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Got a phone interview with Playground Games for the level designer position, wish me luck! The advice on my portfolio in the last thread really helped, thanks guys.
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Jun 14, 2011 14:15
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Monster w21 Faces posted:What about faces though? I mean if you were to use a standard body mesh how would you save memory and yet have varied heads? I thought you were talking about the rigid animation of quake, sorry  Head swaps are common, although a lot of games will have one common head that has a bunch of morph targets and different normal/texture maps to effectively make it different heads (with the same topology). This lets you use one set of morph target data to animate all the faces in the game, rather than creating a full set of morph targets per head. Other games will use a bone-based facial rig instead, or custom morph targets per character.
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Jun 14, 2011 14:20
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FreakyZoid posted:Exactly. I could never wear those to work - something about wearing the same t-shirt as 20 other people in the room makes me feel a little too "fast food worker". I'm sort of the same way, which is why I use my companies game's tshirts (the ones they sell to the public) instead of the company ones. It achieves the same promotion of your employer/product, except the shirts they sell to the public look way cooler and you can wear them anywhere you would a tshirt without it being weird at all.
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Jun 14, 2011 14:44
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Graduation is in exactly a month. Classes end this week. I'm so fuckin' nervous/anxious, I need a job pretty much ASAP. The hunt starts now. Speaking of, anybody know of any studios looking for a 3d artist? 
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Jun 14, 2011 14:47
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Hey now, my Lady Gaga / Farmville shirt garners tons of compliments! The ones you have to watch out for are the black shirt with blue/purple/red logo or a full back graphic. Down that road lies sadness. edit: vvvvvvvvv NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! devilmouse fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jun 14, 2011 |
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Jun 14, 2011 14:52
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devilmouse posted:The ones you have to watch out for are the black shirt with blue/purple/red logo or a full back graphic. Down that road lies sadness. 
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Jun 14, 2011 14:56
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devilmouse posted:The ones you have to watch out for are the black shirt with blue/purple/red logo or a full back graphic. Down that road lies sadness. I like my "Tak <lightning bolt>" shirt, which was designed by an artist based entirely on an internal joke. It looks like a metal band shirt, it's awesome. EDIT: VV That isn't really weird, that's them trying to get you out the door because of aforementioned crazies policy, and having an existing pipeline focused on resumes not coming in in hard-copy form. It's much easier to work with if it's a digital copy. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Jun 14, 2011 |
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Jun 14, 2011 15:10
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Alterian posted:A lot of studios won't let random people in because of the crazies. Whenever we have anyone stop by, our secretary refers them to the website and sends them on their way. When I was handing out applications in Fukuoka, I went to Level 5 personally. After ringing the lobby phone, I gave the person that came my application. He got two or three more people, went into the office and he came back, telling me to send it in per mail. To the exact same address. Weird.
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Jun 14, 2011 15:10
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Shalinor posted:EDIT: VV That isn't really weird, that's them trying to get you out the door because of aforementioned crazies policy, and having an existing pipeline focused on resumes not coming in in hard-copy form. It's much easier to work with if it's a digital copy. That's the weird part, they asked him to send the hard copy in by mail instead of just taking the hard copy he had just given them. I'm sure the reasoning was the same, though, but it's still kinda funny. It was probably HR being nitpicky.
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Jun 14, 2011 17:31
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mutata posted:That's the weird part, they asked him to send the hard copy in by mail instead of just taking the hard copy he had just given them. I'm sure the reasoning was the same, though, but it's still kinda funny. Yeah, some weird bureaucratic guidelines were in play there. If they had written on their website they'd prefer online applications, I would've sent it that way. Online applications I've found in Japan are mostly forms without any way to attach a portfolio. Companies guilty of that are Nintendo, Konami and Namco Tales Studio, even though the last one also accepted a hard copy sent in. Keiji Inafune's new studios accept online and physical applications, but you have to ask for the information first. Now I'm waiting for a response from a company in Osaka that requested some additional material. A design document for at least 1 minigame for use in an action game, and a little essay why I chose that company.
