The Demotivated Technical Artist

Professional
1

Hello Rob and all other TA’s reading this…

I’m basically writing this out of desperation and demotivation seeking sincere advice from the elites here.

My background is in Software engineering and I have always liked to create art using a computer. I find out quite late in life that I’m quite a visual person. I’ve recently been working as a Technical Artist in a game studio in Vancouver (Canada). This was my 1st job after I completed my Masters here. (I have had no formal training/internship in a game studio before this)

I was interviewed 1st by a CG-Sup and an Art director, 2nd interview was by a Tools programmer and World Artist. I made it thru got my 1st job as a TA.

My 1st task was to upgrade their Max plugin which is required to push in models/textures from Max to their game engine. The plugin used, C#, C++ and Max script. I only knew C++ cause of my Engg background, never used the other two. Anyway I wanted to learn this so I went ahead (without a given deadline) and I thought it would take me 2 weeks but it took me a month. The reason primarily being no documentation, no design rules of this plugin it was a hack-slash way to get it runnning really fast by the people who wrote it. My way of learning this was using Debugging , stepping thru the whole code, it was time consuming and frustrating. (They didnt even have comments in the code, nor a description header on a file)…

My next task was making a procedural shader (glitter effect) in HLSL, to be put in the game, I had 3 days to do it, thats what my CG-sup said. I got the effect in 5. Any how the CG-sup didnt like it and told me to find alternative ways (which by the way even he didnt know at during this span).

Later, I was again put back onto the same plugin cause it required more upgrades and bug removal and neither the tools programmer nor him had the time to fix this stuff and the artist needed this fast.

I did this for 3 months (the span of my job in this studio before quiting), finished it, got really frustrated and then told my CG-sup that I cant go on like this, it was taking a toll mentally, trying to learn everything really quick in short time from books ( I can chew 500 page book in a day but without understanding programming concepts or shader knowledge it was not satisfying enough for me and for my career ). The reason primarily being that I was shuffling the same assignment again and again, not doing anything new or even given time to learn anything new. (The studio doesn’t not implement any sort of formal training or co-op ). I was completing these tasks for the sake of completing it not knowing how it works.

I later realised after 1-1/2 month out of curiousity that this position was handled by a person with 10 years of exp as a Lighting/Technical Artist from the film and that I was the 31st recruit of the 30 interviewed. I got in because of my programming skills which is what they wanted at that time. This also meant high expectation. And the game studios which didn’t use Unreal/Unity/Crytech, everything had to be coded. They didn’t know that I didn’t know this. They were satified with the technical answers I gave. ( I had no idea what I was going to be given ). They later said that they didn’t do a good job in interviewing me and it wasn’t my mistake, it was theirs and that they got a junior person on a senior level job. That was my consolation.

All the above is fine, but I’m tired of people giving offers relative only to the Software engg/programming - this by the way are not from game/fx studios. In established Game/FX studios no one wants a noob on their team and no one wants a junior technical artist, because he is a noob. - Reality of game jobs in Vancouver.

Only EA has Co-op / Intern positions and they give them once a year, if you don’t get it, your stuck in the pile of " must have 3 years of industry experience ". VFX studios only recruit elites, not even Render wranglers get in without experience in Render wrangling. (which is the entry level for tech oriented position for FX/Lighting and Pipeline TD’s ).

All the CG softwares I know are self taught, have been chasing CG since I got out of high-school knowing just Photoshop. Joined Engineering just because they had one subject call “Computer Graphics”, I made boxes using C++ code and in 1 semester it was over. Got into Masters, worked in Unreal and Unity both as a game programmer and TA at a graduate level and learn’t problem solving relative to CG from magazines. Some times I wonder I would be better off just have a magazine subscription to CG related stuff and have a good internet connection, instead of wasting time doing Masters. Skill mattered, not the degree.

Any how, its been a month without a job, no job offers, no replies, my motivation to learn more CG sitting at home aimlessly has dropped to 5%. At the studio, I had a “problem” to solve, at home I’m lacking total motivation to do something for my portfolio. As I feel whatever I do, there is always a clause saying " 2-3 years of industry exp". Where to people go when they don’t have exp? Mac-Donalds??

