a hard time focusing on anything you are trying to say and before you begin you will probably have failed. This is also important for all the artists in here creating portfolio sites. I can’t count the times I have looked at someone’s site with design or art potential but the overall graphic design and presentation of their work was terrible. To further emphasize the importance of graphic design then look no father then UI and interface design. This starts to mix into human computer interaction and gestalt theory but together they combine to create the first experience every player has with a game. Keep in mind there is a difference between complicated and complex and UI is often the first “barrier to entry”.

If you haven’t figured it out by now I have worked in many roles in the industry climbing my way through. I luckily got a game industry job after I answered an ad in the paper for “PC Game Specialist Wanted”. Little did I know what I was getting into but with my foot in the door doing tech-support, I assimilated what ever I could and quickly moved into production. Answering phones sucks but use opportunity to learn everything you can and don’t stop just because you have a degree. It is my opinion that anything can be turned into a game, so the more you know the more ideas you will have. A great quote that illustrates this is from Wired “As we play, we learn. And as we grow, our play gets more complicated. We add rules and goals. The result is something we call games.” Not to long ago I suffered and read a college book on micro-biology because I had an idea for a cell and virus game. Never would I have thought I would do something like that for fun. The first steps in the process of making games is learning about the world assimilating information, and then in the age old tradition use your creativity to translate the gleaned knowledge into a vision.

God I wrote….. Oh well so much for a quick post. I’ll dig up some links and books related to game design that I recommend and post them later. So for now this concludes my history as a Game Designer and advice on education.

[darkwolfb87]

Wow that was a jam-packed post chirp chirp. Instantly made my liberal arts college a lot more interesting :)

[Chirp Chirp]

My point in mentioning the highpoly modeling is that while it’s good to know lowpoly modeling now, I believe a formal education in sculpting will be more beneficial in the long term. However I am not a game artist, just a designer looking at the current state of technology. Normal mapped objects are actually relatively lowpoly but they are derived from a highpoly version first. So both skills sets apply. Having the ability to create the highpoly version first is going to give an artist more creative control over the end results. I also alluded to job flexibility earlier because a lowpoly game artist portfolio doesn’t have much application to the movie industry but highpoly artists from the movie industry can easily move to games. More information on normal mapping can be found here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping

You are right though; there will always be a need for people to watch polygon counts. As unglorious as it seems to model stop signs, milk cartons, and other similar objects is a task someone must do and where many 3d artists start. I don't recall ever having worked with an artist fresh out of school who had mastered the lowpoly model. That is where on the job training, mentorship from other artist and experience come in. Lowpoly modeling skills will help get them in the door faster but it will be up to them to figure out where to grow after that and a good foundation opens up more options.

Google bought Sketchup not too long ago and I believe they have a free version with excellent in app and web based video based tutorials. www.sketchup.com
If you want to see some examples check out my sad little sketchbook thread. I tend to think of Sketchup as 3d drafting since I have roots in that background but I am sure in the hands of a real artist some amazing paintings could be created.

Oh and Darkwolf glad you found my info useful if not entertaining =P

[Seedling]

(an amazing amount of good info)

WOW! *happy dance* Thank you for taking the time to share all of that! :-)

[darkwolfb87]

Sketchup is fantastic, I didn't realize they had a free version out :)

[Ian Mack]

There hasn't a been a thread this informative in a long time!

Chirp: Thanks for taking the time to make those posts. I especially liked how you mentioned the art history classes. Next year I am going to an arts college (OCAD) which has a great reference library and hopefully alot of good courses.

Seedling: Your advice on how to make the best use of classwork is gold!


There was quite a bit of interest in the pixel art a few pots up. If anyone is up for it, I'm currently creating a pixel based game for cell phones. It's just a project between my brother and I but if you want to learn by doing then send me a msg. :)

[Seedling]

About that old worn-out saying: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It’s 90% baloney. Knowing someone in the industry isn’t going to help you get a job unless you also have the skills to do the job. And if you can demonstrate that you have the skills to do the job, then knowing somebody isn’t necessarily, er, necessary.

For example, I had a friend who applied to Turbine as a tech artist. First of all, I wasn’t allowed to be a part of the interview process specifically because we were friends. Everyone, including myself, wanted to make sure that we were hiring her on the basis of her abilities. We really really needed a good tech artist! But at some point I was asked for comments, and what I was able to say was this: “I don’t know enough about tech art to say if she would or would not make a good tech artist. However, she did ask for my feedback on some of her animation a couple of months ago. I critiqued her work, and she made every single change that I suggested.”

If someone on the team knows you in advance, it basically means they’ve got a little more information to consider.

If that isn’t enough reassurance for those of you who aren’t friends with someone who is in the industry, then consider this. Anyone who recommends you to be hired at their own workplace is staking their own job on you. Nobody with two brain cells to rub together is going to blithely start hiring their unqualified buddies, in any industry. That’s a practice that would result in bankruptcy.

So getting to know people in the industry isn’t an automatic foot-in-the-door, but it does have its uses. People on the inside are a source of information. Most everything that I have covered in this thread I have mentioned a dozen times to students or to people who have sought me out via e-mail. (And my ulterior motive for posting it here is so that I don’t have to write it all up yet again. . .)

I do recommend that you sniff around for people in the industry to talk with. Send an e-mail to the general address of your favorite company to ask if any artist there would be interested in critiquing your work or giving advice. Just remember – above all things, be polite. If they don’t show in interest in talking to you, then leave them be. I don’t want my inbox to be full of angry mail tomorrow from developers who said you were told by me to harass them.

More about making professional contacts. . . also known as schmoozing. . . there is an organization called the International Games Developers Association ( http://www.igda.org/
). They have local chapters around the world which have real meetings between actual people. I advise you to do some searching. Find out if you have a chapter that meets up in your area. Drop by with a copy of your portfolio or a business card with the address of your online portfolio. And strike up a conversation. Or just show up to listen to a lecture.

If you do this, please keep a few things in mind. These are real people. Some of them (like me) are amazingly shy. (I usually avoid these gatherings because rooms full of strangers scare my socks off.) It can also be a bit off-putting for the developers if they are outnumbered by newcomers, because they aren’t necessarily there to scout for new employees. They might be there for the lecture, or the board games, or the beer, in which case you are going to be a stressful addition to their evening. So follow the cardinal rule: be polite. (And if you can be a source of entertaining conversation for the folks you talk to, that will help, too.)

Knowing someone who already works at a game company can be a way to find out about job openings. That’s how I found out that Turbine was hiring – a former classmate of mine sent an e-mail saying “my company is hiring artists. Are you still looking for this kind of work?” Talking privately with folks in the industry is also a way to pick up on industry gossip. As much as I would like to say that all companies are a pleasure to work for, there are bad eggs out there in every industry. This is a chance for you to find out in advance what you would be getting into.

A word on those private conversations: use discretion when repeating rumors. If Joe Blow says that Blabla games is a terrible company to work for, don’t go quoting or misquoting what he said all over the internet. If you get him in trouble by publicizing what was said in a private conversation, he won’t be recommending you to his team any time soon.

My apologies if I’ve scared you a bit with some of my warnings. Please know that it is worth your while to get in touch with people in the industry. They have information that you won’t be able to get anywhere else. So don’t be as shy as I am. Go forth and schmooze, at least a little.

[Sprigner]

WOW Thanks so much, been looking for something like this for a long time :)
Should be applying for a Illustration course in Uni next year, do u think this would be apropriate in becoming a computer games concept artist?
Btw i will doing some of your assignments soon :)

[Dr. Memory]

About that old worn-out saying: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It’s 90% baloney.
Actually, about half of the full time and freelance gigs I've gotten, I've gotten through Good Old American Know-Who. So in my experience, it's only about 50% baloney. :wink:

The other 50% is up to your mad skillz. Then there's a third 50% which is how well your mad skillz coincide with what they're looking for.


A word on those private conversations: use discretion when repeating rumors. If Joe Blow says that Blabla games is a terrible company to work for, don’t go quoting or misquoting what he said all over the internet. If you get him in trouble by publicizing what was said in a private conversation, he won’t be recommending you to his team any time soon. True dat. However, it's good to be familiar with the fact that every company on Earth both sucks and is pretty cool in its own special way.

[Sprigner]

Finished asignment 1 :)

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/289/project1ui9.png

Any comments?

[Seedling]

Seedling: Your advice on how to make the best use of classwork is gold!

Aww, thanks!


There was quite a bit of interest in the pixel art a few pots up. If anyone is up for it, I'm currently creating a pixel based game for cell phones. It's just a project between my brother and I but if you want to learn by doing then send me a msg. :)

Networking? Eeeeggselent!



Should be applying for a Illustration course in Uni next year, do u think this would be apropriate in becoming a computer games concept artist?
Btw i will doing some of your assignments soon :)

Concept art is a subset of illustration, so an illustration course is perfect! Though maybe I’m biased, since I studied illustration in college. ;-) I look forward to seeing what you make!


Actually, about half of the full time and freelance gigs I've gotten, I've gotten through Good Old American Know-Who. So in my experience, it's only about 50% baloney. :wink:

And this is exactly why I like it when other folks from the industry add their own information here. I don’t know everything. ;-) Thanks!


. . .it's good to be familiar with the fact that every company on Earth both sucks and is pretty cool in its own special way.

Wise words!

Springer, good for you for getting in on the assignments! :-) Some quick observations – a ruler would help you to turn these sketches into stronger drawings. Make sure lines that need to be parallel stay parallel. Also, what game is this for; and do the pieces have function, or are they just decoration?

You asked me in PM about what program to use to color these. Use whatever you have on hand – Photoshop, acrylic paints, anything. :-) Use whatever medium you wish to improve at.

Cheers!

[Seedling]

Has anybody here played the game Okami? I'll give a cookie to the first person who can tell me how they put those dark lines around the rocks, and other round objects. ;-)

Hint: unless you've worked with 3D, you probably won't be able to figure this out.

