Take the art test! [aka some tips for game art students]

[heavyness]

...ooor join one of the many game art challenges going on right now!


MGAC 63: Utility Bot
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=650936
...and from our newly adopted forum, Game Artist.net...

Low Poly Competition *[included prizes!]
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/low-poly-competition/

Speed Modeling
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/speed-modeling/

Speed Texturing
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/speed-texturing/

[ArtsyFartsy]

it's funny but when Splash Damage started out they were just a bunch of mappers and modders. For their early projects they also collected a lot of people from the community. Now all their job openings require years of experience in the industry.

It's a good company, and QW:ET is a fantastic game. What bothers me about some of these "independent" companies though is that as soon as they get off the ground they completely turn their back on the community they merged out of, and are suddenly all 133t. Not picking on them in particular but i've seen a bunch of these prior modding teams that as soon as they fall on some cash they only look for "top talent" and refuse to help the less fortunate break into the industry.

Just felt like ranting.

[Lexalotacus]

I hear ya. Not that I know anything about them or modders but It's lame how quickly people get huge heads. It's the same with the music industry. There should always be an open door for people with talent, drive, and integrity. What a shame.

[GradiusCancer]

only look for "top talent" and refuse to help the less fortunate break into the industry.
Companies just put those requirements in there to scare off those lacking confidence. If you have the talent, it's almost never a problem.

[lowlevel21]

i hate to stray away from what the thread initially was, put yes it does seem that these companies do look for a jack of all trade, however i do understand that majority of these companies are small and look for experience over having to train someone for an entry level...i am abit upset at that, cause for every online application i fill, i see everyone looks for 3 or more years experience in the game industry, with like 3-5 AAA titles shipped, c'mon who has those kind of credential even more so who do you know invested more than 5+ yrs in the game industry and actually have a life, i.e: family, personal time, recreation time?....i'm rambling, but all in all i do understand where you guys are coming from.

[heavyness]

first off [like GradiusCancer said] they put those up there to scare people away. if you don't believe in yourself to try, why should they hire you.

and yes, when little studios do make it big, they now have to face the music and must publish games on time, or else they loose funding. so for them to ask for "top talent" is a must. most studios don't have time to hold your hand and teach you how to model something.

and yes, studios do look for students and young people more then you think. finding someone right out of school is a bonus. this means they're fresh meat, ready to work, no egos to fight with, and no bad habits yet.

[lowlevel21]

ok heavyness seeing as how you have all the answers and your an unofficial co-signer for gradius, who is the judge of this talent you speak of, you? or the aspiring artist that cross this forum?, maybe the opinions of a few or someones own personal evaluation of themself?...i like how you guys make it sound so easy, because you got your foot in the door through your so called "talent", but the reality of it all is that companies want experience and most of the up and coming artist (on this forum or otherwise) will probly never have that opportunity to work for a desired game company. They'll go to school get their degree in game-art or otherwise and come to find out its more hard to find a job now then ever in the game industry. Its nice to give false hope, but at some point we need to establish the truth about the gaming industry and the direction its taking.


Ego is probly the biggest thing you'll always come across in the gaming industry, you can't avoid it, my one advice to any aspiring artist who wants to make it in the gaming industry is always stay humble, let your work do the talking for you, and if the company doesnt take you on as a prospective employee it doesn't mean you lack "Talent", its more likely that your style of work just doesn't fit with their current direction they maybe going for as a company.

And when i say training i don't mean teaching you something you should already know(heavyness), i mean common job practices, i.e: pipe-lines, milestones, so forth...most colleges don't teach you those, i'm lucky enough that my school emphasized on that and had classes on that subject, but the unlucky ones who go to school for 4yrs and dont get the chance of having a class devoted to those aspect of the gaming indusrty.


Please don't get me wrong, i love what i do, and hell thats why i went to school to succeed at it, but i just have a few issues with the way the industry is going is all, i never want anyone to feel unsure of their abilities as an artist, i just want to enlight those with a realistic view of the industry.

