My Career in Games Design
When I first started my course I was looking to be a concept artist focusing more on the concept art side of games design. The main reason for this is because I was always inspired by the amount of art that went into games before they turned into a playable game. Seeing rough sketches turn into 3D life like models and environments always amazed me how an idea on paper can turn into the unthinkable. However, the course required us to look at more than just 2D art, such as 3D modeling, UDK etc. After learning some 3D skills I became intrigued by the 3D aspect of games design rather than just the concept art side, like how to recreate a 2D character concept design and transform it into a working and animated model within 3D environment. The 3D modeling aspects really interests me and I can see myself progressing with it. In the future I want to be looking at either teaching 3D design or looking at the possibility of starting a small games design company and also looking at the possibility of working in the industry either full time or as a freelance 3D artist.
Looking into the how a freelance 3D artist would go about finding work I first started by finding out what requirements a 3D artist would need to be successful. One of the main aspects is the ability and understanding of the latest 3D technology programs such as 3D Studio Max and Zbrush. Also a good understanding of most game creation engines and the ability to animate helps you know how far your 3D work could progress if you were to work in the industry, such as UDK.
The next step was to look at the qualifications needed and what other studies would help you progress as a 3D artist. Throughout the 3D industries whether it is working with games, films or TV one of the best abilities to help you find a 3D career is a good understanding of art. So a good art qualification in art and design or other related artist qualities can give you boost to your 3D career.
After looking at what possibilities were out there I found that the best source on how to get into the 3D industry was to look over multiply forum websites that where related to 3D careers. The main and most important part of becoming a 3D artiest is a portfolio of your work. Whether it is an online portfolio hosted on your personal site or a folder with your work printed out and arranged into a presentable portfolio.
From this I have looked at many online portfolio sites professional and personal and these have helped me build my own online portfolio.
Work Placement
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As part of the course we were asked to look into finding if possible some kind of work experience placement within the gaming industry. After looking over all possibilities of becoming a 3D modeller finding a placement would be difficult due to the low availably and location within our area. Another student and I from my course were asked if we would take part in an educational project led by Gareth Sleightholme & Paul Starkey entitled Rabbit Heart.
About Rabbit Heart
Rabbit Heart is a work in progress educational game project that involves a young girl called Ululu that is lost in a strange world of abandoned cities, flying galleons and tentacle monsters. Along her journeys in this lost world she finds an ally in the form of a semi sentient Exo-suit which has a resemblance to a toy rabbit she had lost.
The Rabbit Heart site can be found here: [Link]
The Rabbit Heart site can be found here: [Link]
Working on the Rabbit Heart project
For the Rabbit Heart project we were asked to develop the opening sequence of the tutorial level part of the game. We were to produce 3D model assets, level and environment models that were to be implementation in the UDK game engine. Along side the 3D modeling we were also asked if we could work on how the opening scene would work as a playable level and what type of in game puzzles the starting area may consist of.
The other student and I were to work as a team to take Gareth’s concepts and turn his unique ideas into 3D models and a playable game environment. As a team we decided to split the work in half. One of us would work on the recreation of the ship that had crash landed on the small island within the scene. The ship was the main feature and needed the most detail because the model needed to be interactive and would be seen up-close by the playable character. The other of us was to work on the environment and surroundings such as what type of lighting would be used i.e. was it night time or daytime.
From this we came to the decision that I would work on the environment as I had worked on one of my own projects that involved recreating a landscape and I felt comfortable working with this idea Gareth had created on paper. Whilst the other student was more than eager to work on the space ship because he has always wanted to work on recreating a flying saucer.
The first step was to study Gareth’s drawings and work out how to recreate them in a 3D environment. I started by building basic shapes that would represent each object in the scene such as the island, surrounding rock formations, water and a stepping stone style bridge that led away from the island.
The next stage was to replace each object in the scene with a more detailed and defined 3D model. One of the main and most enjoyable models I had to recreate was the larger rock formations which from the back just looked like large rocks peering out of the water. Looking over Gareth’s sketches and designs I discussed with Gareth and Paul to see whether the rocks where just plain rock formations or had any other intent. Gareth had explained that he intended these rocks to represent ones that can be found in Egypt
Using some quick references from Egypt
Throughout all the research that I had looked into and work experience I have really enjoyed finding out how a 3D artist goes about work. I have also learned a lot about myself in the process and they way I work with others. Overall I have learned a lot of negative and positive things about myself and understand what areas are my strong points as well as my weaker points. I know I have a long way to go to become a professional 3D artist and from these experiences I now know what areas of my work I need to progress and work on to help me along my career.
Some of my main flaws include my self doubt: I always think my work is never good enough and never to the correct standard. My lack of confidence in myself could prevent companies from seeing my true potential. Being a perfectionist can always affect your work as it can consume more time then you expected and lead to not finishing work within a set deadline. However it can also be a positive characteristic because of the amount of fine detail that can be viewed within your final work. Another flaw is that once I have started working on something I can be easily distracted from the task at hand which can lead to my work veering off from the intended direction, again meaning more time loss. Jumping from idea to idea rather than just focusing on the one am working on can also lead to reduced quality of work and lots of unfinished low quality work.
Nevertheless, I find that I am a quick learner and have the ability to pick up new information readily and quickly. Much of the work that I have completed I did outside the classroom. This has lead to me having better self discipline and a better understanding of myself and my capabilities. Some of the work that I completed had to be self taught, as I thoroughly enjoy pushing my own limits and boundaries. Again this has encouraged me to work harder, but also enjoy the work that I do. I feel like these attributes would be viewed as positive traits by potential employees and shall strive towards honing in on these skills. Even so, I do intend to amend my faults as much as possible as nobody is perfect. My overall ambition would be to be a successful games designer and I believe that through this course and my own personal skills I have the ability to achieve this.Random Pics from the project:
