For my Module we have been asked to research different aspects into the games industry and find different job prospects.
I will be looking over multiple factors within the industry such as :
Finance
Developments and trends in the industry
Employment landscape
candidate portfolios
Where the games industry is heading
Games industry in different locations of the world
Censorship
Advertising
Where I would like to work
Plan of attack for approaching employers
I began my research on the financial side of the industry, taking a look at what would be happening in the future of England and what else is happening around the world. By doing this I could see where the upcoming market would be, creating more jobs in the games industry which I could then be a part of.
I have been doing some research into the amount of games sold within 2009 using www.npd.com. In 2009 the video games industry sold 273 million games which accumulated to a total of 10.5 billion in revenue.
There was also research on the games sold by there ESBR rating
Everyone - 48%
Everyone +10 - 12%
Teen - 23%
Mature - 17%
In Recent years in the UK we have seen multiple games companies close down such as Bizarre Creations due to the economy being stuck in recession and the UK games market struggling. Although information has shown that in the Governments last budget there are plans to grant a tax break to the gaming industry.
So what does this mean for the games industry in the UK?
For starters being given the tax credit will aspire people to start up more games companies in the UK and from there on hopefully start giving the UK a reputable name as a place to come to make games, as it once previously was. As it currently stands the the games industry will get a 20% tax relief on production costs for games costing more than £3m to produce and 25% on games costing between £50,000 and £3m.
Given this information and looking at my future within the Games industry I am begging to think that my home country will be a great place to work, as I previously thought I would be migrating to places such as Canada as they have such a booming market now in the games industry due to the tax break that they receive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/mar/23/video-game-tax-credits
02/10/2012
So today I have began looking at different jobs in the industry and companies that are recruiting, I looked a job finder web page which gave me a detailed list of larger companies recruiting around the world. I think that a large company would be a good place to start my career in games as it enables me to see the whole workings of a large company and stick to a more specialised role wheras in a smaller company I will have to be more versatile with me skills and more than likely do multiple jobs.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs/by-category/game-design
I have been doing some research into other 3D environment artist and prop artist works to get an idea of how they developed there show reel as well as how they show off there work and have arranged there website. I found that as soon as you get onto all of the web pages you are instantly met by a large gallery of numerous amount of work, ranging from environments created down to assets.
The overall website vibe is that they are very clean and contain just the basics, a gallery of work, followed by an email address and contact number. Alot of the gallerys have specific titles as well such as speed modelling to show what sort of work can be created in a certain time frame. Mobile is also another title showing that you can work in ultra low poly count which would be useful to include if applying to work for a small based company working on mobile based games.
Taking time out to really go into depth and look at a large range of personal portfolios really made me see my work in a different way and how I should start focusing on the way I do my work. From this I can see that I really need to concentrate on create a few complicated assets as well as a very amazing looking environment Although when looking at a lot of these portfolios I noticed that the show reels were just a camera tracking through there environment and most of them didn't use any programs such as after effects to make the show reel more interesting.
http://www.brameulaers.com/
http://www.stevenskidmore.com/
http://alexjhaworth.com/
http://adambromell.com/
http://www.roelcoucke.com/
http://www.dennisglowacki.com/
http://annunziation.com/portfolio/
http://www.jeremy-schmidt.com/
http://www.helderpinto.com/
http://jonarm.com/
http://www.roryjones.net/
http://timspanjer.com/
http://www.environmentartist.com/
http://scotthomer.co.uk/?p=596
http://jdpoz.com/
05/10/2010
Job Prospects
During my time on the course I have become very interested in character rigging and have devoted spare time to create my own rigs for different meshes ranging from characters to monsters, and beasts with all different body shapes. Today I have been looking at the type of job prospects that I would have as a riggers as I am currently in two minds to continue as a an environment artist or take a new direction in character rigging.
Looking at statistics on a various amount of websites I am told that the employment rate for character animators is going to rise by 14%. I believe this is due to the tax breaks being made in the UK as well as more 3D films and games coming out. Overall I am quite happy with the prospects of finding a job as a character rigger, as the requirement for riggers seems to be quite high so hopefully when I gain my degree there will still be a high demand for riggers.
http://www.riotgames.com/careers/character-rigger
https://www.ukgrecruitment.com/index.php?page=sectors&sp=10&np=2&st=&sid=1
http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/character-rigger-career-profile
13/10/2012
Over the last few
days I have been looking deeply into rigging and have come to a verdict that for
this current module I would still like to go ahead and create an environment as
I am still very interested in being an environment artist. I have also
undertaken rigging for another large module so I will be able to build up a
portfolio in both areas and hopefully by the end of this year I will be able to
take one of these portfolios and will have a decision on what I really want to
do.