I like making effects, shaders, lighting, environs … and don’t really like rigging and modelling. I have done enough research to see that this is ok but the opportunities to apply the above skills don’t come without experience at all. Maya one day, Max another day, then some one mentions Houdini, then Mari… all in all a list of softwares which you must know in order to get a job. I have no issues with learning 50 softwares more, but with a PURPOSE.

I’m afraid if this is the case I might end up going back to software engineering jobs and that would be the end of my dream. I don’t know how long to wait aimlessly, out of focus. Is it this bad getting another job as a junior-intermediate TA?

The other issue is I can’t work in US cause no one wants to sponsor a person who has " less than 3 years of exp ". They would if I was a Canadian, but I’m not. FML!

:x

2

Hmmm, I hesitate to respond to this post for a few reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t know all sides of the issue, and I certainly don’t know you as a person.

I think the first thing I’ll say is that there are crappy jobs in every discipline and industry, and there are also jobs that are a bad fit for a specific individual.

I recently saw an artist asked to leave a team (laid off, made redundant, whatever you want to call it). He had a 3 inch thick portfolio that spanned at least two decades of fairly talented work. Most of this work was 2D, and while he was decent at 3D, he wasn’t the match the team was looking for. In his particular case, I think that his departure will be good for him since there are a ton of Flash devs out there looking for 2D talent, and he can probably find a much better fit. Why do I mention this? Simply because not everyone is going to find a job that is a perfect fit for them, and sometimes this leads to a parting of the ways. It is almost a certainty that at some point, I will be in his shoes. I’ll will try to remember this when that time comes.

So, you had a bad start. So what? There are tons of people in the same boat. Find something that fits your personality better. I know that for a tech artist, finding a new job can be challenging. You should realize that you’ve (tentatively) chosen a profession that is what they call a “vertical market”. There are not a ton of TA jobs out there, and when there are job openings, they are not always a perfect fit, and when they seem to be a good fit, they are usually in some other city far away. If you want to find jobs more easily, and if you want better “job portability”, you are much better off as an Engineer. Note that I’m not telling you that you should quit the TA profession, just that it can be a challenging path at times.

If you’ve ever watched reality TV (cooking or art shows), or talked to someone in depth about their time in art school, you will know that they suffer something called “a/the crit” which is short for critique. This is where a bunch of people get together and tear you a new a55hole over the quality of your work.

This is one of the most important things that art school gives you.

Why? Because it hardens the individual to the realities of life. Not everyone makes it through this process. Some can’t take failure, but those who can end up with a tougher skin.

In business, they have similar processes to this. It goes by different names, but the common one you will hear is “a 360”. This is where your peers are asked to grade your performance.

Why do I mention this? Because I’m going to try to give you a 360 review. Note that I don’t know you at all, so I could be far off the mark. Also, where I sound negative, it is because I’m trying to honestly help.