[heavyness]

i'm sorry, but why are you attacking me?

i never got a job because my skills met 100% of what they are looking for on their webpage... i got my jobs because i proved myself on paper, on my demo reel, and when i interviewed. and ask anyone who has hired people, most of the time, they aren't 100% of what they were looking for.

and yes, young kids get hired all the time. Capcom hired a guy from my school when he was only in his 5th quarter. i work with 2 devs straight out of Digipen. and i worked in Baltimore with 3 other artists right out of school and we had 5 students working with us part time until they got out of school. so don't tell me young kids don't make it into the industry. and yes, some won't make it. happens in every industry.

everyone judges you, that's life. it's how you take criticism and use it to better yourself. yes, stay humble, but you also have to speak up for yourself and sell your self at times.

[ArchangelTalon]

I have to add to this that you shouldn't be looking at colleges to teach you all that stuff and I've a feeling anyone who does is probably going to do pretty badly after they graduate (and they will graduate no matter how bad they are, because universities need to meet goals). Most of the game courses - especially art and design ones, not so much on the programming side - around the place are painfully outdated and include a load of useless stuff. It's always a little sad to see the portfolio of a graduate that is 100% university coursework, thinking that the course has taught them to a professional level. That also means the student seems to take absolutely no interest in the subject outside of class - what does that say about them?

Join a mod or an indie game project. That'll teach you all of the stuff university can't; teamwork, deadlines, milestones, pipelines, engines... the works. You'll be doing it for free just because you like making games, it goes towards a final purpose and it also makes better content for your portfolio. Exactly what companies want to see. (And if you're not doing it? Someone else who's applying for the same job will be.)

I'd also like to point out that of the 5 artists where I work, 2 of us haven't graduated university yet and 3 of us are graduates right out of uni. So it's not a mythical event to have a graduate be hired.

[SenorTron]

it's funny but when Splash Damage started out they were just a bunch of mappers and modders. For their early projects they also collected a lot of people from the community. Now all their job openings require years of experience in the industry.

It's a good company, and QW:ET is a fantastic game. What bothers me about some of these "independent" companies though is that as soon as they get off the ground they completely turn their back on the community they merged out of, and are suddenly all 133t. Not picking on them in particular but i've seen a bunch of these prior modding teams that as soon as they fall on some cash they only look for "top talent" and refuse to help the less fortunate break into the industry.

Just felt like ranting.

I know of one guy who was employed by Splash Damage with no previous industry experience, I'm pretty sure it is just in there as one of the ideal attributes lists that employers love to put on job adverts.

[blenderhead]

...ooor join one of the many game art challenges going on right now!


MGAC 63: Utility Bot
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=650936
...and from our newly adopted forum, Game Artist.net...

Low Poly Competition *[included prizes!]
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/low-poly-competition/

Speed Modeling
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/speed-modeling/

Speed Texturing
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/speed-texturing/

Yeah...why try and get a job when you can try and win three books instead! ;)

[urgaffel]

I hear ya. Not that I know anything about them or modders but It's lame how quickly people get huge heads. It's the same with the music industry. There should always be an open door for people with talent, drive, and integrity. What a shame.

Yes, because the only way to get a job in the game industry is by being a lazy, no-talent backstabber? I'm sorry but if you have talent, drive and integrity, there's no way you won't get hired. You might not get hired at the first company you apply for, but I have a hard time seeing a person with those qualities not getting hired at all (assuming there's a nice personality to go with the talent). It's not all about how many games you've worked on, it's also about potential. You don't even have to know the right tools as long as whoever employs you can see that you're willing to learn and can pick things up and get up to speed quickly (for example, switching 3d packages).


