Unit 9

Activity 1: Looking at university, apprenticeships, jobs, internships and foundation diploma.

For this research task, I need to find and look at 3 apprenticeship courses, 2 jobs, 2 internships and 3 university courses related to game design and either screenshot or copy and paste all the info like the specification criteria or course details to this blog.

The first university I found was Teesside university, it lasts for 3 year, 4 years for the foundation year if you don’t have the appropriate subject/grades for the course.  Some the reasons why the course interests me are the fact that their is focus not just digital techniques but traditional techniques as well. At the end of the course, students can go and apply for summer, year-long or graduate placements with businesses in the industry like Rare and Sumo Digital as they have set up a long-term relationships with these companies. As well as these links to the industry they will have regular companies such as Atomhawk, Dreamworks and Ubisoft to give their insight into their field of expertise. Apart from the placement their are no offers of a sandwich course. the next open days are the 17th of October and the 17th of November. I would give this a 6/10 as I think it is good but there might be better universities to go to.

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This another university that I found was Staffordshire University, it last for 3 years  in the midlands. I like how it also teaches all sections of games design by including programming and production as well as art and modelling. As far as I know no offers no progression routes to the games industry other than the degree itself. It has one industry link which is an affiliation with the games industry body TIGA. As far as I know this course offers no sandwich year, just the course itself. It’s next open day is on the Sunday 21st October. I would give it a 4/10 as it doesn’t offer other things like progression routes and more industry links like other courses.

 

My third university that I have looked at is Falmouth university, it lasts for 3 years but with no sandwich course just the 3 years. It interests me as it look at all aspect of the games industry even sound and audio. It also teaches teamwork which other courses don’t do at all. it however doesn’t offer links or insight from games developers in the industry. The open day for the university is on the 27th of October. I would give this a 7/10 as it offers a wide array job possibilities and then I could choose something to specialise in afterward in later years.

 

I found a apprenticeship from a company called ECO DESIGN SYSTEMS which belongs to the graphic design industry and it is based in South Shields. The company prefers modelling rather than 2D design and the apprenticeship level is an advanced level apprenticeship. And at the end the employer will offer you a full-time job there after the course which lasts 12 months. I think I would get really bored because I would prefer prefer something a lot more creative.

 

This apprenticeship is also in the graphic design industry and it is called Absolute Cad Designs. The company is based in Four Ashes and the apprenticeship level is again, Advanced Level Apprenticeship. Within the company, you would create drawings and models for manufacturing while working with colleagues. The course is going to last 3 year, spending one day a week with your employer. After this, you can move into a full-time position at the workplace. This apprenticeship can offer a lot more progression than other I have looked at as you are offered a full-time job there by them as well as the opportunity to move into high-level management roles. While there is room to grow I feel like I have much of the same problem as before.

 

This apprenticeship is from 07 HEAVEN DESIGN and it is in the graphic design industry, If you have an apprenticeship with them would have to create different things such as ebooks and infographics to help advertise the company. The company is based in Southend-on-Sea and is an Advanced Level Apprenticeship. After the course is finished the employer will be looking to give you a full-time job there and the course will last 15 months. So far I haven’t been able to find any relevant apprenticeship to game design so that is why I am fair negative towards these apprenticeships.

 

The job is a concept artist for cloud imperium games which is about making and developing character and landscapes etc though modelling and painting. I think I could probably met for a few things on the list of qualifications although I think I could stuggle with quite a few others. This is something that I will hopefully gain in the future though my work over time so I can have enough experience and build up a portfolio. I would do this by creating more concept art in 2D and 3D. I am also creating a 3D piece of concept art for my next project. This job does interest me as it involves stuff that I like about the course.

 

The industry job that I’m that I have chosen is for a senior concept artist. As it is a senior concept artists on top doing concept art on their own, they will all so have to help other people develop the visual style etc for a game from the beginning and throughout production. Also quite often senior concept artist will provide the team with a starting point to help and give refence. Producing concept art can involve traditional and digital artistic skills as well as having to work in different types on software for thing like 3D modelling, animation and 2D art.

 

I found an internships online which was from riot games, it seems to involve many different aspect of the games industry including animation, VFX and concept art along side a variety of different skills. If I was going to be chosen as the intern for them, it would allow me to enjoy some of my hobbies as it would be my job.

 

In this internship, I might not be able to meet some of the requirement I have no experience in GameMaker Studio or C# but I do have some experience in python but not as much as would probably need. I think it would be good to revisit programming languages in the future as well as learn other things to be able to do the job well. However I am prefer making a model, animation or concept design.

