Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer 2018: Advice from Industry Artists

Let's also go over some fun stuff. So one, A, you're going to tell your friends that they can see the talk on Vault. Two, we know that there's a lot of people inside and outside for portfolio reviews and it's really important, our team here, everybody here, we want to see you. So we will make sure, don't worry about the time, we will see every last person the very last person. We're going to get get through this together. Okay. Let's make this turn turn the volume up here. Let's have some fun. Are you guys ready? All right, I want to hear it. I need to feel the energy right now. All right. All right. Sweet. My name is Allison Kelley and I'm a private consultant to some of the top-tier gaming developers. Why don't we introduce ourselves, guys? Uh I can start at my end. I'm Claire

Hummel, I'm the art director at Campo Santo, currently working on In the Valley of Gods. I'm Darren Bacon, I'm the lead concept artist at 343 Industries uh develops Halo. Uh I'm Gavin Goulden, I'm the lead character artist at Insomniac working on Spider-Man for PS4. Uh I'm Wyatt I've been in the game industry since the turn of the century, which is fun to be able to say. Uh and I've been a production artist, lead artist, art director, and technical art director at Epic over the last 12 years. I'm Greg Foertsch, I'm the art director at Firaxis for XCOM. And I've been there for about 21 years. I just passed 21 years, so yes, I'm a dinosaur. Hey Greg, I thought you were only, you know, 21. Yeah.

Okay, and then Shawn Robertson, who is on the panel, but we couldn't fit him up on our stage, could you just wave your hand? I bet he went to go get coffee with slacking. Or or bourbon. Uh that's true. That that is actually probably true. Um okay, so how did you guys get started in the industry? Anyone want to I'll take it. Every time. Um I technically got my start when I was 14 years old and emailed the website Neopets and said that their art was bad and my art was better. And so I worked there for about seven summers. Uh and then when I graduated from art college, I ended up at Xbox. They were recruiting uh at RISD, the college I went to, and I was absolutely expecting to get into animation, but they made a very compelling offer, and 10 years later, still in games. So. it. Guess it worked out, yeah. Darren? Yeah. Um

so uh when I was in art school, I kind of spammed every game development company like up and down the left coast, and I was living in Pasadena, ended up getting a sort of a contract position for an internship in Seattle, and I was like making just enough money to pay my rent back in Pasadena, but that's sort of uh how I got in. So the takeaway, I guess, was I was I just was super motivated and um wanted to just kind of find any foot in the door I could. Mhm. We're going to start doing a a duet here. Yes. Double mic. Uh so I actually went to uh to art school to do um work for film and effects. Didn't like it cuz I wanted to make a character art reel or a portfolio, dropped out, moved across the country, worked uh bunch of random jobs while working on my portfolio, got uh my foot in the door for a mobile company uh working on prehistoric mobile phones way before iPhone you know like

old sports games and stuff like that and eventually just worked my way up through pixel art doing I guess what would now be hand painted last gen last two last gens ago and then on from there for about 15 years now. That's awesome. My story is obtuse and complicated so I'll tell the one important piece I think for you guys which is there was a moment where there was a game developer I wanted to work for who put out an entreaty this is a long time ago on Blues News or some archaic website way back in the day and entreaty to have somebody come and test their game and I was working as a graphic designer but I was not an a game developer and they put out this entreaty and I wrote an impassioned email to that person and out of 350 emails they picked mine. And that's one of these stories where you just have to keep pushing yourself put you just put yourself in these situations where people can find that you are a person of good taste and something in that email was appealing to them and so I said come by and try it and they they were not hiring they would

did not intend to hire anybody they were not even looking they just wanted somebody to come try their game and within 6 months I was working in the industry because I made an impression on them and I showed them my portfolio and so on. So just find a way in the door and then show that you have good taste and that's going to be an a good entry point. Yeah I I just kind of stumbled into it when I was in art school doing illustration and actually doing editorial work while I was in school and kind of there was an internship for a company called MicroProse. Have you ever heard of that? Crickets. Yeah yeah wow. Sid Meier ever heard of Sid Meier? Yeah I hadn't when I was in school I didn't know who the guy was with the big office and so yeah I went to um, respond to an internship for for uh doing illustration, which was what they were looking for at the time. And uh yeah, it was supposed to be a, you know, 2-year job till I got my freelance self, you know, settled. And 23 years later, I'm still doing it.