[ol]
[li]Attitude. You seem to be in the dumps. I can’t say I’m surprised, I would be too. How was your attitude at work? Forget how good/bad you were at your tasks, or how long they took. Did you dread talking to your manager? Did he dread talking to you? Making sure that your attitude stays positive is usually more important than doing a 3 day task in 3 days. I may be reading between the lines, but I think there may have been a personality conflict. Ask yourself honestly if some of this was your fault. There have been several people at my work that I knew were going to be asked to leave, not because of their quality of work, but because they had a negative attitude. This is fixable.[/li][li]Expectations of the job. You have some complaints about what you were asked to do. You had to look at uncommented code? Wow, really? You had to learn a bunch of new APIs for which you had no knowledge of? You were asked/expected to work miracles in record time? You do realize that you just described tech art as a profession don’t you? I mean, that is the job description. Period. If you found that you didn’t like the experience of being cast adrift on a desert island, and expected to build a cruise ship out of palm fronds, you may want to reconsider your career path.[/li][li]Order of operations. You should always feel free to quit your job. You should never quit your job before finding a new one unless you are suffering horribly. I assume that you weren’t asked to leave based on your description. It is always easier to find work when you are working. You remove the question of, “why doesn’t this person have a job”. If you were sitting at a desk clicking a mouse all day, could your job really have been all that horrible? You weren’t shoveling coal, sweeping streets, or picking up garbage. Next time, suck it up and work your ass off until you find something more suitable.[/li][li]Find something to do. You are bored trying to learn CG on your own without a goal. Fair enough. Either find a goal that makes you want to do CG (there are a bunch of groups on the internet working of projects who would love to have help), or find something else that motivates you. Have you heard that iPhone games are popular? You should have the technical chops to bang out some crappy little iPhone/Andriod/Windows Phone app. This is a Marketable Skill, and if you really think that you want to be a TA or an engineer, then you just got a little excited/interested. If writing an iPhone app/game sounds like a horrible chore, and does not interest you at all, then you really need to question your choice of career path. I mean really.[/li][li]Never be afraid to be honest. So long as you are trying to be positive, to improve yourself, improve the project/product, etc., you should never be afraid to say what you think. You found yourself in a job where the expectations were off, and where your skills may have been lacking. Tell your manager that in as many words. This gets easier with age and experience. You took a month to do a 2 week task. That happens. That happens a lot. That happens a lot in all professions. Did you tell your manager at the end of week one that you were struggling, or did you hide the fact, try to hunker down and power through it? The number one commodity for managers is information. If managers have information, they can schedule around problems. They can juggle manpower or tasks. If they don’t have information, then they look stupid to their superiors for failing to highlight a potential problem. Never make your manager look bad. (duh)[/li][li]Is tech art your dream? If you go back to being an engineer, is that a failure? You can still work in games. You will make more money. Your job is more portable. You can still end up doing what is effectively tech art. In fact, most engineers hate working on tools. One that is willing to do so is a selling point on a resume. There is only a slight difference between an engineer who is willing to work on tools and a TA. In fact, you could argue that there is no difference. Once in a while you will work with an engineer who is willing to open Maya/Max. OMG! That dude is awesome![/li][li]3 years of experience. Yeah, that one sucks. Same thing as “must have degree in XXX”. This industry is difficult to get into and powered by personal connections once you are in. Everyone wants a known quantity. It makes things easy. Did you burn any bridges at your previous company? Do you have friends there that can help you look for work? Are you working with a headhunter? Note that the latter is a mixed bag, but they can help. With your visa difficulties, I would look for work with a small outfit that needs help. You will probably have to work for less that you are worth, but you are building your portfolio/contacts. People want to hire people who have been tied to successful projects. In fact, this is probably more important than a good number of things on your resume.[/li][li]You are not unemployed (at least as far as potential employers are concerned). You will find a project that interests you and you will apply yourself to it. I mentioned iPhone apps and public projects. Find something that you can honestly say you have been working towards. I don’t care if you volunteer at a homeless shelter. So long as you can honestly say that you were working towards something meaningful to you in an interview, that will go a long way versus the defacto alternative of sitting on your ass.[/li][/ol]

So, kinda ranty and a bit negative, but hopefully helpful.

GOOD LUCK,

Brett

3

Brett totally hit it on the nose I think. This industry is far from a stable one and it’s one where everyone involved has to adapt to a new challenge all the time.

Every project is its own beast. Some will be a doddle to get through and others will be utter hell.

I worked shortly at a studio that asked for stuff in an impossible (and constantly shifting) timeline, and I left them quite quickly(without taking my final pay) so I can understand what you’re going through. My coworkers who also left are working elsewhere(I went in for further education) and are much happier at their new jobs.

My point there isn’t to bitch about the place I worked at, but more that not every studio has the same environment and you will feel more at home at some than others. It’s not always the studios fault as well. It could be the employee. You have to honestly analyze how much of the issue was the company, the task or yourself.

As for applying for junior jobs without experience, you totally can do it. I have tons of friends with little to no experience working in junior roles across the board. If you’re good enough and confident, you will get work. It may not be tomorrow, but it will happen if you keep trying.

In the meantime, keep working on your skills. This is an adaptive and creative industry. You have to be keep your mind and skillset sharp to tackle anything that comes your way.
Learn new skills. Learn new languages. Apply them to something so you can show that you know it and , more importantly, so it gives you a goal.
It’s hard to keep motivated…I totally understand that, but then you have to question if you really enjoy doing it?

4

Thanks Brett! That was lot of info!