Lowlevel21, I tried to watch your demoreel but it didn't start (I think your embeded url is pointing to the wrong directory). Also, your flash gallery makes it pretty hard to see any detail since the images are about the same size as the reply box here on Cgtalk. It looks like it might be good work but it's really hard to tell. Lastly I'd like you to know that I got my first job thanks to a friend letting me know they were hiring, him putting in a good word for me and me being lucky. No experience whatsoever ;P

[lowlevel21]

urgaffel- yea thanks urgaffel, i was working on my site all yesterday trying to change ALOT! of things lol, the gallery beeing one of the main things, its coming out too small to view anything, and the video is not loading up for some reason, but i'll get it done today hopefully. But to answer your other response, i totally have no problem with that, you had a cool friend who put you on with you having no experience, i wish i had a friend like that LOL, but i dont wanna come off to anyone of having sour grapes or being completely mad at the gaming industry, my only gripe is i've seen companies pass up great! talent all because they needed someone with (X) amount of years in the game industry, and i just think that sucks is all. But i truely see where you guys are coming from.


no hard feelings heavyness, wasn't attacking you at all, i may have just been venting is all man lol!

[PredatorGSR]

Don't fall into the trap of blaming the game industry for the way it works. It works that way because it has to. The reason someone didn't get hired most of the time is simply because their work isn't good enough. People try to justify why they didn't get a job by blaming the experience requirements (I did too right after I graduated), but you have to get rid of your ego and realize you aren't good enough and need to keep improving. It was mentioned that professionals have big heads, but I think it might be the other way around. Many students have an unrealistic view of their own work and think they deserve a job just because they got a degree.

Your work needs to be professional quality in order to get a job, whether you are a professional or not, and you have to keep applying until you happen to apply at the same time as a company is trying to fill openings. I didn't get a job until about a year after graduation. During that year, I was constantly improving my demo reel and working with 2 mod groups to get real world experience. Then, after a year of applying to every opening I could find, I applied to a company who was ramping up for a project and trying to fill 7 environment artist openings and I got the job.

After a few months, 2 of those 7 were let go because they weren't cutting it. So there is a risk in hiring new people with no experience because you don't know how they'll handle being in a production environment.

You have to realize that the reason most professionals are saying the same thing is because we were all in the same situation, and we kept going until we got in. There isn't any secret, you just have to work hard enough until you get the chance to prove yourself.

Sometimes companies will pass on new talent if they are in the middle of a project and don't have the time to train a new person. They need someone with proven experience who can help get the project done before the deadline. That's just how the business works. A dedicated person will eventually get an opening though, as long as they don't give up before it comes.

[ArtsyFartsy]

i guess this is the same old issue with people on the inside vs. those on the outside. For those on the inside it's always so easy and simple, and for those on the outside it seems like there's 10ft walls in every direction.

So everyone is right in a way because everyone has different experiences. Yes, small companies still hire college grads. I'm very close to hopefully getting hired by this new startup and they're small and independent so there's still a chance there. But as the market solidifies and centralizes those chances are diminishing. Let's face it, the custom modding scene is not what it used to be, especially with PC gaming going down the sewer.

There is something to be said about talent. Yes, if you're good enough you will get hired. But how long does it take for you to get good enough? And then after you've spent all that time training, how much will you get paid? If a company pays a senior artist 60K a year, and a beginner 40k, there is never any incentive to hire entry level, since cost difference isn't that much. On the programming side for example it's different, because a senior programmer will get around 100k a year, whereas entry level around 50k so there is a real monetary gain to hire and train new people. So why would the next generation of kids train for years and years, only to get a job that pays them less than any other industry? The answer is -for art. Because like all art jobs, it's not about money, it's about desire. But coming from an art school, I saw a lot of really good, talented people turning their back on art cause other paths were so much more lucrative. I'd hate to think that the gaming industry is missing out on a lot good people simply because "they lack confidence."

It's not about confidence, it's about being half crazy and having the right connections. Hollywood and the music industry have suffered greatly because of the inability of new creative talent to break in, i hope the same won't happen to the gaming industry.

Whatever, once I'm in all you other suckers can kiss it. Sequel #14 here i come.
mop::mop::mop

[lowlevel21]

lol well said ArtsyFartsy, except maybe the last part about us kissing it once your in lol!...but i can roll with your statement...:thumbsup:

[heavyness]

Yeah...why try and get a job when you can try and win three books instead! ;)
because if your entry is better then the rest, is will make a good portfolio piece for your portfolio.



