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Task 2 – Careers
This task will help you understand the career options you might have if you decide to work in the Games industry, and the skills needed for various job roles. It will also give you a chance to reflect on the skills you are learning in Task 1 and what area you want to specialise in.
2.1a Job roles research within the Games industry.
Different Job Roles in the gaming industry:
- Game designer
- Game artist
- Game developer
- Game programmer
- Animator
- Audio engineer
- QA tester
- Associate art manager
- Vehicle artist
- Senior character artist
- Lead vehicle artist
- Lead animator
- senior/ technical artist
- Animation director
- Associate art director
- Environment Artist
- Lead character artist
- Material artist
- Senior/Lead lighting artist
- Senior UI artist
- lead / senior concept artist
- Lead fx artist
- Character artist
- Technical ui artist
- Rigger
- Facial rigger
- Terrain/world artist
- Vfx artist
- 3d animator
- Character technical artist
- Temporary concept artist
- 2d artist
- Temporary weapon artist
- Technical artist
- Tech artist
- 3d artist - 3d character artist
- 2d ui artist
- Environment set dresser
- Level lighting artist -cinematic lighting artist
- Character concept artist
- Rendering td
- Environment TD
- Character TD / Rigger
- (technical) gameplay animator
- World Designer
- Compositer
- 3d vehicle artist
- Realtime fx artist
- Hard surface artist
- Vehicle art director
- Motion graphics artist
2.1b Pros & Cons of different employment opportunities (freelance, full-time, part-time).
Full time: Where you work with and in a company and are hired to stay and work with them for more than just the project at hand, doing lots of work for more than just 1 game. (many hours and a lot of work taking on an important role where you are more likely to work towards a senior or lead role rather than getting a new job as you stay with the company and work on other games and projects). (on site).
Part time: Where you are working inside and with a specific company on a project but you only work with them for a specific amount of time during that 1 project. (working less hours but your work is important enough to get you involved and working with the team on the game). (on site).
Freelance: Outsourced. Meaning you aren’t part of the direct company but however a standalone artist or worker by yourself or another company hired for a specific role or task in helping towards the development. Given specific work requirements towards making something but you get paid just for that 1 thing. (used for stuff that doesn't require a full on job and only something small and not all the time). (at home or another company site).
The positives of full time and part time employment are that they both include working with a team on site so feedback and help are also an ask away so small alterations can be made quickly without firing emails back and forth. However the main positive of full time employment is that you will be sticking with that company allowing you to focus on your current project as you know you’ll be around for the next. You have more time to work on a project with longer working hours but also more money. Also senior and lead roles open up as you can work towards a promotion and a larger role in game making in the company. However with part time your less hours allows more flexibility as you’re more likely to be working on just 1 task of 1 specific thing rather than having a multitude of roles in the company/ doing more in your job.
The bonus of working as a freelancer however is working at your own pace as you still have your brief and deadlines but you can work in the comfort of your own home and using your own tools. It may be harder to work if your role is a team based assignment but you aren’t tied down by the company that hired you (and you don't have to do any more than what you were paid for).
Also with a freelancer you are “self employed” but paid by a company in a contract working at home submitting work. Where with a part-timer you have that option of maybe getting full time employment after your time is up.
With full-time employment you might also be benefited with relocation assistance where they will help you find a place to stay so you have access to the company and can work in their offices. (as full time and part time mainly work in teams inside the company rather than solo/small projects done by freelancers).
However most contract based/ freelance work still is heavily involved with the company and having good communication is key to success of your work to deliver what they hired you for.
2.2 Choose 2 Job roles and in your own words write a job specification for each describing what their roles and responsibilities are. Evaluate the working practices and skills required for each job.
Environment Artist:
Your responsibilities as an environment artist would be to be able to create environmental storytelling through set dressing and making 3d Environments based on concept art/work and reference materials. As an environment artist and essentially map maker you will also be working with other map based artist such as the level design team and technical artists. Your top priority is also to maintain quality, efficiency and especially consistency across all work you do.
As a person you need to show your ability to push past your own limits and as a team in bringing the world to life through art while also keeping it mechanically playable and fun. You take a strong front and are able to show your own creative prowess in your work. You need to keep an open mind and stay flexible and to take responsibility to add anything needed for making the game better. To be able to take insight from all areas of development and input it into your own work show's great attention to detail and is a major value to the game's creation and betterment from having a large amount of creativity and ideas.
Skills and Experience wise we want someone who has a portfolio preferably relevant to level art, someone who has proven experience working in the games industry, someone who has a great understanding of basic art concepts like colour and lighting and to use them to their advantage when creating themed environments and use them to help with environmental storytelling, someone who has the necessary technical knowledge of using unity/unreal and 3d or texture packages and also we want someone who understands and solidly knows workflows and how to be efficient with time working on projects, optimizing their time to go from blocked out models to a finalized product within a time frame while also keeping in mind real time rendering.
Lastly we want someone who can work well within their team to help come together inside the company and build a better environment for all so they can build better environments inside the game.
Temporary Concept Artist:
We are looking for a talented and passionate concept artist who want to work on not only our current, but future, projects. You will be subjected to work along side many other talented concept artists when working with us. Our ideal candidate is someone who is excited about creating immersive environments that fill people with the same excitement that it was made with, they also would be someone who has a good understanding of architecture and organic environments to be able to create a large diversity of high quality environments of varying locations. If you are passionate about videogames, concept art, and have a strong portfolio - Then apply now. you would be working directly with the Art Director, Art leads and Concept Art team to create:
Inspirational artworks that define artistic vision, follow a them and support game design
Creative designs that are planned out and finished from initial designs to final concepts
Organized and relevant databases of reference material for yourself and the concept team
Painted environments from renders and screenshots in photoshop
Drawn storyboards which illustrate the movement of FX and their corresponding animations
Notes on/for Environments to take game level design to the next level of production
Contribute to the growth of our team and company
The Requirements needed to be able to accomplish these Roles are:
A strong knowledge and understanding of photoshop to be able to output strong artwork efficiently
Understanding fundamental artistic skills such as: composition, rendering, anatomy, colour theory, perspective, lighting, architectural and environment knowledge, character and graphic design
Solid drawing skills/fundamentals along with traditional painting and rendering techniques
Ability to be able to work efficiently and easily with a team of artists to receive help to build upon your own art fundamentals to build better concept art to help build towards a better game
Those are the necessary/basic requirements but also some preferable requirements would be:
Knowledge of 3D art software/programs such as sketchup, maya, modo etc and to use them in building better concept art
Excellent communication, time-management and organizational skills
Being task and project driven while staying proactive and self motivated when working
Show a willingness to give and receive feedback (influence and criticism), collaborate with others and to share techniques, ideas and contribute towards a more positive working environment.
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