Regarding the 8 points you mentioned:

  1. Attitude: My attitude was higher than what it should be because I was very much grateful for the job, didn’t have any personality clashes with any one. The team I worked with made the games I played as a child. My issue was in the 3rd month when I began to see the pattern of what I was doing. I was not getting any significant feedback as of whether I was good, bad or meeting expectations. I kept trying to work my way faster than I can.

  2. Expectations: I was told that the tools programmer after having 3 years of exp could have done it in a day, which he was totally right. It was a learning process. BUT the whole studio had people who had minimum of 4 years of exp, I was the only one who was a recent grad. So I knew i have to get things done really fast. Else I would be holding the production back in my role.

  3. Suffering Horribly: Not really. My lack of motivation was because no one acknowledged whether I was doing better or not. I did what my lead asked, confirmed it with the artists, they were happy so I was. My annoyance started when it felt like I’m a cheap version of a tools programmer who you say things and he does it without asking any questions, meaning I had 0 input of why I was doing what I was doing. Now I have had grad projects which had peers of my level so I was approachable and even I approached when needed help. Here I couldn’t do anything because approaching any one seemed like wasting his/her time. They all had more work on avg and greater responsibility than I did. Which is equivalent to the feeling you get when you would sit in a corner and code day in day out, without asking any questions.

  4. Iphone/Android apps: I didn’t do this cause the games I liked to play were on the Console and PC, I’m not a fan of casual games but its not like I don’t like the games on mobile i just don’t play them. I do help friends with my skills on porting stuff in a game engine, and other CG related problem solving whenever I get an opportunity.

  5. I did not have a manager your talking of, we had our daily scrum with the producers, thats it. My lead (CG-sup) came later on to say if I had to do something specific other than what I was doing. I had no issues as long as my lead would tell me if I messed up or not.

  6. Like I said, I like Shader authoring, Lights, Color and effects. These 3 are available as a “role” in the movie industry but it is done by max by 2-3 people depending on the studio in the games industry. I have no bias in either of the industries but seeing that I do only tools 80% of the time, is equivalent to doing programming all day.

  7. I have enough connections and not many game studios who want someone for this role. It is usually the big ones who have this title. So if there is no position to be filled, I can’t fill it. This gets aggravating knowing that I’ll have to fall back to programming jobs elsewhere than doing what I like. As for the previous company, no bridges burned or anything they said they would want me back but after I have the experience which is required to do the job really fast. Honestly I didn’t, I can’t step into the shoes of a person with 10 years of experience and pretend I can do things as fast as he did.

  8. I have started to draw/paint digitally and learn 3d modelling as an alternative, not really effective towards a portfolio but keeps me motivated enough.

All in all it was a good exposure to what a TA does. I still would want to do it in a less hasty environment because I DO want some input of my energy which I’m giving to this project.

5

It may not have been a perfect fit, but from the sounds of it you gained plenty of marketable skills while working there. I’d say now might be a good time to try applying what you learned to something useful you are interested in creating. At least while you are in-between jobs. Having a side project you care about is a great way to stay motivated and potentially make yourself more employable.

6

Yes, the experience was good. I’m usually find some tutorial on a thing I like to make, and make it. Pretty much how I learn’t most of the things.

7

[QUOTE=dgovil;14658]Brett totally hit it on the nose I think. This industry is far from a stable one and it’s one where everyone involved has to adapt to a new challenge all the time.

Every project is its own beast. Some will be a doddle to get through and others will be utter hell.

I worked shortly at a studio that asked for stuff in an impossible (and constantly shifting) timeline, and I left them quite quickly(without taking my final pay) so I can understand what you’re going through. My coworkers who also left are working elsewhere(I went in for further education) and are much happier at their new jobs.

My point there isn’t to bitch about the place I worked at, but more that not every studio has the same environment and you will feel more at home at some than others. It’s not always the studios fault as well. It could be the employee. You have to honestly analyze how much of the issue was the company, the task or yourself.

As for applying for junior jobs without experience, you totally can do it. I have tons of friends with little to no experience working in junior roles across the board. If you’re good enough and confident, you will get work. It may not be tomorrow, but it will happen if you keep trying.

