What Is Your Specific Career Like?

[Keckhs]

To sum things up, I'm working on this project for school in which I'm required to interview people in careers I'm considering with the intention of getting
information on that specific career. As I'm interested in a variety of art fields, and I've been having trouble finding artists in my area, I thought it'd be a good idea to post here. However, I thought that this could also be made into more than just a request for random interviews.

Basically, this is a thread for those lucky enough to be working in the art field to provide information on and discuss their specific occupations and positions, if they so desire. This thread could then be used as an informative tool by beginning and aspiring artists to get information on what kind of art jobs exist and what each one entails, as well as a place for discussing and comparing/ contrasting the individual aspects of those occupations. While no doubt there are already threads in existence concerning the various forms in which an artist can succeed in the art field and advance on the ladder to higher positions (or occupations, e.g. going from being an animator for a company to a successful freelancer), this thread is for discussing the specific jobs themselves, e.i. their unique routines, their merits, their individual experience requirements, etc.

I won't lie by trying to say that this isn't an attempt to fulfill my assignment, but I thought this could also be used as an opportunity for good. Thus we get to the point of this thread: What is your specific career like? Do you like it? Etc. I realize that artists are busy people and of course are under no obligation to respond to this thread at all, but if you don't mind taking the time, I've provided a form below to serve as a guide for replies, which, for the purpose of this thread, you can feel free to use all or part of, modify, or completely disregard as you see fit.

However, if anyone is feeling generous enough to help me out with my project by filling out the interview (the form below) and emailing it to me sometime this week, I'd be eternally grateful. Though no one is under any obligation to do so.

Career Interview

Basic
Job Title:
Name:
Company of Employment:
Work Phone:
Work Address:

The above contact information is simply a school requirement of the interview which you can feel free to disregard.

Career Info
Why did you choose this career?

What does this job entail?

What do you generally do in a typical work day? Can you explain your typical day-to-day work routine? Are there ever any exceptions to this routine?

What range of salary or income do you make, and who does that money come from? What is the typical income range for someone in this career?

What would you say are your favorite things about this job?

What are the challenging or difficult aspects of this job?

Skills and Education
What skills do you think are needed for this job?

What high school classes should a student interested in the career make sure that they have in order to get into said education?

What higher (after high school) education is needed to get into this career?

Are there any institutions that you would particularly recommend?

Is the prestige of the institution important?

What skills and/ or education do you have that you think helped you get into this career?

Getting a Job
How did you specifically get into this career?

How does one typically go about getting a job in this career?

Are there any particular methods that you would recommend?

What is your opinion of the job market for this career today? Is it easy or difficult to get into? How do you see it changing in the future?

How does a person generally progress in this career?

Are there any methods you would particularly recommend?

Are internships usually available for this job? If so, where would you suggest someone look for them? Do you know of any opportunities you would recommend?


Final
Do you have any other advice for those looking into this career?

Thanks in advance for replying, and many thanks to anyone willing to help me out with my project. Also, I apologize if I posted this in the wrong place or if another thread like this already exists (though I didn't find any in a search). If that's the case, I hope you guys will forgive me and won't rip me to shreds (as the rumors say you sometimes do). This is my first thread on CA and I hope to have many more.

Email: stephaniehkeck@hotmail.com

[Qitsune]

We get questionnaires like yours a lot. Too much in fact. You might want to use the search tool for "interview" in this very section or look into artist interviews on places like ImagineFX or in the lounge because I doubt you will have much success getting answers here. I know you are aware of that and I still wish you good luck.

[Keckhs]

Thanks for replying. I should have known that my chances of getting any responses out of this would be slim to none, but I really thought this would be the best way to find working artists, as I haven't been able to find any in my area. I guess this is what I get for waiting until the last minute. DX

[Serpian]

There's a lot of these threads, yes. And most often the time they are met with snide comments and people tealling the thread starters to "do their own homework". I think this is really sad, because this place is all about learning and helping, but when someone needs help with a school thing like this, everyone shuts up. Everybody could learn something if some proffessionals would tell us a bit about their work!