But how long does it take for you to get good enough?
no is ever good enough. the minute you think you learned everything and think your portfolio can't be any better is the minute you start living in denial. i know a lead animator at a AAA studio who took Animation Mentor classes. why? to keep him sharp and on top of his game. the devs i work with [full timers, make much more money then i do] are always going back to classes and seminars to learn more.


the first battle is finding a job... it only gets harder from there. if you don't stay on your toes and learn the newest tech, you'll be out of a job and competing against these young kids right out of school who know more then you and willing to work for far less money.

[RobertoOrtiz]

I would pay CLOSE attention to what heavyness is saying for those who wish to "make it"

[Cyborgguineapig]

[CODE]Funny how this thread transformed so quickly. Lowlevel21, many of us have been in the same experience right out of school. While many of my friends were getting hired at good companies, I was in a rut and not finding work. Many of the feelings you have I have experienced too. I finally got my break though, mostly because my work was good enough quality. I made the mistake of shooting for a character art position straight out of school, stupid stupid move..

Anyways I'll say this again because I feel its worth repeating but the amount of gripe we are yet to see coming out of art school graduates is only the tip of the iceberg. As for those who do get positions right out of school, it DOES happen and more frequently than you would think.

6 - 7 guys I know whom I graduated with are either working at High Moon Studios, Raven Soft, or some other big company now. And we went to the dreaded Art Institute everyone looks so poorly upon, imagine that! What can be said about those 6 -7 guys which got great jobs right out the door? They were all very confident, their portfolios were solid and they held a professional (and matured) demeanor about learning that I really envy in a person. When the instructor didn't know the answer to an issue, they were the GO TO GUYS. I say (matured) because many of the students I went to school with were not and it showed when a mature minded student presented against someone who didn't give a damn..

Keep pushing yourself and don't give up. If you don't have the edge right now, then do something about it.

[Cyborgguineapig]

I would pay CLOSE attention to what heavyness is saying for those who wish to "make it"

+1 to that statement. In a way these forums and the connections that are within can be your ticket to getting your foot in the door.

[urgaffel]

...or having the door slammed in your face. It works both ways so do behave ;)

[ArtsyFartsy]

I made the mistake of shooting for a character art position straight out of school, stupid stupid move..



Competition for concept and character artists is brutal. When i was in school i was aiming towards those positions as well, but then i realized that there's maybe 1 character artist for every 100 gameworld artists so i gave up on the idea real quick. Now i'm trying to move as far away from it as possible.

Though i must say, modeling characters is overrated. Everyone likes the figure, we have a natural affinity to organic beings since we are also such, but there's so much other interesting stuff out there to ponder over, and many people are missing out. I still like to draw the figure because there's a certain challenge to it, but i don't care much about modeling it. It's very time consuming and the end result is always a little anti-climactic. yeah it's an anatomically correct human figure....so what. I love to model things that have complex surface properties, or elaborate interactions with other objects. I can look at 100 different pictures of rust, but i get sick and tired after a couple of human references. Like they say...more than two shakes and you're playing with yourself.

[Lexalotacus]

So...

Am I the only one taking the test right now?

[heavyness]

So...

Am I the only one taking the test right now?

i think so... this thread took a turn into a completely different direction. but don't stop, it's good practice.

[LaughingBun]

i might do it if i have time. But i too agree heavyness left some good info.

[heavyness]

another thing i forgot to say is to create your own position at whatever company your working at.... it's not that hard. and once you do, you won't be easliy replaced.

when i got my job at Carbonated Games [Microsoft] i was working with a lot of card & board gamers [not to many Halo fans]. i also noticed the artists i was working with we not to technical. so i [1] kept up on current gaming news and [2] lined myself up with the devs more then the artists.

1] i slowly became the guy to go to see what new games where coming out, how the people on the blogs and forums are responding to a game. when we were prototyping a music game out, i brought in every rhythm game i had and rented the ones i didn't have to demo for everyone. i would send out links to the team of interesting new game concepts. anything to keep the studio informed.