So, it's uh it kind of stuck. Oh, and and I want to say one more thing because Shawn has gracefully not had a seat and he's off getting bourbon as we've already established. Um but he uh he tells the story every year and I'm not going to tell the whole story. I'm just going to say that that man saved every rejection letter he ever received and he received dozens and they were in they were printed out. He got them in the mail uh after submitting his VHS reels um decades ago. Um but he saved those things and they were his motivation and he is an absolute badass and that guy got rejected a lot. So, keep that in mind. So, what is the most common issue you find in portfolios? I I think that Uh I'll lead us off. Uh I would say that for me the most common issue that I really see is portfolios that don't really have a voice. I can guarantee that everyone in the in this room has a voice for your

art or whatever you're working on and a lot of times it's really easy to fall into the trap of aping what you already see in the industry, of trying to sort of repeat that back cuz you see that it's successful, so you want to do more of it. Uh but it's important to remember that what makes good art in this industry is usually new and fresh and exciting and whether that's the research you're doing, your personal interests, your life experience, bringing that to the table and having it come through in the work that you're choosing to show to people instead of just the same paladins and the same space marines over and over again and the same environments that have those spiky rock formations that don't really exist in real life. Uh if you show that research and it comes through, it really makes your work stand out even even if there are people who are technically better than you. If that concept and intention comes through in your portfolio, it's super important. Yeah, uh Claire's right except if you

have really cool space marines, you should show them to me. Um yeah, I think the voice thing is is like the key takeaway. I I think if you for at least for me or what I've noticed if you are super passionate about something, it's going to sort of show itself in the work. So, it's sort of like it's chicken and egg thing, but if if you are really super passionate about it, it's the result will be more inspiring work and stuff that, you know, other artists maybe haven't seen before. Uh can I rant about pet peeves for a second? Yeah, oh yeah. So, uh a few things about portfolios for me that stand out is uh common problems. One would be uh no focus or thinking that having uh quantity over quality uh is better. Uh generally, I find that a lot of uh especially like newer portfolios will have like everything you can possibly do is in this portfolio, but what that actually does is waters out or waters down your actual skill. So, focusing

more on, you know, your your best discipline, your best pieces, and just editing that down uh is way better than showing you can do everything imaginable or at least attempt to. Uh and then having a portfolio of only sculpts for a game art uh position is just makes my my blood boil. I never I never want to see one ever again. I won't belabor any of these points other than to say take your entire portfolio, divide it in half, and subtract two pieces, and that's the number of pieces you actually should have in your portfolio. Why I just elaborate on that. You You to see two like amazing, not a bunch of mediocre. You'd rather see two pieces that are really amazing. as good as your weakest piece. And you know, what the classic thing we'll do is we look at your first piece which is usually the thing that's in your your ego as the best thing you've ever done and then we'll just switch to the last page and if they're really dissimilar we're like yeah, okay. You know, and you can immediately see there's this big you know, difference either it's taste level

or it's a lack of awareness or it's a lack of just putting in the time to even your quality but it's the first thing we see. For sure. Yeah, this is probably weird coming from me but I think it was like Coco Chanel that said before you're leaving the house like you take off one piece of jewelry or something like that or you take off one Actually it was add another piece of jewelry. add now? Yes, it was add another necklace. Really? Yes. Add another necklace? Okay, well in my version So I guess so Darren's changing the brand. Coco Chanel had terrible advice. I'm pretty sure of that. What does Coco bacon? to double check. Great. Take out something. I I just think you know, it all kind of goes to that that that quality versus quantity thing but but like Claire said I think is it is it the voice part of it? Like that's how you that that's that's a powerful way to to think about how you edit your work. Like

if it's not it's not scatter shot. You're not shooting with a shotgun. Um and so trying to think about it. I've never heard I I've never actually heard somebody describe it that way with the voice and like how that applies to it. It's it's really right on. Like um use that voice to help you kind of thin the herd. If it doesn't fall within your voice maybe it shouldn't be in your portfolio. Um so that's a really really good good point. How do you decide what format is the best for a portfolio and when is it appropriate to have a demo reel? I'm looking at you. Opinions? Uh so generally uh for like anything that would require motion is what you should use a demo reel for. Uh for like character art, uh I mean, you know, concept art or anything that is generally still that you could sell within uh a series of images, you know, like a turnaround of just static images um

is what far superior than doing like a a demo reel just because I mean, I can get into it, but the loading times, they will end up skipping around just to see like different angles of a character. You'll probably have a lot of your work missed. Uh compression, uh for something like this, it's going to be load time, too. Um you're just really uh you know, shooting yourself in the foot. Uh but for animation, effects, things that actually require you to see uh motion in the work, a demo reel is the way to go. Yeah, I'd say for character models, also a lot of places like ArtStation or if you're building your own website, you can embed Marmoset viewers and things to view models. You should still have turnarounds cuz those suckers do not always load, but it's so much easier than having to wade through, as you said, just like skipping ahead on a demo reel for a single model. Anyone else? Okay. Yeah, I think concept can be super simple. Like I have I once submitted a

demo reel, and I don't know why. It was just like that was the format they wanted, but it was it seemed odd. I wouldn't know. I would like rather just thumb through JPEGs than scrub through a video. Personally. Are blogs appropriate to include in a portfolio? Process versus practice. Um uh we were kind of talking about this yesterday. I feel like it's really interesting to see someone's blog as an addition to your portfolio. So, if you have a website, being able to have it as a link at the bottom of the page or a drop-down menu of all of your social media, it's a great way for someone to look at your curated portfolio of the work your best work that you want to put in front of someone. And then if if an art director is thinking, "Hey, I want to see more of this person's work." it would be fantastic if there was an Instagram or a Tumblr that I could click through to. And so that gives them the option without overcrowding your portfolio.