In the meantime, keep working on your skills. This is an adaptive and creative industry. You have to be keep your mind and skillset sharp to tackle anything that comes your way.
Learn new skills. Learn new languages. Apply them to something so you can show that you know it and , more importantly, so it gives you a goal.
It’s hard to keep motivated…I totally understand that, but then you have to question if you really enjoy doing it?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply, my current problem is not the best skills, BUT staying sharp endlessly knowing that there is always a " must have X amount of experience " which will nullify all the skills I have on the CV. So even if I have a broader knowledge, lack of experience in this profession or well any profession will not let me have a job at all. Heck they don’t even reply to any questions I have after I apply to a position.

8

my point was more that, don’t worry about the experience requirement. For a junior, very few studios will care all that much as long as you’re good. That’s what I’ve seen and what most recruiters have told me.

Hell, some of my friend’s were far from the best and got work right away.
Really, it’s all luck and then if your luck holds out, it’s about your reel. You may have to work your way up from a lower position because you don’t have the ‘required experience’, but I know tons of people who started as render wranglers and were lighters/compers after a month or two. All in Vancouver.

Don’t get too down on yourself, because as long as you keep trying, it will work out.

9

I can’t speak for the people reviewing your application, but from my perspective demonstrating you have a unique/useful skill or are particularly talented can trump “x amount of experience”. Doesn’t mean you’ll get the job if a better candidate comes along, but it certainly will help them consider you.

If you feel your skills are nullified by the lack of your experience on your CV, it is time to re-brand yourself. You are not the sum of the work you’ve had, so make it painfuly clear through your portfolio that you have accomplished much more. Focus in on what really makes you stand out and be potentially an invaluable employee. Put that front and center on your website and move all the extra fluff aside.

10

[QUOTE=Crispy4004;14668]I can’t speak for the people reviewing your application, but from my perspective demonstrating you have a unique/useful skill or are particularly talented can trump “x amount of experience”. Doesn’t mean you’ll get the job if a better candidate comes along, but it certainly will help them consider you.

If you feel your skills are nullified by the lack of your experience on your CV, it is time to re-brand yourself. You are not the sum of the work you’ve had, so make it painfuly clear through your portfolio that you have accomplished much more. Focus in on what really makes you stand out and be potentially an invaluable employee. Put that front and center on your website and move all the extra fluff aside.[/QUOTE]

Ya you’re right. I have had a “generalistic” approach to this role, I should specialize in a specific or less common skill among tool programmers or TA’s. And maybe should be really good at only that one thing to push forward.

11

[QUOTE=dgovil;14667]my point was more that, don’t worry about the experience requirement. For a junior, very few studios will care all that much as long as you’re good. That’s what I’ve seen and what most recruiters have told me.

Hell, some of my friend’s were far from the best and got work right away.
Really, it’s all luck and then if your luck holds out, it’s about your reel. You may have to work your way up from a lower position because you don’t have the ‘required experience’, but I know tons of people who started as render wranglers and were lighters/compers after a month or two. All in Vancouver.

Don’t get too down on yourself, because as long as you keep trying, it will work out.[/QUOTE]

Amen! yes that made me feel better, thank you!

12

I think your expectations were a little bit too high. It’s not uncommon to be stuck going in circles working on the same tools with little feedback. Its part of production, some studios/projects/supervisors are better some are worse, you just need to accept that.
Very few places have any sort of a decent training program. Jumping in cold on a tool with badly documented extremely hacky code in an unfamiliar language happens all the time.

13

In my opinion, you are just suffering from what my old man always called “reality shock” As pointed out by other people, what you went through wasn’t just limited to the TechArt field, its almost ANY field. I was a graphic designer and went through the same thing. All my friends in a variety of disciplines went through the same thing.

The problem wasnt the company, or even the industry. Its your perception. You had a great opportunity to learn not just about your job, but about a professional work environment. Diligence, communication, responsibility, handling clients (managers), the perils of writing loaded emails and dealing with schedules, deadlines and forecasting…all of these things are essential tools for dealing in any size company.

Shadow had a great point, your expectations are way off. This was your first job out of school, and it didnt fit what you had in your head. I’ve been forever chasing a company that does things “the right way” and while im sure they do exist, I think youre talking of the elite companies that can charge what they want and take the time that they need to do a good job. But until you get all that experience to get a job at a really good company that has that sort of kudos, you will have to slog through the inefficiencies and limitations of the regular companies that have to cut corners and fulfill unreasonable expectations just to make ends meet.

