Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

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Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Isn't the game competition being posted today?

# ¿ Jun 1, 2011 17:05

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 06:47

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

The art team I'm on hates stopping to play games. We're suppose to play our game twice a week and I can never find anyone to play with me. They're too busy working.

Our office does have our own minecraft server, but I haven't ever played on it.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2011 18:06

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

We seen to get either Pizza Hut or Carolina BBQ from a local place.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 01:45

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Vodvillain posted:

My portfolio is on my site: marcusroth(dot)net. Any constructive criticism is totally welcome.

You need to work on your normal maps. Most of them are unnecessary and I could tell you use crazybump. A lot of your normal maps are way too strong. The table and chair you did looks like a dollhouse table and chair. The head you have looks like its mushy and lumpy. Most of your characters have unnecessary normal maps.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 22:24

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

mutata posted:

Eh, UDK is too bulky for just a model viewer. Marmoset is 60 times easier and faster to use, especially out of the box.

It's true you can't beat UDK's price, though.

Its also really good to put on your resume that you know how to use UDK!

# ¿ Jun 5, 2011 13:40

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Stormin Mormon posted:

Are there any legit studios in Houston where I could try to get my foot in the door? Pi Studios is impossible to find, I have tried going to the many places they are listed on Google and I can't find them at all, and even though I have a few things under their belt, I don't think they are active anymore.

Are you trying to go to the studio?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2011 00:53

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Stormin Mormon posted:

Yes I was trying to hand deliver my resume as well as the on-line application I sent as well.

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.

This isn't the best way to do it and can hurt your chances. A lot of studios don't give out their addresses for reasons.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2011 10:53

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

FreakyZoid posted:

Better to find out where the office is, then work out where the nearby bars and places to grab lunch from are, then hang out at those places. You'll spot the game devs, they'll be wearing their industry uniform.

What? T-shirts with the name of the company and games they've worked on or from software they use? :v:

My husband and I could wear shirts we've gotten from work for an entire week and not wear a dirty shirt.

Mido posted:

On the other hand, a good friend of mine only got his gamedev job because he hounded the poo poo out of the team he wanted to work for. He called once a week, sent an email once a week, went to the address he found with some google-fu (which was wrong), more social engineering got him the actual address. Eventually he got lucky and they were a lax bunch who admired his persistence. I don't recommend this approach for everyone or every studio.

This is probably a unique case and most of the studios I'm aware of because I have friends at, this wouldn't fly.

I have a funny story to go with this actually. I worked with someone who was not a good artist at all and not a good person in general. He went down to Epic studios, rang their door and asked through the intercom to be let in cause he wanted to talk to someone about getting a job. They just told him to leave.

I know there is the stormtropper guy at epic, but he did have the talent to back it up and was pretty unique. The vast majority of the time a good way to get on a studio's poo poo list is to stop by and keep hounding them.

Alterian fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Jun 14, 2011

# ¿ Jun 14, 2011 11:45

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Do you mean like heads and arms or armor type stuff?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2011 13:48

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

concerned mom posted:

I kind of feel like that's a little harsh for a guy with literally no industry experience. You have to take a punt on people and see what you think they're capable of. I'm sure they know what they're looking for but in my opinion it's a big ask to expect finished environments from someone who hasn't worked at a studio before.

I had three complete environments when I graduated college (one being a group project for a history museum), and a wip freelance environment that was good enough to show when I was looking for jobs. I also worked my rear end off and didn't do anything else and saved up enough money and lived frugally the last quarter of classes so I could quit my lovely job. There aren't excuses. :colbert:

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 10:39

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

devilmouse posted:

Watch me potentially insult the thread's artists!

Just like I tell people who want to get into design to get a degree from a liberal arts school (albeit hopefully one in CS!) and programmers to do the same, and avoid "game degrees", in general, artists that go to traditional art schools (RISD, MICA, Pratt, etc) are far better long-term hires than people who are "game artists". The best artists I've ever worked with graduated college having barely used Photoshop and never Maya/Max. Their portfolios consist of paintings, illustration, and so on. They take way longer to ramp-up, but you can teach someone tools, but you can't teach them about light, composition, color, form, and so on. (Not to mention art school crits are more brutal than anything they'll ever face in their professional careers.)

Are you talking about hiring a 3d artist to a studio with no 3d art background?

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 11:45

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Monster w21 Faces posted:

I can't remember if I posted this or not but I would like to learn to model. Where do I begin? What programs should I be looking at?

