I was originally set on doing Fine Art at the University of Lincoln, but after a visit to De Montfort and I couple of... “What the hell am I going to do with a Fine Art degree”... moments, I wisely chose to do Game Art Design. Reflecting on the decision, I’m glad I made it, as the once cloudy path to my future has now cleared and I feel as if I’m on track. I once used to be excited to play games, but now I’m merely fond of them. The reason for this lack of excited for games is because whenever I play one I now find myself stopping every ten seconds during an supposedly intense game to analyse what’s behind a fence, or to see what happens if I shoot the paint work on a car. To me twenty hours of game play is no longer fun, it’s more like twenty hours of frustration from wanting to run around recklessly shooting people but instead feeling the urge to test and analyse every asset in the game. This uncontrollably anal way of playing games is how I knew that I would be well suited to a course in which you spend your time analysing and creating every element seen in a game. At least in this profession I can look forward to the day when I can sit back and actually enjoy the storyline of a game, knowing there is no reason to scrutinize everything in the scene as it was me who designed it.
I feel I generally conform to the typical traits an art student possesses. I’m calm and laid back (lazy), slightly insane, use music to aid me in making artwork, have an eccentric and childish sense of humour and even went through a stage of having untamed long hair.
I normally veer toward watching a film than playing a game, but that may be because films come on the TV for free and games sadly don’t. However the games industry is undoubtedly the career choice for me. To answer the question “What is my dream job” I comically answer; getting paid tones of money for producing one concept image a month, as would 99% of all Game Art students. However, as much I can dream, this job doesn’t exist. I have grasped that if you want to succeed in the games industry the reality is you have to be adaptable to the companies requirements and produce what they tell you to without question. It has also become apparent that the person with the multitude of skills will prevail in an interview process over other candidates with only one applyable skill.
If I were to choice a job aspiration at this early stage I feel I would currently like to veer toward an Environment Artist job as I feel confident with 3D and I have a good sense of scale and overall values of objects and structures within an environment. After researching jobs currently available in the games industry, there are a few for the role of Environment Design, a high end example of one is a requirement for a Senior Environment artist to work with BioWare a subdivision of the company EA. To apply for the job they require someone with “A passion for building new and innovative worlds”, which I feel is something I already possess. They also ask that their portfolio demonstrates the following: “An ability to think in 3D. Drawings/sketches that display basic skills as well as any modeling and texture work related to objects, buildings, natural terrain, etc. Excellent sense of form, weight and volume. Good use of light and shadow. A Breadth of artistic styles. An understanding of optimization. Excellent sense of scale and level of finish.” At the current stage I’m in of the course I feel confident that I could manage the traditional drawing elements of the job, however even though I feel confident with working in 3D, I don’t think I’m at the suitable standard to produce realistically textured and scaled objects that make up the environments, as I have only just learnt to do basic textures and forms. I believe I will accumulate these skills over time, they are achievable through experience and I feel I will attain lots of it over the three years becoming faster with time. The trial and error process I’m going through at the minute using 3Ds Max is enabling me to learn more about the software, and soon I will find shortcuts and more efficient ways of producing aesthetically pleasing models. One step closer to being at industry standard.
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