[Thaelys]

That's a cell renderer most likely. If you want to see a really sweet cell renderer on an MMO, check out Seed the Game (http://www.seedthegame.com). There's some irony for you :P

[Seedling]

That's a cell renderer most likely.

Nope. Try again. ;-)

Hint: it's low-tech, as 3D goes.


If you want to see a really sweet cell renderer on an MMO, check out Seed the Game (http://www.seedthegame.com). There's some irony for you :P

Oh no, another dead MMO? That always makes me sad.

[Thaelys]

Yep, Seed is dead. Never really saw it go anywhere despite the beautiful screenshots.

About Okami. Hmmmm...could it be a camera projection onto the geometry?

[Seedling]

About Okami. Hmmmm...could it be a camera projection onto the geometry?

Nope again. ;-) It's so simple, I was giddy when I figured it out.

[Thaelys]

Duh! Here's my rough take on one of the faces of geometry texture.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emk1anton/fart/okami_sample.jpg

BTW I'm still working on your environment assignment, painted in photoshop. Hopefully posting on wendsday. It's fun :-)

[Seedling]

Duh! Here's my rough take on one of the faces of geometry texture.

. . . .wha?


BTW I'm still working on your environment assignment, painted in photoshop. Hopefully posting on wendsday. It's fun :-)

Awesome! I look forward to seeing what you make!

[Thaelys]

OK, let me try to explain it. One side of the texture map looks like that, so you have 6 or more faces to make up that fence post. Basically all the black detail is in the map.

Another way to get that effect would be to have 2 sets of geometry. One would be the model itself, the other could have backface culling turned on, so that depending on the camera's angle, it renders the corners to look black. That observation was made by a friend who works on Max daily.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas :rolleyes:

[Seedling]

Another way to get that effect would be to have 2 sets of geometry. One would be the model itself, the other could have backface culling turned on, so that depending on the camera's angle, it renders the corners to look black. That observation was made by a friend who works on Max daily.


Ding ding ding! That's how they did it. The inner object has a texture as usual. The outer object is all black, and flipped inside-out. I had never seen anything like that before. :-)

On square objects, the black outlines are painted right into the texture, but that technique doesn't work on round forms. Okami also uses very large sprites surprisingly well, mostly for trees, that are just flat images which rotate to face the camera.

[Thaelys]

Yeah that's something one WOULDN'T know about unless that person worked in 3D regularly. Once my buddy "The Goat" explained it, it made sense. I would have never guessed myself. According to him, it's an older brute force solution but it works.

Okami can get away with those big sprites, but not many others can. That's to the dev's team credit, because they chose to work in a style that lends itself to that effect. I bet it runs fast as hell, not much geometry to crunch at all.

Ah well, you learn something every day :-) Now back to, er, work.

[Chirp Chirp]

I’ll dig up some links and books related to game design that I recommend and post them later.

Game Designer Oriented Web Links...

Seedling: I am posting this stuff in here because I said I would, but if you want me to put this someplace else let me know. I don’t want to crowd in on your show. Also a book oriented post will follow in a bit.

Disclaimer:
This not a definitive list, but represents some good sites to know from “my perspective” as a working game designer. This list is a starting point and includes some sites I frequent and some others I make a point to keep an eye on. For the most part each section is listed in a hierarchical order based on personal preference from most the frequented to the least. (A good rule of thumb especially in game design is to always prioritize your lists in some way.) Finally, it’s not all game designer specific stuff but I hope everyone finds these links useful.

Game Design: Note these sites tend to fall under a blogish category and don’t necessarily reflect the best or only way to do game design. Regardless, they tend to give variety of perspectives and insight from experienced game designers that take the time to write their thoughts and ideas down.


http://www.gamasutra.com – An obvious site but I have to include it for good measure.
http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html - Game Design advice. I always recommend this one to classes I speak at because it just answers so many of the standard questions.
http://www.lostgarden.com/ - I like this site as there’s been some good designer vs. designer debates in the forums. Also includes good essays on game design ideas, language, and process. Danc the site owner, also works at Anark who created a UI tool I hear good things about but never find the time to incorporate into my process.
http://www.experimentalgameplay.com/ - A great site to keep up with the odd ball rapid prototyping projects. You never know where inspiration might come from. Also this illustrates how difficult game design is if you limit your self to a paper only process.
http://www.sirlin.net/ - Started off as mostly a fighter genre perspective on game design but has branched out a lot since its inception.
http://raphkoster.com/ - Raph has collected many excellent quotes/rules with regards to making MMO games. He also has a book out Theory of Fun which isn’t too bad and he often speaks at GDC. Although at GDC roundtables of the past, I haven’t always agreed with his game designs decisions, but if you are into making MMO games he has written the most on the topic. Additionally, he has played an influential role in the development and history of the genre. http://www.theoryoffun.com/grammar/gdc2005.htm - Raph’s take on the language of games.
http://www.theinspiracy.com/ - Noah Falstein’s site. He writes a lot for various game oriented publishers, speaks often at GDC, and has had this 400 project going on for a long time. The 400 project goal being, the accumulation and documentation for the rules of game design. There is a saying that goes something like… only when you know the rules of music can you break them and play jazz. Apply the saying to this site, and you can see why it’s good even if it’s not a 100% perfected. Besides, we to have to start somewhere.


Game Design with a Serious Games Spin:

http://www.seriousgamessource.com/ - the gamasutra take on serious games movement. If you don’t know what serious games are and how they apply then start here.
http://www.watercoolergames.com/
http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/


Reference: Because when speaking about games you need to be familiar with medium

www.gamerankings.com - A must include link because any game pitch is going to include references or competitive analysis to other games and this is a good spot to start. The site consists mostly modern games within the last decade or so.
http://www.gametunnel.com/ - Good site that keeps track of the Indy game movement.
http://www.womengamers.com – A shameless plug but also the oldest and probably the most reputable websites with a women and girl friendly perspective. (I have to include this site for good measure but also because if my wife found out I didn’t, I would be in the dog house.)


Art: Some addition art links for the texture artists and pixel pushers that I haven’t seen mentioned before. Also included because there have been several posts on pixel art in this thread.

http://www.pixelmorgue.com/ - Site dedicated to art of making game textures
http://www.lastchancemedia.com/tutorials/4bit.html - Making 4 bit textures
http://www.derekyu.com/extras/pixel02.html - 10 step tutorial on creating 4 bit textures
http://www.ionization.net/tutsnorm1.htm - More detailed walk through on normal mapping.
http://probertson.livejournal.com/ - can't have links about pixel art without putting in my favorites =P
http://hello.eboy.com/eboy/index.php - they also have a great 512 page pixel art book out.




Some Software

www.sketchup.com - Many people in the game industry and movie industry are using sketchup now because it’s simple and fast. For example, I was flipping through a Serenity/Firefly art book and noticed they used Sketchup for mocking up all the sets before they built them. Keep in mind Sketchup is not a replacement modeler but really nice for getting ideas out quickly in 3d. And they have a free version!
http://pixologic.com/home/home.shtml - Zbrush is what Epic and id software have been using to make high poly models which they derive normal maps from.
www.maxwellrender.com – This isn’t really a game focused piece of software, but it is a really nice realistic light renderer and plugs-in with Sketchup seamlessly. There are probably other renders like this but particularly I like Maxwell because it simulates a real camera and real lights. So with regards to my previous post about lighting in game development and because this is a Light Simulator, I think a pretty good tool for learning and experimenting with. For instance, I had to read up camera fstop and depth of field to use this software effectively. In the end, I not only learned a lot about cameras but also real lighting and the pains professional photographers go through.

[Chirp Chirp]

Good game design oriented books. I think I got lucky because I am going to start this list off with posting a recent article link. 50 Books For Everyone In The Game Industry. It came today in an IM from an old colleague and is going to save me some time! Earnest Adamn's Strikes again....He put the link together and also wrote one of the books I mention later.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3962&Itemid=2&pop=1&page=0

I can’t say that I have read all the books on this list but I have read a fair amount of them. The ones I always recommend to anyone interested in the game industry are as follows:

Fundamentals of Game Design, by Earnest Adamns and Andrew Rollings. – Out of the game design books I have read this one is my choice for teaching by. It covers all the basics and the new addition apparently expanded on two areas I felt were seriously lacking in the previous version; level design and story. I unfortunately haven’t read the new version but I am glad they specifically addressed my problems with the first version.
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Gee – A good book on thinking about the purpose of games for reasons other than entertainment. Yes believe it, there is more to games than most of us ever think about.
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud – Must have book for any artist and game designer. Yah, it’s about comics but it’s directly applicable to games. Very well written and illustrated a must, MUST, have for every game designer.


Sadly missing from the list but I still recommend are:
The Writer’s Journey:Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler – I can’t say enough good things about this book. I read it in college years ago and picked it up again recently. To write any sort of story you at least need to be aware of this structure. It isn’t the definitive book for writers but once you read it most of the movies you watch become rather unimpressive and terribly predictable. Also, many game design books when discussing story allude to this one or the book it’s based on The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Might as well save some time and just read the source material!
The Illusions of Life: Disney Animation by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. It’s more for animators or artists but I think it is important for designers to understand as much of the respective fields related to games as they can. Still, a great book I’ve had since college and I often reference it when I need to explain to an animator why something isn’t exactly right.
Gameplay and Design by Kevin Oxland – Originally my first pick for books to teach by. Also a good example of how you can’t judge a book by its cover. It has this terribly goofy robot character on the front; I almost dismissed it entirely because of it. I understand it’s not in print anymore but it has a good section on the importance of feedback in game design.


All I can think of at the moment but luckily the 50 books link plus the extra ones I mentioned will keep everyone busy for awhile.

[darkwolfb87]

Wow that second sloperama link is mindblowing, that should be read by everyone on this site. Seriously, thanks for these resources chirp chirp.

[Seedling]

(still more wonderful information)

OMG wow! :D Thank you for sharing all of that!

[Qitsune]

Gamasutra's archive are also a great resource for the monetary challenged artists.