Uh, the other thing I want to just want to say about something like a process blog is one of the main things that we're looking for is the ability for someone who who's applying to self-edit because we can see what, you know, kind of what they're they view as their apex work or the, you know, varieties of things they want to show. So, if there's a big process blog and you're like, "Hey, look at all my work." I don't know when you're learning or when you're experimenting or when you're trying something outside of your comfort zone and I don't know what you consider good. I just see a bunch of stuff. So, you know, to me a process blog or link like that is not in any way, shape, or form a portfolio cuz it tells us absolutely nothing about you editing yourself uh, down to the essence of like why we should hire you. What role should traditional art have in a portfolio? This this is funny cuz this came up this this came up yesterday. We all talked about what we're going to talk about a little bit we kind of uh, pre-game day before. And so it's really

funny we we when we when we talked about this um, and this is actually kind of going back and forth over the years a little bit. Um, but but it was funny we actually traditional media came up um, yesterday and we were talking about like is it important to see figure work um, and and it's kind of funny I think we all kind of came around to the fact of like, you know, it's like, no, like, if that's not what you're doing, like, I don't That's I'm going to see that We're going to see that in your work whether or not you provide us with, you know, figure drawings, but, you know, it's going to come through in the other stuff. Um and uh so, yeah, it's kind of Yeah, I I like I respect really good figure drawing. Yeah, absolutely. It just doesn't really fit into the equation. And you can Yeah, you can kind of like suss it out already with with most concepts that you see, like, can this person understand anatomy, right? Yeah, it's true. And I think like at Art Center they used to always say like you have to get really good at drawing the form and you either do it through figure drawing or the car. So, or like automotive. Um

And so, I think it's sort of like as a result of being a really good figure drawer, you'll most likely, you know, have really good foundations and good art skills. And at best, it's a small positive for your portfolio. And at worst, your figure drawings are really good and it's not coming through in your concepts, then that's a huge ding to your portfolio. So, you want to be really thoughtful about that. Um I did want to touch on the idea of just traditional work in a portfolio or in a games pipeline. Uh there definitely people who do it who do traditional concept work, but it's definitely it's a lot harder when you have to scan things, when you have to do iterations on pieces. So, it's not not like, oh, I immediately wouldn't hire someone, but if someone is not proficient in Photoshop or the ability to quickly move around and move at the pace of a games pipeline, then that definitely can become a problem. With most artists having a presence on

ArtStation, is there any benefit to maintaining a separate portfolio site? Oh, Gavin, you look like you have an opinion on this. I I should start I should be over here. beaming. Uh In my opinion, no. Uh I mean basically if you're at the stage where you're creating portfolio looking for your first job, anytime you have to spare should be spent on making that work better. So, if you're spending time web designing and trying to get your portfolio working right or anything like that, it's kind of a waste when ArtStation already exists and it's already searchable. It's already like a hub for people to go to like us looking for for new like contractors, new uh team members and stuff like that. So, you know, for me it's better investment just to put it back in the work instead of uh in a website. I will say it's also it's nice if if someone has if you're using ArtStation as your primary portfolio to use the

ArtStation Pro that allows you to have a domain name and a and a polished portfolio site. Um I personally I keep my own portfolio site using squarespace.com because it's so much easier to just like toss work up there without having to like label all of the stuff that I use for it. But, pretty much as you said like ArtStation can just turn into a portfolio site now. So, if you want to have one that's fine, but yeah, do not waste time. Do not feel like you need to learn CSS and impress people with your web design skills just for a portfolio site. Greg, do you have a comment? Um yeah, I mean I think that's I think that's right. It's always it's not bad I it's not bad to have something else that you can find. Um but yeah, I think it's taking way too much of your of your if you're seriously you're that pressed for time, you know, trying to get it your work done, um maybe shouldn't do it, but but I think, you know, having this other presence sometimes to kind of separate

you from the herd um is sometimes it's not a bad a bad choice. Yeah. We can have custom layouts in ArtStation. A little one speaker. Uh and also if you have multiple sites, keep them all up to date cuz it is so sad if someone's like finds your DeviantArt you haven't updated in 8 years and they're like, "Oh, well, this person is not great. Find me on GeoCities. So, keep keep the content relevant and and also have it maybe in one area. Like you don't want to have one site that's 8 years old and one site that's like brand new because when someone's trying to look for you, you don't know what you're getting. Yeah. Right? So, do you expect to see models and animation in game engines? Yes. Yes. Yes, please. Hmm, is that because maybe you're from Epic? Any real-time preview that's applicable to game technology, Allison. Which game

engine? I just like to make fun of them. You you got to show your work in engine. Uh there's I mean we we have huge pet peeves about sculpts that are that are like renders in max or whatever. Uh it's near pointless and I basically don't care. Like that's how strongly I feel about it. You you have to show that you can go all the way through the pipeline, all the way to the bitter end cuz all the easiest stuff is in ZBrush, not discounting the incredible talent that happens there, but the easy work is there and then making it look good at the very very tippy top of the mountain way down here, that's like the 90% hard case. So, you got to show it. You got to show it. Yeah, I mean Absolutely. Yeah. For uh I mean for character art animation, really like any of the disciplines, uh I find almost like the creative part is half of the job and then the problem-solving technical implementation is the other half. So, as much as I love ZBrush and sculpts and you know, modeling in whatever package or just

normal animation reels and stuff, it doesn't show that you can put it into context. So, you can only do the actual art part, not the game development part. And that's what we're doing. Like we're basically hiring very skilled problem solvers more than an animator in Max, you know, or Maya. What do people animate in? Maya? Who's to say? Anything. Whatever you Whatever you animate in. The fact that these jobs are problem solving is such a good point. Like that is very much the definition of working games is you have these limited parameters as concept artist, but especially as modelers, as animators, and understanding that you have to work within those parameter parameters and find creative solutions is so important. Should a portfolio be as broad as possible or should it be specialized in the given style technique? Uh I mean I think it depends on studio. You know, we were talking about this earlier, but for a company like

Insomniac, we have more specialized roles. So, again, going back to the problem solving thing, I mean I want a creative character artist who can, you know, adapt their abilities to our project, right? So, style doesn't necessarily matter, especially because we have such a diverse portfolio, but you know, as long as they show the skill, they show like the technical know-how and stuff like that, they'll generally be a good fit. But for a more independent company or like a smaller team, I find that it's going more into generalization. So, leaning more on that like technical side or the the not jack of all trades, but having, you know, multi-disciplinary portfolio is almost the more fitting. Yeah, which which the summary there is know who you're applying to. Yeah. You got to be aware of the company you're applying to and tailor your portfolio. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all portfolio ever. You have to know exactly who you're sending it to, you know exactly what you're applying for, and then you tailor it, take out stuff that's not relevant,

put in extra stuff you might have that is. That's the That's the thing. I I actually feel like in in in my position right now, like I I've actually I'm actually seeing the shift in the way that we're hiring in that um I don't I'm not so looking for something that's super diverse, but I'm looking for somebody that um has a second skill, like, you know, that they may not be great at it, but they're pretty good at it. And so as I'm as I'm hiring now and I'm I'm seeing this um in in both what what we're doing at Praxis uh and with with some of my other friends in the industry that we're actually kind of looking for just a little bit more than a specialization. Um so we're not going fully like, I want somebody to do everything, but I want somebody that's got this primary thing that they're really good at and this other thing that they're pretty good at that I might be able to leverage later. And so um I kind of feel like that there's some shifting going on right now. Um so I don't know how you guys feel about that.

How How would you uh How would you recommend showing that in a portfolio to have like So if you have like five levels in character art and then like one level in you know, shader artist or something like that, would you uh just so that, you know, we don't uh go back on our quality over quantity thing. But so would you have, you know, a few pieces of character art and then an example of like shader work or something like that? Yeah. Yeah, that's like um I think I think, you know, if you're really good at one thing and you got this this other thing that you're pretty good at. I mean again, it's it couldn't be a it shouldn't be a huge drop off. Mhm. Um and it should be something like related. Like if you're if you're an animator, right? And uh I don't want to just hire an animator anymore. I want to hire an animator that's got cinematic skills, right? That's got some sort of cinematic um understanding and tendency. Like that's easy enough to build into your reel, right? Um uh if you're um an environment modeler, like maybe you can do some layout as well um and world building. Right. So, I'm not just

looking for a prop artist anymore. I want somebody that can do to give me a little more if I need it somewhere else and has a little more diversified interest. Mhm. Um but I don't know. Well, and in the if you think about what you're talking about as a color wheel, you're talking about complimentary colors. You're not talking about like I'm an animator who also lights, you know, whatever. Like those are weird. Like I don't understand how to parse that portfolio. But if you're like I'm an environment modeler but I'm also doing set dressing, little lighting and I can do some post processing. You're like ah that's the guy. Right. I don't know. I kind of feel like there's I I do feel like there's something shifting right now. Mhm. Um I don't think we're the only ones. I mean budgets are getting huge. And I think people are starting to look a little more like okay, can I get somebody to a little bit little bit more than just the scalp ball. But again, it's got to be something complimentary to what they're doing. It's if you're environment model or if you're world builder, maybe you're into lighting, right? And so, you're getting just a little bit of something extra but it's not completely in left field.

So. Mhm. I do like I I find that as well. So, it's not so much like I'm looking for a person that you could put in on the animation team from character art or something but I think almost all of my hires have been leaning more towards the technical side. So, knowing like shader setup, knowing like all of our like best practices for like our, you know, our engine, stuff like that. Uh like I'm kind of looking more at that on top of all the art. So, it's like well, you know, I can kind of have both. I have somebody who knows like the technical side more too. So, they can kind of help out for sure. How do you avoid portfolio clichés? Um and actually put more originality in your portfolio. Darren's looking for space marines. Yeah. Just just add more space marines. Eventually it'll come around, right? Space marines will be uh now. Uh I you know, I think it's kind of gets back to what we were talking about earlier. Um if you're finding what you're passionate about and letting that drive you, it's going to be harder to