We all here know how you feel. Every year, gotta learn the newest version. Every year, theres another piece of software to learn. Its daunting, and frustrating. Dont focus so much on that. Ive seen plenty hiring managers that look at people’s resume with self professed Studio Max Experts and just snort. Dont worry so much about what you can put in your resume, worry about what you can SHOW. If you love Max, then keep plugging away at your craft in max. If you have great work, eye for detail, and good style, its assumed that you will pick up Maya or whatever in a few months. If you love tech art, then you really shouldnt have a problem filling all your extra hours doing cool things that make you happy. Program new shaders, model new characters, script out something that challenges you…whatever.

And what you do with all that free time you invested in yourself? Share it with everyone. When you share with the community, people take notice, and your stock rises. Karma points add up in this business. I can think of six examples of artists down on their luck that gave away tutorials, demos, models, and scripts and next thing I know, theyre teaching lessons at SIGGRAPH. Like another poster said: use your time to help out other projects that are short on talent and funds. If you truly love TechArt, then the thought of doing this stuff should excite you. If all you can worry about is the paycheck, the you really should go the engineering route. I promise you, what youre going through now? Happens to all of us, weather you have 3 years exp or 12. And when it does, the only thing that keeps you going is your love for what you do.

Just remember, you can never go wrong with focusing your time in your craft, and investing in yourself.

14

[QUOTE=rallyfanche;14720]In my opinion, you are just suffering from what my old man always called “reality shock” As pointed out by other people, what you went through wasn’t just limited to the TechArt field, its almost ANY field. I was a graphic designer and went through the same thing. All my friends in a variety of disciplines went through the same thing.

The problem wasnt the company, or even the industry. Its your perception. You had a great opportunity to learn not just about your job, but about a professional work environment. Diligence, communication, responsibility, handling clients (managers), the perils of writing loaded emails and dealing with schedules, deadlines and forecasting…all of these things are essential tools for dealing in any size company.

Shadow had a great point, your expectations are way off. This was your first job out of school, and it didnt fit what you had in your head. I’ve been forever chasing a company that does things “the right way” and while im sure they do exist, I think youre talking of the elite companies that can charge what they want and take the time that they need to do a good job. But until you get all that experience to get a job at a really good company that has that sort of kudos, you will have to slog through the inefficiencies and limitations of the regular companies that have to cut corners and fulfill unreasonable expectations just to make ends meet.

We all here know how you feel. Every year, gotta learn the newest version. Every year, theres another piece of software to learn. Its daunting, and frustrating. Dont focus so much on that. Ive seen plenty hiring managers that look at people’s resume with self professed Studio Max Experts and just snort. Dont worry so much about what you can put in your resume, worry about what you can SHOW. If you love Max, then keep plugging away at your craft in max. If you have great work, eye for detail, and good style, its assumed that you will pick up Maya or whatever in a few months. If you love tech art, then you really shouldnt have a problem filling all your extra hours doing cool things that make you happy. Program new shaders, model new characters, script out something that challenges you…whatever.

And what you do with all that free time you invested in yourself? Share it with everyone. When you share with the community, people take notice, and your stock rises. Karma points add up in this business. I can think of six examples of artists down on their luck that gave away tutorials, demos, models, and scripts and next thing I know, theyre teaching lessons at SIGGRAPH. Like another poster said: use your time to help out other projects that are short on talent and funds. If you truly love TechArt, then the thought of doing this stuff should excite you. If all you can worry about is the paycheck, the you really should go the engineering route. I promise you, what youre going through now? Happens to all of us, weather you have 3 years exp or 12. And when it does, the only thing that keeps you going is your love for what you do.

Just remember, you can never go wrong with focusing your time in your craft, and investing in yourself.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the valuable feedback, at the moment if I hadn’t posted this thread I wouldn’t have known what others have to say about my perception of this role, I think the reality of what a TA or a TD does far more intense in production environments in either industries. I guess I was thrown to the wolves without prior knowledge of what one does and how fast your supposed to do it.