I just noticed it was already mentioned, that's what I get for skipping lines in poeple's posts.

[beckerda]

Wow, that was a wonderful read, thank you so much for posting all that. :heart:

[TeDD]

Woah, just finished reading all that - it was good.
Im 18 and looking to go into the gaming industry as a 3d modeler/concept artist dude guy ... :D
But first I need to finish my finals - 8 exams left! - then its off to LONDON where I'll look for a job and ill start weekend courses in the traditional drawing skills and all that good stuff maybe some evening courses for basic MAX learning tools and stuff.
So now that you know what I want my future to be like, I want to say thank you to all the peeps who have posted here in this thread reading all this is making me so excited to just draw and be involved in the gaming entertainment industry, I cant wait. Natrually a dream of mine is to work for companies like Blizzard or Flagship studios and the like.
Thank you for hyping me up so much making me look forward to my future.

One thing that I think is weird is that South Africa dosnt really have Universitys here that offer courses in game design or anything like that.. thus my movement to a first world country!
Thx again to all the peeps posting.
"Keep on keepin on" - Bob Dylan , i think or was it Joe Dirt ?

[Seedling]

Thanks, Quitsune and beckerda and TeDD! :-)

TeDD, good luck with those examns and your move overseas!

[Seedling]

There are some objects that are common to almost every possible game – rocks, crates, and trees. Of these, trees are vastly more difficult to make. Additionally, almost nobody thinks to include a tree in their portfolio. This should make a lightbulb go off over your head: if your portfolio includes a well-made tree, your chances of getting hired are going to be greater.


******Assignment #15 – Trees*******

Before you rush to the drawing board, try going through the games in your collection and looking at the trees. Ignore “landmark” trees – trees that are complex objects used only once. The trees that you should be looking at are the ones that are used everywhere. Try to figure out how they are made. Chances are if it’s a 3D game, the trunk and main branches are cylindrical, and the twigs and foliage and small branches are flat planes with transparent sections.

The thing that makes trees hard to make is that they are always limited in vert count. Trees are not the star of the show, and trees are typically used in multiple, particularly if they are used to make an entire forest. That means the bulk of the resources spent on that scene are going to go to other things, such as the player character or the boss monster. So, each tree has to be as efficiently made as possible – just like that milk carton from a previous exercise.

A hint about trees: as backwards as this may sound, in most cases, you won’t want your trees to have so much character that they are recognizable as individuals. They should be just bland enough so that you can use the same tree a dozen times in proximity to itself without causing the player to think “wait, I’ve seen that same tree before”. What should be going through the player’s mind is “I’m in a forest looking for baddies to smite” or “I am going to hit the golf ball all the way down there on this beautiful golf course”.

About forests in particular: a tree designed to be a part of a forest may not function well on its own – and that’s just fine. For instance, consider the tall trees in the Night Elf region of World of Warcraft. They are, essentially, big umbrellas, meant to be used in multiple to create a canopy of foliage.

Sometimes a tree is a wall. Consider Perez Park in City of Heroes. The trees there are solid walls of trunks overhung with foliage. In such a situation, the trees are far more than a decorative element – they have a direct role in the game-play. For the time being, however, don’t worry about making walls of trees. Start at the beginning, with a standard tree.

*******#15 A – Concepting for Trees*****

I want you to draw three possible trees. For each, pick an art style, tree location, time of year, and tree species. For example: photo-realistic forest autumn oak. Or Chinese ink-painting open field spring dogwood. Or, Impressionistic windswept-cliff winter holly. Draw all three. There should be no question that each of the three trees belongs to a different game.

Be sure to sketch a human into each drawing to show scale. She doesn’t have to be much more than a stick figure.

No cheating – don’t make stumps!

********#15 B – Modeling and Texturing a Tree*******

Take one of those three trees and build it in 3D! Don’t be afraid to totally mess up. Not every approach will work. Try some different approaches and see what works best. See if you can come up with a method of working that allows for quick iteration.

Hint: do not build a model completely and then texture it. That approach works for characters, but for environmental art, it’ll often get in your way. Instead, try scribbling out a very quick dummy texture first. One possible layout is to use half of the texture space for the tree’s trunk (this portion can even potentially tile), and the other half for the alpha channel foliage. Then take that temporary texture and try building your tree with it. Then finish the texture after you have built your tree.

As far as vert-count goes, that’s a number that will differ from game to game. Arbitrarily, I’ll say stay under 400 verts.

*******#15 C – Expanding on What You Have Built******

Once you have created a single tree, the hard part is over, and it’s time for some fun. So, now you have an approach to making trees that works, AND you have a completed texture. Take that finished texture and use it to build two more trees. Your set of trees could be small, medium, and large; or it could be bare-trunk, trunk-with-multiple-branches, multi-trunk; or you could have three trees all in different bonsai configurations.

Then, once these are made, you can throw together a quick landscape and decorate away! Try your trees in multiples. Do they work in groups? Do they make a decent forest? How have you made the bottom of the tree, and is it difficult to place well on a sloped surface? Would the trees impede game-play with their branches in certain situations? Would your trees be able to fill the screen in an artistic manner without the addition of other decorative objects? If you could combine your trees with only two other objects to make a complete landscape, what two objects would you pick?

******extra credit******

For more of a learning experience, do this assignment with a buddy. Swap concept art and build each other’s trees.

OR

When you have completed building a set of trees, give them to someone else to use in a landscape of their own making.

[Hai]

Thank. You.

I haven't even read my way through page one yet, but I'm looking forward to. Thank you for doing this!

[Seedling]

Thank. You.

I haven't even read my way through page one yet, but I'm looking forward to. Thank you for doing this!

My pleasure!

By the way, I'm running out of stuff to write. :-) If anybody has suggestions, or questions, or I dunno, random comments about kittens, please do share!

[Nyx702]

I have a question: What is the, for lack of better word, process of getting hired? By this I mean do you just contact a company that is hired via email asking them to look at your website/portfolio? I am sure people can’t just move to the west coast and start callin’ folks and knocking on doors can they?

[Seedling]

Hi Nyx!

The process of getting hired as an artist at a game company is just about like getting hired at any company: you submit a resume and cover letter (and portfolio), and follow up with a phone call a couple of weeks later. And either you hear about a job opening in advance of that, or you just go ahead and send in your stuff in the hopes that there will be an opening.

If you have a portfolio online, then you can send the address of the website in place of a printed portfolio. I guess it’s possible to apply entirely by e-mail, too; but my gut feeling is that a snail-mail approach is less likely to vanish into the ether or get garbled up with gobltygook symbols.

Many companies have a specific way that they would like application information submitted, so be sure to look for such instructions on their website first. Their instructions will obviously trump any instructions I could tell you.

I don’t recommend that you move first, and apply second. What if you move to L.A. only to miss out on an opportunity in Austin? Or get to San Fran and find yourself with no job living in one of the most expensive places in the state. . . ick. I don’t know. . . your chances of getting a very entry-level job (like an internship or temp position or game tester – the sort of jobs that companies would not be willing to fly a in prospective candidates for) may improve if you are already physically near, but that would be taking a very large gamble for a temp position or an income that is going to be difficult to live off of. It’s probably better to continue living wherever you are and developing your skills to the point that you can apply for the sort of staff-artist position where the companies are going to be willing to fly you out for an interview.

Don’t show up in person – it would only be a hassle for the people working at the companies you are applying for. They would rather deal with your application on their own time, then try and deal fairly with you in between previously scheduled meetings and other tasks. This isn’t the illustration industry of the 50’s, in which the thing to do was physically visit publishers in New York City. The front doors of many business have signs that say “no solicitors”, and by that they could mean you.

Good luck to you!

[Maurice]

Perhaps, I could take a different spin on this topic as an industry Lead Concept Artist.

If you are a concept artist or 3D artist serious about breaking into the gaming industry you must be where the major gaming companies conduct their development business. The top places are Los Angeles / San Diego Counties, Seattle and Austin. I would argue moving yourself to Los Angeles and immersing into the vast talent pool of artist there.

Commit yourself to at least three months in one of these locations. Find a regular night job to sustain your living expenses and then get involve with a local Siggraph Chapter. During the day use this time to work intensely on your artistic skills and research the local gaming companies. You will only have one to two chances at the most to impress these companies so make sure it's your top best submission. (Be memorable)

It will help while you're calling these places to get friendly not annoying with the receptionist at these places. This person will be your ally when you show up in person and help calm your nerves.

Los Angeles & San Diego has over 150 gaming companies and so the convenience of being around and meeting with other talents are essential. Seattle also has about 130 gaming companies stretching up to Vancouver, BC.

Yes, this means making a commitment to your work, being patent and having persistence on your part and only serious gaming artist will succeed.

My biggest advice: "It's not who you know, It's who knows you."

Move to one of these places and be noticed.

[Unbreakable]

Good stuff, Maurice! I think I'm moving to Austin, man!!!!!

[Nyx702]

Thank you guys for the info!

Seedling: That's what I basically though, I just didn't know if there were any weird loop holes. I just didn't know that phyiscal portfolios were still used as much?

Maurice: You comment scares me so much!!!:$ That's a big jump and I get so so paranoid that I will get out there and get stuck in a job I can't stand.:S Thanks for the info but the info really stresses me out.

[Seedling]

Haha! Thanks Maurice. I guess the difference between our perspectives comes from me working at a company that is based near Boston. It is rare for us to get local applicants because there is not a large pool of games or graphics companies here.

Nyx, don’t panic: there are enough companies scattered about the country (and the world) who rely on artists being brought in from far away, that it is possible to find a job remotely.

[ConCrete]

Recently I started a club on my campus. I called it the Game Developers Union and by next week we will be recognized by the campus as a real live club. I am currently the president and I am loving it. I have a few questions about what this may or may not do for me.

We are going to develop mods, I think we have a good chance of turning out something cool, but does the sole fact I founded, built and maintained a club on my campus say anything, even if we don't turn out anything groundbreaking. I mean every gamasutra news letter I get has hardly any entry level job offerings, but tons of senior and lead positions open. I have artistic gusto, not the best, but its there. If I top that off with a kickass example of my ability to work with and manage a team of freelancers, do those skill sets work? Is that good? Or should I just draw...by myself...

[Chirp Chirp]

ConCrete, first I want to say that the mere fact that you started a Game Dev club at your university is a very good thing, initiative goes a long way. Secondly, I suggest you do what the local game dev club did here, get in touch with the IGDA and see about either joining or creating a local chapter. It will be even better if you are in a city that already has game developers (http://www.gamedevmap.com/ ) as that will give you an opportunity to meet the local community. The initiative that the game dev club took here resulted in http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/news/news_item.php?id=159 . They made gameboy games and at the end of the semester, a bunch of us devs came in and judged. Also earlier in the year, because of the IGDA connection, various developers including myself spoke at some of their meetings and gave advice. So definitely keep at it but I also suggest when trying to make your first game, keep it simple!

[DeBlackKnite]

Thanks a lot to everybody who contributed to this thread, and especially to Seedling for getting it started, keeping it going and contributing the bulk of information. The most I can draw is a cartoon owl, heh. I want to get into the programming side of things but still found a lot of the information here very valuable.

I don't know if you've had any experience in the indy game production arena, but from what little I know it's a very different ball-game. With teams as small as 2/3 people, team-members end up doing a whole lot of things. The programmer might also be the 3d modeller and the artist may double as lead designer. People with a view to ultimately being employed by a major game company should not neglect the possibility of starting out with a small indy team (or even starting your own). The close collaboration that you'll get with other teamies will give you a huge insight into how the artists/modellers/programmers/designers operate and what their needs are. There are also a lot of truly awesome indy titles out there, which are unfortunately not very well known due to inability to do broad-spectrum advertising. Some small games I've played have been more entertaining than big budget titles such as Oblivion, etc. Finally, when you've produced your kick-ass title then you have something to put into a portfolio which I think would be more valuable than any awesome artwork/model you could create, which is a completed game which your future employer can play and say, "Wow, this is really fun!" :)

The conditions you'll work under will be very different I think compared to working in the industry proper (small team, multi-tasking, low/no budget, only yourself for motivation, technical limitations) but if you're stuck for work and are eager to just BE working on a game creation team then seak out the indies.

As a final note to people wanting to get into the game industy: Be an avid learner, always strive to know more about your profession and about everything going on around you. No matter what area of game production you want to be part of, you become a more valuable cog the more you know about your own craft and those of the fellows you work with. If you are an artist and you read about some game design tricks then you can enrich your artwork by making sure that it will communicate with players in a way that is congruent with the game they are playing.

Peace, and thanks once again.

[Sanest]

Hey Seedling, thank you so much for telling me about this thread this is priceless information. I've just finished plowing through the first page (which has already taught me show much) and will enjoy the final two.
Havn't got any questions formulated yet but i sure will...eventually.

Thanks again

[Seedling]

does the sole fact I founded, built and maintained a club on my campus say anything, even if we don't turn out anything groundbreaking. ...

ConCrete, that’s wonderful! I don’t know if it’ll help you significantly at the entry level, but having experience running a team could certainly help you later if you want to get a position as a lead. Keep doing whatever it is that you are inclined to do – and if that happens to be organizing artists or designers more than making art yourself, this industry and others need those sorts of skills. Don’t feel like you have to do exactly what everyone else is doing. Just make sure that whatever you do, that your heart and your hard work are in it.



I want to get into the programming side of things but still found a lot of the information here very valuable.

Oh good, I’m happy to hear that!

Indeed, I know very little about indy games. Thanks for your insights!




Havn't got any questions formulated yet but i sure will...eventually.

I look forward to your questions. :-)

[ConCrete]

Chirp Chirp

My hats off to you, that is something I am going to look into right after I finish this post. A million thank you's. Invaulable!

I want high fives around the table, this forum rocks, thanks again seedling!!

[blacky]

Damn, I finally need to get a printout of all of this.
Priceless

[Seedling]

:^^: Don't go giving me a fat head now! :P

[cH_aos]

http://www.artrocity.de/activities/disgaea_lava.jpg[/QUOTE]


ROFL! Dont hug the lava monster!

[Seedling]

Mokad asked me some good questions in PM, and says it’s okay if I share my answers here for everyone. . .


Well the program i am looking into at Sheridan is a 1 year certificate program. It has the nude figure drawing as you've suggested, but doesn't require a portfolio review to enroll in it...is that questionable?
here's a link if you get curious :P
http://www1.sheridaninstitute.ca/programs/0708/partf/?secid=1


Huh. What a curious program. My interest is piqued.

My lead artist at LucasArts was a graduate of the Sheridan’s animation program, and he only had good things to say about it. Aside from that, I don’t know anything about the school. That they are willing to take students without a portfolio isn’t necessarily a bad sign. I’m of the belief that everyone has the ability to be an artist, with the application of diligent work, and it looks perhaps as if this program year is run on a similar assumption. This is just a guess. . . but it strikes me that this, followed by a stint at a two-year game school, might just be a good educational combination for getting into games as an artist. Maybe. With the application of lots of hard work.


when you say "it's not the degree or 'credentials' that matter, but the education you get from it", what exactly do you mean by this? My understanding of it is that it's what you make of the skills you learn and develop, and the implementation of them into the portfolio i suppose. Am i somewhat close here?

You need to yearn the necessary art skills before any portfolio-building will be possible. Those skills can come from a four-year degree program; or they can come from a salad-bar style education, with classes taken here and there as you need them; or it is possible, I suppose, to get the skills on your own without any formal education, with some serious hard work and relying on internet and book resources and the feedback of any artists you can get hold of. Regardless of whatever piece of paper you do or don’t get at the end of your period of studying, what matters is what you have learned, and (following that) how you go about showing what you have learned to potential employers.


How do you recommend people find work? Through these forums? Comic convnetions? game conventions?

I mostly don’t know the answer to this. It depends on the job and on your personal situation. If you happen to sit down on the bus next to someone in an industry you like, then that person could hook you up with information about a job opening. If you aren’t that lucky, then you’ll have to go searching for possibilities. There isn’t one well-worn path. Research, followed by snail-mail and e-mail and phone calls; or, if there’s an opportunity to do so, meeting relevant people in person at conventions or IGDA meetings or lectures or whatnot, followed by more research and snail-mail and e-mail and phone calls.


Do you have any suggestions or maybe 'assignments' someone much as myself can work on during my spare time to develope more creative pieces aside from fanart of superheroes and of the like? I would like to stray away from them, ithnk i draw them too much.

Aside from the assignments that are already posted in this thread, yes. :-) I’ve just started another classroom-style thread called Concept Art 101 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81332), which may be of interest to you.

Good luck!

[mokad]

Seedling:

Thanks a lot for the time you've taken to answer my questions! I'll be sure to keep checking this forum regularly to educate myself. I really appreciate it. :)

[Maurice]

I have only heard good things about Sheridan. Most of the professional folks I have worked with over the years got a job right out of school. I know the school gets recruiters from all the major studios through out the year.

[John T]

Thanks for taking the time to make this thread, this is excellent information.

[Bishopt Tutu]

Seedling, thanx for postin all of this good information. I still havent even read it all and its still helpin me, but one of my current issues right now is this:

My college objectives are to get good art training and education, and 3d modeling and animation education as well, but im afraid that the current college im looking at (University of Texas in Tyler, Texas) may not allow me to study some of the 3d modeling classes i wanted, due to them being under a different degree plan. My plan as far as the game industry is concerned is to do something in concept art and/or animation and modeling, but im not too sure what my plan should be or consist of yet. Im truly desperate, and I want professional advise on what to do, and if you could find and give me any information on about what to do, i would truly appreciate it. Thanx

[Seedling]

Hi Bishopt Tutu,

Well, I got my education in RISD’s Illustration department. I took the one or two computer classes that were available to me in my department, took one class for no credit at a community college, and then I whined and complained and kicked administrators in the shins until they let me into the computer classes that I needed, which were in the Film/Animation/Video department. As annoying as it was to work around the system to get into those classes, it did ensure that the bulk of my courses were in traditional fine arts, which was a very good thing. So fight to get what you need, wheedle your way into classes however you can, but don’t panic if your course load is light on digital stuff. It’s just another medium that you can pick up when you are ready for it.

Also, repeat this a few times:

Concept art is a subset of illustration!
Concept art is a subset of illustration!

For that matter, so is 3D modeling. This is very important. If you take away the parts of illustration that look on the outside to be irrelevant to concept art or modeling/texturing, you could be left with a dangerously narrow skill-set.

[Bishopt Tutu]

I really do appreciate this man. Good looking out.

[Seedling]

Man?

;-)

You're quite welcome.

[Beonarri]

I agree Seedling!

Those illustration classes, I find more helpful than almost any other...oh yeah I came from an Illustration department myself.

The other classes help, but speaking in terms of computer classes and computer programs, you don't need a class for them. Finding a Personal Learning Edition or Demo version work just as well as the real thing.

But you can't substitute Illustration training/skills.

[Ryan DeMita]

i dont know if i should feel confident, or scared.

i think scared.
but a well-informed-draw-untill-my-fingers-rot kind of scared.
thanks for this information seedling
-ryan

[Seedling]

i dont know if i should feel confident, or scared.


Stay scared enough to keep yourself on the road to improvement, and confident enough to keep yourself happy with what you are doing. :-)

[DARAF]

Thanks again for the assignments. They are a great practice to level up my skills.

[Seedling]

Justin Oaksford brought this to my attention: a map of game developers around the world ( http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?tool=global&query=Publisher). If you want to find a place to work near you, this tool is your new friend.



