Brooke Olson- GDC 2016

Post date: Mar 20, 2016 10:23:8 PM

GDC Write up

Brooke Olson

            I arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday night around 11:40 P.M. Coming to San Francisco for the first time was very overwhelming for me. Mostly because I’ve really only been to Wisconsin and Florida, so I’ve never been to a big city like that. 

DAY 1

Starting off the first day at GDC I couldn’t believe how large it was. I was expecting something totally different. I had no clue where to go first or what to do.  Once I did a little exploring I soon learned the different areas to go. I went to the Ringling Booth right at 10 A.M. when the expo floor opened up. I dropped off a good amount of business cards and took off. I went to the career center next. The first booth I stopped at was High Voltage. I got a portfolio review from one of the Art team employee’s.  Some feedback that I was given was that he was first off very impressed with the work that I showed him, and he said he really liked the length of my portfolio and that it doesn’t linger on. Some things I could do to improve it would be… From the mansion environment, think about showing some breakdowns of the assets and props in the scene. They also said that they think that I nailed the realism aspect of the environments and I am doing great in that, but they suggested considering adding some stylized work. After that I stopped at avalanche’s booth. While I was there I talked to the lead Artist and had him review some of my work. He asked about what engine I used to make it in and after he looked through all the pieces. He went back to the first image and said this was his favorite and that the lighting looked really nice. Then I asked about what engine they use, and we talked about the differences of the engines.  After that I went to a Warner Brothers talk. They mostly talked about the games they made this year and the success that they had, and then about their Nemesis System. After the short Warner Brothers talk I went over to Sony’s booth and waited in line to talk about their internship program. While I was in line I talked with some of the people near me, and met a freelance concept artist, we exchanged business cards, and he forwarded me an invite to the Polycount party later that night. Once I made it to the front of the line, I showed them my portfolio and didn’t get much of a review, the lady asked if I applied, and if not that I should, and we exchanged cards and she told me that she would forward my information to the team. After that I made my way back over to the expo floor did some walking around watching some of the small little talks some of the companies were doing, I stopped by Algorithmic and listened to a small Substance demo they were doing. Once it hit about 4 P.M. I went over to the career center again and met up with my cousin and his wife, who both work at Harmonix. They both attended Ringling a while back. We went over to High Voltage grabbed a few free drinks and talked a bit. After that we headed over to the Polycount Party, which was a fairly laid back party. While I was there Kevin introduced me to some Raven Environment Artists that he knew. A big group of them came down to GDC, I chatted with them for mostly the whole time I was at that party/mixer. I think it went very well, and I talked about how I was from Wisconsin and we connected on that, since Raven is based in Madison, WI. I told them how I love Call of Duty, and would love to work at Raven one day. I then exchanged business cards with them, and they asked to see my portfolio.  I showed all of them it, and they all seemed to have liked it a lot, which made me super happy. J They really liked everything I made, some crit that they gave me was to not worry about polycount and if something is round make it round, it’s better to make it higher and then if need be make it lower after.  They then also suggested on the engine I made to have a bit more material/color separation and adding some decals or manufacturer labels to give it more of a story. They then asked about what programs I used to make everything, and for the engine and clock they really liked the material work and thought that I used substance for it, but I told them that it was all done in Unreal and Photoshop masks. They said that that having those skills first is great and they also said it is good that am I learning Substance now. They suggested that I learn both Substance painter and Substance Designer. Since they were all pretty impressed with my portfolio they told me that they would tell people back at the company about me and forward on my information. They said to just keep working hard and adding more work.  After that I went to the epic party which was well…epic. I talked with the Raven guys some more, then I met an indie guy who was showing me what they were working on and how it’s all made in unreal. He wanted to see my portfolio so I showed him it and he LOVED it. He went on telling me about the game they are making and he then asked if I would like to work on it, but I told him I already have an internship lined up for the summer at Insomniac but would love to stay in contact. He then asked if I was willing to leave school to join the team but I turned that offer down, cause well I want my degree haha. 

Day 2

            Day two of GDC was a bit more relaxed, at the start of it I went back over to the Ringling booth and checked on my business cards, and said hello to anyone that was there. After that I headed over to the career center to get in line for the Insomniac TED TALKS…talk. I wanted to get in line early so I could sit near the front. I met up with one of the other Insomniac interns that I have been in contact with and we stood in line together and got to know each other a bit. He is going to be the programming/game design intern. The talk that Ted Price (the CEO of Insomniac) gave was very inspiring. He talked about how he wanted to make a game company and the struggles he went through to make it happen. There was four stories he told us about and each had a lesson. The four lessons were…

            Lesson 1: Don’t let Bastards get you down.

