Working in the gameing industry

[SeanG]

Hi all

Im Currently wokring in the advertsing industry in South Africa.
Im trying really hard to get my butt over to the gaming industry.
I would like to know from all you guys in the gameing industry.

What would be the best way to get into gameing industry and what do I need to know ?

Iv been working for 2 years in VFX for small films and Adverts.


thx for any advise.

[Reactor]

What area of game design are you looking to get into? I'm assuming you're talking about art, but even then there are many areas... such as 2D, 3D, concept art, level design, etc. Do you have any previous experience? (creating gaming assets, such as music or art) Are you looking to join a team, or create your own games?

[SeanG]

Thx for the reply reactor.

Im looking to join a team, Im trying to get over to canada.
I have no previous experiance in game production.

Im looking in getting into the modeling or texturing of game assets.
It's most probably a dream for most people to do character work.
But I have to try and see if Im good at it.

Im just looking for information and people I can talk to, to put a reel together.
Just trying to get into what got me to do CG.

Im pretty confident I can do allot of whats being done in the game industry, I just need Direction in how things are done in curtain piplelines and workflows.

[lemonnado]

Two things you need foremost are a good reel and contacts.

Don't get frustrated when you send applications to US or Canadian firms and you do not receive any response, something like corporate culture over here is pretty much non existent. The average joe manager does not even confirm the receipt of an application or en email. That's simply the way it is.

Mostly positions are filled with staff connected to the groups already established. Like Gnomon folks hiring Gnomon folks etc... Jumping in from the outside is only possible if you can provide exceptional skill proven with a reel or work references. Still then, and specially in larger studios were the hiring party is not directly the requesting party, you might have to go through 'tests' which many make cringe because of their futility.

Over here, apprentice ship is almost non existent. You can only get a job when you are ready to rock and roll in the app requested, the style requested, and with the reputation that you can provide the required task in the time and budget allocated. Nobody takes the 'risk' in educating a newcomer. Another problem which becomes more and more complicated is visa sponsoring. Most of the companies dropped the sponsoring completely as the process becomes more and more crazy, delayed, and uncontrollable due to background checks and so on. Besides the legal issues, the line of locals applying for CG Jobs is wrapping multiple times around the building.

But again, exceptional talent and skill is and will always be appreciated and happily exploited. Just get your stuff together, build a portfolio and go for it if you think you can stun the audience.

The best of luck!
Lemo

[SeanG]

Shot lemonnado, Iv been doing allot of research into it.
I know 2 people whome are working at ea and ub soft.
But this alone, is not enough.
But thx for your words and Im taking them to heart.

The whole reason its another country is because there is no gaming industry in South Africa.
We only have small films and Advertising.

Wich is enough to make you loose your mind.

[Reactor]

Interesting to hear about the industry in SA... I have many friends over there.

As far as pipelines go, having a decent understanding of 3dsMax, XSI or Maya would be a good place to start. XSI is obviously not used as much as Maya or Max, but the general principles are the same. The main things I think you'll need are a great portfolio, and a willingness to be flexible in learning. So, that'll include texture examples (mapped and unmapped), examples of low and medium poly work of human figures, and objects (houses, cars, etc) along with UVs maps. If the objects you've designed are to be rigged, you'll need examples of them with bones and all animated to show you understand a thing or two about animatable topology.

Keep in mind that I'm an indie developer, and am only commenting on what I've seen required around the place. If you have friends at EA and Ubisoft, I'm sure they'll be able to describe their pipelines in greater detail. But, at the end of the day what game studios will want is someone who can hit the ground running and produce what they need... which is pretty much what lemonnado said

Shot lemonnado,,,

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard a South African say that...

[SeanG]

Thx guys for the pointers.

Im starting to put a reel together.
Never done low ploy chars so the learning begines.
Iv been looking at a lot of Dominance war stuff.

anyway

Thx again

been really helpfull guys

[Reactor]

No worries... good to be helpful If you'd some feedback on your models, by all means post some images here. There are a lot of pro guys hanging out on here, and I'm sure they could lend some great advice.