DARAF – glad to be of service! :-)

[Vincent87]

This is like a going to College

[Zaknafain]

This is like a going to College
nah... its much better :)

[Seedling]

nah... its much better :)

Aww shucks, now I'm going to have a fat head all day. :bashful: Quick, bring the head-deflator! :$

[sisqinanamook]

Hey Seedling,
Thank you for showing me this thread!!! Finally, I know that I will study Illustration and the only question left is where to do these studies.
I hope you are right that the “it’s all about who you know”-thing isn’t correct...
Now, I will read the whole Concept Art 101 too and then sit down and work on some of the assignments, you put in here.
Thanks a lot!:confident
*hug*
sisqi

[Vincent87]

But, unless you are a hardy enough soul to pursue your education entirely on your own, no matter how many schools you try, no matter how much money you can afford to throw at the problem, you will be stuck learning from teachers that you believe to be nincompoops.

Nincompoop teachers come in many varieties. There is the nincompoop teacher who really is teaching because he can’t make it as artist professionally. They give teachers everywhere a bad name. Then there is the nincompoop who believes so deeply in the subjectivity of art that she has you dribbling ink from sticks while giving painfully gentle critiques. Maybe she has something good to teach, but it isn’t what you are interested in learning. And there is the hard-nosed nincompoop who wants you to do drills of exquisite precision that have no creativity whatsoever, and you mustdoitallabsolutelythewayhesaysorelse. I’m sure you could make an entire card-game based on the varieties of nincompoopery that makes up art education.


:-)

i know this was posted long time ago.....but.....
EUREKA !!!!!!!!
was trying to remember wat names they give to this kind of lecturer.
u the man:D

[requiem3d]

Great work Seedling, I'm sure many will find this useful for attaining their goals :)

[Mark Bot]

this thread delivers! These assignments are some quality stuff Seedling.
It's amazing what you're doing for the community.

[Seedling]

Thanks guys! Let me know if there's anything missing here, and I'll try to fill in. . .

[Main Loop]

Justin Oaksford brought this to my attention: a map of game developers around the world ( http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?tool=global&query=Publisher). If you want to find a place to work near you, this tool is your new friend.



DARAF – glad to be of service! :-)

wow this totally made my day, made my job search a lot easier

[Seedling]

wow this totally made my day, made my job search a lot easier

Best of luck with the search!

[Oscare]

Is there any jobs in the game industry where you can just draw monsters instead of having to do the coloring, or modeling?????

[Seedling]

Is there any jobs in the game industry where you can just draw monsters instead of having to do the coloring, or modeling?????


Is there any jobs in the game industry where you can just draw monsters instead of having to do the coloring, or modeling?????

Highly unlikely. You can’t cherry pick the exact type of work that you want to do in any profession. There is always grunt work, or an aspect of the job that doesn’t interest you, or stuff that needs to get done that isn’t your specialty.

Even for concept artists who are lucky enough to find a job in which they purely do 2D art, they’re likely to also be asked to produce landscapes, or develop variants on costumes, or redesign the anatomy of an elf, or produce complete paintings, or stick to many quick black and white sketches, or produce marketing art, or draw into screenshots, or do some graphic design (work with text), or redesign a concept based on limited available assets, or research historic horse-carts, or draw architecture, or set aside a good idea because management doesn’t like it; or, most likely, all of the above.

There is so much competition among concept artists, that if you are not open to exploring thoroughly beyond your favorite subject matter or mode of work, then you are not likely to find a job.

[Beonarri]

Seedling
That map, is awesome! Thanks for posting it!

[Oscare]

Well, as long as i'm not doing any modeling, texturing, or things like that.

Thanks for your help. I think you've steered me in the right path.

I don't mind drawing any of those things, it's just that i don't have any previous experience painting using the computer.

[Seedling]

You will need to learn to use 2D art programs, Oscare, because even if you do 90% of your work on paper, there will still be that last bit of work that consists of quickly revising, or of setting up work in a particular format for review.

[Oscare]

So how do people usually go about getting jobs being concept artist? Do you just look in the employment section of this site? Is there a place where i can see what companies are hiring, or which ones to send my portfolio to?

[Seedling]

Oscare, the competition for becoming a concept artist is very stiff. Many people who aspire to be concept artists never make it that far. Many do make it, but by starting first in another job. There are two indirect ways that I suspect are more common – either establish yourself first as a freelance illustrator, or get a job at a game or other company in a different role, and work your way to the role of concept artist internally.

“Concept artist” is not an easy career to get into. You have to want it, badly, and you must be willing to first identify the things that you must learn, and then learn them, by whatever means.

[Oscare]

Sooo, what about the art school advertised on this website? I mean, it seems like something like that would give you way more connections and the transitions to concept artist would be much smoother than going to say...Art Center, or SVA. But i still don't know where it's located, or how it works...exactly. No email response yet, but hopefully soon.

[2b BOY]

The Atelier that the fine people at Massive Black created, just started. It is a very good school from everything I've read so far, but it is going to be very competitive. So you gotta work your butt off Oscare, and that doesn't just apply to getting into the school, but your art in general. Try not to look for the easiest way to get anywhere, if you really want it you gotta work your ass off. Most of all, have fun. Good luck.

[Oscare]

where is that school located? how does that work, by the way? i've been emailing them asking for info, but i have yet to receive any responses. it's been a couple weeks. and they don't say where it is on the site.

[tatiana]

Considering that Massive Black's main office is located in San Francisco, I would imagine the school would be in the same city, if not the same building location. Do a search on the forum -- I know there was a thread that had some more insights about it, in addition to the direct link to the school at the top of the forum menu....

[bluefruitbowl]

Yeah. It's in San Fran. Have you looked around this site, Oscare? I distinctly remember a thread where basically ALLLL questions ever about the Atelier were answered. Dunno where, though. I believe that enrollment is pretty much full now. They're holding out one spot for someone really interested in Industrial Design, or something of the sort.

[Oscare]

so when do they have enrollment? is it every two years, or what? when does admissions start again? yeah, does ANYONE know where that thread about Atelier is??!?!?!? that would be extremely helpful.

[bluefruitbowl]

Look around. It's pretty hard to miss, cause it's a bajillion pages long and has a title like INFOS ABOUT ATELIER or somesuch. I durrno where it is off the top of my head.
edit:
someone else compiled threads, behold! http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1185232&postcount=7

[Silvertone]

Free Bump for a great thread!

Seedling, thanks for everything. You must have a ton of energy to make the posts you do!

This is a video of Pandemic Studios talking about the step up to next gen gaming. Hope it's entertaining for ya'all.

http://www.mercs2.com/videoblogs.php?movie_id=10

[Seedling]

:-) Thanks Silvertone!

[Seedling]

Wasker had some questions for me that I thought would be more at home over here:



I realize you are a modeler/environmental artist but I guess you see what the other guys do and what you prefer to model.

- How 'good' do you have to be a concept artist? I realize this is a silly and often asked question to which the answer will probably be 'as good as possible'.

- What defines a good character concept? Angles? Should it have accessory? Any differences between doing a fictional animal concept vs. a fictional humanoid?

- What defines a good environment concept? What should it tell the guys that convert it to 3d graphics?

- I have heard many artists are proficient with both 3d and 2d on the company. Aren't there any artists that are just 2d and go for characters and enviros only?

edit1: forgot this one - How long is appropriate to spend on a character/environment concept (for example, "I want you to do a jungle monster with a protective hide of some sort" or another example for enviros "I need a impressive gothic interior with several floors visible and a large statue in the middle")? I mean of course till it looks good and have achieved a good level of realism (or whatever the company aims for) but is it ok to spend a week or do most companies expect you to pump out several finished concept each day?

I'd be glad if you were interested in sharing your industry experiences :^^:

How good do you have to be to be a concept artist? Really darn good. You have to have your illustration skills up to a competitive, professional level; you have to be able to revise quickly at the drop of a hat; you have to be as proficient at sketching as with bringing art to a finished state; and you must be able to put away your artist’s ego in order to work with a team.

What defines a good character concept, or a good environment concept? Your art director sets that definition. When working without an art director, *you* set that definition. In other words, when you are practicing for a future career as a concept artist, you must be your own goal setter and your own harshest critic. But to more specifically answer your question, look at the concept art currently done by professionals in the field. Their art will more adequately answer your question than anything I could tell you.

What should your concept art communicate to the 3D modelers and texturers? Great question! Unfortunately, this depends on the final product, technical limits, and budget limits. If you are designing for a low-poly 3D computer game, then it is important that your characters and environments can be made with a minimal amount of polygons and textures. This won’t hold true if you are designing a monster for a movie. I suggest that if you know what field that you want to get into, spend some time doing that type of 3D work, so that you know what the recipients of your art will need from you.

I’ve worked with concept artists who outright refused to learn the systems they were designing for. Essentially, they were designing in a vacuum and leaving a mess for me to clean up. All I can say is that’s not a way to win the respect of your coworkers.

To what extent do artists specialize? The bigger the company, the more an artist can specialize. However, for someone entering the industry, it is safer to generalize than to specialize. Be a Swiss army knife – be able and willing to fill any role needed, and your chances of getting in are higher.. Once you get hired, you can steer your career towards a particular niche, and once you have experience in that particular niche, you’ll have an easier time getting hired at other companies to fill that particular niche.

Being at a medium sized company, there is a degree of specialization. There are the animators and the effects artists and they tech artists, all in their particular roles. And then among the staff artists, there are folks who primarily make characters, folks who primarily paint textures, and folks who do concept art full-time. I was able to get myself into a niche where I was mostly modeling and laying out the Uvs of environment art, because that is what I was really interested at the time.

How long is it appropriate to spend on an assignment? I don’t know. However, an answer that most employers really like is this: “I can give you results in whatever amount you can give me. If you can only give me an hour, I’ll have crappy results for you, but they will be finished crappy results. Give me two days and I’ll have something wonderful.”

For concept art specifically, you will need to be able to crank out multiple sketches in a day, as well as longer finished pieces.

*phew* Have I answered everything thoroughly?

[Maurice]

Great respones Seeding.

[Oscare]

How much does style and the kinds of designs you come up come into play? Like, say the things i have in my portfolio are designs that are all cheeful? What's the difference if you draw manga style, or realistic? Does that affect your chances of employment?

