Hi, my name is Jeffrey and I go to the Art Institute of California. I was wondering if any of you working in the industry would be willing to answer some of my questions industry related if possible. :nod:
-Most of the questions will probably be found throughout the forums but this is an assignment for one of my classes, just waiting for a yes or no answer. Also the more people I ask the better. Thanks.
What got you into the industry?
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
Marketing good or evil?
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
Do you write off your taxes on games?
Are you happy with your job?
1-Physics got boring after a year.
2-Learn scripting languages and have good communication skills, listen to others problem and be the solution,
–Never be ashamed of not knowing something and never act like you know everything. You don’t! Never bullshit.
–Just know how and where to go to learn what you don’t know.
–Ask questions but don’t get lazy and become a pain.
3-It help pay my bills so it must be good then.
4-I can draw you a pretty matchstick man.
5-No…
6-Comes with both good and bad like Any other job. But I make games!!
[QUOTE=JeffUong;5472]Hi, my name is Jeffrey and I go to the Art Institute of California. I was wondering if any of you working in the industry would be willing to answer some of my questions industry related if possible. :nod:
-Most of the questions will probably be found throughout the forums but this is an assignment for one of my classes, just waiting for a yes or no answer. Also the more people I ask the better. Thanks.
What got you into the industry?
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
Marketing good or evil?
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
Do you write off your taxes on games?
Are you happy with your job?[/QUOTE]
1: The industry is constantly changing, so it makes a very challenging career. Retail was easy and boring. Spent more time trying to make people do their job than actually doing anything cool.
2: I would focus on learning languages and coding/scripting/programing fundamentals. Good languages would be like C++/C#/Python/Perl. Being confident in your work, but not being arrogant. Also, learn to work/associate with other people. Being a good person people want to work with and being skilled makes you awesome.
3: Marketing is a double edged sword. It can hype crap or cut the legs off of awesomeness.
4: I love the idea of being an artist and I love trying, but I’m definitely not as skilled as real traditional artists.
5: No
6: I love my job. I get to come to work and solve problems/build tools/organize projects/make pipeline decisions all in one day. As stated above. It is a job though, so it’s not all fun and games. But in truth, even when something really stupid happens and I get a ton of terrible work piled on me that was created by others, I still love it. It’s a challenge, and overcoming it makes me feel really good.
1- Cause I did not fancy mechanical design
2- Coding skills and people skills
3- Good cause in the end its all about money
4- Helps but you don’t have to … but you have to handle the basics in modeling, texturing etc.
5- No
6- Like everyone else its still a job but its a fun one!
I can highly stress on this particular suggestion. In the short term you might feel like you are getting a good mileage out of bullshitting, but in the long run all the things you might have gained out of bullshitting will fade away
What got you into the industry?
I was in school for architecture, realized I didn’t want to be an architect. Went to school for 3d art, realized I didn’t have the chops to be an artist, so I got involved with the technical work. Got a job for 2 weeks as a prop modeler, switched myself over to a TA, haven’t looked back.
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
I say, programming and tool building skills.
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
Diagramming skills are useful, but I’d rather a programmer without drawing skills than an artist with them, in molding someone into a TA.
What got you into the industry?
Architect to Musician to Retailer to Teacher to Network Support to IT to Env Artist to Animator to a Lead to Tech Artist. Oh, and a desire to piss the programmers off when they said ‘no’ to my ideas.
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
Problem solving, Design methodologies, Coding, Risk management and Anthropology.
Marketing good or evil?
Both
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
No, but being able to communciate cleary often requires these skills
Are you happy with your job?
I’m happy with my life, not with my job
The Air Force shut down my wing so I moved form fixing jet fighters to studying programming, which got boring so I switched to art for VFX. On the side I was modding games, which I could use in my portfolio. So that got me an artist position with a game company instead of visual effects for movies. When the company needed more TA I had already proven that I was quite technical so I switched over full time.
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
Programming, at least scripting like MEL for example. Which in turn will give you understanding of how 3D packages work, which is needed to support the art teams in the end.
Good people skills.
Problem breakdowns.
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
Lets say, you need to be able to communicate with artists but you don’t need to be able to produce the quality that an artist does.
Do you write off your taxes on games?
What? No… Is that even possible anywhere in the world?
Are you happy with your job?
It’s a roller coaster. But most of the time, yes.
Would be nice if I could do it over the internet like when I was modding though, so I could live in with my wife more then a weekend a month.
went to college for IT, couldn’t get a job in my hometown, taught myself 3d because i was interested, went to grad school for a year, got an internship which turned into a full time offer.
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
you a problem solver first and foremost, so although a lot of people would suggest knowing a scripting language well, i would recommend that it is one of many tools that you should know. know the 3d pipeline - how to create 3d objects start to finish, what expectations each step requires, and what the pains in the ass are. that will allow you to focus on making people’s lives easier, which imo is the real purpose of a TA.
Marketing good or evil?
indifferent. one of those things i don’t know anything about and have no desire to know anything about.
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
not generally but it depends on the role, some places want you to be more involved in the asset creation side, some more tools. if you want a discussion about whether you have to be a good traditional artist to be a good cg artist, go to cgtalk and look up the 90234902 threads on that.
Do you write off your taxes on games?
if you are single and don’t own a home, the standard tax deduction that you are advised to take will probably offset any itemized writeoffs you’ll try to pull out of your ass.
Are you happy with your job?
it can be a hard job but it can also be really rewarding. honestly the only downside for me is not being able to single out any one thing i’ve done on the games i’ve shipped. it’s annoying to explain to my mom “well, i didn’t MAKE the character… but i guess i like helped make the character cooler in the end”
What got you into the industry?
The prospect of getting paid to create awesome stuff. I was dating a girl in school to make games and she introduced me to it.
What should I focus on in order to become a technical artist?
Problem Solving, Scripting, Communication. Also, focus on communication. When you’ve learned all of those, go practice communication a bit so you can communicate.
Marketing good or evil?
Good, when it’s not evil.
Does becoming a TA require drawing skills?
Definitely no!
Do you write off your taxes on games?
If it’s worth it sure. Benefit of being in our industry you can write off almost anything you buy. Though like JeremyC mentioned it’s only worth it if your itemized deductions are greater than the standard.
Are you happy with your job?
Couldn’t be happier. We work with the coolest people, make the most awesome stuff, and make a living doing it.