 

I have found this foundation diploma in art and design from Central Saint Martins which is found in London and to access the course for free you have to be under 19 years old. During the course, over the year, the course would teach you different skills and how to evaluate and reflect on your work/progress and do research to help you develop your ideas and techniques. Using the skills that you would learn, the course will help you create a portfolio ready for interviews, to help you get into a university or get a job. Near the end of the course you will be tasked to create a project proposal for your final project, using what you have learnt this year to create a piece of work that will be displayed in an exhibition. You will receive a foundation diploma in art and design and you can go on to study at degree level at Central Saint Martins or at other UAL colleges. This is something I would consider as it is very creative considering the entire course is about art and design. I would be slightly worried about how much freedom you would get but it would definitely interest me.

 

This foundation diploma is from Truro college, is found in Truro and you have to be under 19 years old to access the course for free. At the beginning, you will find out what you are interested in though different projects, research etc in art and design. After this, you will specialise within a area of art and design and create your art portfolio. When you are making your art portfolio. you will go on a trip to a European capital to research different pieces of work throughout the capital. For the last part of the course, you need to write a project proposal for a final project where you use everything you have learnt throughout the course into one project. You will receive a foundation diploma in art and design for completing the course and you can make an informed application to a specialist art or design degree course. I do think that this course interests me and seems very creative although I would prefer a course about concept art and games design like the one i’m currently on.

 

Activity 2: Making a letter, CV and writing a artists statement:

 

To Triangular Pixels,

 

I am a Student taking an extended diploma in games design at Callywith College in Bodmin and I am writing to see if you would be interested in taking me on for short term work experience which would be on the 23rd, 24th and 25th June.

I have a passion for concept art and designing. I am particularly interested in Photoshop art and 3D modelling which I have some experience in, I also have good teamwork and communication skills. I would like to work with your company as I like the previous work your company has done before and I would want to gain as much experience in the different fields of game design as possible. It would be a brilliant opportunity to work as a part of your company to improve my skills whilst working in a professional environment as it would be able to help me in the future.

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Alastair Hambly

 

Artist Statement

 

My name is Alastair Hambly and I am currently a student at Callywith College. I enjoy creating concept art, whether it be drawing on Photoshop or creating 3D Models on 3DS Max but I would also like to try animation, world building or level design. I am inspired by anything from history to the future and because of this I feel like I am quite well round. My motivation comes from my enjoyment to creating different objects and pieces. During the process of making a asset I like to create a story behind the object or character, this can also help a lot when designing the asset as it’s back story may affect certain things such as the clothes that they wear, the state that it’s in etc. I like to be original as I can although I don’t mind people being unoriginal if there is a reason for it. Because I like a wide varity of different things, this allows me the freedom to create an integrated visual aesthetic with whatever, for whatever which means I can make some very unique visual aspects, while making it relatable and understandable. With the experience I’ve got thoughout the course i’m on I feel a lot more confident about what  creating these models and photoshop pieces as well as other skills tasks we’ve done throughout the various projects I feel as though my photoshop and 3ds max skills have increased a lot since I started the course. My work is very special to me and I am constantly adding to it and improving it, to hopefully see them on the big screen in either a game or film.

 

Activity 3: Looking at types of industry jobs:

 

3D modeller

The 3D modeller creates 3D assets/models for the game.

The job I have found is a 3D Vehicle Artist for Cloud Imperium Games for their latest games Star Citizen.

Some of the skills I need to become a 3D modeller:

• The job entails working from a concept models/ images to create a fully functioning 3D models including exteriors and interiors.
• To collaborate with designers, technical artists, and partner studios for organisation and directory structure requirements.
• To maintain high standards of modelling, texturing etc.
• Also to work with technical and animator to make animation ready models.

Their qualifications they recommend is:

• Hard surface modelling experience
• A strong knowledge of 3DS Max and photoshop
• Making detailed model while maintaining efficient model making
• Experience with shaders
• Passion for your work
• Having a lot of self-motivation and initiative

A 3D Modeller has an average salary of around £35,000 But can vary. It is a job you can do inside the UK but may have to travel outside the in future as a part of the role. It appeal it to me but I would consider other career paths before I can decide.

 

Technical artist

A technical artist is someone who helps artists and designers get their content into a game. They also play a big role inside of communicating between certain departments of a company.

Technical artists should have experience and an understanding of these creative processes and features.

• Concepting, designing, prototyping, block out.
• Modelling: including characters, morphs, props, environments.

• UVing and texturing.
• Rigging and animation: including characters, props, and environments.
• Effects and particle systems.
• Lighting and cameras.
• User interface art and animation.