Anyway, I think you might have more luck if you look up some artists you like on this forum and e-mail or PM them personally.

[Keckhs]

Thank you for your reply. I honestly thought that this would be a great opportunity for artists to share some of that information in one place, but I suppose most saw it as nothing more than a shady guise to get my assignment done, which, looking at it now, I suppose maybe it is. I really shouldn't have waited so long to get this done. I don't blame anyone for being angry with me for posting this here, though. I guess I deserve it for procrastinating. --;

Thank you for the advice. I'll be sure to try that. I was just a bit concerned that I'd be disturbing some of those professionals and might come across as a bit rude. I thought this method would be more indirect and quiet, if somewhat inefficient.

[CCThrom]

Actually it's not even an issue of you waiting 'til the last minute... while that may be true, the attitude you're catching is because there are bunches of these requests every semester. Best wishes getting this done and don't give yourself too much grief for procrastinating. Honestly, your request is one of the nicer and more well-written one I've seen.

[Qitsune]

I answered and posted the answer on my blog, I hope you don't mind, that way I can point ppl there next time someone comes up with the same kind of questions. The formatting is nicer on the blog, I'm too lazy to redo it here. Meh...

This is an answer to Conceptart user Keckhs

Job Title: 2D artist
Name: Chantal Fournier
Company of Employment:Ubisoft
Work Address: Quebec City

Career Info
Why did you choose this career? I have a degree in fashion design and decided I didn’t want to do thatall my life. When I came across an ad for a 3D school, I decided THAT is what I wanted to do. I always wanted to do design or art.

What does this job entail? Mostly, I draw and animate 2D assets for videogames. Usually for DS games lately, but I have worked on retail PC, Flash and mobile games in the past. I also sometimes get involved in evaluating the amount of work in some projects and planning work pipelines. This is because we work in very small teams. Most artists in large teams don’t get so involved in planning. I have also done some project and team management in previous jobs.

What do you generally do in a typical work day? Can you explain your typical day-to-day work routine? Are there ever any exceptions to this routine? Well, it can vary but most of the time, I draw, animate, then I test my stuff and then put it on the central server. We have days where we plan ahead, usually a few days every 2 or 3 weeks. Sometimes I do test new possibilities and prototypes instead of doing final art.

What range of salary or income do you make, and who does that money come from? What is the typical income range for someone in this career? You might want to have a look at the Gamasutra salary Survey.

What would you say are your favorite things about this job? The possibility to come up with solutions. Since we are in small teams, we do a lot of different things and we get to come up with our own solutions to problems. We aren’t parked in a corner doing always the same work.

What are the challenging or difficult aspects of this job? Sometimes, we do things no one has done before (at least that we know of) so, while it’s fun to come up with solutions, some problems are tougher than others.

Skills and Education
What skills do you think are needed for this job? The ability to communicate verbally and textually. The ability to draw. Understanding of how art assets are made and different image formats. Knowledge of Photoshop is important.

What high school classes should a student interested in the career make sure that they have in order to get into said education? Art, language, math (yes yes, you will need your high school level math to do art.)

What higher (after high school) education is needed to get into this career? An art degree, or a video game art degree, or an animation degree, or no degree. But in all cases, a killer portfolio.

Are there any institutions that you would particularly recommend? I don’t know many of them. And I don’t even work in the field I studied (went to 3D school and I worked in 2D since then.)

Is the prestige of the institution important? Most often, your future emplyer won’t even ask if you went to school if your art is good enough.

What skills and/ or education do you have that you think helped you get into this career? I have management and leadership skills, I always end up with more responsibility than I signed up for. I can easily express myself.

Getting a Job
How did you specifically get into this career? My school had interviews at the end of my education and I was hired right out of school. So this helped with connections I might not have had otherwise.

How does one typically go about getting a job in this career? By building an swesome portfolio and sending it around, by networking (IGDA and CA.org are good places.) By being nice to people and letting them know they are looking for work.

Are there any particular methods that you would recommend? Make sure your website is up to date with your best stuff. Circulate it. If you have friends in the industry, being recommended is the best way.