sort of wind up producing that stuff. Um but it happens. I mean, I think it's I think there's also a level of execution too, right? Cuz like a lot of things can be cliché, but if you can sort of do it put a twist on it or something or do it your own way. Um I mean, I I think you could probably say a lot of my portfolio is a cliché. But I just execute it differently, maybe. Um So, yeah, it's I think it's just like it's it's kind of like how you do it. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I feel like a lot of my interests are very tropy. Like I love westerns, I love dinosaurs. I'm working on a game about Egypt and it's all about finding finding that particularly interesting way. For me, it's often like a historical bent and very research-heavy. But if you can bring something new to the table, like I follow a lot of artists who do very cool space marines. So, I feel like I need to make sure that my stance on space marines does not follow me out of this room. There There uh there's a a quote about

originality that I love, which is that the definition of it is two things you know combined in a way you didn't expect. And that I I just adore that phrase and I live my life basically that way. Uh and I think that's exactly how you reflect that in a portfolio, which is it's okay to derive from things that are known. In fact, that's where all the things come from. Just find a little bit of a bias that makes it yours so that we can um infer that when we look at the portfolio. I hope someone's taking notes for me. in it. What role should school projects have in a portfolio? Got to see this a lot. Well, I you know, I know I don't want to throw them under the bus, but um I I think it you have to have it at a certain point. Um do your best to remove it as fast as you can. Yeah, I feel like school work it is very clearly school work. If it's an individual

uh project, it's and it's being assigned to 30 different people, like you start to see that repeating project. I look at my classmates who graduated the same year I did and you you can see you can definitely see those same assignments in all of our portfolios. You want to get it out as fast as you can. And if you work on a group project, be abundantly transparent about what your role was and where people helped you. It's not a weakness to say this was a group project. Here's who did this and this. In fact, that shows that you work well on a team, that you can collaborate with people. Uh so do whatever you can to edit down your work on that project to really focus primarily on what you contributed. So, we're going to take this time. We have a couple more questions to go, but if people would like to ask some questions, I'd like you to line up and we'll begin in like after two questions. You just can line up and ask your question to the panel. So, what area of the game art production do you see more demand in talent than

supply for? Um I don't know. I think I think tech art is huge um and it's also one of those things that's still defining itself. You know, it's it's a really broad thing and it's that's actually kind of breaking down in the specialization. Um uh and then I think um UI I mean if if you have went to the show earlier this week, the the first two talks I saw were talks on UI and they were amazing. Um and and I think that um you know, I don't think the industry is about right now is this generation is going to define itself by like more model fidelity. Like we've already done that. Like I think what you're going to be seeing like the way I see next gen right now, it's about the trailing disciplines. It's about animation. It's about effects. It's about audio. It's about UI. Like those are the things that are going to get more fidelity now. So it's a little more subtle, but it's going to be really robust. And so I think that that those are places where

you know, if you're trying to find your place and you have an interest in those things like those are you as an effects artist, you will never look for a job if you're good. Like you'll never have to worry about it. Yeah, I think to piggyback on UI too, like just good graphic design. Like there's just not it's hard to do. And also I also see that moving into more of a motion graphics role, right? Like it's not about just like like buttons clicking. It's about movement. It's kind of more of an animation thing. What it reminds me of is like when you play like Halo or some sci-fi game and they're like here's a future car. And it's like but no one knows what a future car looks like, but that's not it. Like likewise, like when you see the world when you walk outside GDC and you look around, like there's really good graphic design everywhere. And uh to put that into the game is generally just like someone who's not a great graphic designer who's just sort of putting in environment art. So if you want to get hired forever, get into effects tech art or tech animation. And you so you will get I mean there's an incredible amount of demand across

the entire industry for this. Do you guys want to answer some questions? Oh, yes, but I we're running out of time. Yes, but I do want to make one more point. Just cuz I think it's valuable. Particularly for student work. What what I end up seeing a lot this is something that just keep in mind. Often times when you're doing student projects, you're comparing yourselves to your other peers in your class. You're not comparing yourself to the right people. And you're like, oh I'm doing pretty good compared to the other people in my class, but you're not going out to the you know, the polycounts or the art stations or whatever and comparing yourselves to the actual competition for the job you want, which is other people at your skill level who are killing it in you know kind of across the board. So don't fall into the trap of just looking at the two people on either side of you and going like, yeah, I'm doing okay. Yeah, nice like progress, you know. You got to be looking at the industry as a whole and the quality bar and shooting for that rather than the kind of insular side of it. So just a little warning and I don't know the reason I mention it cuz it happens all the time.

Also, we are also talking about the industry is really small, so be nice to those people. Um cuz like we I mean like even like we're all chatting on this panel like we all know each other through some you know, connection. So if if even if in school like if you know you are not nice, then like it gets around. Yeah, you're never good enough to be an Yeah. So let's ask some let's answer some questions. Please. Hello. This might be a good one. Hi. So you mentioned how you wanted the work to be shown like in game engine. Um usually I show my work like in Substance Painter because it's re-toped, so like that's the whole point of showing it in engine, right? So like is it okay to show it in Substance Painter or do you still want it in engine?

