I need advice!

[PaulG21]

Hi everyone, i really want to get a job in the computer games industry but don't know how to go about it. should i try and specialise in one particular area (eg character modeller) or should i show taht i am competent in all aspects (eg lighting, rigging, textures etc). can anyone tell me what the role of a junior artist involves, i know its at the bottom of the ladder but thats where i want to start. any advice or personnal experience will be much appreciated! thanks.

[kuman]

well everyone mostly starts out as a junior artist i think so that's a good place to get experience.

as for your question, in my experience, you'll find that you'll naturally be better at some things than others. i think naturally you'll find that you'll gravitate toward one aspect of 3d, however i think that in the industry the more well versed in all topics, the more employable you are. after all when crunch time rolls around, which is always will, everyone has to chip in to get the job done and its all those times when its valuable to have an artist that can do many aspects well.

as for what a junior artist does, well that really depends on the company and the projects. however as a junior artist i'd say you can expect to get the worst jobs that no one else wants to do. probably a lot of cleanup stuff and some of the more tedious jobs, but everyone pays their dues so to speak.

good luck
-k

[PaulG21]

cheers for the advice kuman, it was really informative. one other thing though, do you have to be absolutely brilliant and know all there is to know about 3ds max, maya etc or will an average understanding do. i'm only asking coz i want to know how good the stuff on my demo reel has to be. i know it will have to be my best but i don't think my best is quite good enough yet.

p.s thanks for the info on target welding, totally solved my problem. cheers.

[dhin]

My advice is dig in for the long hawl. It take a lot of really imperssive skills to get into game modeling, and there are a lot of people who want to do it. Make a really impersive protofilio. Make sure it is your BEST work, and anything that isn't perfect don't put in. Focus it on you main area of talent. It is true that you shouldn't forget all other areas but show what you are best at. If that is character modeling then put the most focus on that. If you can't model a character but do out standing envirnments or lighting focus on that. The people who see your portfolio or Dem reel aren't going to look at potetial most of the time, they with be looking for skils. Always update your stuff too. You'll find that things you did 6 months ago aren't as good as you thought they were when you finished them, so touch them up with you skills you've been devloping. Also work on some of those Game mods that people are always making of Unreal, Doom3, Half-life, or what ever, this gets you used to the model styles and limits of different engines and it also gets you name out there for people to see and develop an interest in you. Don't let rejection get you down, I think the adverage right now is about 100 rejection before you get someone who is interested in you.

Good luck - I'm still not in the gameing industry but I did make it in to 3d modeling so I'm half way there.

[PaulG21]

cheers for advice dhin, do u think u could tell me more about these game mods. i have no idea what they r.

[dhin]

Well, I'd look at places like planetQuake or any of a thousand other fan sites for the major game engines. They generally have forums of there own, and you can learn most of the stuff you'll need to know about game mod make there. You can also find groups of other users planing mods, they generally are looking for good character modelers but really they need people who can do all kinds of things.

A couple of good site are:
Polycount this one is great for news and info as well as gerneral low poly modeling advice;
Gamasutra a good news and info site;
GameDev.net another news site and info site;
and
Leveldesigner.com Unreal mod developers page, good all you need to know place for Unreal mod making.

There are plenty of other sites out ther but this should be a good start for you.