Please approach these questions as if I were an idiot (I am).

Blender is free and a pretty good program. You should also be pretty good with photoshop. There's lots of forums and tutorials out there. BlenderCookie has some good stuff. I taught intro to 3d modeling using blender at a high school this past spring with students who weren't artistic and had never touched a 3d program before so I can recommend it.

This is the textbook I used http://www.amazon.com/Blender-Foundations-Essential-Guide-Learning/dp/0240814304/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308316411&sr=8-3

It wasn't too bad for a blender book, but if I were you, I'd mess around with tutorials and see how far that gets you. All of that is 100% free!

Edit: Beaten by my husband :saddowns:

Alterian fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jun 17, 2011

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 14:14

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Monster w21 Faces posted:

I am pretty good with photoshop and I have art and design qualifications but I was under the impression that you needed to 'sketch up' models in max or maya before you started working in blender.

If you're saying that's not the case then I'll check out that book. Cheers.

No. Blender does it all. Blender use to be kinda sucky, but the new Blender 2.5x is comparable to other 3d modeling packages. You can even do zbrush/mudbox type stuff in it.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 14:20

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Sigma-X posted:

walking around campus

I hope you didn't get your sense of color and texture from walking around!

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 20:55

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Sigma-X posted:

I don't know what you're implying I should have done instead but like I said, I don't have a college level formal art background, most of my fundamentals come from high school and from self learning.

This is why I think a college program that stresses these is valuable - I didn't have it

You went to RIT didn't you? I was just making a joke about it being "brick city"

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 22:48

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Irish Taxi Driver posted:

I honestly never heard that while going there. But the parking spaces analogy was all over the place.

I'm really excited about it! My phone interviews on Monday

That's so weird. I swear when I went we had a brick city festival. (homecoming)

# ¿ Jun 18, 2011 04:26

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Solus posted:

Alright, I know kinda know my way around blender, now I've got to figure out what to start with.

I could give you my syllabus for my intro to 3d modelling class in Blender and you can go through the projects. :v:

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 14:53

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Aliginge posted:

Calling all industry artists ITT, what should I do from here? Re-tool the folio for props/vehicles/weapons only?

Some places don't have a prop/vehicle.weapon artist. Those are taken care of by either environmental artists or character artists.

What do you mean by props? Crates and stuff or items a character would have?

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 14:59

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Aliginge posted:

As I understand it, everything that goes into an environment that isn't the environment itself. Could be anything from dumpsters and stop signs to statues, bus wrecks, gun turrets, right down to the humble wooden crate and explosive barrel.

A lot of the time that's considered Environment Artist as well.

Edit: if you go to Gamasutra and search for Prop Artist, it brings up Environment Artist jobs.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 16:21

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Solus posted:

So what types of art is there exactly.

Environment
Character
Props/weapons/viechle

I can't draw people for crap, (heads and hands heads and loving hands). While I have a loos grasp of what a weapon/prop artist does what would an environment artist do?

Why are you focusing on drawing if you are going to be a 3d artist? Yes, drawing helps, but I never have to draw my environments in a traditional sense before I work on them, I either have concept art that a concept artist made for me, or I have reference images from real work things and work off of that. Yes, being able to draw helps with having the fine motor control of your hands and making textures and sculpting, but you don't have to be a master. I even work with people that don't draw very well, just enough to get their point across.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 16:34

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

I should try to find some of my first work to post how loving lovely I was when I first started.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 17:28

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Solus posted:

Cheers mate. Didn't know that was floating around. Is it worth keeping going with Blender for game models or is it worth abusing my student priviledges and getting a free copy of 3DSmax?

Don't listen to Aliginge. Blender is fine. Once you learn one 3d package and how to model, you can jump to different packages easily. The only thing you really need to learn is a new interface. I learned on Max, but I also know Maya, and I taught myself how to use blender in about a month in my free time. The principles of modeling are the same. The benefit if Blender is it actually has some stuff that Max doesn't really have like sculpting in program and their own game engine built into the program. The other benefit is, if you get good at it and you want to make money off of what you make, you can since its free. If you use a student copy of 3ds max, you can get sued.

For your chair, did you look at a real life reference to make it or did you make it out of your head?

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 14:34

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Solus posted:

A chair thats in the garden at the famlies beach house so i was going off basic woodwork knowledge (things need supports) and memory.