No, it's not okay to show it in Substance Painter. It has to be in engine. There's a whole host of problems related to getting something to look Yeah, you have to go the whole way. Got it. Um second question is you mentioned that you should send a specific portfolio to each company. Um but how do you do that if you only have one website? Uh I'm just talking about like if you know if you're making an introductory thing that's talking about your skills and um I mean admittedly if you only have one website, fine. Just just have your best work. But if you're doing something like, "Hey, I'm submitting a resume." Make sure that you edit that to the kind of strengths that you are applicable to that job and then include that as a little bit of an annotation alongside the site. Okay. Thank you. Hi. Hello. I had a question about environment modeling. Could you just speak a little more into the microphone? Hello. That's That's better. That's weird. I had a question about You talked about environment modeling and like trying to separate yourself from like the rest of

the people. You You mentioned like a block outs and post processing and lighting. Can you explain a little more about the technical aspects? Like I'm trying to It's like What would I What could I do to really learn more technical aspects? Would that be like substance designer material work? Like what would you recommend I like start doing? Yeah, I've dove a little bit into that, but like I'm trying to figure out how to more go the technical aspects without really getting into the coding cuz I'm pretty bad at that. So I think um one of the things you can do there Yeah, of course substance is is definitely worth uh having in your arsenal cuz everybody's using it. It's the standard. Um but I think that um you know, looking at doing modular if I'm understanding your question right, like thinking through systems, like doing modular systems for building so that not everything is is unique. Um uh trying to think economically, like like doing a modular system that doesn't necessarily read modularly. Um that's problem solving that we're looking That's what we're looking for, right? Uh

cuz you're you're able to work you know um more efficiently. Uh and again, it's the problem solving aspect of it that's so crucial. Uh If I'm answering your I think I'm answering your question. Is that it? Yeah, so you don't want to get into coding. You want to do something What What can you do? So yeah, I would say those are like the systems end of it is really important. Okay, so like the more production side, like trying to make more like modular kits and how to like get I guess get the most out of the time I'm working it. Right. Hi. Hello. I am so I am a 3D artist at an automotive engineering company so not in the games but it's full-time. But I would like to get into games and I would like to do more stylized environments. So I was wondering it's also a military contract really something I can't actually share or show in portfolio. So I was just wondering how can I show skills in my growth that I did there while still apply it to a new resume or portfolio or anything like that.

Uh so so basically you're looking to take a a way more realistic portfolio the skills that you learned at that job and how to put it into a stylized environment. so I can't show anything so I just want to know how can I voice what I did there and still Yeah. say I did it without any real proof basically. Yeah well I mean at the end of the day like NDA is NDA and you might not be able to show it. It's not just your situation it'd be like a lot of a lot of companies you can't do that. Um but I mean you're already learning skills that would be like hard surface modeling that you could easily apply into a like a personal piece that you could show. Uh just unfortunately that's probably something you have to do on your own time that echoes the same the same skills but it it would be transferable you just have to take that you know modeling information or knowledge that you have and then apply it to a real-time environment. Okay and I thank you. That that NDA thing is something we all

struggle with like we because of the industry and so um keep in mind that that like pay attention to that cuz they really it really means something like if you violate that people Yeah. Like we don't want you to violate it. So um anybody tells you to violate is giving you really bad advice. Um They usually want something else. Personal work yeah. So um actually if um how would you handle doing an art test like while working a 40 hour plus job? The art test should be reasonable. It shouldn't be something that Yeah, also I know Wyatt and I have talked about it before. So I test everybody that well not everybody that applies but everybody that you know, kind of breaks through the threshold, I guess. So everybody that we're interested in we test but it's also a very reasonable test that should be done over like a weekend or something like that. It's nothing that is unreasonable and I think if somebody is testing you that is unreasonable, you should tell them. Maybe that's part of the test. Maybe they're diabolical in

that way but you should you know, you should stand up for yourself for sure if it's if it's too much. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yep. Hi. Hi. So I'm a 2D artist and animator and I'm noticing that there's a lot of division between 2D and 3D and I know that the industry wants to focus specialized sort of skill set but is it better to kind of broaden that horizon to be good at both 2D and 3D or just stick with one side of the fence? I think like we have environment artists and 3D artists who are also doing their own sketches and stuff and generally it makes the art better and it's a great if they like come to concept and we're like we're really busy. So like the the more sort of like simple questions that a 3D environment artist or 3D modeler can solve for themselves is like a huge step up, right? So Yeah, that helps. Anyone else?