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Jun 14, 2011 18:12
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I remember several years ago at EA, I went downstairs to talk to the receptionist. But she couldn't chat because she was on the phone with some guy who had bought the Sims used, and was furious that the CD key was either used or not in the box (can't recall). He'd just looked up EA in the phonebook or something and called our receptionist (EA Sports != Maxis). It was so surreal. Apparently he threatened to call the cops on us.
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Jun 14, 2011 19:09
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Chasiubao posted:I remember several years ago at EA, I went downstairs to talk to the receptionist. But she couldn't chat because she was on the phone with some guy who had bought the Sims used, and was furious that the CD key was either used or not in the box (can't recall). He'd just looked up EA in the phonebook or something and called our receptionist (EA Sports != Maxis). It was so surreal. Apparently he threatened to call the cops on us. I banned some guy for using a map hack in AOE3, and like a month later he shows up at our office in Plano, TX having driven from Ft. Lauderdale. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans and with his duty belt on, including gun. The man was a police officer from Florida, and "just wanted to talk to the guy who banned" him. He also said he wasn't crazy! He wasn't allowed in and eventually left after talking with one of our management.
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Jun 14, 2011 19:38
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dunkman posted:I banned some guy for using a map hack in AOE3, and like a month later he shows up at our office in Plano, TX having driven from Ft. Lauderdale. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans and with his duty belt on, including gun. The man was a police officer from Florida, and "just wanted to talk to the guy who banned" him. He also said he wasn't crazy! He wasn't allowed in and eventually left after talking with one of our management. I'm pretty sure that's one of the textbook definitions of crazy  In other news aside from actually packing and driving south I think I'm all set to head out to Austin. Gave my two-weeks notice today, brushing up on 3DS Max (I work primarily with Maya) and buying shorts...lots of shorts...
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Jun 14, 2011 20:13
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I have a phone interview for Associate Producer at Playground Games on Friday. Fingers crossed!
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Jun 14, 2011 22:02
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Andio posted:I have a phone interview for Associate Producer at Playground Games on Friday. Fingers crossed! honeymustard posted:Got a phone interview with Playground Games for the level designer position, wish me luck! The advice on my portfolio in the last thread really helped, thanks guys. Meanwhile I'm paying £75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow. Best of luck to all of us then 
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Jun 14, 2011 23:03
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Aliginge posted:Meanwhile I'm paying £75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow. I think you may have skipped the phone interview process and gone straight to a face-to-face interview. Good luck!
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Jun 14, 2011 23:07
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Aliginge posted:Meanwhile I'm paying £75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow. And good luck!
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Jun 14, 2011 23:27
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Ohshi- Interviews are going this week? I hope my agent busts rear end to get this.
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Jun 14, 2011 23:30
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Aliginge posted:Meanwhile I'm paying £75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow. Good luck dude!
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Jun 15, 2011 09:13
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After so many years of just passing them around in email when people ask or when I come across interesting ones, I've started to formally build up an archive of interesting / well-reasoned academic papers on game design with useful lessons (not just swilly "Hey, look games are interesting and I have written a paper on them!" trash, either.) from a variety of disciplines. I like sending them around to spark discussions or as interesting weekend reading material. Does anyone do anything similar or have a cache of good papers to share (or just links to them)? I'll probably dump them all in a wiki or something when I've got critical mass.
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Jun 15, 2011 14:07
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What sort of skills are companies looking for in a producer? A lot of the applications I've applied to just list things like "experience with agile development, ability to meet goals, be able to multitask, good communication skills, etc." Aside from the bit about agile development, I'm not sure on how to show in my resume and cover letter that I have these sorts of skills.
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Jun 15, 2011 16:36
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Space Opera posted:What sort of skills are companies looking for in a producer? A lot of the applications I've applied to just list things like "experience with agile development, ability to meet goals, be able to multitask, good communication skills, etc." Aside from the bit about agile development, I'm not sure on how to show in my resume and cover letter that I have these sorts of skills. Shipped titles, I reckon.