This week we
looked at a variety of different portfolios from different backgrounds ranging
from Character artist, environment artists as well as some game programmers. We
then broke these portfolios down and criticized them by finding out which parts
made a good portfolio and what parts were bad.
I found out that a
lot of people would rather avoid the use of scrolling through hundreds and
hundreds of renders and would much prefer to just have categorized images or
main pieces of work that really stand out instead of small assets like bins and
other small miscellaneous models. We also came to the conclusion that a bad
portfolio consisted of lack of organisation, consistent colour scheme and font.
Overall from the
lesson I learnt what I would want from a portfolio and how I would create my
own. I would want it to be very clean and easy to use. I would clearly state my
job role and have tabs for easy navigation. If I were to have quite a bit of
scrolling I would fill it with images that I believe the user would want to see
and want to scroll more. I think it is also very useful to have a show reel on
one of the tabs as well as a nice layout of images.
I also learnt from
looking at game developer portfolios that they don’t actually state what they
have created in certain scenes when it has been a group project. That being
said I would also clearly label the assets I have created and what I worked on,
as well as maybe stating the programmes that was used to create the assets.
19/10/2012
This week I have
been looking at different game companies and finding out as much information
about them as possible. By doing this I will be trying to find out the company
background, their history and what type of jobs will be available to me when I
graduate. I will be looking at three main companies that I have always had a
major interest in and when I graduate would like to work for them as I have
always been a big fan of the games that they have brought out.
The companies I
will be researching are Blizzard Entertainment, Valve and Black Isle Studios.
Blizzard Entertainment
Another studio
that I have always had a passion towards is blizzard entertainment, the artwork
and games they produce have always been to a high standard and have a really
good reputation for being a top company to work for. Their main studio is based
in Irvine California which would be a magnificent place to be based as there is
so much to do and see around California.
The Studio itself
has had multiple name changes and was first known as Silcon & Synapse in
1991, then in 1994 chaos studios, and finally again in 1994 changed to what we
all know as Blizzard Entertainment.
BioWare
Bioware is another
studio that I have always loved and endlessly played the games they have
released. The company was founded by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk that retired
in 2012 and Augustine Yip that retired in 1997. Their main headquarters are in
Edmonton, Alberta and Canada.
Bioware have
released a large amount of games but the most recognised games would be
Neverwinter Nights, one of my old favourite and Star Wars: Knights of the old
Republic and Baldur’s gate, another old favourite. Since then Bioware has
released an MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic in which they decided to put a completely
different spin on MMO’s and made the whole game fully voice acted which made
the questing a whole lot more fun. Although the game did well during release it
has died down drastically and has now gone free to play.
For my module in
my 3rd year advanced 3d graphics, I want to create a scene from star
wars. I will be looking at the artwork and texturing/modelling from Bioware and
try to implement their style within my work so I can create a portfolio based
around their art style and then target them as a potential employer. I believe
by creating something similar to the games they have created will give me a
good upper hand when applying for a job within there establishment.
Black Isle Studios
Black Isle Studios
has always been on off my favourite companies in terms of the released they
make. I have always been highly interested in the games that they make as they
are specialised in producing RPG’s. Black Isle Studios was found in 1996 by Fergus
Urquhart. Although, the studio itself closed down as they had a lot of
financial issues in which they had to cancel a few titles which consisted of
Black Isle’s Tom, Lionheart: Legacy of the crusader. Which then led to
Interplay laying of the entire Black Isle studio staff which resulted in the
cancellation of Baldur’s Gate 3 and the Original Fall out 3?
The Reason I am
now so interested in Black Isle Studios is that on August 22nd,
Interplay decided to revive the studio. I believe that now they are reopening
the studio they will be looking for some eager graduates to fill multiple job
roles, although there is no current news whether any old employees will be
returning to their old posts.
Games released –
Baldur’s Gate:
Dark Alliance 2, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Ice Wind Dale, Baldurs Gate
2: Shadows of Amn, Plane Scape Torment, Fall Out 2, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout.
23/10/2012
Over the last few
days I have been sorting out a website domain and a host in order to start
developing my work. I have purchased the domain name www.AaronHaggerty.co.uk as this is just my name and hopefully I will be able to
increase the hits on the search by adding lots of words revolved around gaming
and my chosen job role. I have done some research on how to increase my hits on
Google search and will be trying to implement that knowledge into my website.