2] i worked with the devs and found ways to do stuff in games faster and cheaper. finding little tricks in Flash, or figuring out new ways of setting up games to be more friendly for artist. making some really cool effects that artists couldn't pull off without some code.

as anyone knows, i'm not the greastest artists and i'm ok with that. but on the our last project [Fable II Pub Games] i was the busiest artists. i was art management, optimization, special effects work with the devs, UI, and localization bug testing and helped out the other artists on anything when needed.

i carved out my own niche to make myself valuable. i watched as artists after artists rotated in and out of the studio [about 6 different artists]... and three years later, i'm still there. and i'm not resting, right now, i'm designing a game idea from the ground up, becuase i also want to move into the role of producer.

no rest for the wicked.

[DevIII]

Man there’s a lot of negativity in some of those posts. I just want to say that breaking in to the industry might hard (I’ll let you know when I do it). But you got to stay up beat and optimistic, no one is going to want to hire someone who is already bitter. Plus a lot of people tell me that studios tend to wait until after sig graph to make new hirers especially with it just around the corner, so just keep applying and don’t get too frustrated if people are dragging their feet on hirering. I’ve actually only heard from 2 of maybe twenty calls for work so far and one of those actually said they weren’t make a decision for the next several months.

As to the comment about Universities, I want to say that I wouldn’t trade my four year degree for any demo reel. I’ve gained far more from ASU than 1:20 of soon to be out dated footage. And I hope that my first job appreciates everything I know, not just my ability to push a vertex around a screen.

Anyways, Sorry for continuing the bird walk. I did look at the splash damage challenge, I did an 800 poly model of it before I got sidetracked, but it was a good challenge, I should finish off the texture maps. To see how it looks.

[Zerafian]

you cant go wrong trying to get a job with the guys who made ET. Now would be the time to get a job over there....Since the american dollar is around 1/2 the value of the euro...you could be making the equvialent of 90-100k over there.

[IronHawk]

I'm going to stay out of the verbal swordplay over what it takes to get in and just say Mop benchmarked this test at 6 hours. Should be a good excersize for just about anyone to see where there at.

[Ghostscape]

+1 to that statement. In a way these forums and the connections that are within can be your ticket to getting your foot in the door.

Or making sure the door stays shut, too.

Breaking into the industry is hard. But don't assume that those mod teams-cum-developers were anything but the hardest working and most talented new blood - they're still looking for top talent because they were top talent.

Nobody is going to hold your hand or pay you to learn how to make video games.

As for working on contests - those contests help with your portfolio if you're putting in a lot of effort, and they're great learning experiences. They also allow you to see a lot of other people's processes for similar things and learn that way. My portfolio holds a few contest entries from CGTalk (an old UGAC and two old MGACs), although most of the work was stuff I did on my own to improve my skills and sell myself.

The industry doesn't care about training new folks - there are plenty of talented and hardworking people trying to get in every day, so don't wait for some employer to "take a chance" and pay you to learn how to do the job when some other guy is spending all his time outside of his current job/school/whatever teaching himself how to do it for free (that's what I had to do to get in:) )

[lowlevel21]

From the looks at what i'm reading, it seems that people are afraid of having an opinion, you can still be in the game industry and make beautiful work and do what is expected of you by your employer and still have an opinion guys...you can try to scare people into thinking that if they say something that may be construed as negative that they "won't" get a job, i mean the bases of this whole off-topic conversation is that once your work shows your talent and you have the "yes i can" attitude and your possible employer sees this attribute in you, then you should have no problem getting in. Its just sad to see that in an industry, that for the most part has no limitation on the content that it produces and is not scared to push the envelope on what is said and done, i.e: violence, sex, drugs, etc, actually is scared to have an opinion...i know you have to be sensable and pick your words with everything you do, but c'mon, we are here to share insight, and me or anyone that may have a gripe with the industry's direction should know that it will NEVER! stop them from producing high quality of work whether personal or for their employer....


we are not robots!!



with that said...please visit my website, its updated!...had to throw alittle plug out there for me...lol!...take care all

[Swizzle]

with that said...please visit my website, its updated!...had to throw alittle plug out there for me...lol!...take care allI just took a look through your website and I've got to be honest: It really needs a redesign.