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Jun 15, 2011 16:43
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A lead producer was recounting an interview with the production assistant he ended up hiring. The PA had been in the military previously, primarily with logistics and procurement, telling one story where he had to move an entire base hundreds of miles in a short timeframe. This impressed the hell out of the lead, not just with the subject matter but with the delivery as well - calm, confident, and charismatic. Any time you're responsible for the management and completion of a complex project, you're essentially a producer. If you don't have industry-specific experience there, you might be able to relate with any crazy stuff you've done outside. Of course, depending on the size and atmosphere of the team, you'll need to demonstrate a grasp on videogame production workflows and processes, either in your resume/cover letter or during the interview.
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Jun 15, 2011 17:17
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I'm thinking about working for awhile and try to apply for game programming/coding positions to see if its my thing. I'll be working on a portfolio before I apply anywhere, but I'm wondering what kind of questions will be asked. This is where I'm at right now: * I don't know all of my data structures other than the simple ones, like linked lists/trees/etc, though I could brush up on them relatively quickly. Not to say I'm bad at pointers or anything. * I'm pretty ingrained on C, understand C++ pretty well on the compiled level though not too experienced in the OO aspect of C++ yet (though I've professionally worked in Java for 2 years). * I understand processor architecture well enough and find it interesting. Would like to look into GPU hardware some time. I've written a toy C compiler (does basic optimizations, nothing too special) in a graduate class and worked on some language research. * Have a good understanding on basic 3D math like vectors, dot/cross products. I would like to make my trig better as all I know is SOH/CAH/TOA and how it relates to right triangles. I should brush up on my calculus as well. * Gotten into OpenGL/3D graphics at the beginning of the year through a grad class; learned and wrote a third person game/experiment/engine with a deferred rendering pipeline and was pretty happy about it, even though it was organized horribly. Then again, what first-time game/engine/thingy isn't? It was also my first real foray into C++ but I understood it a lot better afterwards. It also cemented 3D concepts and enabled me to write/understand a per-pixel lighting shader. Was writing in support for transparency (kind of worked, came out real transparent and hard to see) and wanted to implement Shalinor's ambient occlusion method she wrote about awhile back, but ran out of time. All in all it was a real fun experience and I'm trying to find the time to work on all that stuff some more. I feel comfortable enough in being real low-level and my C prowess, but I should work on my C++, math and some DirectX. I'm a fast learner when applying any knowledge, so I got that going for me too but not really sure how that would be expressible in a resume/portfolio. Any suggestions? Probable interview questions/what people would expect? EDIT: I'll try and participate in this year's GameDev thing, hopefully time will permit me to work on it some. ShinAli fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Jun 15, 2011 |
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Jun 15, 2011 17:57
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Good grief, it's been a roller coaster of emotion with New York City's game industry this week. First THQ fold Kaos, then Avalanche Studios springs up, and now Powerhead has laid off it's employees and is closing down on Friday.
Note Block fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Jun 15, 2011 |
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Jun 15, 2011 22:28
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Aliginge posted:Meanwhile I'm paying £75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow. Aaaand it went pretty good! Got on well with the artist guys who interviewed me, they critiqued the gently caress out of my art test which was definitely enlightening and showed me a lot of my own weaknesses to work on and especially my tendancy to stylise and exaggerate colour rather than drawing it back and aiming towards photoreal. Guilty as charged, I ain't gonna bullshit them.  Next couple of days I should have a yes/no. Now if you'll excuse me, I've some Max to study c:
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Jun 16, 2011 00:03
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Aliginge posted:especially my tendancy to stylise and exaggerate colour rather than drawing it back and aiming towards photoreal. Guilty as charged, I ain't gonna bullshit them. Every good style has its niche, but I love that you're sticking to your guns on this. We need more artists to be bold in their work.