            Lesson 2: Check your Ego at the door.

            Lesson 3: Try it…You’ll like it.

            Lesson 4: Grab the magic and don’t let it go.

Rules he said was to say YES! Not NO! And to try new things even if you don’t think you will like it. After the talk ended Chris (Game/Programming Intern) and I went up to Angela (HR, I have been talking with her mostly about hiring and all.) We introduced ourselves and she recognized us and was very happy to us there, and she told us how she is very excited for us to start and how great it will be. After that we made our way to Ted Price. Once we had a chance to introduce ourselves to him, we both told him we will be summer interns in Burbank this summer. He was very happy to meet us. He told us how grateful he was to have us on the team and thanked us for joining, and how they have some great work in store for us. He also gave us some advice for when we get there! He said don’t be afraid to ask questions on anything, that’s why we are there, to learn. Meeting with both Angela and Ted and seeing how welcoming they were, made me even more thrilled to be joining them this summer as an Intern. After Chris and I went to get lunch and we chatted a bit more and talked about the summer and school. The rest of the day I wandered around a bit trying out all of the VR demo’s they had on the expo floor. This was my first time experiencing VR, and it’s definitely different. I found it pretty crazy how it great technology is to make an experience like that. Some of the VR demo’s I experienced made me a little motion sick which I didn’t like but it’s still fairly new so I’m sure all of that will be worked out.  I stopped by a booth with this really pretty game, so I thought I would go introduce myself, and see what it was all about. It was called Warlord, it was based in Sweden but they said they were looking into expanding. The guy I chatted with showed me the trailer and explained it a bit. I asked him what engine it was made in, and he told me Unreal. So we talked about Unreal a bit, and he then asked what I do and if he could see my Portfolio since I work in Unreal. He was impressed with my work and asked when I graduate and then we exchanged cards, and he told me to apply when I graduate and he told me he would inform the team about, and that it is great that I already have experience in Unreal and that it is a great skill to have and it puts me high up on the list. After that the convention was basically coming to an end. The last little encounter I had was on my way up to my hotel room in the elevator I saw a guy with a GDC badge and a Sony shirt, so I introduced myself and we chatted very quickly in the elevator and he took one of my business cards.

Day 3

            Day three of GDC was very short and busy! I started off by stopping at the Ringling Booth to check on my cards and say hello. I then walked around the expo floor a little bit learned about some of the programs and engines that companies were showing off. After that I went to go get in line for the Killer Portfolio talk. This talk was very informative, a lot of it I knew already or heard about but there was some new stuff I learned about as well. There was a panel of different people from a variety of companies giving advice. First off they talked about each of their number one pet peeves with portfolios.

1.      Lack of presentation

2.      Bad presentation of good work

3.      Having a good portfolio but not game art stuff, mostly just Zbrush sculpts

4.      Have good work but are bad screenshots of the work

5.      Not enough VFX portfolio’s

6.      There is a good portfolio but it is not easily accessible, can’t easily save images from website.

Next they talked about hiring recent grads. They said that most people are usually turned off when they say that the job they want to apply to say you must have a certain amount of years of experience.  They said that if your work is good they don’t even care if you have years of experience at another company. All that matters is the work. Next they said that the content that you include in your resume should be relevant to what you are applying for, and to have a clean resume. They also mentioned that they really do not care that much about how many programs you know, cause it doesn’t matter if your work is good, they can teach you any program you need to know in like three days. Next major point for your portfolio is, QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. They said not to include bad work, only good work, because they will go to the last image you have and judge you based off of that. If you include a bad image they will judge your taste level. The weakest work is what they will focus and remember. They mentioned that they have hired people off of them having just two environments that were really good. The content and they way you present it matters in your portfolio. The first image you show should be the best thing you have ever created. Make sure there are no spelling errors and your website has good formatting. You should only show a demo reel if you have animation based work or effects work. For environment work it should only be really good stills, they don’t care to see a demo reel for it.  They said to keep replacing your work with new work and get rid of the bad work you have. Don’t take rejection letters personally. They said to make sure you are knowledgeable about the process of your work. After the talk I went to watch more demo’s and talk with more people. I thought that GDC was very informative and helped me learn more about the industry, I will definitely try to go back again.