Technical artists require a great amount of skills which involve things such as:

• Knowledge of optimization and performance
• A good ability to communicate between many people
• Artist support and advocacy
• A basic understanding of simple physics

• Good at problem solving
• Fluent and comfortable in one or more scripting language
• An ability to document things clearly

They should be comfortable in a range of 3D software’s and other pieces of software such as Photoshop.

Their job can involve doing some of the following:

• Character rigging
• Backend pipeline work
• Shader creation
• Image processing
• Asset tracking

• 3D math
• Programming

The expected qualifications of a technical artist area bachelor’s degree, and they look for workers who have a good portfolio of work and strong technical skills. Multimedia artists and animators typically have a bachelor’s degree in fine art, computer graphics, animation, or a related field.

The average salary for a technical artist is about £19.66 ($25.21) per hour.

This is a job you can do inside the UK and you can do it at certain big companies such as Frontier which is located within Cambridge.

As a job I feel that this job is a job that can be chosen after a few years of experience within the artistic environments and I can see it as a good point of someone’s career.

 

Roto Artist

A Roto artist is someone who creates mattes that properly reflect the motion of a certain object(s) over a series of frames in 2D, which involves complicated shape creation and editing as well as shape animation by hand and with trackers and shape compositing, fill modes and opacity settings.

What skills are needed?

• Traditional art and design skills including a knowledge of composition and colour
• An understanding of motion blur and how it affects mattes and patches
• An Arts or Science degree in a moving picture or art related subject
• Excellent organisational and communication skills
• Team-working abilities

• The ability to take criticism and feedback
• Good problem solving skills and the ability to work collaboratively with other artists
• 3D Maya interface experience
• An understanding of Python scripting and how to use this to create and edit Framestore gizmos
• Planar and point tracking software experience

• A general understanding of the VFX production and comp workflows
• A knowledge of photography and practical lighting
• Qualification needed
• VFX artists to have a degree in graphic arts or a similar field, as well as one to three years of relevant experience.

The salary is about £19K to £21K but the price does vary depending on which company you work for. This job is available in the UK with many being in London, Manchester, Bristol and a few more different areas in Britain that you can apply for.

 

2D/Texture Artist

I have found the job 2D/texture artist, to do this job it is desirable to have experience with software such as Photoshop, Maya, Painter, Mudbox, ZBrush, CrazyBump, Body Paint, Deep Paint. you need to be able to look at your surrounding and see what the texture look like and how you can use textures to make new textures. good communication skills and the ability to work well under supervision is often as group work is common for this job. you will need the standard qualifications in art and design, traditional art is also good and as with any job – experience is quite valuable. you will earn an average of £36,000. however, this job is very rear as most often 3D modellers and concept artists make all of there own textures. I will almost certainly not ever do this job, making textures is fun, but only as an extension of the modelling process.

 

Games artist

For this task, I have chosen to write about the games artist job. A games artist will be mostly using computers to do most of their work but will use drawing on paper for the beginning stages of their work, their initial ideas.

The skills this job requires are 3D Modelling, drawing skills, knowledge with lighting, perspective, materials and visual effects and will need to know how to apply textures to many different things such as characters and objects. Employers look for people who show good creativity, style and creativity. The qualifications that are required for a games artist usually consist of having an art degree, game art degree or 3D animation degree.

Although the hours are apparently gruelling and it can be fairly frustrating, the satisfaction rating is about 4 out of 5 and the salary for a games artist is pretty high with it being about £66342.89 yearly.

This job is available in this country although there aren’t all too many of them available, also they are mostly for junior games artists. This job though does appeal to me as it seems to be doing all the sort of stuff that I like, I would probably prefer to be a concept artist only but the other things that a game artist covers does still seem to be fun to do and I don’t think I would dislike the job at all. I could definitely imagine this job as a career in the future.

 

Match Move Artist

match move artists coordinate or ‘match’ the movements of objects and cameras in an animated scene to create a coherent film, you Must have a thorough knowledge of software-based object tracking and 3D rotoscoping of a digital model for this job as well as a good eye for detail and precision with strong problem-solving skills. it is also good to have an understanding of animation as it will be very useful in this job. you will be paid on average 20,000 pounds a year, this is about the average wage for a middle-class person. there are employment opportunities for this job in England so doing it would be doable for me. i personally would not whant to do this job for the same reasons as the animator.

 

Storyboard Artist

A storyboard artist is someone who takes a script or concept then creates a visual story from them. This makes the animator’s job a whole lot easier as they already have a lot of visualised scenes in front of them to work with and just have to fill in the gaps. Everyone who is involved in the project refers to the storyboard and it must include things such as emotion and gestures without including any dialogue. This requires great artistic skill to achieve.

