Pros: How did you get to where you are?

[Xoliul]

Originally Posted by Talon

Working on mods was what really set things going for me. Having to work in a team and get things into an engine really makes you learn fast and properly. It also lets you become a bit of a game development polymath and I think that helps a lot - you have to do a lot of your own R&D and study the game's content to see why and how things work.

I agree, that's also what really got me going in the very beginning. Not in a team, but I made cars for some racing games (including GTA:SA). Started off converting other people's models, which I started to edit more and more until I modelled my first own car, which turned out really decent because of all the studying of content I had done before.

[Cryrid]

I'm curious if education and courses played a big role in your development, or were you mostly self-taught through years of using the various tools and learning the ropes in using them.

I had never really touched 3D prior to my education, so school gave me a LOT. That said, there's still quite a bit to learn from teaching yourself. There's a great deal of knowledge one can acquire from forums such as this.

I'm curious of there are some aspects of your skills and knowledge that would not come so easy learning on your own, and the classroom or tutorial experience was a big boost.

For me it was rigging and animating, especially with constraints, expressions & linked parameters, f-curves, enveloping/weighting, particles and simulation, etc (basically all the technical stuff).

Also did you find that free or reasonably priced tutorials and guides made a big difference in your development.

Indeed. School will only take you so far - from my experience the students that go home and continue to work on what they learned while gathering more external knowledge are the ones that go the furthest (the fastest).

[Dennispls]

I started out on my own.
Just looked up some tutorials and just practiced a lot.
Then via via i got to learn of a position as a tester here at Guerrilla Games.
I applied and got hired and that's where i started networking a bit and show the right people what ive made.
Then after a while i applied internally as an artist and got hired after doing an art test.
And i am still here recently promoted to regular artist.

[d3cl4n]

Thanks for sharing Reverenddevil, it was a good read.
Do you mind me asking what company do you work for?

[Craig Lewis]

Originally Posted by d3cl4n

Thanks to you both!

Craig:


Does this mean that you learnt most of the things you knew then on your own? But found that the degree got you hired?

Also, following on from my question to Talon. Has anybody studies games design through to a university level or did you find that college and independent learning was enough. I ask this because I'm currently toying with the idea of university to better my chances/skills if needed.

Once again, thanks .

EDIT: I'm from the UK. College = 16-18, University = 18+.

I'm also from the uk so yeah, I only went to college, so I don't have a degree, only a BTEC National, whatever that's worth. But I got a job before getting my qualifications, so it was primarily down to my work, and also past experience that helped me get a job.

With college, I found that they introduced me to a lot of new things, and new software, etc. however, it was all taught at a basic level, so I would then develop my skills further at home. The reason I don't think I'd have got a job so quickly if I hadn't been to college, is firstly because I got a work placement whilst at college, so that gave me a bit of industry experience. Secondly, the encouragement my tutors gave me, gave me confidence in my work and that I could get a job.

Personally, college and independent learning were enough for me. I did look around at several uni's, but a lot of them said I didn't necessarily need to go onto further education. However, I wouldn't automatically dismiss going to uni. See how it goes after you've tried college (if you go to college).

[germball]

I didn't even start out in games. There were no such courses around.
I started as a traditional illustrator and designer. For me its the basic art foundation skills that should be the main starting point and be the backbone of your knowledge. Of course 2D/3D software is important, and goes without sayting, but learning this is actually very easy. Even if you started at a studio not knowing their particular tools of choice, they can train you very quickly, but they can't replace the main art skills. Drawing, observation, colour theory, design, lighting, composition. These are the skills I fall back on more than any feature from a software package.

[Ghostscape]

I wrote this on another forum a while back:

I always wanted to make games when I was little. I spent middle school and high school making Warcraft 2 maps, Red Alert Maps, got about halfway through making a Red Alert total graphical conversion using childrens toys instead of CC units, made some terrible Jedi Knight and Half Life skins which appeared on fileplanet 3 years after I made them and released them on my clan's fortunecities page and were only removed somewhat recently (I just tried to find them). I went to college for New Media Publishing, which I was promised would teach me design fundamentals and how to make cool flash stuff and websites and games. It was basically sold to me as "Do Stuff With Computers" and was expanding upon all the stuff I had done in highschool.

Two years into my degree I wasn't liking it at all. It was quickly shifting to "learn PHP and how to print on non-desktop printers," and I was not happy. I had already been playing a lot with Photoshop and 3ds Max 4.0, first by making a LOT of shitty Trendwhore Deviantart wallpapers and a couple of really shitty, untextured spaceships and tanks for two games I was making with one of my programmer friends. I was not doing well in school because I wasn't liking my classes and made the decision to switch majors into a multidisciplinary studies, combining my existing New Media coursework and a business management track. I figured I would just teach myself the rest of the game art stuff since I had already taught myself so much. For the record the shit I was making at that time was absolutely horrid and only my mom or a drunk would have looked at it and said "this boy will teach himself how to make art for video games."

I start hanging out a lot in my school's Entertainment Technlogy (video game) lab a lot, as they have 3d studio max and bitchin' fast computers. I meet some guys who are making a game for a class and I volunteer to make them a bunch of art for their game. 10 weeks later my grades are suffering because I was neglecting classes in favor of making them cool shit (A TREND THAT CONTINUES, compounding with Mono in my first year and my major switch to lead me to spend 5 years working on my BA). I so impressed their teacher, a friend of mine thatI was introduced to by my previous game-making friend. This professor, Andy Phelps, had convinced the school to pony up some cash for some co-ops for two students to make a video game to be used to demonstrate the talent of the students and therefore be used as marketing material to get students to come to the school to learn how to make games. Additionally they had an unpaid co-op position available.

I got none of those! But instead, Andy was my faculty advisor for my independent study (9 credits worth, and the most difficult 9 credits I ever earned in college) helping them by making all the art. He told us to make a top down shooter and gave us two pieces of concept art, a sort of greek-techno fusion building (a couple of columns and some generic techy stuff) and a side view of a space ship with bird wings.

10 weeks of 40-50 hours each, and 6 credits of withdrawing from my other classes later, we had the first level of Wings of Megaira finished. another 10 weeks later, and we had a second level, but no sounds because our sound guy turned out to have stolen everything from command and conquer and starcraft, thus leaving us soundless right before our Independent Games Festival submission deadline. Turns out Sound is 25% of how they score you

I let the domain lapse a while back but you can still get it from my site Ghostscape 3.0 - The Portfolio of Michael Patrick Clark, Game Artist or the original site at http://www.rit.edu/~awc9551/megaira.html


Anyhow, I procede to make a bunch of other student games while attending school, none of which play very well or are worth posting. If you want to see art from some of them, check out Ghostscape 2.0

Last March(2006) after not getting much interest in my portfolio at GDC, I got serious about making working on my portfolio a full time job while finishing up school and putting in 24 hours a week at my part time job. It resulted in the portfolio I have at Ghostscape 3.0 - The Portfolio of Michael Patrick Clark, Game Artist , and the images therein I think I've plastered enough over the forums. Anyhow, that portfolio drew serious interest from a number of companies at GDC, and I wound up going to work for Volition as a Weapons/Props Artist, working on my first commercial game, and it's going to be a wicked awesome game to boot.

[shadow1013]

I graduated from and work at Full Sail in Computer Animation Degree Program and the Game Art Degree Program. In both programs we teach Unreal Editor. Hopefully soon we will be looking to add the Crytek Engine to the program as well, but no word as to when or if.

[wolfsage]

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, it all depends on the individual and what you want to archive. How motivated are you? Can you work at home on your own with just a computer screen to interact with or would you prefer to be in a buzzing environment with many other like minded people who you can also go for a drink with at the end of the day?

For me Uni helped a lot, although as many others have said I learnt little of my actual 3D skills at Uni. I did give me focus, a lot of support and encouragement, the opportunity to refine my ideas and overall artistic skills. Personal tuition, The opportunity to attend life drawing, (which I think is invaluable for serious artists) and a chance to grow as a person, if you've just finished school Uni or collage is a good place to find your feet and develop the independence, social skills and application needed to get by in the real world.

From my experience the students who do best are the ones who don’t turn up at Uni expecting to be giving a “how to” guide and all the knowledge they need to get a job. That just ain’t gonna happen and it’s not what Uni is about. University is a place for supported, independent academic growth. Which means if you wanna do well, you need to learn to think, put in some effort and learn from other sources like online forums such as this.

For a “how to” guide I suggest you spend several thousands and go to some where like Escape studios in London, but I for one could not afford that.

[Matt_Jones]

I came out of Uni with a first class degree in special effects, but that didn't result in a job straight away or even give me any games industry skills that I couldn't have learnt for myself. The best thing I got from Uni was professional practice. I became more mature and organised through the whole experience and for that I would recommend university to everyone.

Whilst I was there I was introduced the 3dsmax and photoshop, the tutor wasn't great to say the least, so I bought books and completed online tutorials and such until it eventually clicked and I could model pretty much anything.

Once I left uni I applied for a few junior artist positions but never had enough work to show in a portfolio and didn't make any interviews. The degree helped make my CV look good but if you want an art position it really all comes down to artistic technical ability and this is proven through a great port folio. The main reason my folio was lacking was that every piece of work I did was better than the last and I would only ever want to show my best work!

Eventually I applied for a QA position at Codemasters and landed a temp job there. Whilst there I hasseled as many of the artists as I could to help me build a folio that would get people interested in me. I received loads of good tips about what to put in my folio and by just sending my work for crit through these really friendly and helpful people I got offered a place on an internal art training course for 10 weeks.

This course was fantastic and taught me everything I needed to know about producing game art assets and got me noticed. In the mean time, I was offered a trial in design and then landed a position as a track designer once I successfully completed it. However once I finished that 1st project I applied for a transfer to the vehicle art team (armed with a decent folio this time) where my passion was. I got the job passing my probation with flying colours, and have now worked on 4 different games and been promoted to Experienced Artist.

So that's how I did it in a nut shell - started in QA, worked my ass off in my spare time, spoke to as many professional artists as I could and made myself heard. Hope that's useful to someone! Oh and it doesn't stop once you get the job!