Dale Garrett GDC Report

Post date: Mar 17, 2017 3:38:44 AM

My GDC experience started abruptly as I attended the Tuesday VFX and Tech Art Mixer about an hour after landing in San Francisco. There I met in person with my mentor, Fred Hooper, for the first time, and did what I could to get a feel for the environment the mixers provided. After some searching I stumbled upon Mark Teare, the FX artist at Bethesda, and mentioned I lived nearby. He responded that he grew up in the same area and we entered a conversation. Though it’s not a new strategy, mentioning something personally relevant to the company your acquaintance is employed by is a natural and easy way to begin a conversation. I secured a lunch meeting with him, along with Lauren and Jake, and he agreed to review our portfolios then.

The next day I spoke to Jason Keyser and Jin Yang, Riot FX artists at the mixer, where I received my first sit-down portfolio review. They liked my work but suggested I pursue a specific style for a reel, or even two, to appeal to particular studios I am interested in. Afterwards, I spoke with them about their push to provide more information and learning resources to aspiring FX artists and students through avenues such as RealtimeVFX. Keyser noted the scarcity of real-time FX courses in computer and game arts programs, and seeing that there were no plans currently in action to address this, mentioned that industry professionals including himself were working to make as much information available as possible.

On Thursday I sat down to review my portfolio with Mark at lunch, and a criticism he echoed from other FX artists was to emphasize storytelling and ensure a particle effect could communicate a narrative of its own. When this was over he invited my friends and I to a Bethesda job-searching mixer, and though there were no other FX artists there, it was a good opportunity to meet game art personnel nonetheless.

Later, the Thursday VFX mixer showed me the benefits of making connections sooner than I had imagined. Jin from Riot brought personnel over on our group’s behalf to speak with us and review our work. Many critiques provided helpful insight on where to take a portfolio forward, but also allowed us to trade information and gain more connections.

A final industry insight I became cognizant of throughout the week was how to read the details companies are looking for in an artist’s background. While some such as Bethesda mentioned that they preferred an artist with experience, others had a different idea. Several commented that they preferred FX artists fresh out of school, with little industry experience, so they could more easily mold the incoming talent to match their projects and environments.