Rachel Jones - GDC 2015

Post date: Mar 21, 2015 3:5:29 AM

To start off I worked as an Exhibitor at the Ringling Booth. I only worked there a couple of hours a day, but even during that small amount of time I had some valuable experiences. It all started with me walking up to the booth for the first time, and immediately turning away because Tylo told me that Mixamo was giving out free t-shirts. With my intentions totally aimed toward free stuff I ended up talking to one of the guys at the booth for a good amount of time about Mixamo and how we are using it in our thesis. I talked up the project so much he walked over with me to Ringling's booth and we watched the trailers roll by. I pointed out all of the Mixamo animation, he thought we were the bees knees, and left back to the Mixamo booth. Later I saw the same guy bring some friends back to our booth, and several strangers (could not tell if they were exhibitios/ recruiters). It was nice to see that born out of pure greed for a free t-shirt we had a small crowd at our booth checking out the student work. Even though Ringling and Mixamo have a solid relationship we were being exposed to others who might not yet know how awesome we are, and my presence felt validated that I could (in a small way) help our school get more exposure.  

Another great thing that happened was the return of the alumni! Ozzy was kind enough to give a impromptu portfolio review, Cassidy was helping us at the booth, and we had an older alumni come by looking for junior artists. She did not have any business cards on her so I forget her name, but she did take almost every business card on the bench. We had a long chat about what she had done since her time at Ringling, and she wanted to get our information to help out her fellow Ringling students. It was great to spend my time to get to know the alumni, and network for those who left their business cards on the bench. Will something huge and amazing come from it? No one knows, but it is one more chance we all have at gaining exposure.

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Networking...

So my primary focus of going to GDC was to get out of the 3rd floor caves and meet other people in the industry. The main differences from last year and this year was who I was talking to, and sniffing out job interviews instead of just portfolio reviews.  In comparison to last year I was looking for portfolio reviews and threw my business card out to anyone who would talk to me for five minutes. The majority of people I spoke with were other students outside of portfolio reviews. This year I gave out fewer cards, and did my best to relax. The best conversations I had were usually by one of the lounges at someones expo booth, or planned meetings outside the carrier floor. 

Travis Williams Executive producer of Digital Domain - So this is the one at Microsoft's Lounge. There were a good group of us (Ringling students) hanging out, and a gentleman we were crowding overheard that one of my friend's does not drink...and that's what sparked an hour+ conversation ranging from midori sours to gameplay is where action = intent.  We talked about his 20+ years in the industry. He worked for Warner Bros. and has been everywhere from television to games, and is currently working on Virtual Reality. Some tips he gave us is that he really doesn't care how long you have been in the industry, if you show him some "cool shit" that's all that matters...and in general the whole 3-5 years in the industry is a bunch of bs when you have great art. He gave us a lot of other advice, most of which we all have heard. You have 5 seconds to impress me, be professional ect... but the most important thing I got from this was a great conversation and 15 more seconds to impress him if I remind him about the midori sour conversation. After the convention Lizzie and I wrote down some important quotes from this magical experience.

    Game play is where action = intent

    Game people move in flocks. We group ourselves together because in such a high stress environment you             need to be able to trust the person next to you. Inviting a new person into that group of trust takes time,          effort, and increased risk of failure for them to be accepted. When you are asked to do the impossible on          a project-to-project basis you might as well so it with someone you know well whose workflow you                 understand. Unknowns are unwelcome. 

    Always talk and share advice with everyone, you never know who is going to end up doing what

        -Travis has help people in his past that ended up founding Infinity Ward/Bioware. Pay it forward.

    He loves that game artists understand low poly. In VR he has had movie models if ships and other props             1million +ploys that they thought would be a simpler way to "just use what we have already made"...and          game artists understand how to take movie and other high poly props and optimize the models while             keeping the same appeal. 

    Don't fool yourself into thinking you wont fall into the same pitfalls as everyone else. You will

        Failure is ok, just make sure you learn something. 

    The difference between a FPS game and VR is the fact that in FPS you take the environment for granted.                When put into VR the environment is the first thing you notice. Environment artists! This is your time in            the industry to shine!!!

    Why is VR important?

        -For the first time you can go places you have never seen before in impossible ways. Just one more large         leap toward fully immersive gameplay. 

    Important interview questions from Travis. 

        For artists: If you cannot answer why ______ game is pretty then you don't get the job.

        For designers: If you cannot answer why ______ game is fun then you don't get the job.

    Play games...

Other good advice I got was from the portfolio reviews by Crystal Dynamics. I got to talk to their lead designer, and he gave me tips on what they like to see in a level design portfolio:

    -Play-through video of the space w/o commentary

    -Play-through video of the space with commentary 

            -Show problem solving, and point out why you chose specific designs, paths, mechanics

    -Level designers do not need to know a scripting language, and they prefer that their LDs have stronger             artistic skills. Lighting, world/level building, modeling ect... (thank goodness) 

    -When applying to Crystal Dynamics show them a tomb, and gameplay for the space.

    -When they review the portfolios having a greybox with gameplay is good (the LD reviewing your work don't         really need to see a lot of art) but for the rest of the team it is good to have well thought out environment         art as well. Above and beyond...

    -Did not show any interest in the drawing and planning side of level design. Did not ask for any top down         maps of isometrics. 

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My last point for going is fairly simple. I got a connection for the president of a small company in Austin, and he just so happened to be going to GDC this year. 

I got a private portfolio review and an unofficial job offer. The details I will not be posting here, but if I didn't go this year I would have missed this opportunity. Definitely worth it.