You mentioned, Karma Points, yes I do put up tutorials on youtube on how to create the little things I have learnt from experiments. I guess I don’t have enough yet :(:

But yes, the “Craft” is the what keeps you ahead so I shall continue making more stuff with even more softwares (but in the area I like). I now realize that this role is “rare” this will happen to me again and then I have to wait, and I have to wait without getting demotivated and that it is just a temporary pause in the career and not the end.

15

[QUOTE=rallyfanche;14720]I’ve been forever chasing a company that does things “the right way” and while im sure they do exist, I think youre talking of the elite companies that can charge what they want and take the time that they need to do a good job. [/QUOTE]

I gave up on this search. I too once thought that the elite companies have it figured out, but after working for few of them it’s pretty clear to me that it’s never the case, in fact they are often worse off. The only place I thought had it down (Propaganda Games) is no more :tear:

Once, after a round of bickering about the pipeline, I asked my VFX supervisor why he has been with the company for almost 15 years and he said he lives under the assumption that every other place is worse. And theres definitely some truth to that!

16

[QUOTE=Star;14670]Ya you’re right. I have had a “generalistic” approach to this role, I should specialize in a specific or less common skill among tool programmers or TA’s. And maybe should be really good at only that one thing to push forward.[/QUOTE]

It’s not even necessarily about specializing in something specific, after all versatility is a good thing. It’s more about putting your best foot forward and focusing in on how you present, or pitch if you will, yourself. Hopefully shifting that will lead to jobs you are a better fit for with less confusion over what tasks you can really excel at. Keep in mind too as a tech artist, you have ample opportunity re-brand yourself almost overnight by building a reputation through solving artists’ need(s). People really value creative solutions to commonly overlooked challenges.

17

Damn we need a thumbs up for posts in here! There’s so many good points that ring true that I wish I could hit a thumbs up for on this post!

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First, I would say that you have been disadvantaged in that your skills are not well matched to your experience. That makes you inappropriately more marketable in situation where Tech-Art is not well defined, or hiring decision are being made by people with no clear criteria for acceptability.

A person with your background really needs to spend some time looking at what your like and are good at, and turn it around. From a studio’s perspective, what are you good for. You need to focus on that until your industry experience is a little deeper. Its all about picking your battles, not learning every application. Pick one, and own it. It will limit your job option in some respects, but it will seriously open your prospects in so many others.

Next, don’t go out of your depth. A naive hiring manager may overvalue one part of your resume to your detriment. So don’t let them. Don’t go after the Senior TA position that you don’t have the experience to back up. Your programming skills already give you a leg up on scaling your role and responsibilities quickly. But that happens over the course of your career, not at the start. Knowing what you are good for as well as good at is key to not falling into that trap.

Last, looking for studios with a developed TechArt culture. Ask how many TAs are in the Studio. How many on each project? How are tasks assigned? How is information shared? How is mentor-ship facilitated? A studio with a commitment to the TechArt discipline will have answers to these questions. These are the studios best equipped to utilize Junior and Staff level TAs effectively.

If they are only interested in Senior TAs, odds are, they have no criteria to judge and they think they can plug a lone gunman into a silo and make their TA problems go away. Sometimes this works if they find a really capable and experienced person. But that person does not get jerked around like you did. That person walks in the door knowing what that project can and cant have, what they require to get what they want, and can give definitive answers to fill the knowledge gaps that will otherwise send a junior TA fleeing from the Industry.

Don’t despair. Just dust yourself off and start over. As bad an experience as that was, it was also very informative if you let it sync in. Don’t be afraid to have a criteria for what is acceptable in a job and an employer. You don’t have to work any particular place or under any kind of circumstances. Give yourself the time to find a good fit… But make sure you really understand what that is first. This is a good place to get the advice that will inform that understanding.

Raymond

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[QUOTE=apocalypse2012;14994]First, I would say that you have been disadvantaged in that your skills are not well matched to your experience. That makes you inappropriately more marketable in situation where Tech-Art is not well defined, or hiring decision are being made by people with no clear criteria for acceptability.

A person with your background really needs to spend some time looking at what your like and are good at, and turn it around. From a studio’s perspective, what are you good for. You need to focus on that until your industry experience is a little deeper. Its all about picking your battles, not learning every application. Pick one, and own it. It will limit your job option in some respects, but it will seriously open your prospects in so many others.