[lemonnado]

Check out unity3d and valve's game engine. Do a little bit content creaton yourself there and see what components you need and how to make them. Go buy a copy of Valve's Halflife2 and grab the development kit. You will be able to create your own simple maps and see if you get along with that. The most important thing in doing that is to see how the original models and maps are set up. Of course, that only counts for FPS games in that respect but still applies to models in general. And Unity3d is a great engine which can even be purchased as it is reasonably priced compared to others.
Gotta run
Lemo

[SeanG]

Thx Guys woot getting info over flow here.
K so I went looking around for engines I can use to display my models etc..
K im gonna be using the Enreal 2 runtime engine.
Its free, the only thing is your not allowd to make a game, unless your making a mod for a current game using the UT2E.

K now to learn a little of the scripting and how to bring the models in :P

thx for the help guys when I start getting things together I will post some work.

Pitty none of the engine that are affordable or free dont have normal maping or spec maps.

[chamade]

Getting into game engines is a bad advice if you are a content creator wanting to get a job at a game studio. You should focus on putting together a kick ass demo reel with textured (color, normal, spec map) models as that is what you will be judged by. Don't mess with importing your models into game engines and doing turntables there, instead do renders in 3D packages.
Take a look at demo reels out of VFS (vancouver film school), some of those are available on cgtalk if you do a search.

Many artists who get jobs at game studios don't know the first thing about engines, artwork quality and a general knowledge of the process is what counts. Of course I am talking about established studios like Ubisoft, Lucasarts, EA etc.

[Reactor]

I second that advice.

The only time I've seen people hired based on mod work was in relation to level design, and that was a fair few years ago. Working on mod content or mucking with game engines just isn't a good substitute for doing what chamade has mentioned.

One other thing SeanG... I don't know if this will help you get a job, but you might want to work on your grammar and spelling a little. Maybe you're better at writing when you're not posting to a forum, but if there's any form of writing in your portfolio or email to a prospective employer, it's good to make a good first impression with decent writing. Obviously you're going to be hired as an artist and not a writer, but good presentation in all forms is important... in my opinion, anyway

[SeanG]

Hey there guys, have'nt looked at he post for a while.
I've been swamped with work for the last few months.

I've started reading allot on game modeling and texturing.
Wich is very similar to film and advertising except that people have quite a few different ways on getting the Hi res info to there low poly ver.

reactor - hehe thanks on the comment on the grammer.
I use allot of abbreviations and NET slang when talking on forums.
Will try to correct that a bit :P

chamade - It's a little late for me reading this now, I started programming a few XNA things a few days ago :P
anyway no loss here anyway because no knowledge gained is a bad knowledge.
It always benefits in the long run.

[romm]

I am from South Africa and have Unity Pro
I have also come from a post production background, mainly editing

I have become pretty good at Scripting and also have a good understanding of the asset workflows needed.

I would be happy to collaborate on a demo project

I am more into the coding, so if you do the art, where in business

[fattkid]

Maybe post some work so we can give you some more accurate advice/feedback. Also, you might want to really focus on a specific skillset, like environments/props, vehicles/hard surface, character/creature work (assuming your looking for an art position). Another thing to maybe think about is wether you are interested in the hi res/cinematic quality game art, medium res artwork, or lower res handheld style artwork. If you're just starting out, maybe consider the lower res stuff, as the high res stuff can be pretty complicated etc. Also, another thing to possibly consider is as the economic situation continues to deteriorate, there probably won't be as much funding for the big budget, AAA, hi res artwork as belts are tightened, wheres there will probably be a greater prevelance of the lower res stuff as budgets shrink. That would include handheld/cell phone style games as well, which appears to be growing pretty well. That's just my opinion, but I think it's worth considering. Good luck.