Whta should i do with my summer?

Professional
1

As you might have noticed from the thread title i’m looking to gain some advice. School is over for now, and two months of relative peace await:cool:

Not really ofcourse because next year will be the final year in which i have to fill in 6 months with an internship. That means i will have to build up an awesome portfolio that should get some studio’s to throw a fit over me:laugh: Obviously i want it to be free of school assignments and put in some work that really fits me but also fits in the technical artist domain. Being a Technical Artist has been my aim for about the last year, before i was sortof undecided.

There are some problems i see with my direction. First, i have not yet seen an advertisement for a Technical Artist intern or even something close. Some people i spoke that visited my school seem not really ready to embrace the trade of the technical artist. Is it even worth pursuing this or should i focus on art of programming and get into Tech Art later?

Then, should you say Tech Art is the way to go, what should i focus on? I can figure this out for doing either art or programming but taking a clear direction towards Tech Art is alot more vague to me. Should i write Maxscripts, Games, Python, C++, make 3D models, rig them? I can do it all and can gain skill in any of them this summer, but where should the focus be for the strongest portfolio?

Any advice is welcome :):

2

pick at least one thing that is away from the computer… (new life skill of some kind, martial arts, learn rock climbing, etc… for both health reasons and real world experience to apply back to computer related work in the future.)

Then pick a small production task in an area you feel weakest… texturing/shading? or character skinning or even animation, and set a two week dead line to complete it (this does a few things, helping you learn how to learn new things and hit a target…for shaders pick an image and match an object or make a muscle work as it should on an arm. then pick something else . Small chunks with clear goals… on top of something non computer would be best (this could also be photography classes, volunteer work, metal shop class etc)

3

When I got into games my goal was also to be a technical artist, but my first job was as an art intern. I did environment modeling, but found that there were many opportunities to practice the technical art craft. I wrote a bunch of scripts in my first year and fresh challenges and responsibilities kept gathering in my corner until my job title shifted.

I think that a foot in the door is much more important than holding out for the perfect job title and description, especially when you’re just getting started. Coming out of school, you should be applying for every job you think you even have a chance of getting.

As for how to use your summer, expanding your horizons is one good thing to do. If your strongest skills are programming skills, take photography or life drawing and improve your art skills. The Artist in Technical Artist is really important. If you don’t have any art chops, you’ll be hard-pressed to communicate effectively with the art team at whichever studio you join.

The question of what to add to your portfolio is always a tricky one, particularly for someone with a programming bent. I have to say I’ve seen very few solo projects that impressed me enough to pick up a phone.

The best thing I can recommend is to join a group of equally motivated people (like some of your schoolmates) and work on a joint project. You’ll get more done in a group, you’ll learn better teamwork, organization, and time-management skills, and you’ll get to focus on the aspect of the project that you find most interesting while still coming out of it with a completed piece.

If you’re looking to get into games, join a modding group. If you’re looking to get into film, create a demo, even if it’s just a shot. You’re going to learn things about being a technical artist working with a team that you aren’t going to learn in school.

You want to come to an employer with experience creating a good finished product and a clear explanation of what you contributed. Just make sure that you trust and respect the people you choose to work with, and that they are just as committed as you are. (And of course, choose a small, realistic goal.)

4

Just have fun at what you’re doing. Doesn’t matter what it is. Don’t force yourself to do something, because it will suck, this is something you’ll be doing for 80 hours a week and thinking about it for your other waking hours, so make sure it’s something you really enjoy.

Joining a modding team is a great suggestion, I did that for a while but it’s hard to fill a technical art role in those projects usually since it’s a lot of people that never done it before so it’s hard to direct them into workflows and procedures.

I would find something you’ve always wanted to give a shot at and learn it, be writing python, C++, learning how to do HDR lighting, how to do a muscle system, doesn’t matter, as long as you’re learning and solving problems.

There’s no question in my mind that Tech Artistry is the best track in any production, you get to do the cutting edge fun stuff and help/bail out a LOT of people a lot of times, which is rewarding. There’s an extremely high demand for it, as you can see by the number of recruiters in these forums, and even though companies don’t advertise the job openings they’re always looking for TA’s, for the most part they’ve just given up on searching for one since we’re hard to come by.

Hope that helps
Luiz

5

All great tips, thanks :D:

@bClark, the title was aimed at work, but it’s still a great tip because I don’t get out as much as i want even though i try. Doing small projects might work out for me as well, i’ll try that. Thanks.

@Bronwen, you seem to think to i’m mainly a programmer and artist on the side but that’s not quite true. My art grades are higher than my programming:wink:. And about getting an internship/job as a Tech Artist, i already thought it was hard, so that’s why i asked. Your experience is very helpful.
This year in school was the first time we got to work on a game in a group. I definately learned alot doing that and it expanded some of my Technical Artist skills, like writing scripts for the artist and being responsible for the animation in the game. I’ll definately think about joining a group. Thanks.

@Ikruel, i think i could say i pretty much enjoy doing everything except rigging(i like writing scripts that do it for me though). So sometimes it’s hard to choose what to get into. I like your loose take on creating, it is something that comes naturally to me but is sometimes frustrating. Like wanting to learn python before school deadlines:laugh: Thanks.

6

You probably aren’t going to find a tech artist specific intern position. Most intern positions are basically production assistant type jobs. You’ll be lucky if they let you model something, or spend your time learning the toolset and providing artist support. Take what you can get.

If you want to make something that will impress a potential employer, I would recommend that rather than getting involved in some mod or project that most likely will go nowhere, you pick a problem or two and write tools to solve them. Create a tool that generates foliage, create an asset browser, write a file format and exporter for the program of your choice, write a viewer, write some unique shaders. Find some Siggraph papers that interest you and have a go at implelmenting them. Look at the presentations from GDC and have a go at one of the production problems presented in the talks.

Good luck

7

Ok, so I actually just noticed the horrible spelling error in the thread title. I fixed it locally but it doesn’t seem to affect the front page version. My own damn fault for not reading before I post :mad:.

@Micron, thank you for the insights. Some students from my school that did an internship this year had excellent experiences others had fairly bad experiences. Some part of luck is involved there i guess :): I have some schoolwork to do this summer so I might choose to integrate some of the Technical Artist work that you suggest with that project. I’ll definately check out some papers and see if anything tickles my fancy, thanks :):

8

I held out for the perfect job title. It took me 5 years to get it and I started vastly under paid for what I was doing because of it. Had I started in Animation and then switched to Technical Animator, I would have gotten more projects, experience, and most of all, pay. You can have a badass demo reel, but getting a job is more important. I say for Tech Art, go with environment modeling and once inside prove your worth. Even if you take on the extra responsibility for free in that position, you can change jobs and your experience is now “production” experience and you can talk about how you solved real problems. And you got paid to do it :).