The main qualification you need to become a storyboard artist is to be really good at drawing. It is recommended to be drawing all the time if you wish to become a storyboard artist. You need to at least be drawing something every day and drawing a storyboard about something that happened during the day or night is a really good way to do so. A good way to get the job is to apply for internships and to have a good portfolio of your art to show them.

The average salary for being a storyboard artist is £80,799.87, the minimum is £58,680 and the maximum is £107,330. You can fulfil this job in the UK as there were quite a few results for storyboard artist in the UK when I looked it up.

this job seems like it would be fun, having this job means that you have a large amount of influence on how a concept comes together as you control how a seen or even sometimes a whole story will play out. but i think that if i did this job i would like to do it on the side as a secondary job for my own concepts or for another company. this would be manageable as you don’t need to make very many storyboards compared with making concept paintings or assets for games.

 

Animator

A animator adds the movement and actions to a game. To do this they use rigged models to get models to move realistically through an environment.

To do this job you need a good understanding of 3d software and game engines, you need to be able to rig a model as well as some experience with filming and storyboarding. its often also good to have an understanding of anatomy and physics so your animations look realistic.

The qualifications that are required for a 3d animator usually consist of having an art degree, game art degree or 3D animation degree.

The median animator salary is £65,300 which is very good compared to some of the other jobs. this job is very common so there are opportunities for it pretty much everywhere but if there aren’t any openings in England since it is a very sort after skillset relocation assistance is often offered. this job does appeal to me as I like make the models do something awesome and nice to look at.

 

Layout Artist

A layout artist is responsible for the cinematography aspects of design, their job is to place cameras and to create temporary character animation to pre-visualise shots before the beginning of the animation.

The qualifications you need to be a layout artist are that you need to be experienced in 3D software, have a good understanding of the filmmaking process and cinematography, really good attention to detail and the ability to work within a strong team environment. It would also be good to have some experience in layout and/or pre-visualisation and strong communication and interpersonal skills. Some technical skills you will need are a complete understanding of real worlds camera and camera rigs and a good sense of composition.

The salary of a layout artist is roughly £30-40,000 and it is possible to get this job in the UK as there were quite a few results that showed up when I searched it, mostly in London. I’ve got to admit though there definitely weren’t as many jobs that showed up for layout artist as some of the other jobs I’ve looked at.

I wouldn’t really want to do this job in the future as I feel it would be very boring. I mean basically all you do is create cameras for rendering and animation and things, so you don’t create any ideas or models or anything which is what I’m interested in. I guess this job is kind of like being a photographer but for 3D models and I’m not sure this would interest me in the slightest. as i don’t like photography.

 

Concept Artist

A concept artist is more than just an artist, they have many skills over various roles, they generally require Artistic skills, Communication skills, Computing and programming skills as well as the ability to learn from new information, wherever it may come from and have a keen eye for detail. A Concept artist will need to have extensive knowledge in one or multiple 2D and 3D modelling software as well as Game Engine software such as Photoshop, 3ds Max, Maya, Unreal and ZBrush. they will also need to have a strong understanding of illustration and design, a passion for games and science fiction and a willingness to learn and travel.

The starting salary for a Concept artist is £36,000 but as with most creative jobs, you can shape your own salary based on your skills and Experience. Generally, a good Concept artist earns an excess of £50,000

In the Uk, companies such as Rockstar Games and Cloud Imperium Games are offering jobs for a Concept Artist, Cloud Imperium are famous for Star Citizen and Rockstar for Red Dead Redemption. i like the sound of this job but i think wi will need to to do more research into this job to make sure it is where my passions lie.

 

Some of these job are written by other people in my group and I have change them slightly so they can fit with what I felt about the jobs.

 

Evaluation:

 

Unit 9 is based around helping us learn about industry jobs such as different jobs, internship, university courses and apprenticeships and what skills and qualifications are required to get into a certain job after we leave collage. I have also made a CV and artist statement which will help me get on to a course or get a job in the future. I have researched different types of career paths, different types of jobs and different types of education. I have never considered taking an apprenticeship and I think it might be better for me as I think I learn better though a lot of practice and though practical work. I feel more knowledgeable than before but I still don’t know what i’ll do after my Level 3 extended diploma course, I might look more an apprenticeship because of it being a mixture of a course and an actual job which means I can learn techniques and skill in multiple ways. At the moment, I can’t see a clear pathway as I am undecided on what I would like to do after this course as this is a relatively new field of work, there isn’t many options a the moment for extended education. I think some of things I need to improve are my communication skills and my time management skills as well as continuing to improve my 3DS Max and Photoshop skills. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to be able to see my work out in the world for everyone else to see.