What’s it take, besides passion, to grab a position like this?
If you were hiring a TA intern, what knowledge would you expect him/her to have?
Thanks.
We hire rigging interns here and in general the bar is not too high.
First I need you to know Maya well and be able to trouble shoot an issues or perform basic rigging without a lot of mentoring on my side (simply not enough time in a day for that)
Also I need you to be able to automate stuff using a scripting language (nothing fancy) Python preferred!
And finally familiarity with a linux environment and svn is a plus.
The rest is on the job training.
Sweet. I haven’t worked with Linux in quite some time (That was the OS we used in school), but I’m sure I could pick it up again. I’m teaching myself rigging and PyMEL right now, so I suppose I would be going in the right direction for your intern program. (Troubleshooting and BASIC rigging is what the internet is for :D:)
I guess when I have enough to create a demo I’ll apply for the program.
Thanks.
I know from experience this is a pain in the butt process but. gamedevmap.com, put in your location and start clicking. You will find dead links, you will find duplicate links. My advice, book mark the game studios you want to work for. If you want to look for film and production houses, just google visual effects house, or things along those lines. Usually if they offer internships, they will have stipulations and guidelines.
Be aware, if working within the video/TV/Music area, internships are often unpaid. Just speaking from experience there. I was able to work up to a PA position, but that was still slightly above a janitor :). The game industry is technically speaking developing software, so some aspects are slightly different. My advice however, ask questions before accepting. :D:
Yeah, I’ve gone through the lists on gamedevmap.com a lot of times. I always go back every other week hoping the positions have been updated. I was told internships pop up around this time or January so I’ll be keeping an eye out.
Thanks.
I got my internship in a small gamestudio. It is really a good way to learn being a technical artist because they mostly do not have experience having a technical artist in there team. So you will be making your own tasks and being very independent for the sake of the company/project. A very good practive for getting into problem solving and making a good pipeline.
I was in the same boat as you up until about a month ago.
I think there are at least two things you must know before grabbing a studios attention. First is to know some form of art discipline and be good at it. Second is to know a more technical aspect of the production pipeline weather it’s scripting, rigging, shader creation, (and the list goes on and on).
Just as an example I will explain my internship experience.
I was contacted by the studio in which they offered me a ninety day unpaid internship with the possibility to hire on as a full time employee if everything worked out. My main areas of responsibilities during the internship was to test out two automated rigging systems, skin and create a way to retarget animations between the two as well as test out some automated facial rigs and write a dissertation about what I thought the strengths and weaknesses were between the two. Once I proved I could do this without any help and complete the task well within there time constraints they cut the three month internship and made me an offer and the rest is history.
As a side note (not sure what your story is) I graduated from college in June of this year and I too would go through the lists of links on gamedevmap.com looking for a job. I ended up getting this job through the online job board through my school. So if you have those resources use them! At first I never looked at the job board and now I’m sure glad I did.
The things I would expect from a TA intern?
They are interested enough to post on TAO and seek out an internship.
So I’d say you’re doing alright.
Sweet! Thanks for all the replies. I REALLY need to get this maya program down! As well as rigging. The scripting doesn’t seem like it will be too bad as long as I know how to read the PyMEL API reference( Correct me if I’m wrong :):), although PyMEL isn’t all I should/want to know. I’m sure scripting for max and photoshop will be super useful also.
Thanks again, all.
I would stay with one 3d software like maya or max and not both for the moment. If you master one of them it is easy to learn an other software.
Don’t automatically label yourself a intern. Apply for junior positions as well.
Unless you’re really not comfortable working on a professional environment yet.
[QUOTE=dimitrifrazao;13299]Don’t automatically label yourself a intern. Apply for junior positions as well.[/QUOTE]
Fresh out of college now and job hunting as well, I am currently presenting myself as “Junior”, “Entry level” and “Intern” for any positions I can find. I gotta say though that I feel a good amount of Impostor Syndrome applying for those above-intern jobs. Maybe it’s just a ‘knock on wood’ stage of my career where I haven’t had a true studio work environment thrown at me…
Hey Austin,
I’m also taking part in the everlasting internship search, and I’ve been looking around for a TA position as well. The main things I’ve come to find is that a lot of the internship programs at larger companies seem to be a lot about the learning process, and involved heavily in catering the experience to the intern.
I have two buddies that were interns in Vancouver for Microsoft, both got accepted for an art position. One ended up doing concept sketches and pre-production, and one ended up being a TA intern. I’ve had the best luck with interviews and such at Microsoft and EA, and I know that EA has a dedicated tech art internship.
Most places have responded pretty well to showing a good knowledge of Maya, Python (it seems to be preferred over MEL for it’s versatility), and just overall showing a passion for actually making things work. A lot of people have been surprised that I’m interested in tech art out of school, you are definitely in a better position that a lot of people looking to be modelers, for instance.
I’m also trying to land a TA position at Microsoft right now (flying in for an interview!) and they said that it’s hard to enter as a TA, and they recommended me to start at a producer role overlooking a small art team, and through showing technical and artistic strengths, nudge my way into a TA role. The benefit of being a TA I feel is that you’d feel comfortable at any position in development.
Not sure how everyone else on here feels about it, but I’ve sent emails and letters to pretty much any company that I would be interested in, and pretty much just spammed the game industry :D. I’ve gotten a surprising amount of frequent contacts from that alone.
With that ramble done,
GOOD LUCK!
From a fellow job-searcher, I wish you the best. Let us know how it goes!
I’ve never thought about the producer role, but I don’t think someone with a programming degree would be picked for a producer role, but hey, what do I know. heh.
Good luck with your interview!
Hello
I am Ankit and I love rigging and i know basic rigging and sme really basic expressions and i have good knowledge of C leg…, And now i am trying to learn mel and python so what do you think i should learn and practice more if i want to apply for Internship or Job in some studio.
I have knowledge of rigging basic human body with ik/fk switch and stretchy bone rig
and really good knowledge of parenting, constraints.
And if anyone knows about Disney’s Internship And Student Development Programe
pls give me some information about what will it take to apply there.
Tucker- the bit about a producer role may be good for MS but is NOT something I’d suggest for anywhere else in the industry. The way MS works, and what they look for, can be quite different from other places in the games industry (which is not surprising- remember they many other things and game development is a small part).
I think this is for the team I work on, but my company has a Technical Art Internship position open right now. Im pretty sure this is the first year its being offered.
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=11000A4
I’m not in any way shape or form speaking for my company or HR or any of that… but we generally look for well rounded individuals. People who aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty in a few aspects of technical art.
Rob - Thanks for the information, I’m glad you got to it before I steered someone down the wrong career path 
If that role doesn’t apply to the rest of the industry, do you think that if I take a role as an Associate Producer that I have the potential to pigeon-hole myself in a producer role once I graduate? Or do you think that if I can describe that my role at MS involved getting involved on a pipeline/technical level that I could still be considered for a TA position?
I don’t see how it would be better or even possible to enter the industry in a by-definition management role rather than a development role. Any company that puts entry level people into management roles needs their ears boxed and I’d avoid it like the plague.