My name is Alihusen Kapadia I am student at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts or Vanarts (Game Art and Design Program).Prior to this I have worked as a lighting artist and Texture artist with two different companies.But that was for movie production and not for game production.Being a Lighting artist I am more intreasted in Shading languages like Hlsl and Cg which so I have already started to learn from sources available over the internet like Nvidia’s cg tutorial and from this website . I managed to do some basic realtime shaders for max, things like blinn , phong lighting model, some other materials like Reflection and Refraction nad things that seem to be important for games like normal mapping and parallax mapping. At present I am trying to get my head around Shadow mapping and SSAO. But I just wanted to know if There is any specialsed position for shader writers in a company or there is common position for a tech artist ,who does everything ranging from tool development, shader writing ,rigging,etc. If there is only a common position for TA’s , in that case what should I know as a Junior Ta and what should I focus more on to improve myself as a TA or what should I have in my showreel thats focused towards applying for Junior TA.
I noticed you posted this twice now… not cool.
I’m not experienced, but from reading and asking my own questions on there forums, and as it seems you may know, there is a wide range of what a TA can do. So, you’re interested in shading which is one part of what a Tech Artist can do (at least from my knowledge a TA does write shaders); If you like shaders, do shaders.
It all depends on what the company is looking for, since the TA position is so broad. For me, since I’ve just started jumping into the TA scene myself, it is very overwhelming. There are so many things you can learn, I didn’t know where to start. So just keep learning shaders if that is what you are interested in, but it wouldn’t hurt to having some knowledge of the other focuses a TA can have.
To the more experienced: If I’m wrong on anything, feel free to correct me :):
- DISCLAIMER: Also don’t have the professional TA experience, but I’ve met with TAs from a bunch of different places *
Shader writing, depending on the studio, can fall into a tech art role or a graphics programming role (some places I’ve even seen it marked as an art role), so I think in your position, I would find the studios you want to work for, and find out what a TAs role is at that particular place.
Some companies have very tech-heavy TA roles, while some barely do scripting. I think for an entry-level TA role, I would learn at least a little bit of everything so you can get a good base in a full pipeline. It’s probably good that you have that specialization however (shading), because it makes it easier for employers to place you in a role.
I would definitely research where you want to go though, and just find out what suits them best.
I am looking for some gaming school and i like the Media design school new zealand
and think tank canada
what do you think about those schools and if you know some good schools let me know
[QUOTE=ankitgajjar456;13387]I am looking for some gaming school and i like the Media design school new zealand
and think tank canada
what do you think about those schools and if you know some good schools let me know[/QUOTE]
What countries? Because it looks like you’re willing to go all over the place.
I went to this school : Digital Arts and Entertainment - Home
It is based in Belgium. I loved my time there.
I am looking for some gaming school and i like the Media design school new zealand
and think tank canada
what do you think about those schools and if you know some good schools let me know
I had friends graduate from Media Design School (MDS) about 2 years ago, although in the animation pathway rather than the gaming pathway. For what its worth, I can pass on what I’ve heard from them… but I’d strongly suggest emailing the school with questions to see if those things have changed.
From what I understood back then the computer labs closed at 10.30pm, some courses had students sharing computers and the school seemed to focus on group work, texture integration and gaming, producing some good work in those areas.
The entry requirements seemed to be quite high and the course itself required high standard work with strict marking and hand-in guidelines so students really had to stay focused and self-motivated.
Possibly some first year 3d students were asked to remove from their projects material that would be covered in the second year (i.e. dynamics).
There we go, can’t comment on ThinkTank but if you’re interested in MDS it shouldn’t hurt to send them an email to see where things are at now.
I am looking for some good school and i would like schools in US or Canada.
An i want to do Game Design.
[QUOTE=ankitgajjar456;13387]I am looking for some gaming school and i like the Media design school new zealand
and think tank canada
what do you think about those schools and if you know some good schools let me know[/QUOTE]
Hi! I just recently finished my third semester at Tank Training Centre in North Vancouver. I switched from wanting to do 3d animation to rigging. The school was great because even though I was done with my third semester, they helped provide me with another mentor for rigging. Another plus about Think Tank is that all the students once they are done with their year are welcome to stay as long as they need with full access to all the computers and programs they need to complete their reels and continue learning. Alumni are always welcome back to use the resources here to update their reel, or they can come sit in on presentations and certain classes to learn a new program that just came out. If you have any questions about the school let me know and I’ll give you as much info as I can. The school is open Mon-Sat from 8:30am-12pm and you have full access to everything during those times. Also if you send an email to the school they can give you some emails of past or current students so you can talk to them see how they liked their experience here.