What is your opinion of the job market for this career today? Is it easy or difficult to get into? How do you see it changing in the future? I think it depends on the location, and on your specialty. There are way more 3D people than 2D because it is taught more in schools. Some cities have more artists than jobs and others have more jobs than artists. It might be easier to get in smaller unknown studios than in large glamourous ones.

How does a person generally progress in this career? Artists often become leads, then art director or concept artist. Then they might move to technical art directors or assistant producer.

Are internships usually available for this job? If so, where would you suggest someone look for them? Do you know of any opportunities you would recommend? I saw some companies that had art internships and some that only had more technical (IT) internships. I have to say that I never had an internship and I know little about that.

Final
Do you have any other advice for those looking into this career? Draw as much as you can. The stuff you put in your portfolio should be the stuff you want to be doing. If you want to do videogames, do mock up GUI, isometric tiles and units, character sprites. If you want to do concept art, do turn arounds and renders in many different styles (not just space marines!) Don’t forget the enviros and props.

Have a clean portfolio site with your best stuff in it. Never miss deadline. Be nice to your coworkers and classmates, you never know where your next job will come from

[Seedling]

This is a terrific thread idea, Keckhs. True, we get a steady stream of such surveys here, but you are thinking for others as well as yourself, which I commend.

I’m going to disregard your format with my answers; sorry.

My current job is stay-at-home mom. But this will only be until Halloween.

The job which I am currently on maternity leave from is a design position at a company called Turbine Inc., where it is my job to sculpt and assemble landscapes and dungeons for the game dungeons and dragons Online. My current job could be best summed up by the term “level-builder”. Prior to this I was one of Turbine’s artists – a modeller/texturer – and my specialty was making sets of environment items such as architecture, rocks, trees, and segments of dungeons; and before that I made monsters and miscellaneous stuff. I have been at this company for seven and a half years, and the reason my job has changed is that my interests have changed over time.

I initially chose this career because while on my way to becoming a book illustrator, I saw an advertisement for the game Riven – and I was blown away at how far computer graphics had come. I saw the possibility of making full 3D landscapes, and I was sold. I got into the industry by first taking an internship at LucasArts, where I painted textures for landscapes on Monkey Island 4. I then returned to the Rhode Island School of Design’s illustration department where I finished getting my bachelor’s degree. The degree itself wasn’t necessary, but the experience I got, particularly from my senior year there, was invaluable. After that I applied for a job at Turbine when a former classmate told me they were looking for artists.

Internships are a very good way to get into the games industry, but you have to look hard to find those internships. Meeting and talking with others in the industry is also a very good way to get leads on jobs and to learn what you need to do to prepare yourself for such a job. Along with the internet, attending local <a href= http://www.igda.org/>IGDA</a> meetings such as <a href= http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/>this one</a> is one way to meet games industry professionals.

Getting into the industry is hard, but staying in it once you are there is easy.

I don’t know enough about other schools to say what the best educational route to this job is, but I can say with confidence that whichever school you attend, it is vital to take the wheel of your own education. I did an odd thing by using a traditional illustration program to learn how to make art for games – sometimes to the confusion or irritation of my teachers – but it turned out to be a good choice. You can start practicing your educational off-roading by taking art courses in highschool, and then figuring out how each assignment can be used as practice for making games.

A typical work-day for me is eight hours of planning and building new areas for our game. I also spend time fixing bugs with older areas of our game. Most recently, my job included training new employees, writing documents about how to make landscapes, and discouraging “feature-creep”. (Feature-creep is what happens when enthusiastic industry newcomers overcommit themselves.)

At the moment, one of my favorite things about this job is the flexibility it offers me as a parent, since our office hours are flexible. But in the long haul, it’s the creativity, the chance to build entire landscapes, the chance to teach, and the chance to work with others who also love games that keep me here.

Oops – the baby is awake. Time for me to get back to my newest job. . .

[Serpian]

If only all proffessionals were as helpful as Seedling and Quitsune! Thank you, those answers were very interesting to read even though I didn't have a school assignment!