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Jun 16, 2011 00:06
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isk posted:Every good style has its niche, but I love that you're sticking to your guns on this. We need more artists to be bold in their work. That's not the way to get hired as a production artist... Not being able to walk into a new company and adapt to whatever their art style is akin to a programmer saying, "I refuse to use your coding standards/style." or worse, "I refuse to learn this internal language you use."
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Jun 16, 2011 00:49
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I like to treat it as a game: how can I work my own style into whatever the project is? I'll make your photoreal building, but it's gonna have goofy cartoon grafitti or something!
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Jun 16, 2011 00:57
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isk posted:Every good style has its niche, but I love that you're sticking to your guns on this. We need more artists to be bold in their work. Well as a general art thing I like to do, colour and light is something I love being bold with rather than ambiguous and subtle, but they have it dead on when they say it doesn't look photoreal and doesn't meet the brief. Brief comes first in the end.
GeeCee fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Jun 16, 2011 |
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Jun 16, 2011 01:27
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Aliginge posted:Well as a general art thing I like to do, colour and light is something I love being bold with rather than ambiguous and subtle, but they have it dead on when they say it doesn't look photoreal and doesn't meet the brief. Brief comes first in the end. There is sticking to your guns artistically, but there is also understanding that if you're an artist making characters for a gritty space marine shooter drama, and you are tasked with making Gritter Shooter Man Dramatic Dude, that it really needs to be gritty space marine drama-esque and fit the style defined by the director - instead of making a pony that shoots rainbows out of its rear end. ... or you could go work for THQ, where you can stick to the style AND make a pony that shoots rainbows out of its rear end. That works too.
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Jun 16, 2011 01:36
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devilmouse posted:That's not the way to get hired as a production artist... Not being able to walk into a new company and adapt to whatever their art style is akin to a programmer saying, "I refuse to use your coding standards/style." or worse, "I refuse to learn this internal language you use." Yeah, I may have been unclear because I agree with you, 100%. It's a reason why so many portfolios fail; they've got the ultra-detailed heroes and demons, but there's not a wooden chair or rusty trashcan in sight. No, my point was that so much art in games now is bland and uninspired. That's a crime and a cop-out especially considering the available tech and the amount of talent available. Congruency with the art direction is vital, but so is maintaining and keeping relevant one's own art style so that if you do go on to that position of lead character/environment artist, you're able to guide the team into delivering assets that pop (either quietly or loudly, as needed) while remaining plausible and homogenous within the game.
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Jun 16, 2011 01:45
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Got an email today from Raven about a design internship they want me to interview for! Hooray!
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Jun 16, 2011 03:11
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:Got an email today from Raven about a design internship they want me to interview for! Hooray! Awesome! Make sure you have a decent list of questions for the interviewer. I'm partially convinced that's what sealed the job I just landed. If I hadn't had anything to ask him (or very little) then the interviewwould have been about 15min long instead of ~30min of really great games conversation
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Jun 16, 2011 04:46
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Yeah, I've got my list from the Treyarch interview a month ago. Still don't know why I didn't get that 
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Jun 16, 2011 05:16
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Anyone at Cie Games down in Long Beach?
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Jun 16, 2011 06:38
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Shalinor posted:Good response. You have a blue star does that mean you can change the thread title at a whim?
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Jun 16, 2011 20:06
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Chasiubao posted:You have a blue star does that mean you can change the thread title at a whim?
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Jun 16, 2011 21:01
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Aliginge posted:Next couple of days I should have a yes/no. Now if you'll excuse me, I've some Max to study c: They emailed back today, no dice for me I'm afraid.  gently caress it, I'm gonna ditch a lot of my folio content and focus on finished environments and props. Hope you guys have better luck than I do
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Jun 16, 2011 23:09
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Man that blows, I'd have figured they'd take you on. As for me I pretty much got told my application went in the bin, I suppose it makes sense considering none of my portfolio has anything to do with racing games.
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Jun 16, 2011 23:28
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