1.Environment artist.
The occupations I personally want to look into are 3d environment art and 3d modelling characters and objects.
So here I will record my research on each occupation and look at how people progress in the industry and present their personal portfolios for applying for jobs.
First I looked into 3D environment art and watch many demo reels that show there work done over an amount of time. This is one of the reels I watched.
These demo reel was very high quality and took a lot of time and effort he show the progression of his work by showing the poly visual and the first render to the final render. This gives the employer a view of the work overall and to see how it was made. He also adds a description on each piece saying what it's called and what he used plus on the YouTube channel adding his personal website. http://www.portfoliographica.blogspot.co.uk/ (September 2012)
Many of the ones I looked at where very professional and well designed, which makes the industry seem much harder to get into so after looking at peoples work I went to look at jobs in the industry.
So 3d environment artist is basically someone who creates scenery and background for games taking into account the game resolution, the person needs to know how to work on either 3ds max or Maya and have expertise in Photoshop.
I then went onto look at real job applications in the profession.
This is would be a big opportunity and that's why the requirements are so high, they need the best for the job and need to see this all in a personal portfolio.
2. 3D Character artist.
This would be my second choice in the game industry because I really enjoy the crazy ideas people can create for characters and also realistic models of characters. I also really enjoy the software people mostly use for character design zbrush because it's a big learning curve for 3D modellers. So again I looked at others work using zbrush for big brand names and games. The process of character design is long starting with professional concept artists designing characters with side, front and back views and then they send them to the 3D character modellers to work on creating a full 3D model of the drawings on mainly zbrush but also using software such as Photoshop for some colours and Maya and vray for rendering or extra models.
This is some of the work I found at http://www.zbrushcentral.com/forum.php (September 2012)
This is work is from the famous studio "blur" and made by a guy named James Ku. These pictures show us all four sides to the character with texture and colouring and none. What I love is the realism of the models and the detail put into the models. I wanted to know what it takes to work for these kind of studios seeing this standard of work.
This is a job opening I found at the company Valve.
http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/job_postings.html. (September 2012)
3. Animator
This is my third choice for the game indusrty i find this to be the hardest one out of the three simply because there is so much more time and effort but in to animation because of the different types animation, there's rigging a models body parts and face to look in sync with actions around it. There are things such as object animation such as boxes falling or a basketball into a hoop and others.
Rigging is usually a separate job in animating because of the time taken to get precisely right, the methods used are, taking a 3d model of a character and manually adding an internal skeleton structure, you go in to more serious detail such as weights of bones in the skeleton for real time movement and continuous optimization that can become extremely tedious.
This is a video of some work by a group of workers a v-ray.
This shows a variation of realistic animation to cartoon/pixar style, showing a lot of rigging and classic animation of movement in cars. they put in great detail to their work looking at every second of the animation to make as smooth as possible and make the characters be so life like to really fit the landscape they are in to act as if it's their own. I went on to look at jobs in this industry and found requirement for animating for the famous game company Rockstar.
https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/position/a9d0b32e9290913ac705ca7131d46563/rockstar-north (September 2012)
I was surprised to see a software I hadn't heard of called Motion Builder and I looked into the software and found that it is used by high experienced animators and concentrates the whole software for animating and rigging using either models or real people in green screen motion suits.
Task 4
http://www.crytek.com/career/offers/overview/nottingham/art-animation/art-3denvironment (September 2012)
Crytek Job application Environment artist requirements taken from the official site:
This shows all aspects of taking this job, the most important things I see in this are the knowledge and skills and the portfolio. In The requirements for portfolio it notes that you show a "keen eye in detail and realism", this is seems vital as it's sectioned off from the bullet points to create emphasis on the importance. This goes on to explain in more depth the meaning of the above by the employee should be able to create high poly models put then be able to convert them to the game engine, this can be difficult if the game engine only holds a low amount of polys for a model making it hard to make the model come out with the best resolution.
Demonstrated history
Actively supporting Art Direction.
- Working as part of a team to produce a single goal.
- Demonstrate a strong ability to create outstanding photorealistic environments within a games engine.
- Have hap experience of the full production process from conception through to beta and mastering of a product.
All 3d Artists must demonstrate in their portfolio:
Keen eye on detail and realism
- Creation of highpoly assets and then their conversion to an in game resolution.
- A clear understanding of the normal mapping process.
- A strong understanding UV layout and how to get the best of your textures.
- Perspective for the overall scene and the bigger picture for the current task.
- Well structured composition within work shown.
- Basic examples of lighting and how to make the most of the assets you create.
Responsibilities:
Takes initiative and is willing to expand own horizon.
- Passion for making games.
- Works together with other Level Artists on defining and creating environments and assets for the game.
Knowledge and skills:
- Ability to contribute innovative and original ideas towards all aspects of game production and development.
- Expertise with 3d software, Autodesk Max, Maya preferred.
- Expert with Photoshop.
- Preferred experience with Cryengine 2 or similar engine.
http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/job_postings.html (September)
This is the job requirements for a character artist working at Valve. Previous games in this company have been known to be quite a cartoon style of modelling and to be using a high amount of block colours in games such as , Team Fortress 2, Half life etc. For this job they expect at least 5 year or more years of modelling experience working for film and games this is a high expectation limiting the number of candidates. They also mention the ability to adapt to styles of modelling which is shown a lot in previous work. They also list some duties you will be doing. Basically just things a person who has worked in the industry for a long time.