I'm guessing that means you did it out of your head. You should always have a reference image in front of you, especially if you're just starting out. Hell, I never model anything without looking at reference images first. Its just like when you learn how to draw. You don't try to draw without having the object or an image in front of you.

Edit: Looking at that list just so you know 3ds max design and 3ds max are two differen't programs.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 15:24

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Solus posted:

I shall find things a bit more on hand next time.

Google Image Search is your friend!

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 15:36

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

I get the impression a lot of times the portfolio requirement is to weed out people who aren't super serious. If you are going to do an art program for games, expect to do art. I did 2 quarters of traditional art before I sat in front of a computer and the first two years of the program I did, half of the classes were non computer art classes.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 16:03

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Solus posted:

Yeah except I can't draw, which may end up being a problem when it comes down to that.

If you want to get better at drawing, then draw.
There are a lot of suceess stories at conceptart.org

Look at this person's stuff on the first page, and then jump to the last page
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120557

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 16:47

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

For art, website is the easiest way. Dvd's can get lost or misplaced. Its a lot easier for someone to bring up your website and pass it around. Just make sure to put your website on every piece of e-mail you send and on all your images on your site, put your info on them in case someone saves the images and not your site, the info is right there.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2011 14:24

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Giant Boy Detective posted:

Though a couple pages back, and addressed to Solus and not the people at large, as a 2D-trained artist who wants to get into the gaming industry but not be limited to just social gaming companies or the rare and coveted concept artist position, I would be incredibly interested in a detailed list of assignments you had your class do in order to learn Blender, Alterian. (I mainly want to see how capable I am at transferring my experience with 2D media into modeling. And even if all that I learn is modelling doesn't agree with me for whatever reason, I'll at least have a better understanding about what goes into it, so I can illustrate ideas more clearly for modelers if I do get a concept artist job.)

I'll send it to your e-mail, if you post what it is! I have to clean it up a bit to make it a little more understandable.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 15:45

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

I did base my syllabus after my husband's intro to 3d modeling syllabus so I can't take all the credit for it. :ssh:

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 16:04

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Sigma-X posted:

Ignition Games in Austin is apparently dead. Boo-urns.

Lame. I had an acquaintance there.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 17:55

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Giant Boy Detective posted:

Thanks a lot! I'm reachable at CarolinaKeet [at] gmail [dot] com.

Do you live in one of the carolinas?

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 18:46

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Sigma-X posted:

No they are barring the door and not letting my buddy into work.

There is an article up now:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35449/Ignition_Lays_Off_Console_Devs_In_Austin.php

My aquantence in QA claims he still has a job.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 22:25

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Has anyone heard of this "Game Boss" show?

It fills me with rage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb5ev2Dp4I0

# ¿ Jun 25, 2011 20:19

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

I watched the first episode on my computer while my husband and I were in our home office and he told me to never watch another one again.

It really makes you want to punch faces. Especially all the misogynists. Holy poo poo. If I had to work with people like that that had those sorts of ideas and talked about them, there would probably be a lawsuit.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2011 14:09

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Sigma-X posted:

I think ceebee would advocate for Gnomon pretty hard at this point. VFS also does a pretty good job - I think these two are the high end of "make 3d for games!" schools. Neither offers a BA to my knowledge, however.

Gnomon is pretty expensive for not getting an actual diploma. You could look for a place locally, or try to learn some on your own to decide if you really like it. Don't drop a lot of money before you know its something you want to do.

Edit: I did go to a private art school to get my education. Even though it worked out for me, it was still a decent amount of money. I'm hesitant to advocate someone else doing the same just because of how hard it is to get a job outside of school and how much money you have to pay back. I do feel like I got a good education and I don't regret it. It can just be pretty risky. A lot of university and community colleges are starting to get decent game programs now.

Alterian fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Jun 28, 2011

# ¿ Jun 28, 2011 01:20

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Nome posted:

-Be able to keep your emotions in check. Being attached to an idea is OK, but you need to be able to take rejection to the face and not throw a hissy fit.

...and not cry in a meeting when the artists tell you what you want is impossible to do with the engine you're using. :stare:

# ¿ Jun 30, 2011 19:38

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

My husband has a really awesome Ubisoft hoodie I want to steal. He says when its a cold day, everyone wears it to work almost like they have a uniform. He stole my Dexter: the game shirt. Its funny cause you can tell its a male's athletic cut t-shirt and the largest size they had was an XL. Lets just say a good majority of the team looked pretty unflattering.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2011 15:36