The blinking banner at the top of the page is annoying as all hell and made me immediately scroll down, so I didn't even know if there was any useful information there until I scrolled back up to make sure. Get rid of the blinkies, put your full name and contact info up there and make sure you have a textual email link. Somebody may not want to email you right away, but they may want to copy and paste your info. The same goes for your contact and resume pages. Text is what people want; they don't want to have to type something if they can just copy and paste text.

The combination of html and Flash for the gallery is flat-out awful. The gallery takes forever to load and, once it's finally done loading, you're given four thumbnails per page and the "large" shots look to be about 400x300px. Drop the flash and do a straight html page with all the thumbnails on one page and make the thumbnails link to large images. I'd also suggest making this your front page; the more clicks it takes to get to the content, the more people will be inclined to leave your site before they've even seen anything.

Get rid of your links page. There's no content on it.

Those things said, you have some good stuff. You just need to give the presentation a lot more thought.

[lowlevel21]

Thats what i like to see, thankyou much swizz, i will write all that down, now i know i gotta take down the blinky banner i did, another friend of mine said it was annoying too lol!...i appreciate it:thumbsup:

[urgaffel]

From the looks at what i'm reading, it seems that people are afraid of having an opinion, you can still be in the game industry and make beautiful work and do what is expected of you by your employer and still have an opinion guys...you can try to scare people into thinking that if they say something that may be construed as negative that they "won't" get a job, i mean the bases of this whole off-topic conversation is that once your work shows your talent and you have the "yes i can" attitude and your possible employer sees this attribute in you, then you should have no problem getting in. Its just sad to see that in an industry, that for the most part has no limitation on the content that it produces and is not scared to push the envelope on what is said and done, i.e: violence, sex, drugs, etc, actually is scared to have an opinion...i know you have to be sensable and pick your words with everything you do, but c'mon, we are here to share insight, and me or anyone that may have a gripe with the industry's direction should know that it will NEVER! stop them from producing high quality of work whether personal or for their employer....

There's a difference between having an opinion and being a whiny bastard who thinks they deserve a job because they went to school x and have a degree in y. I'm not saying this applies to you but sometimes people come across as if they are convinced that since they went to school z, they are entitled a job when graduating, no matter what. It's that attitude that me and others are talking about when we say that the way you behave can influence your chances of getting a job :) Good to hear you're changing your website, the flash gallery isn't really the best way to show off your work (way too small images like I mentioned ;)) although I'm not one to talk since my website is really really really simple :blush:

As for the industry pushing boundaries... What people seem to forget is that it comes down to what makes money and the sad truth is that most publishers that hold the purse strings are not that keen on taking risks on new interesting visual styles and ground breaking story telling, tackling various issues somewhat more serious than "see alien, shoot alien" :) Some companies do and the odd game comes out that defies the norms but yeah, there's a lot of discussions about the (creative) state of the industry.

*edit*

Speaking of your website, you could probably get the same layout but without using images for the background. When you load it up the first time you can see that there's like 15-20 images that needs to load. I know they are fast and small size but in some cases the text doesn't line up properly (the text below the gallery for example). You could reduce that to one image for each link instead. If you're doing it in Photoshop you can set the slices to use a colour instead of an image. And back when I looked at your site the first time I had a look at the html code to see if I could get your reel to work but I think the url was pointing at the wrong dir.