Basic Template so
far:
This is my basic
template so far, just to outline the tabs that I would like on my website. I
wanted to keep the layout very basic and have the tabs at the top and then have
renders of my work. I will have six main pieces of work so there will only be a
short scroll. The user can then click on a project of choice in which there
will be more renders inside so if they like a particular project they can
inspect it and look at it in more detail.
I have given
myself a task to do in which I will create positioning boards consisting of totally
different designs and then take the best from each and create a design that
works for me. For my first concept I want the website to work within an
environment scene that I have created similar to the blizzard website.
I decided to look
at current free hosting websites in which I can create a portfolio and upload
It. I found the tools very easy to use on weebly and it has everything on it
that I would require for an online portfolio. I will be using this for the
minute until PPD2 when I can put my research and concepts into photoshop and
produce a higher quality website that will stand out. I will also be incorporating
my scene renders into my website so they work alongside each other so once I
have completed my scenes for PPD2 I will then be able to create
WEBSITES THAT I LOVED
http://www.gerbergear.com/unstoppable/hellotrouble/
I have also been
working on my business card and feel that this layout gives out everything that
the person needs. Although as an artist I feel that I could make it a lot more
creative and will be working on more designs as I continue.
I have noticed
from looking at a wide range of business cards that a lot of environment
artists use their work within their business card to give the person receiving
it a feel for what the person does and is capable off.
So over the past couple of
weeks I have been thinking about how I want to create my show reel and the type
of work I want to develop for it. I have been very interested in the old
Chinese temples and have taken a liking to the way the lighting could be done
as well as all the shaders that can be implemented into the scene as I would
like to create water effects.
Here are some reference images that I
particularly like.
I have also taken a lot of
interest into creating an old Prague style scene with market stalls and wagons.
I find these old buildings very nice to look at and the detail that goes into
them is amazing, and would make a great scene for a game.
Brief for PPD2
For my PPD2 I will be
creating a scene in the style of old Vienna. For this project I will be looking
at old Vienna within the 1800-1900’s and incorporating the texture style from
blizzard games such as World of Warcraft. The styles of textures within WoW are
hand painted in a realistic cartoony way.
By creating a scene and
implementing the art style of Blizzard, I will be targeting them directly and give
myself a higher opportunity of gaining an interview.
The below picture resembles
1893 old Vienna.
Time Management
Above is my Gantt chart that
I have produced in order to manage my time. I have coordinated each module into
different sections and give myself an hour basis on how much time I will be spending
on each project.
For my PPD2 the large
quantity of my work will be producing my scene for my brief based around 1800
Prague, as I have already collated a lot of research I will be able to begin
the modelling process straight away and begin creating a block out of how I
vision the scene to look, so I have given myself 6 days which equates to 20
hours as I have split the days up into 4 hours in order to split up the workflow
for each individual module.
I have equated quite a large
amount of time on texturing the assets and the scene within all my modules as
this is the area that I struggle on the most to get right as well as having
high quality textures really does improve your work and even makes a bad model
look good! So given this reason I have set aside a large amount of time on
texturing.
Overall I believe the time
management I have given myself is reasonable as I have given myself a 8 hour
day, 5 days a week. T would be the same as having a normal office job, and if I
start to fall behind schedule I have the weekend. I have also given myself the
deadline 1-2 weeks before the hand in date. This is my contingency in case I
fall behind in areas of my work or in case anything in my life changes that
means I have to lose time and fall of schedule.
Overall I think what I am
producing will be viable in the amount of time we have to produce as I am doing
one large scene and another scene that is a bit smaller and more focused on lighting
and texture quality. If In any case I fall behind I will also have my
contingency plan in place that will help me to get back on schedule for
hand-in.
Art
Styles of Companies
For PPD2 I wanted to have a show
reel that I could present to the companies I have researched above. Within my
work I really wanted to look at the texture style and concepts of the different
companies games and implement that within my own work. Below is an image taken
from World Of Warcraft. From looking at this image I can get a real feel for
the way they have hand painted these textures and after looking at a lot of
there working within the game I really want to incorporate this style within my
Prague scene.
I think that by using the art
style that a company is already using will give me a big advantage when I
present my show reel as it shows I have taken the step to look into the way
they are creating there artwork as well as that I will also already have an
understanding of the art style and will settle in easier if I gain a position
at Blizzard.