[Keckhs]

Thank you Qitsune and Seedling for your replies. I enjoyed reading them.

If only I could figure out where that 'thank post' function is... >.>

[Serpian]

The thank post button will show up for you when you've got enough posts. I think it's like 10 or 20 or something...

[Dusty]

I don't mind filling it out at all. I agree, this is supposed to be a helpful site and more people should spread the knowledge a bit. I remember when I was graduating from school, there was definitely the internet and there was even sites such as this...but no one told me about them. It would have been helpful at the time for sure!

Basic
Job Title: 2d/3d world artist.
Name: Dusty Peterson
Company of Employment: Monolith productions

Career Info
Why did you choose this career?
Ever since I was 6 years old, I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to get paid to do something I loved. There is only one chance on this planet to do things right, and ending up in a dead-end job that I hated was not even remotely acceptable to me.

What does this job entail?
I create environments for 1st person shooters. Everything from modeling, texturing, creating materials (diffuse, specular, normal maps etc), propagating prefabs (prefabricated models..otherwise known as props, depending on the studio you work at) in the environment.

What do you generally do in a typical work day? Can you explain your typical day-to-day work routine? Are there ever any exceptions to this routine?
It depends on the part of the project (pre-production, production, alpha, beta etc are all very different). Mostly it entails figuring out how to tell a story with the environments that are required in our games. You can have a room with a desk and a carpet...but to tell the story, you need to imagine what the person living in the space would do with the items you are placing. How would they set up their office? How would they decorate? What types of trash would they leave around them? What about their kitchen? Did they do the dishes? etc. etc.

What range of salary or income do you make, and who does that money come from? What is the typical income range for someone in this career?
There are plenty of websites that talk about salary wages, but when I started at entry level in 2000, I made 42,500k per year. I have moved significantly up the ladder since then and that's about as personal as you'll get from me for this public topic.

What would you say are your favorite things about this job?
Making games that people love. Making games that people remember. Being able to do art over 60% of the day and get paid (well) for it...and consistently and without much stress. Not that it is without it's chances of bad news (i.e. layoffs in the industry at times), I've been fortunate enough to never experience that.

What are the challenging or difficult aspects of this job?
Crunch is an inevitability. Staying late isn't so much a problem...missing my wife for months on end is a serious problem.

Skills and Education
What skills do you think are needed for this job?
Good work ethic, being fast at what you do, being able to think on your own and without much direction, being able to take criticism and direction well, (obviously) traditional art skills, math (yes...math), knowledge of a lot of different 2D and 3D art packages, knowing how to budget your time (when someone asks you how long it will take, you can tell them an accurate estimate) and most importantly..knowing how to adapt to different industries if you find yourself stranded without work.

What high school classes should a student interested in the career make sure that they have in order to get into said education? English, communication, everything to do with art...everything.

What higher (after high school) education is needed to get into this career? In college, make sure to be well rounded. I actually went to school for Industrial Design Technology, but when that went south on the job front I *adapted* because I had taken 2d/3d art program classes as well. Now it's my career.

Are there any institutions that you would particularly recommend? I don't feel qualified to really answer this, as I only went to one school, The Art Institute of Seattle. They are a decent school, but many people do have problems with feeling they are too broad. It is what you make of it, though! You are the artist, not them.

Getting a Job
How did you specifically get into this career?
My step father was a programmer and referred me. Contacts are important, but are not as hard to get as you'd think. Just being on this site, you are already making contacts if you have the right attitutde.

How does one typically go about getting a job in this career?
Make a focused portfolio website. It should contain traditional art, texture sheets, models, etc. Not just "kewl drawrings" that you did on your break at work. Send cover letter email to game studios with website URL and resume...wait.

What is your opinion of the job market for this career today? Is it easy or difficult to get into? How do you see it changing in the future? I would say if you have skills and/or experience, very very easy. We often get a lot of applicants that are just flatout below par and desperate want people that just know what a normal map is. Just practice, visit this site and polycount.com and get in on mod communities if you find yourself "lacking experience". Mod communities are how you get that experience. Yes..it is free work, but think of it like building your portfolio.