Hello. So my question was and I've heard some differing opinions on this so I'm I'd like to hear what you guys have to say about it. Should game fan art play any role in a portfolio and if it does, what role should it play? I wrote a long spiel about this on Twitter since I've gotten a lot of jobs from fan art. Um I think you should be very careful about fan art that you put in your portfolio. Uh and it should definitely play second fiddle to your original your original work. But there are pieces of fan art that I think can speak to what you bring to the table. If you were just drawing exactly what they are offering If you're just drawing on model Overwatch fan art and putting it in your portfolio, that tells me nothing about you as an artist. But if you're doing some interesting take on something, you're improving on something, you're showing what you bring to the table, then in a way uh showing that you can

play around in someone else's sandbox can actually be a really compelling thing. Uh so it's I don't think it's ever like a scarlet letter on someone's portfolio, but you want to be really thoughtful in the same way that you're thoughtful about the other work you put in your portfolio. Make sure your fan art holds up to that. It's not just good illustrations, it's good concept art. Uh I would bring up too, not just to try and get on Claire's good side, but uh you've done your Disney Princesses before. Oh, yeah. Uh she also uh did our Lutece and Elizabeth concepts for BioShock Infinite. And while that's not fan art, that's professional art. Uh they're all very well thought out, and she'll like a knowledge of you know, costume construction and things like that. So even if it was fan art, it's taking a insane amount of knowledge about that outfit and showing your deep understanding of it. So it's not just, "Hey, I I made Tracer." You know, it's like I I broke down the the costume and how it works, and I'm applying that to

all my personal pieces and stuff like that, too. So Yeah, when I got that job on BioShock doing young Liz and the Lutece's, it they specifically were like, "Hey, we saw your historical Disney Princesses. You want to work on BioShock. And I fell over and died and then took the job. So, yeah, it can definitely be a boon to your portfolio if you think about it right. Well, also Claire, I've actually heard a bunch of these guys, too, comment about that, that it's your attention to detail from like everything that she was wearing. You know, and I think that that was a really valid point, too. Yeah, being thoughtful, right? Yeah. Thank you so much. Hello. Hi. So, my question has to do more with the beginning of the talk when you were talking about uh spamming studios. How do I be aggressive in my networking without being annoying and end up getting blacklisted in a very small community? I know that's a tricky question. I don't know. So, like when I I I worked at Bungie and and when I

finally got an interview there, I had this weird connection problem at the airport because the driver couldn't call me cuz of the cell phone I had on file was like 5 years old cuz I'd been spamming them for like 5 years or something, right? Um so, it depends on how you do it and I'm sure you guys can chime in here, but um yeah, use your best judgment. But at a certain point, like there's just not a lot you can do, I think, other other than try to to get your sort of foot in the door that way. Uh if if I could just kind of interject with something which is often times it's not no, it's just not right now. And so, um I don't think anything over like a yearly cadence is really that useful, but there are a lot of places that actually love to see the same people come back over and over again and you see if you can see some progression there. Plus, it shows a little bit of passion for that person toward the your particular company. Like, I I don't just want to work at any game company. I want to work at yours cuz I like what you do and your vision. I think that's healthy. So, I don't think you have to go out of your way to push hard. Just send the pings. Send them off every once in a

while and show some consistency there and some humility about it. I think that can be healthy. Yeah, and also try to find out like who the art director is and and that sort of thing, you know? Like I I that's I originally got an interview at 343 doing the same thing with Kenneth Scott, who was the art director then. Okay. Um and same same at Bungie. It was the same approach. I just didn't spam them all the time. I just like spammed them once or twice, went away for 5 years, spammed them again, and then it worked out, right? Yeah. So, uh I would add to that every time you you spam or ping a company, show difference in your portfolio. Yeah. So, it becomes spam when it's the exact same thing and you're just like, "Hey, remember me? Remember me?" It's like we probably remember you. Uh and it's just like a not right now, but it was not right now based on that portfolio. So, if you improve your portfolio, maybe that's a good time to uh connect again. Rejection letters are never personal. I mean, it's it's and and they're most likely the person may have forgotten anyway. So, it doesn't hurt to send

another time. Um I'm still trying to figure out how they let you get away for 5 years. Like I think you Yeah. I It was that It was the later thing, right? Yeah. Come back later. But I mean, I think that's I mean, again, just going back to like the rejection letter thing, like you all are looking for your jobs. I mean, you've seen Darren's work is amazing and it took you 5 years to you know, like ping these guys sometimes. Like it was kept improving. Yeah. So, I mean, it's just a if you're just starting your career, that's something to really think about. Well, why I think Greg, both of you guys have seen some uh some people's portfolios for the last couple years and have seen their progression get better and better and they request to see these guys and I think that that also forming that connection helps as well. Yeah, we've had people who came back cuz we this like what, seventh or eighth year we've been doing this. People who come back couple of years in a row, ask for one of us particular and then following year we don't see that person and then we'll get a nice email like, "Hey, I got hired." So, uh just to share like a small uh success story or

whatever. Um so, I had uh reviewed the portfolio uh of an artist named Colton Orr uh last year. He actually applied to my team this year. Remembered his portfolio. He went through the, you know, usual paces and we hired him. So he's just joined our team. Um, and I mean it's kind of hitting that connection, right? So we reviewed his portfolio, gave him advice on this, this, and this. He listened to it. He executed and, you know, that progress was noticeable for sure. Thank you for your time. Hello. Hi. Uh, this is almost piggybacking on that whole idea of the fan art in the portfolios, but I had a question about what would your thoughts be on portfolios that feature multiple mediums? So like if you had a character or some kind of structure that you had commissioned into a maybe a model figure or toy or you even made a costume out of

