Graduation – What’s Next?
- Graduated 2021, pandemic graduate.
- At the moment most of her work comes from Chapel Arts, delivering classes and getting people involved in art.
- Also works for Games Jobs Live, does a lot of freelance data crunching.
- Used to work for Westpier, a Brighton Studio specialising in social gaming for gambling.
- Worked in hospitality only up until last year.
Simply Safer
- Allowed her to quit her cafe job, developing a health food safety board game!
- Created fun, stylised icons and designed the look of the whole board
- Joined Westpier shortly after.
- Joined Chapel Arts after that.
Currently taking an Arts Degree in Animation Production, and so creates backgrounds/props. Very interested in representing disbabled people through her work. Eg; prosthetics.
Get really good at art so they can’t say NO!!!
Used a mentorship program to help support her art, created a lot of props and environments which helped really push her art.
Prefers doing layouts to full renders so maybe I can get away with that…
Game art iterations have to be quick, usually not rendered.
- Jourdan Tuffan
- Erin Shin
- Kelly Dokay
Environment
- PERSPECTIVE!!
- Process/Iteration
- Orthographics + Isometrics
- Orthographics = flat version that shows the scale vs perspective version
- Isometrics = top down corner perspective
- Full keys
- Good for splash art, but only need a couple in the portfolio. The process needs to be seen more. Keep every single process clean – a lot of your work will be handed off to other people
- Layouts (REQUIRE CLEAN ARTWORK)
- Needed for splash art
- Different seasons/times of day
- Dependant on what you need
- Show how characters interact with the environment
- Shows scale of a character in context with the environment
Characters:
- ANATOMY
- use line of action
- the more you know what real life looks like, the more you can stylise
- TURNAROUNDS
- Poses/Expressions
- Texture callouts/packeting
- Design more rendered versions of how they would look in a finished composition
- Colour variations!!
- If you are doing a coluor variation, do a new OUTFIT variation too.
Props/UI
- Props/Environment are usually 1 role
- You have to do HUNDREDS of iterations…for ONE prop
So long as your concept art is giving clear information, it’s good.
USE REFERENCES.
Portfolio Points:
- SHOW YOUR PROCESS
- Cut things out. If it isn’t adding to your creative or technical process, chuck it
- Know your fundamentals
- Show your work IN the pipeline with game jams and collab projects!!
- Be clear what YOU do, and what job you’re applying for.
Quickfire
- LEARN PHOTOSHOP. Studios want you to use photoshop.
- Be CAREFUL with fanart. If you are doing fanart, make sure you’re bringing something new.
- CV – include jams, achivements, volunteer work, your tools, study periods. But only make it 1 page long. Sweet and succinct.
- Demonstrate what you did in each role. DONT PUT ASPIRING.
- Cover letter
- Get specific about what you love about the company, and what you bring to the table
- Generalist vs Specialist
- Think about the company you want to work for and what you work best with. Dependant on the person
- Speculative Applications
- Think about where you stand on this. No one should be unpaid for their work, but volunteering for a studio to get your foot in the door is really, really useful.
NETWORKING
- It is about who you know.
- Not many jobs are posted on boards. They reach out to people first, so curate an internal connection.
- Be present at events, be present online
- BE PRESENT ONLINE!!!! SAY HELLO!!!!! COMMENT!!!!
- It can be really really really depressing. But it can be a great place to meet and connect with people!!
- Overtime, knowing people will lead to job opportunities
- DEVELOP BRIGHTON.
- Volunteer there for free tickets, and also people will talk to you…
- Other volunteers will have the same drive as you, you can give each other a leg up.
- PG Connect
- Concept 101
- Much more AAA oriented
Resources:
- Into Games
- Limitbreak
- SHOW, POC in play
- The Rookies (for portfolio inspo)
- Aaron Blaise, Schoolism, CGMA if you’re $$$
- Mentorships
- Volunteering – Develop, RGX, Concept101, Gamebridge
- Newsletters (eg, Hitmarker), Linkedin job alerts, email newsletters, GJL reports and articles, Discord
- Amir Satvat
- Snappy Gurus, UKIE, Game Dev Local
- Game Jams
- Job Boards – work with Indies, Remote Indie Game Jobs, jobs map
Industry Outlook
- People are being replaced with AI, there are post-pandemic layoffs
- Big people who are laid off go and create their own indie studios. And so, an indie revolution as a backlash against AI is happening. Right now. It’s a huge section of the market.
- A lot of artists have side-hustles, or juggle multiple jobs.
FMP
- Get on with your teammates
- What are you contributing?
- SCOPE DOWN SCOPE DOWN SCOPE DOWN
Questions:
- Is it worth it to invest in courses after Uni?
- Don’t spend too much money on courses straight away, it might not be what you want to do in the future.
- How did you start working for Chapel Art Studios? What did you do with them?
- Started out as a Saturday assistant, then moved on to being the resident digital artist. Then just the digital artist, and finally after a restructuring, she was their creative programs co-ordinater organising events. Say yes to opportunities is the crux of this.
- Regualarly runs life drawing and kids classes, as well as events such as exhibitions.
- Is photoshop required?
- Yes. Use photoshop. But they will hire the right person over the wrong person who knows the tools
- How do you get over artblock borne of jealousy?
- If I’m envious of someone, what are they doing that I’m not? What are you missing? What can you learn?
- How do you create constantly?
- Practice. It’s a muscle. Humans are inherently creative.
- Do employers want different artstyles?
- Versatility is good, but whole projects should be in 1 style.
- For freelance, how do you advertise your skills? How do you get commissions?
- First big one came from EHL through networking. Most are through word of mouth, some are from LinkedIn. You have to back yourself, the market is very crowded.
- How do you manage so many jobs?
- Have very strict timekeeping and a good calender system. She also likes what she does and wants to show up for it. Enjoy it!!
- But know your limitations. Don’t overstretch.
- Should you include ideation?
- Don’t reference too heavily or include moodboards, it looks like plagarism. But DO show the steps you’ve taken and your process.
Put down Adam Proctor as a reference when applying <3 yay <3
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