Life Changing or Career Building

A career into the gaming industry as artists seems to be a very daunting one indeed. How do prepare ourselves to fit ourselves into the industry as well to cope with the pressures ahead of our chosen paths? How do we know what we need to do in order to challenge all of these problems that most of us are sure to meet?

Well a start would be to complete the tasks at hand set by the course leaders of our university.

I see the course projects as briefs in which we have a guideline to follow and to stick to for deadlines. To do as much as we can within those briefs to improve out time management, technical skills and creative skills, also learning as much as we can is what we are aiming for, rather than passing briefs for the sake of completing it.

To succeed and to increase the chances of getting a job within the industry and a higher preparation, the individual must become an active learner, pursuing the information and the skills to get into the specialised job. Keeping up with the latest news of the industry and the current standards of games and future games can help show the level and quality in which we must provide.

Answers rarely come looking for you, you must journey out to the answers!

Although these are only the general things in which a rising game artist should keep in mind, as we focus more into the specialised areas of the art area, there are much more specific factors that play into what is required of a specialised artist.

A wide range of portfolio pieces can better improve your chances into getting whatever areas you want to go through. Having people form the industry do portfolio checks can be a good guide for what companies are looking for. Of course many companies can require specific things that other companies aren’t paying particular attention to, which makes it difficult to pin point exactly what you will need from the course as we are studying.

Work experience will always be a major plus to prepare an individual for a position within the industry. Companies knowing that the artist has had their toes dipped into the works of the industry can expect them to know the workflow of the industry and its pressures.

Going back to how the companies are looking for different things in artists’ works, the best way to be prepared is to do a lot of research into the company. Being extra prepared for what the individual company asks of you rather than generally prepared for what all companies require of you will get you that extra edge to get the place that other applicants are going for.

Say the company of the Call of Duty Series could belooking for something that can suit the works of this...

Where as the company of Pokemon X and Y are looking for something that suit the works of this, you'll have to research!

Knowledge in as much things as possible will always give you a higher chance of being picked over someone who hasn’t got that knowledge. As they are paying you, they will want as much as they can get from their employees, including the skills they know.

I remember an old friend once told me that she had a great interviewing for an internship at Rare and she was one of the people that they were considering. Unfortunately, she lost out to someone who had the knowledge of a 3D program that she didn’t know about.

Though these kinds of experience can be a little disheartening, but all you can do is learn from them and carry on forward with a stronger determination!