[drummingpariah]

Going back to the swiss army knife theory, you want to show off that you can fulfill as many roles as possible. The biggest thing here is that you're willing to expand yourself without being pushed by an outside influence. Try to get as much diversity (all finished work, if possible) as you can squeeze into a professional-looking portfolio. You want to instantly come off as the swiss army knife that includes the bottle opener, car starter, and video game controller built-in while completing every task you can to the best of your resources. From everything I've heard during my searches for information on the video game industry (especially for artists), that holds true. Go for diversity in style, and try to have every piece in your portfolio make them imagine whatever concept you're going for.

[Oscare]

i don't think you really answered my question there, buddy.

i mean, if my style is wishy washy and it's not representive of me, than how does that make me any different than any other artist?

like when you see a Wes drawing you can go, "oh wes did that." same goes for lots of people

[Qitsune]

Wes has a Wes style, but he can draw cute chicks, aliens and fantasy stuff. There's nothing wrong with having a style, but try not to lock yourself in one kind of content too early in your career.

I tried looking in the stuff you posted on CA but didn't see any art, so it's hard to give specific advice.

[Seedling]

Hello Oscare,

Regarding style: if you exhibit just one strong style in your portfolio, it may hurt your chances at getting a games industry job. This is because when you go to work for a company, their product will already have a style, and it will be your job to work in that style. Therefore your portfolio needs to show that you are capable of working in multiple styles. And if your portfolio shows that one of the styles you can do is similar to what the company makes, that’s great.

Just make sure that you don’t submit a portfolio of nothing but fantasy manga to a company that makes gritty, realistic basketball games. And don’t worry about coming up with your own specific style. Too many artists get hung up on that when they are starting out. That’s something that you will develop over time, on your own And having a personal style isn’t all that relevant to working in the games industry. We need to see that you are capable of adapting to the style of a team. If it looks like you are more interested in pursuing your own dramatically individual style to the exclusion of everything else, then we may go with the next candidate.

What makes you different from the next artist isn’t style, it’s how well you do that style. There is bad realism and good realism, bad manga and good manga. And what makes you different is the subject matter that you choose. Maybe you choose subject that seem new and surprising. Or maybe you pick overused subjects, but you do them with such flair that you make them seem new. Or maybe you pick standard subject matter and execute it with technical finesse. All of these things are good.

[Seedling]

Rogzilla asked me the following:


I have heard that some places want someone who can not only draw and render but model in a 3D program. Is this the case? I always figured the art department was a separate entity.

While I have heard concept artists daydream of having a separate “concept art department” within a company, I don’t know of any specific companies that run on this model. There are two typical ways that a company is split up: either it is divided into departments by what the employees *do*, i.e. there is an “art department”, a “design” department, or a “foo” department; and when a project gets made they sort-of borrow members from each department. Or a company is split into departments by the *project*. I.E. a company could have the “Evil Island” project, the “Shoot-em Game #254” project, etc. Each project team has its own art team, design team, programming team, etc.

But what I suspect is most common in the games industry is a combination of the two, in which the development teams are set up to be project-based, and the non-development parts of the company, such as HR, IT, Legal, and Marketing are grouped by what they do.

While I have heard concept artists daydream of having their own separate concept art team, I am not familiar with any companies that work this way. Frankly, with the exception of very large companies, I suspect it would cause too much friction between the concept artists and the other types of artists to be worthwhile. The “production artists” aren’t an art factory that carry out the orders or the concept artists, and they will resent being treated as if they are. Concept artists and production artists need to work together as a collaborative team. But often this is a bit moot: in many game companies, there is simply not a budget for even one full-time concept artist on a project team. The team is going to have one or more of the production artists do concept art, or they are going to bring in a concept artist from another project team at the same company, before they consider bringing in a freelancer, because bringing in a new employee is expensive and risky.

To give you some perspective, when I worked at LucasArts, which is a large company by any stretch of the imagination, the concept art for Escape from Monkey Island had been drawn by the lead artist and by one of the modeler/texturers.

[Rogzilla]

So that means that someone with knowledge of 3D modeling will have a better chance of getting a job in the game industry? Will they not consider someone who is focused only in traditional illustration? Also, would the program matter, say Maya vs 3DS Max? I know, I am getting annoying! :-P

[Kainin]

Well I dont know if this is the right way round things but im studying Photoshop and 3-Ds max and have my self a volentry job on a MMORPG just to get my finished work load up and so I can put that all important game experience needed box ticked.
Now I dont know if the game will get out or not but its fun and helps as I managed to get the 2-D head place, yay for me! Its just a bunch of us mates getting what we can done with what we have. Good clean fun
Learning alot about image planes at the mo but is there anywhere where I can see some high speck ones as I need to see what level they are done to.
I do have one question as all my studying is home study I will have no Quals to speak of will this matter as I dont have time to go to collage, plus the lack of evening study in the south of England.......unless there is an online school that I havnt found yet?

[Seedling]

So that means that someone with knowledge of 3D modeling will have a better chance of getting a job in the game industry? Will they not consider someone who is focused only in traditional illustration? Also, would the program matter, say Maya vs 3DS Max? I know, I am getting annoying! :-P

Yes, all of the above matters. There is no one right answer. Each company has different requirements, and overall, there are many more 3D jobs available than 2D, so yes, as a 3D modeler you will have a greater chance of finding employment.



Learning alot about image planes at the mo but is there anywhere where I can see some high speck ones as I need to see what level they are done to.

I’m sure there are places where you can find that sort of thing. Try Google.



I do have one question as all my studying is home study I will have no Quals to speak of will this matter?

Maybe. Possibly. It depends on how you spend your time learning.



.......unless there is an online school that I havnt found yet?

I don’t know.



Guys, there are no magic answers to what or where or how you need to learn. You need to research what you are getting into beyond just here, you need to chart your own educational course, you need to work hard at whatever you decide to do, and you need to keep working at it and re-evaluating your course until you get where you want to be. All the information that is compiled here is a resource aimed at helping you to help yourself. The rest – the hard work, the real research, the risk-taking and the decision-making – is up to you.

[drummingpariah]

Guys, there are no magic answers to what or where or how you need to learn. You need to research what you are getting into beyond just here, you need to chart your own educational course, you need to work hard at whatever you decide to do, and you need to keep working at it and re-evaluating your course until you get where you want to be. All the information that is compiled here is a resource aimed at helping you to help yourself. The rest – the hard work, the real research, the risk-taking and the decision-making – is up to you.


Best advice I think I've ever heard. It applies to everything in life. Actually, this could be the foundation for some extremist cult following...:wink:

[Kainin]

True, true

Seedling, sorry if I was a pain with all the questions as I know you spend alot of time answering stuff all the time

But yea hard work and a level head is the key to most things in life :)

[Wasker]

I forgot to thanks you for the answers you gave me dear Seedling.:tihi: Thank you. Some of it was pretty much what I expected to hear but I needed to get somekind of confirmation I guess.


I do have one question as all my studying is home study I will have no Quals to speak of will this matter?

If I may add something Kainin, I believe it in the end comes down to what you are capable of doing. What counts is (and correct me if I'm wrong) skills and experience. No one is going to hire you if you have a fancy degree in computer game design but your portfolio pieces show that you don't know jack about fundamentals. But companies will hire you even if you're offically uneducated in the field but got good work samples. Ofcourse, throwing a degree in architecture and graphic design (just to mention some educations which could be helpful) + good samples is probably even better than having just 1 out of 3.

Conclusion of my mad ramblings; Degrees might add to the CV but in the end it is skill and experience that really counts.

:^^:

Hope I got this right, poke me if I didn't.

[Seedling]

The BBC covers news on the games industry now and then. Most of it is fluff, but this article is a good overview of the different jobs that can be found within one development team:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6472467.stm

[Raide the Torrent]

Wow, I'm glad I found this site.

I have a few questions myself, I'm going to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in there Game Art and Design 4-year course (longer since I've been taking it part time). This school teaches traditional art and 3D art with 3Ds Max. As much as a job in the hard working videogame industry sounds nice, I'm going to open myself to other avenues like television, advertising, and film (Pixar!)

One thing that's disturbing me, after some research is that more and more game companies are using Maya instead of Max. While Max is good for low poly modeling, Maya seems to offer more flexibility and tools for higher quality models. It's frustrating to find that the industry seems divided on software of choice. I talked to a rep from Insomniac games about this and even he believed that Max is "on the way out." What is your advice on good 3D software? Or is that a bit out of your area?

Also, I'm a continued recovering otaku (anime fanboy). Back in the early 2000 my obsession with anime influenced my art style and I'm doing my best to draw far away from this. My artwork has been constantly compared to Dragonball or Yu-Gi-Oh despite all my efforts to "change." I look at my old online resume and realize that I need to change it, so I'm adapting styles from favored mediums like comic books and cartoons. I thought about using slight anime influences but I see that the industry frowns upon it still.

I have a main male hero character that has small spiked hair, though looking at American game art, I don't see this much. Is fine spiked hair still looked at as anime? Small spiked hair say, not spikey like Cloud or Goku, but Bruce Timm's style (Batman animated, Justice League, Batman Beyond)... though now that I think of it, his style has a slight anime influence to it.

Teen Titans got away with it though. But still, I dunno if I should totally steer clear from any anime influence. I used to enjoy some simple anthropomorphic art, I had a cartoon cat that resembled a bit like Sonic that was a fun ride in high school as a mini comic I did, then when I got drawn into anime I saw the darker side of fur fanatics that show anthro characters in a different light. Are anthro characters shunned more in American art?

What I want to do after graduation? Well I'm trying to get IN before graduation. I'm starting to learn Maya this week and finding it to be much more flexible, but I have more experience in Max despite how frustrating the learning curve is. So my last question is, how would this look on my online portfolio/resume:

Traditional art samples (5)
Dynamic posed swordsman, gun toting female, cartoon anthro character, monster, vehicle of some kind.

