GDC Write-up

Post date: Mar 24, 2016 9:30:50 PM

This was my first GDC and I’m extremely happy I was able to attend during my final year at school. I went in feeling extremely nervous and scared based on things people who had attended previous GDCs said, but I had a very positive experience there.

 Observation 1: The Career Floor is not scary, and be confident

 On the first day I mainly stayed at the career floor. Before it opened up I was legitimately terrified because all these industry professionals were there and I was just a student who barely had any confidence. When you show your work to art directors, environment artists, VFX artists or anyone else working at these companies, they’re not looking to shut you down about your work. They’ll (hopefully) give you their honest opinions and give you critiques on how to improve yourself. Don’t be afraid to show off the art you’ve created. The first hour I was there I was very hesitant about showing people my portfolio, but I realized that there was no reason to be scared. I ended up talking to a lot of people who had great things to say about my work and told me which areas I could improve in and how.

 Observation 2: Even if the position you want to apply for isn’t available, apply anyway

 At an event like this, you talk to so many people and chances are at least one person will remember your work afterwards. If you talk to someone from a company at their booth and they seem interested in you and your work, send in an application. Even if a position isn’t open for you, they’ll still see your work, and they might consider you for a position in the future. On Wednesday morning I talked to the art director of Avalanche for a little while. He told me that even though they didn’t have environment artist positions open and what was currently displayed in my portfolio wasn’t really their style, I should still think about applying anyway.  The art director of Irrational Games told me the same thing when I had a portfolio review with him. A job might not happen right away, but people will remember your work.

 Observation 3: Quality over quantity

 One of the things I was worried the most about was only having 5 shots of my environment to show in my portfolio. I saw other people around me that had way more stuff and had more of a variety and I was nervous that I would be judged for my lack of content. No one I talked to made a comment about me only having a couple of shots, they were just focused on how the stuff I did have looked. I went to a talk called Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer and one of the artists that was speaking said that he had hired someone who only had two shots each of two different environments. It doesn’t matter how much stuff you have to show; if it isn’t good, then you’ll just tell people you’re only capable of producing a lot of mediocre content. Refine the work you do have, and if you feel like you can’t get another good piece for your portfolio, don’t force it.