Next, don’t go out of your depth. A naive hiring manager may overvalue one part of your resume to your detriment. So don’t let them. Don’t go after the Senior TA position that you don’t have the experience to back up. Your programming skills already give you a leg up on scaling your role and responsibilities quickly. But that happens over the course of your career, not at the start. Knowing what you are good for as well as good at is key to not falling into that trap.

Last, looking for studios with a developed TechArt culture. Ask how many TAs are in the Studio. How many on each project? How are tasks assigned? How is information shared? How is mentor-ship facilitated? A studio with a commitment to the TechArt discipline will have answers to these questions. These are the studios best equipped to utilize Junior and Staff level TAs effectively.

If they are only interested in Senior TAs, odds are, they have no criteria to judge and they think they can plug a lone gunman into a silo and make their TA problems go away. Sometimes this works if they find a really capable and experienced person. But that person does not get jerked around like you did. That person walks in the door knowing what that project can and cant have, what they require to get what they want, and can give definitive answers to fill the knowledge gaps that will otherwise send a junior TA fleeing from the Industry.

Don’t despair. Just dust yourself off and start over. As bad an experience as that was, it was also very informative if you let it sync in. Don’t be afraid to have a criteria for what is acceptable in a job and an employer. You don’t have to work any particular place or under any kind of circumstances. Give yourself the time to find a good fit… But make sure you really understand what that is first. This is a good place to get the advice that will inform that understanding.

Raymond[/QUOTE]

Thanks Raymond for your input and I agree I didn’t ask as many questions as I should have now. Specially cause it was my 1st job and well I just wanted it really bad. BUT now for the 2 interviews I got in the past, I always ask is what is expected of me and what is the Culture (Mentor ship/ tasks / feedback etc), primarily because I don’t want to promise myself as a Pipeline TA/TD is that is all they want. My last interviewer himself said that if you go into a Pipeline route in your career, the Look dev will be only available if you prove you have what it takes to be a VFX/Look Dev Artist, and you’ll be given Pipeline jobs otherwise -> Pigeon Hole. Hence I thanked him for the advice and although I do need a job asap, labeling myself in a role I cant come out of will again be a regret later on when I don’t get a job I want, specially because re-mapping a Pipeline engg to a Artist is not what every studio can afford and would neither do. (at-least in my experience)

“Pick one, and own it.” - I’m doing this right now, I have decided that I don’t want to be limited to Pipeline roles as they do not allow me to have any creative input on the actual product itself ( I’m hoping to get a studio which would prove this wrong). I’m developing and limiting my specialization to Look Dev - FX, Shaders, Art and anything which I can do to make it look good using my tech skills.

The company which I just left had 2 TA (me and my lead), my lead (15 yrs of xp) was a CG sup and then it was me right under him + 1 Tools engg. The Dev team was about 50-60 people. I replaced a Lighting Artist/TA with 10 years of xp, thus they thought I could do everything but well I could, but not as fast as he could. I don’t think I lacked the intelligence to take this role, neither did they, but they had no time to let me learn anything. And I couldn’t read more Math / Rendering books after 9 hour job of doing purely programming + F5-F10 debugging in VS. It was draining mentally.

I also discovered that I work more effectively and really fast if I have a problem to solve, like when a artist needs help, but this drive is low at home making a portfolio. So its a cycle : No TA position -> Work on portfolio -> No exp to be TA -> No TA position. I’m trying to break free by just doing FX and Shaders now.

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[QUOTE=Star;15001]I’m trying to break free by just doing FX and Shaders now.[/QUOTE]

Not to spin you around in all kinds of different directions, but there aren’t that many jobs available for somebody who just writes shaders.

Generally speaking, graphics programmers or engine programmers are heavily involved in this because it ties into so much of the engine itself.

So specializing as a TA in writing shaders is potentially setting yourself up for few job opportunities. There are some, but not that many. Just a heads up.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a great and valuable skill to have. And I personally love messing with shaders. But in most TA job interviews, I wouldn’t make ‘writing shaders’ as my main skill. More like “Next to skill A, B and C I can also write shaders” kind of thing.

-Kees