Background traditional art (5)
Outdoor landscape, interior, fantasy area x3

Concept Art (5)
These would be model sheets of characters I use for the portfolio, I'm not sure if rough sketches even count as concept art, does storyboard art count?

3D art (5)
This is what I'm working on first, I can always do traditional art later as I'm more fluent in that department. My plan is to have one fully modeled, rigged, and textured male character, female character, monster, vehicle, and two to four landscapes, seeing that I see alot of environment artists are rising in demand.

I'm striving to have a variety of things, to show employers despite what I was told to stick to a small talent and work from there. I see that when you apply for a position, you're expected to multitask.


Sorry this was a mouthful. Thank you for your time.

[BryanYoung]

What a great thread! I just read the whole thing from beginning to end. Kind of got me in the mood to do some 3D work; I haven't done any in a while. I've really just been focusing on my 2D work lately. 3D stuff is just so time consuming, and I always have the fear of spreading myself to thin. Jack of all trades, master of none kind of thing. That gamedev map looks like it will be quite useful. Thank you Seedling and all the others who posted advice. :)

[Seedling]

Hi guys!

Raide – there is no magic formula for portfolios. Show your best work in a format that is easy to view. Everything else is up to you.

About Maya versus Max – there was never a golden age in which there was only one tool that everyone used. The stupidity of the multiple programs is just a part of the industry. Learn some of each, or learn one well – the choice is yours.

Regarding anime – if you are worrying about a detail as small as the spikes in the hair of a particular character, then you are thinking about it too much. Put some time into drawing from life, so that you can choose to draw or not draw in an anime style when you want to. Getting a job has less to do with whether or not you can draw in a particular style than with your ability to draw, and with your ability to switch styles without losing quality.

Good luck.

[Seedling]

Lohan asked some good questions over in this thread (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1270915&posted=1#post1270915), so I thought it might be useful to repeat my post here.


I've recently begun trying to teach myself how to texture/skin models. I have 2 main questions and it would be awesome if anybody could help me out with them.

Firstly, when a model is provided, how does the texture artist know how to make the unwrapped skin for it? I'm not talking about what programs are used, etc, but more like, what dimensions to use and the length of the arm, head, etc?

Second, maybe its just because I'm very new, but it seems incredibly difficult to know whats what on an unwrapped texture. Is this just something that comes with experience or am I missing something?

I've read a few online tutorials and neither of these were very clear. Thanks in advance for any answers.

Ask different people, and you’ll get different answers. Different game engines all have different requirements as well. If you work for a company, your boss will probably have specific information for you when you get started. But here’s a way to get started on your own:

Say you are making a monster – something humanoid. A good way to practice is to lay out your texture in a square that is 1024 x 1024 pixels. Make up a 1024 x 1024 pixel file in Photoshop, mark the edges, and fill the texture with a checkerboard. When you are laying out the Uvs on this texture, this allows you to do two things: the outline shows you where the texture ends, so that you can get all the pieces tidily within the square, and the checkerboard shows you where the resolution on your creature is uneven (such as the squares showing up larger on one part of the monster than another) and where it is improperly laid out (distorted squares, stretch marks). Get the monster wrapped up in a tidy, even coat of checkerboard. Take up as much of the real-estate within that square as you can, so as not to waste the space. Then take a screenshot of the laid-out Uvs, plunk that in Photoshop, and use it as your guideline.

Then comes the fun part: endlessly going back and forth between your 3D program and your 2D program. Paint, test, paint, test.

There are additional programs and plug-ins that can speed up UV layouts, or that will let you paint directly on the model, but they aren’t necessary.

And back to getting different answers from different people: some artists swear up and down that the resolution on a model must be the same everywhere. Some swear up and down that certain elements, such as faces, must be at a higher resolution. It’s a personal call. Or it’s the art director’s call.

To address some other things – companies won’t necessarily split modeling and texturing into two different jobs. And if they do, it may be up to the modeler to lay out the Uvs. It depends on the company and on the individuals involved. For a while I had worked out a scheme where I was modeling, laying out Uvs, and doing a first quick pass on the texture so that the texture artist could see what was needed where. Also, things can get more interesting with landscapes and architecture, because you will encounter situations where you have multiple textures to work with, some of which will need to be tiled, some of which will be repeated all over the place, and some of which must be unique; and the texture budgets will be downright stingy, so you are forced to make a little texture go a very long way. “Smoke and mirrors” is a good way to think of it.

Thanks for the good questions Lohan.

[Seedling]

Masque made a tutorial! Thank you masque!

http://home.metrocast.net/~chipartist/SkinTute/

[meaow]

What a great thread!



And looooong :)

[gascogne]

hey, I think this thread is really cool and i havent been able to finish reading all of them yet >.< so I dont know if this is already asked(sorry...).

I already have a BFA and is doing commissions in illustration and graphic arts for some years now but i really want to be in the games industry. (it was like going back to your first love, sumtin) Or to be more precise, to be a concept artist. But of course, I dont know where the heck to start and how the heck am I going to be one. Shall I study 3d first? We have tackled the basics of Max when I was in college but I dont think I've learned enough from my Professor. I was thinking of working as an intern concept artist but even that is very hard to come by. Where shall I start? And is it possible to learn up to at least the max scripting all by myself?

[Lecnac]

Seedling, this thread is outstanding. Really great information. A million thanks.

I was wondering if you had any information on the interview process. I ask not only for my own benifit, but I have to give a report for a class =) Anything you know would help.

Thank you!

[Beelow]

Thanx, for sharing the company links!

B

[LindseyErin]

Hi all! Great thread, all the information that's been posted is absolutely awsome. Which is why I'm posting a question.

I am a master's student creating a degree in 3D production art at my college. I had an idea for a masters project, but when I talked to a lady at the GDC about it, she told me that it wasn't nearly enough to justify a degree. Especally a master's degree. She suggested I looked for an issue within the industry to focus my project on.

So my question is, what sort of issues are there within the industry that has to do with texturing? or with enviromental work? I'm no sort of programmer, so I can't develop a kick ass procedural. Any information is helpful, even if it's pointing me towards a website. :)

thanks again for the awsome thread, I fully intend on doing these assignments.

[hito]

Seedling this is a great thread you're running. thanks for all the time you put in.

One thing I noticed alot browsing various job postings is that there're many more posts for Lead/Senior artists than there are for mid level; I estimate a 1.5 to 1 ratio (quick tally on the art/animation posts on gamasutra this morning). Entry level positions are practically non-existant. Typically the 1st line one would see while reading a job post is "2-4 industry experience" required.

How did you get your first position? referal or through applying on your own?

[Seedling]

Ooh, I need to check back here more often!



Lecnac – Sorry, this may be too late to help with your class. Interviewing for a games industry job is just like interviewing for any job, just with the addition of art. If a company likes your work and they like the sound of you well enough to bring you in for in interview, then chances are you are they have already made up their mind to hire you and are just checking to make sure that they’ve had the right impression about you. This is especially true if you are flown in for an interview, because it’s too expensive to fly in anyone but the most sure candidates.

The actual interview process? Put the interviewee in a room and keep rotating employees through to ask questions and answer questions. Afterward the employees get together and swap notes. I’m sure it can get more formal than that, especially among higher-level jobs, but that’s the essence.


LindseyErin – I know almost nothing about what an appropriate master’s project would be. (I’m not sure I know any artists in the industry who have a masters, come to think of it.) Issues within the industry having to do with texturing or environment art. . . I wish I had a tech-artist or graphics programmer on hand to answer your question! :-P Most problems to solve I these areas involve getting more game from a limited number of resources – limited time, limited texture space, limited poly-count, etc. The programmers are always finding ways to exceed previous limits. For artists, the daily challenge is to work within the limits that are chosen by the programmers and tech artists; for instance, there might be a rule that “thou shalt not make a character with a UV-count above 1200 without our express permission.” A bigger occasional challenge for an artist might be to figure out a new way of making modular dungeon pieces, or finding a way to make a new kind of effect or environment within a well-used game engine. These sorts of things generally require the oversight of at least the tech-artist, to assure that the solution will actually work in the game. With less involvement from tech-art, an artist could figure out how to creatively use a small amount of texture to cover a large entire environment well; or figure out how to re-use existing art assets, such as by retexturing an existing model; or. . . I don’t know, I’m blanking. I’ll think about this some more, and report back here if I think of anything. In the mean time, keep asking around. Somebody in the 3D forum (http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=10) might have some ideas for you.


gascogne – A lot of your questions have been answered to some extent in this pile. . . somewhere. . . *wishes for an index*. Part of the answer is that there is no one good answer. I don’t know the first thing about scripting. If you get hired on Max scripting skills, you might find yourself in a position where you could work yourself into a concept art job, or you might find yourself doing tech art for eight hours a day and no drive to get yourself where you want to actually be. I don’t know. If you can find an internship doing concept art, then awesome, but I’m not sure such a position exists.



One thing I noticed alot browsing various job postings is that there're many more posts for Lead/Senior artists than there are for mid level; I estimate a 1.5 to 1 ratio (quick tally on the art/animation posts on gamasutra this morning). Entry level positions are practically non-existant. Typically the 1st line one would see while reading a job post is "2-4 industry experience" required.

The entry-level positions (including internships) are there, especially among newer and lesser-known companies because they can’t afford or can’t attract industry veterans. When a team wants someone with experience, they have to cast wider nets because there are so few available. Advertising all over the place for entry-level jobs would likely result in loads of highly unqualified applicants submitting portfolios, resulting in more work for the team as they sort through it all. So, entry-level jobs are advertised closer to home, if at all. Contact companies directly and ask if they are hiring for entry-level jobs, and go ahead and submit you portfolio and resume to companies that you like, whether or not you know if they have an open position. They’ll pull your portfolio out of the file* when they decide they need a new employee.

I found out about the opening at Turbine from a former classmate who was working here. He sent me an e-mail to say that if I was still looking for a job, one was available. After that tip I applied for the job like any old applicant.