[lowlevel21]

There's a difference between having an opinion and being a whiny bastard who thinks they deserve a job because they went to school x and have a degree in y. I'm not saying this applies to you but sometimes people come across as if they are convinced that since they went to school z, they are entitled a job when graduating, no matter what.



not a problem at all urgaffel i know it doesnt apply to me, i know a couple of lazy bastards who graduated with me who did not (in my eyes) deserve to graduate, like someone mentioned earlier, schools do have quotas to keep up, once the number of graduates go down so does that schools funding and so forth. But thats far from where i think the "Arguement" was, it started from this statement made by artsyfartsy:

artsyfartsy-
it's funny but when Splash Damage started out they were just a bunch of mappers and modders. For their early projects they also collected a lot of people from the community. Now all their job openings require years of experience in the industry.




then i posted my thoughts on the matter:


lowlevel21-
i hate to stray away from what the thread initially was, put yes it does seem that these companies do look for a jack of all trade, however i do understand that majority of these companies are small and look for experience over having to train someone for an entry level...i am abit upset at that, cause for every online application i fill, i see everyone looks for 3 or more years experience in the game industry, with like 3-5 AAA titles shipped, c'mon who has those kind of credential even more so who do you know invested more than 5+ yrs in the game industry and actually have a life, i.e: family, personal time, recreation time?....i'm rambling, but all in all i do understand where you guys are coming from.



i mentioned the word "train" and people went nuts on the subject lol, when i clearly was meaning common in house practices ALSO meaning how that company operates, cause we all know different companies have different procedures...i never meant teach anyone anything that they should already know. Heavyness did say some very interesting things, but in my situation, he's merely preaching to the choir sorta speak, i've worked at a game company and i know how hard it is to get in, not to mention how hard it is to stay in. So to sum up, this thread has taken a serious deviation lol, but the one thing this thread does help with is maybe enlightening the ones who may have been abit misguided on the matter you guys are great, abit over zealous at taking something and making it big lol, but this is cool, we're merely promoting dialogue :thumbsup:



and yea i think i'm gonna chuck the flash gallery and do maybe thumbs of my work and have it load up when you click the image or something like that. The site it self was theme related , with the whole flashing banner and the weird look...the theme was based on diners in the 1950's with the whole flashing lights and the cursive words and such...but i think i'm gonna go the basic route, if i'm getting people telling me the same things lol...thanks :buttrock:






cheers!

[urgaffel]

There's nothing wrong with the 50s diner theme, it's just that it's not really pushing your work as much as it could. Case in point, the flash gallery being slow to load and the actual images being too small. You can still have the theme, you just need to make sure whoever browses your site will get to your art quickly and will be able to see the detail (in other words, at least 800x600 images). I think your stuff looks good but I can't really be sure since I can't make out the details :)

As for training, I had to learn Maya while working so I guess that counts as training on the job ;) Although having used 3dsmax for years did help when it came to pick up Maya and getting up to speed. It's been said before and I'll say it again; most of the modeling tools in 3d programs are the same, it's just the name on the button that changes (e.g. bevel vs chamfer) :)

[ashe]

Excellent! I have half of this test done. I just need to texture it.

[ArtsyFartsy]

Here's some more art tests

http://www.play.net/hj/info/apply/arthome.asp

[heavyness]

MINERVA Goes Pro: Valve Hires Ultra-Modder

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/17/minerva-goes-pro-valve-hires-ultra-modder/


damn, first Valve hired the mods responsible for Counter Strike, then the student team that would go on to make Portal, now a modder [and i'm sure he isn't the first]. there are other ways to break into the industry.

[Swizzle]

MINERVA Goes Pro: Valve Hires Ultra-ModderJeez. It's about damned time!

[Bobbeh]

After adding a few more things such as the top back piece and what I'm assuming is the cup holder dealy I was going to move on. Figured I would get some critiques before I called it done.

BTW this is my first post, wo0t.

WIP Hi-Poly WIP
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p170/SachielDesign/WaterCoolercopy.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p170/SachielDesign/WaterCoolercopy.jpg

[Lexalotacus]

damn dude that looks rad so far.... I think it's an easy model when you dont have a poly limit though... try doing it with the specifications from them too.

<3



lol

[Bobbeh]

I planned on keeping the LP less than or equal to 1000 tris, this is just the Hi-res mesh for baking purposes.

[Bobbeh]

I wish my second post would go through so i could post like a normal person...

*edit* nvm... I responded earlier but it never went through.

This is simply the hi-poly model i will use for baking. I intend for the lowpoly to be less than or equal to 1000 tris as specified.

[LaughingBun]

looking very good! keep going!

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