High Level Exit Plan

Over the course of these 12 weeks I have learnt a lot about the industry as a whole and where I feel I will fit in best. I have decided that I will be going for an environment artist position. I feel this fits my skills best, is what I enjoy most and may be the easiest route into the industry. I will be applying for jobs as soon as possible, or at least keeping an eye on the job market. I do not want to come out of Uni with no idea what is going on in the industry and no idea which companies to apply for. These weeks of research have helped me with this but I will need to keep my eyes open for opportunities to apply for jobs, network, gain contacts and create artwork.

Over the coming years I am aiming for a job in the games industry, however if this does not happen I am aware there are other industries that I can apply my skills to. For example, adverts, product visualisation, films, entertainment and architecture can all require 3D skills for projects. My main aim is to get a games industry job but I feel it is necessary to be open minded.

I will need time to work on my portfolio. I am well aware of the competition that is out there, even for junior positions and want to improve my skills. I have a number of projects that I would like to work on (the sci-fi and forest scenes for my blockout showreel among them) for personal skill development and I would also love to work on some more team projects to get more used to working in a team scenario. Game Development next year will be a good start to this. I will also need to give myself deadlines for projects and keep myself motivated. Using sites such as Polycount, forums and Artstation to post work will keep me motivated as I will be aiming to upload regularly to gain an online following.

Overall, I feel and I am well prepared for life after University. This module has given me a lot more knowledge about the games industry as a whole, what area I would like to work in and made me think about my next steps after University.


Below is my final showreel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQx1sJkLBIQ&feature=youtu.be

And my final website link:
http://smarsh1994.wix.com/3denvironmentartist

Improvements to website

There were a number of improvements I wanted to make to my website. First off, I added more up to date pictures of my A3D scene on to my home page. I also changed the colour scheme so that the highlighted et would be red instead of yellow, making it stand out more and be easier to read.

The next page to really focus on was the portfolio page. I made the images a lot bigger and categorised them into scenes. When clicked on they open up another page that shows even larger screenshots of my work and various shots of the environment. This is much better than my previous portfolio page which only had small images that weren't categorised at all.

 Portfolio Homepage

Individual Scene Example Page

The last thing to do with the website will be to add my more up to date showreel. After that it will simply be updated as I do more work.

Improvements to showreel

In order to improve my showreel I took a number of steps. I started off by replacing my Moorish scene cinematic. I added in the final rendered cinematic. I found that it was too long for my showreel as it took up a whole minute which left me little to no time for another environment or prop break downs. In order to cut it down I took out a couple of shots that simply showed different angles.

In order to better explain my sci-fi scene I gathered a few more images and concepts. I wanted to go with a green lit overlay like the concept art, as if the laboratory was used as a nature research facility or greenhouse, with things growing inside tubes such as planets and small creatures. This will give me an opportunity to work on some foliage work as well as hard-surface, meaning I wont lose out on the skills I would have gained doing the forest scene.

I also looked at a few sci-fi laboratory inspired environment fly-throughs to get an idea of how I could put a camera through my scene. 

In this first video, a simple shot running down the central corridor with bubbles and tubes containg plants would be a nice mid-shot that sets the scene and tells the story behind my environment,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9il_lUNs3Y

I also looked at this environment flythrough by Tor Frick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGB-FnpNHO4
I feel the cameras are too fast and rollercoaster like in this however it shows areas that I'd like to include such as fly-overs of instruments on tables and scientific devices.

I added some music to my showreel to set a mood. I went with some relaxing Celtic style music that I feel fits well with my Moorish environment and will hopefully fit in well with the nature theme of my sci-fi environment too. I struggled a bit with finding music as I did not want something that would distarct from the artowkr but also wanted something that created a mood. I decided not to go for an overused epic style of music but went with a relaxing mood.

Finally the last thing to address was the turntable. Turntables appear to be overused, a lot of people use them and they can often be seen as an easy option and boring. I wanted to use them to show off some prop work but I will now look into adding some interest to it. I still want to use the idea of a turntable as it shows off all angles of a model but I will use some shots such as closeups and render passes to break it up.