Oh, something else you can do is look at companies that have just launched games or are just about to. There’s a lot of churn during such times. Many employees leave (either they get laid off or go seeking their fortunes elsewhere), and if the company is doing well, new employees are hired to replace them or to grow the company. If a company is looking for three or more experienced people at once, they are probably staffing up for a new project, and are probably also toying with the idea of taking on a novice or two as a long-term investment. If it’s a really new company, they may hire lots of novices out of desperation. (Which is risky for a company. It takes a long time to train a novice up to the point of being a productive employee, even if he starts out as really good artist.)


*or cardboard box. Artists aren’t the best file-keepers.

[g4mer]

nice training u haw ther, i rely greathfull theat ther is ppl how offers they time to tell somthin useful.
I alway wanted to be game deziner, but i think i dont haw talent for it so my dream is still a dream....

[Seedling]

nice training u haw ther, i rely greathfull theat ther is ppl how offers they time to tell somthin useful.
I alway wanted to be game deziner, but i think i dont haw talent for it so my dream is still a dream....

Glad to be of service.

There is no such thing as talent. What others see as talent is actually the results of hard work and passion. You can be a game designer if you want to. If it does interest you, I suggest starting with your writing skills, because designers need to be able to communicate clearly through writing. Take every e-mail and every post as an opportunity to practice good spelling and grammar habits.

[Beonarri]

Here's a little tip on learning how to write better. Read! Read books, articles or websites, whatever you preference, that way you can see how skilled writers structure their words into effective communications. It's like looking at other artists to figure out how they did something, then reverse engineering it to suit your purposes. You don't have to analyze every word and punctuation, but when you read you're giving the parts of your brain associated with the forming of words exercise. The more you exercise them, the better they'll be when you have to write something up, whether it be forum posts, emails, instructions or descriptions.

PS
Thanks for the thread Seedling (and those who contributed), it's a great read and a great resource!

[Lecnac]

Thanks for the reply. It was a bit too late for my class, but that's ok, still did fine =)

This thread has really been a big help. Thank you.

[Seedling]

Hey hey, this mess now has a Table of Contents! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1015221&postcount=1) I hope it helps. . .

[Ungenius]

Hey Seedling, thanks for noticing me that this thread exists. It is really a big help! To start on your own is pretty hard, especially because it's overwhelming and you don't know where to start. This thread is really going to help me with that. Thanks so much!

Also the advice you, Wanwan and Darkwolfb87 gave on the first page is definitely something I'm going to listen to. Especially because my health gets in the way too often. I'm not going to say that I will change my lifestyle tomorrow, because that is never going to work. I'll start doing that now!

Thanks

[Seedling]

Glad to be of service, Un. :-)

[Seedling]

Cmoreland brought this link to my attention:

http://www.zayatz.com/text/Games_v_film.htm

It’s an artist’s comparison of the games and movie industries.

[drummingpariah]

Hiya guys and gals. I was putting together my digital library the other day, and the material here was something I really wanted to have available to me, whether I'm online or not. Since there wasn't a book of Concept Art 101...

I made one! Thanks to Seedling for all the wonderful work that's gone into this thread. I'm hoping to be able to keep up, and get the formatting into a style that I like, but for now it is what it is. The pages don't line up, but the info's the same. If anybody has some exercise examples they'd like to have in this, I'll include them. I may make two separate documents to keep the filesize down, as well.

Shoot me a PM with your email address if you'd like a copy. Once I have hosting, I'll make it known and it'll be downloadable.

[Beonarri]

Interesting read.
Thanks for the link!

[Oscare]

Hi, i'm not sure if you got this or not, but i was wondering....do you need a degree to become a concept artist? I'm going to Art Center in Pasadena right now, and i'm thinking of just ditching the non-art classes like Intro to Modernism and so forth and just taking the art classes. What do you think?

[Seedling]

Hi, i'm not sure if you got this or not, but i was wondering....do you need a degree to become a concept artist? I'm going to Art Center in Pasadena right now, and i'm thinking of just ditching the non-art classes like Intro to Modernism and so forth and just taking the art classes. What do you think?

I'm pretty sure this is already covered somewhere in this thread, but to answer your question, no, a degree is not necessary. However, an education is necessary, and a degree is frequently a byproduct of getting an education.

[Whren]

Just going to chime in here and say thank you Seedling for this thread -- not just for the art assignments, which look way fun (and definitely very interesting!), but also for the information about the industry, and most importantly the confidence and direction I got from reading this at 3 in the morning.

Mainly I haven't been sure what to do, even after changing my major to Illustration, because it's kind of a broad major that you can apply to so many other things. Thank you for giving me (us) an insight into the industry, because so far all I've been doing is muddling about, and being unsure. :) I owe all the people who have given their input on the industry here, this has really helped me make up my mind and focus. It's like I finally got a flag in my face that said, "the game industry isn't as scary and impenetrable as you thought it would be, now get off your behind and do what you have to do".

[Farvus]

I haven't been here for long time. Just wanted to share some link to website I found recently.

http://www.realityfactory.info

I think it might be good thing for trying out some game design. It's all free, doesn't need programming skills and is well documented.

[magnut]

Oscare,

No, you do not need a degree to become a concept artist. It is the great quality of your work that will speak for itself, no matter what your resume says, or even if you have a resume to show.

However, when you're out there looking for work, BEFORE you are able to impress a Creative Director to hire you based upon your fine quality work, you must first impress the Human Resources person. This person is usually ignorant of what truly goes on in various art departments, and usually does not communicate well (or at all) with the ones actually hiring artists.

These very ignorant HR people react to degrees on your resume. That is what will likely make them forward your work onto the actual person in charge of hiring you. Don't believe me? That's fine, but I suggest you check about every VG website, where you will not see contact information for the Creative Director who would hire you. You won't even see a phone number for the company, or any information as to where the company is located. You will only see an email address going to "[email protected]", or some such thing.

Those emails go directly to the Human Resources person. Everything is arranged to shelter the persons actually hiring artists from the actual artists looking to be hired.

I am a storyboard artist for animation & live action films & tv. I have illustrated comic books for a living. I design toys. I am also a concept artist for video games & animation, among other things. I have done this now for many years. I did all this without the benefit of going to school for this.

I wish to hell that I got the schooling you're getting right now. I have taken the absolute most difficult route to making a living doing what I'm doing, and it's still a monumental goddamned struggle to even find work sometimes.

So now that I'm *** old, I wish I had the discipline to go learn all the much-needed programs (Illustrator, Zbrush, After Effects, etc.) that one must learn to be more valuable to clients. I'm trying to learn them now, but I am convinced that it would be an easier process had I gone to college or art school, which I'm sure would have better prepared me step up and learn things now.

This is one of those times that older guys like me talk down to younger guys like you to say that you really should stay where you are, and take all those non-art classes. The Modernism classes (and the others) are there to give you a broad outlook on the art world. It's there to help you understand how best to apply your skills across the board.

If you have solid art skills, it's most likely that you will have many different kinds of jobs in your life. If you're not prepared for that, then you'll have to learn (from scratch) many various levels of context for whatever kind of job you're to do. These classes are what will help you better prepare for this.

It's nice that you have great art skills, but if you really don't have the business brain to back it up, then what good is it?

Either you accept this premise or not. I can only speak from my experience. From my perspective, this is what I feel.

Good luck...

[Seedling]

There's a discussion on game character polygon limits going on here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1384425&posted=1#post1384425

[toscapaul]

...priceless info in this thread....

Hats off to you, Seedling!

[Seedling]

.Hats off to you, Seedling!

Watch out: people tent do put coins in the upturned hats of artists. ;-) Pesky coins!

[llothcat]

may as well use blender for that matter...game engine is built in. Python code for it is not that hard. You can make a VERY basic game in about 5 minutes.

[Oglemeanimations]

Hi seedling(and everyone else for that matter)!

I haven't spent much time on CA for a long, long while (I'm a polycounter), and low and behold I find this thread. I'm in a precarious situation that I'm not sure has been brought up yet, though there are a lot of pages to read, so here goes. I am a mildly experienced environment artist, I have worked for 2 companies that unfortunately went downhill quickly, the first one shut down unexpectedly without paying us, the second outsourced my job to Korea.

Since the time of my lay-off in december of 06, I haven't been able to get another job, I have been working on my portfolio, but since I have not been able to get a job, there must be something wrong with it. I hate to ask here, but it seems the most appropriate place with the concentration of game artists and aspiring artists, to get portfolio crits.
My portfolio is here::http://www.buildtheworld.net

I think it's really great what you're doing here, and giving back is something that I want to do as well when I'm at a place to give advice. I went to a two-year art school, though I came in with a background as a painter and the school did have a good concentration on traditional arts, I still came out very unprepared to enter the game industry. If I had known about all of the game art communities during my education, I would have been in a lot better shape.

For everyone that is just starting their education or first attempt at breaking into the game industry, really read up on all of the great advice that's being posted here. Take it from me, this is invaluable and best of all it's free! Thanks again to everyone for taking the time out to post all of the great info. :)

[Seedling]

Aww, I’m sorry to hear you were laid off, Ogle! And it seems you’ve run into an awful string of bad luck, because you know what you are doing with the low-poly work. How many places have you applied?

Some things I can think of to help bolster your portfolio:

Better lighting. The courtyard is unflattered by that flat ambient light. The desk is better, but on a dark monitor the underside gets lost in shadows. You could use a second light-source to show the shape down there better. The crypt is great all around.

More samples of 3D work, if possible. If you have what you need to make more samples, keep adding to the portfolio. Use each new addition as a way to demonstrate new subjects or materials or styles. I’ll probably never say this to anyone again, but try working with a higher poly-count. :-) You have demonstrated that you can work well with a bare minimum, so cut loose and show what you can do with more.

I suggest taking out the section with your 2D art, because it’s well below the standard of your texture work, and as such will only work against you.


Aside from that, hang in there and keep applying for jobs. You have industry experience already, which should totally be in your favor.

You should send Turbine a resume – I think we’re hiring. :-) Also, if you haven’t been given access to the CA ladies’ forum, you can PM a moderator for access.

Good luck!