3D Character Artist
We’re looking for an experienced character artist with a talent for sculpting and character design. Valve has many projects in various stages of production at all times; artists will be expected to apply their skills in a wide variety of ways, depending on the day-to-day needs of these projects. We're interested in artists who share an equal passion for art and games.
Duties:
- Sculpt high-resolution character models in Zbrush or Mudbox.
- Create clean, low-resolution game topology, uv’s, and textures.
- Work within multi-disciplinary design teams to help bring characters to life while making them work for the game design.
- Collaborate with animators to create characters that can move and perform believably.
- Collaborate with concept artists to revise and improve character designs.
Requirements:
- Five or more years of modeling experience in film or games
- Ability to model characters in a range of styles with an emphasis on character design
- Hard-surface modeling skills
- Good understanding of human anatomy
- Drawing, sculpting, and other traditional art skills a plus
- Get your hands dirty in InDesign, HTML, Flash, and other similar tools.
- Be a vigilant advocate for the user’s experience.
- Take pride in and personal ownership of your work.
- Contribute directly to both the conceptual thinking behind and the physical creation of detailed, high-quality products.
https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/position/a9d0b32e9290913ac705ca7131d46563/rockstar-north (September 2012)
These are the requirements for a job at Rockstar to be a character Animator. The main skill I noticed here was that they use Motion Builder which can be difficult to use. They also look for professional experience in developing a third person game which isn't easy to come by someone like that. They also ask for a demo reel unlike the last two which is a good way to show animation in a portfolio, in need to three minutes long which can be hard to fit that amount of animation in.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- To create character animations of the highest quality and consistent to the character’s personality, design and movement style.
- The ability to meet project deadlines / milestones, as set by the Lead Animator and Production.
- Assist in the integration of animation with designers and engineers to create compelling in-game animation.
- Consistently meet project deadlines in a timely manner without compromising artistic integrity.
- To collaborate effectively with designers and other dev to understand story and mission requirements.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Outstanding demo reel demonstrating strong animation ability and good aesthetic eye.
- Minimum of 3-year degree with an emphasis in character animation or equivalent work experience.
- Thorough understanding and application of classic animation principles (staging, timing, anticipation, follow through, etc.).
- Experience with motion capture.
- Professional experience developing a third person action game.
- Strong technical background.
SKILLS
- Exceptional skill in animating realistic human characters.
- Expert user of MotionBuilder.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills allowing effective collaboration with a wide variety of project staff.
- Strong organisational, problem solving and time management skills.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Please note: ALL applications should be accompanied by a demo reel, either on DVD or a web link.
- Demo reels should be no longer than 3 minutes.
- Sound is not important.
Task 5
Rockstar Games
http://www.rockstargames.com/ (October 2012)
Rockstar Games has always caught my attention with the vast amount of games they produce and the quality that gets put into them. I've always loved the realism in the models and the free roam opportunity in their game play. I've wondered how and what they do to make such games. And know as i get older I've started to understand the way they make games and its truly interesting. If i was to work with a global company it would be Rockstar.
They have for each updated their software and made the visuals and animation much more crisper and the way the games play more unique and more enjoyable. Their most recent games are games like: L.A Noire (which gives the opportunity to play as a cop in Los Angeles and move up in the world of law whilst also giving the freedom in the city to free roam.) Max Payne 3 (this bring the famous trilogy of Max Payne to a close, this game is one of the small amount of games that are linear but still make up for it brilliant presentation.
My personal favourite is Red Dead Redemption, this game concentrates around the main character John Marston in a wild west themed free roam game. This game brings so much to the table and keep you entertained for months.
If I was going to work with Rockstar I would want a job in character design because they do so many different themes of character but they are in the same style most of the time because that is Rockstar unique look on models.
Double negative
http://www.dneg.com/ (October 2012)
Double Negative has made hundreds of visual effects/CGI, They've been famous for hundreds of movies and are famous for there attention to detail in film cg. I've always wanted to know how special effects and visual effects were made and used effectively in films.
There work is constantly getting better because of new software each year and better employments graduated from uni or leaving another business. One of there best work in my opinion was the 3d models and environments in the Disney film "John Carter" because of the use in ZBrush to make the full models which I found outstanding.
If I was to work at Double negative I would want to either create environments for the film or character models for the film using ZBrush..
Remode
http://www.remodestudios.com/?page=Portfolio (October 2012)
Remode is a local flash game dev studio in Plymouth, All the games are created on flash and the Dev team only consist of a handful of people. If i was going to work for this company i would want to design the graphics for them and apply my input of animations to some games. The work rate seems slow but would be a good experience working on flash games. I also like the idea of making games for a more unique platform mobiles and Facebook.
Task 6
Hertfordshire University.
Hertfordshire University is my first choice for higher education this is because at the opening day they really sold it to me it sounded like everything i was looking for in a game arts course. The lecturer that talked about the courses really knew what he was talking about and he stated he had worked in the industry for nine years and he had the least amount of experience in the industry out of all the lecturers for this course which really got me hooked. They went on to say that the courses here are not for the degree but for a job for the future which in my opinion sounds brilliant and trust worthy.
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About the course
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Bournemouth University
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