Methods of self-promotion

In order to get myself recognised as an artist and get potential employees attention I will need to think about promoting myself. There are a number of ways I can do this:

1) An online portfolio
- I have already started this step by creating a website to showcase my art. There are other websites I can look into for this as well. For example, Artstation is an up and coming place where numerous artists post their work to receive feedback. There are also forums such as the Unreal forums and Polycount. I have created an Artstation account and will be creating more profiles over time.

2) Create an online presence
- Get myself known in the online community. This could be by being active on forums, giving feedback and posting work or participating in competitions online. The main reasons for doing this will be to get my name out there. Especially with competitions it could be a chance to be featured in articles or on other websites. Competitions will also give me deadlines. I am usually pretty good at setting myself deadlines and working to them but after University I can see how this will be harder. I will have a lot of other things going on such as finding work, working on my portfolio as well as general life. The competitions and tasks set on forums will be a good opportunity to work on my art skills, keep me motivated and provide challenges for myself.

3) Networking
- This can be by attending gaming events in the local area, through sites such as LinkedIn or simply by emailing people asking for advice on my work. Making contacts will be very important for my future career as recommendations from people will be good for references and may open some doors for me.

4) Share everything
- Whether its good or bad, share it all. This way I will get feedback on my work and hopefully improve over time. I will only publish my best work on my portfolio but I could use a site such as a blog or forums to showcase my processes and work in progress. This will help people see my approach to making the art as well as my work ethic. If I post regularly this will show motivation and consistent work.

Revisited Showreel

When looking back at my showreel I thought of some ways I could improve it. I decided to insert a more up to date version of my Moorish scene cinematic. I also decided, instead of having three environments, to have some break downs of assets. I feel this will be more beneficial as viewers can see how I have modelled the mesh in wireframe and the different maps applied. I kept in the sci-fi scene as this is something I am keen to do to improve my hard-surface skills. I inserted a video of an asset break down that I like. I would aim to use this style for breaking down my fountain asset when I have worked more on it and made it into more of a beauty piece.

garrett ilardi. (2013). 2013 Compositing and FX Demo Reel. Available: http://vimeo.com/60685350. Last accessed 10/12/2014.

Research into cinematic techniques

For creating my final showreel and the cinematics that will be a part of it, I decided to take some time to look at some simple cinematic techniques. This will also be useful for my Advanced 3D module.

1) Pan
- Horizontal camera movement
- Used for showing the whole of a landscape
-
2) Tilt
- Vertical camera movement
- Used for tall buildings

3) Tracking shot
- Moves with the point of interest

4) Pull focus
- Changes the focus of the shot from near to far or vice versa
- Useful for drawing the eye to different areas

5) Zoom
- Move in on a faraway point without moving the camera, can be slow or fast
- Used for effect as its not something our eyes can naturally do

6) Transition
- Switching from one frame to the next
- Examples include, dissolve, fade and wipes

7) Types of shot
- Establishing shots and full shots to set the scene
- Close ups to show action or lead the eye to main features

How does this apply to me?
After looking at these techniques I can start to think of some ideas for my showreel. In order to make it interesting I should use different kinds of shots to showcase each environment. In addition, I should use different methods such as turntables, flythroughs and still images to the best effect so they showreel does not all look the same.

References:
http://teacherweb.com/WA/CloverParkHighSchool/MsSelby/Basic-Cinematic-Techniques.pdf

Revisited Website

I decided to go back and re-look at my website to see if there were any improvements I could make. I decided to add a showreel page under the portfolio section. I feel this will help as if people want to see different angles of an environment that aren't visible in the screenshots, they can hopefully see more. In addition, it can show off the dynamic elements of environments such as particle systems and water shaders.

I also went back to my portfolio page and made the thumbnails for each image bigger. I found that when clicking on each image, different size windows come up. This can be rectified by saving all the images to the same size before uploading. As most of these images are only placeholders I will wait until I have final artwork in order to do this.