personal priorities

#1

I want to be a character designer that can work through the process from concept to completion. I have a knack for organic character modeling, but me and the hypershader don’t get along. I’m mediocre with lighting and when it comes to skinning, anything above basic is a total wreck. My rigging is getting passible and my understanding of motion is progressing well.

Should I concentrate on bringing out all I can on my strengths and improve on my weaknesses along the way or devote my time to my weaknesses and improve my strengths along the way? I want to be the best at something and not just be Jack of all trades masater of nothing, but I know that just passible won’t get you a job.

#2

theres an old saying, be carefull what you wish for. suppose you spend a lot of time getting better at surfacing even though you dont like doing it, and it doesnt come naturally, then you get a decent surfacing portfolio together, and somebody wants to give you a job doing it… so you get stuck with a job you dont really want. whereas if you build the portfolio in areas you want, worst case, maybe youll get a job doing that :slight_smile:

i have had this happen a number of times, where something i put in my portfolio, that was good work, but not something i personally liked doing or even really WANTED to do more of, wound up getting me more similar work. at a certain point i just had to say, certain type of jobs i dont want to pursue any more, because this type of work is taking all my time, and theres other things i’d rather focus on. but maybe if from the beginning i said, i dont like doing X, i’m not even going to put that in my portfolio, my life would be a billion times better righ now, and i wouldnt have a whole portfolio of work thats no longer relevant to the jobs i want and years of my life gaining experience in a field i dont use right now. who knows :slight_smile:

#3

That’s pretty soid advice. But do employers over look overlook the weaknesses and recognize strengths in artists? It’s not easy to keep up with such well rounded talent these days. Maybe I should concentrate on being excelent at what I’m just good at and eventually I’ll get good at what I’m bad at.

#4

I’m by no means an expert on the industry, but personally I think that is an excellent philosophy. I keep running accross this topic of “should I specialize, or be a generalist”? The conclusion that I have come up with is that it’s much better, if not critical for you as an artist have at least one thing that you’re exceptional at doing.

If you’re applying to a studio and there’s not one thing that you can do that is equal to the quality of work that the studio produces it will be tough for them to see where you can help out in the production pipeline. However, if there’s something that you can do that matches up well with what the studio needs then it’s not very hard to see where you can contribute to the project.

The article about Luma Pictures that was just put out by CGSociety talks briefly about this very issue. To sum it up, their philosophy is to be a “jack-of-all-trades-master-of-ONE”.

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3452&page=

#5

Games are getting so big that the teams are all getting larger too. So many companies are adopting the “studio model” where any given person mostly only focuses on one task, be it modeling, or rigging, or texturing, etcetra. Smaller companies still need generalists, but these days it’s a pretty good thing to have a specialty and to be able to do it well. Be the best modeler you can be and things will fall into place fine. You’ll likely end up somehwere where you can work with several folks who are great at (and love doing) the things you don’t.

Just make sure that your reel focuses on your strengths and doesn’t hilight your weaknesses! :slight_smile: Good luck!

-mike

#6

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