How does a person generally progress in this career?
Like any other career. You learn, you get better, you gain skills, you get paid more.


Final
Do you have any other advice for those looking into this career?
Don't get discouraged. If you aren't good enough (which is very possible) it doesn't mean you won't EVER be good enough. You just need to keep working at it. Starting EARLY EARLY EARLY at this stuff is also important. Not to say an old dog can't learn new tricks, but starting in your early to mid teens is a good way to show focus and also show potential employers that you have BEEN focused on it for a long time. Joe Artist who went to community college for one year and took a couple art classes because he hates math will NOT get a job over someone that has been practicing since they were 13 in photoshop.

Oh yeah...finally, never ever ever show spaceships or robots or anime characters in your portfolio unless they are equal to or better than the work at the top of this site. It really turns off art directors (this mostly refers to 3d models, but does carry over to other parts).

Finally...egos are bad. Don't have one.

Hope that helps!

-D

[steve kim]

kechks pm'd me too and u guys have all been so helpful i'm downright inspired.

course who the hell wants to be a fine artist anyway hahoheohe, anyway:

*Career Interview*

*Basic
Job Title: Fine artist (wannabe)
Name: Steve Kim

*Career Info

*Why did you choose this career?

I applied to ArtCenter thinking I was going to work in the entertainment industry. It's why I'm a member of ca.org in the first place, and sijun.com before that . Otherwise one might ask what the heck I'm doing here... Anyway, it became a thing where as an Illustration student, the editorial illustration and low brow gallery scene became more interesting to me than entertainment work. Shortly before graduation I took a require fine-art class and that more or less changed everything, and I decided I wanted to be a fine-artist.

*What does this job entail?

It's whatever you want it to be. The key thing though is probably freedom.

*What do you generally do in a typical work day? Can you explain your typical day-to-day work routine? Are there ever any exceptions to this routine?

The ideal is to be in the studio every day and all day painting. Actually, that's probably not ideal at all because you'd end with some serious tunnel vision. Ideally it is following your curiosity and seeing where it takes you, no matter what shape it might come in.

*What range of salary or income do you make, and who does that money come from? What is the typical income range for someone in this career?

Since I'm a grad student my income is in the negative. But in general most fine artists are not going to survive through their work alone. A lot of artists supplement their income through teaching. (explains all the bad art teachers The vast majority give up and do something else sooner or later.

*What would you say are your favorite things about this job?

The creative and personal freedom. The attention. The autonomy (basically having full control over what you do)

*Skills and Education*

*What skills do you think are needed for this job?
Intelligence, curiosity, perseverence, self-reflection, integrity, and ego.

*What high school classes should a student interested in the career make sure that they have in order to get into said education?

There's no such thing as a useful High-School class unless you go to a really fancy one. Seek knowledge through community college, universities, ateliers, internet forums, etc instead. But don't drop out for chrissakes.

*What higher (after high school) education is needed to get into this career?

A bachelors and masters is almost required these days. It's not the case for commercial arts where the portfolio rules, but fine-art has deep roots in academia where degrees are coveted.... Or at the least tell people you are serious. With the way art looks today, you often can't tell who's for sure or not solely by their work.

*Are there any institutions that you would particularly recommend?

ArtCenter and Claremont Graduate School are my schools and I can recommend both, with caveats a little to long-winded to get into here.

*Is the prestige of the institution important?

Yes. Getting a MFA from Yale, Columbia, UCLA will open many, many doors. Lesser known grad schools.. I don't really know.

*What is your opinion of the job market for this career today? Is it easy or difficult to get into? How do you see it changing in the future?

In my eyes all I see is mediocrity, whether it's in fancy galleries, video-game art, car design, whatever. So my feeling is as long as you rise above the mediocrity, 'job security' will never be a problem. So basically this kind of question is useless.

*How does a person generally progress in this career?

By being good, different, original, smart. How does one get to be that way? Well the answers definitely won't be in a questionairre like this. But high school being what it is, I understand and sympathize