a character you made. Like what are your thoughts on featuring something like that? I don't think that has much business being in a portfolio, honestly, if it were me. I want to see the stuff that's directly applicable to the job that we're hiring you to do. I think that's a perfect kind of thing if you want to put it in your personal kind of blog. If I want to learn more about you, if I've seen your expectations for what you think your best work is, maybe I'll go to your personal blog. In fact, I will and I will go to your Twitter and I will find your Facebook and I will find your postings on Polycount and I will find all the things on the internet to make sure you're not an That's definitely what we're going to do. Um, but that's a perfect thing to show as supplemental work. Um, but I don't think for me that that has much business being in a portfolio. Yeah, I I um I hide that stuff. Like I've done product design work um and like theme park work. I just kind of and I'll do kind of do like random stuff here and there and I I generally do not post it anywhere because I'm sort of trying to the the what I'm putting out there is

sort of like a the brand and I don't really want to like dilute that with anything else. Mhm. I see. Thank you. Hi. Hello. I'm Max. Um first off, I'd like to thank you guys for just like talking and give all this valuable information. But um my main question is uh as you guys kind of mentioned earlier uh the merging job of technical artist, um my main question is is there like a global definition of technical artist? Or is it more defined by like specifically what your company's need? Uh I'll take that cuz that's what I do all day. Um no, there isn't. And actually there's a strange schism between the even the phrase. There are companies who call tech artists tech animators. And there's there ones who call the tech animators tech animus animators and tech artists tech artist. And then there are tech artists who make shaders. There are ones who write code. There are ones who write pipeline like Python scripts and ingesting data in and out of DCC packages. Um there are tech artists who do visual

effects. Um there is absolutely no definition in this space other than I would say you have to have good taste and you can't be afraid of the technical side of problems. So if I just wanted to give a broad generic definition, which isn't that particularly helpful, it would be that. Um what I do all day is I make visual effects. I write shaders and I do aesthetic stuff like I'll do lighting or I'll do you know, whatever it takes to make something look better to try to push it from 90 to 100. That's kind of like my role basically. Um and so while there isn't a specific definition, I think if you learn shaders, you learn some effects, don't be scared of code, learn dabble in some HLSL and make sure you have good taste. That's a pretty good start to tech art. Also uh so is it more like uh so then you you can incorporate, you know, programming into like artistic like if you're putting models and stuff on your portfolio, you can show that you can incorporate like blueprints like in Unreal. Yep. And kind of get them to do all the Or write a really cool shader to do something interesting like a

non-traditional shading model, something. Or a or like a tool, like having, you know, some kind of uh modeling supplement or something like that for the team is also an example. So, it kind of depends, you know, like what I was saying. I mean, at Insomniac, we have uh we have shader artist, technical artist, and uh technical director, which is technically a rigger. Um so, they will do tools based on rigs. Our technical artists do tools. They're really They're really more the mediator between art and programming. Like they're the people smart enough to understand what programming's saying, but have an eye for art so they can talk to uh caveman like me. Uh so, they're they're kind of like the the force multiplier in that way. And then with like shader artist, it's now it's Substance. It's a lot of Substance Designer, for sure. Awesome. Thank you very much. That that helps a lot. Thank you. Just a couple comments. Um you will be receiving an email about our talk. Uh please give us a good review so that we can uh come back here next year and talk

to all you guys again. If we get enough good reviews, will we get a bigger room? I know. We need a We will fix that. I promise. Yes, we will be fixing that. And also, I'm I'm I don't I feel I apologize to this side of the room since it's been all on this side. We're looking at you in spirit. Hi, guys. Hey there. Um one thing that you guys talked about earlier that intrigued me was talking about having a second strong skill set. The example you said was an animator with uh cinematic skills. So, what role would uh say like a sh- short film or like a music video, would those kind of show the cinematic skills or is that not really applicable cuz it's not in the game industry. I think I'd probably rather see it in the context of your animation like you like your animation with that cuz you're talking about like video editing or composition like cinematography like

that. Yeah, I think I'd rather I mean I it would kind of translate but I'd rather see it like hey I animated this thing and I made this really cool shot to go along with it like um you know like an action cam kind of kind of thing. So um so the camera enhancing the animation experience. So I don't know that a music video or something would really tell me that. But um yeah. So. It's risky. Yeah. I think you can like if you just focus on your main like if you focus on like your main discipline, right? And you think about what story you're trying to tell with that piece. I think if you continue down that path and see what you can do to plus it, that's what will give you like the secondary skill, right? So if it's environment would be like well, what story am I telling with this piece and then modeling it out doing it like in a modular way like using like substance

creating all that content lighting it telling a story with the character art maybe it's adding like blend shapes and things like that to kind of show more emotion in your character with animation, you know, you could be making make a a film in unreal which is free. You can get it anytime. But things like that you could do a a video in a game engine that isn't you're not editing video in like whatever that after effects or something like that. But having all of that in unreal that's more context you're not just animating you're actually now you're telling a story you're doing your own cinematic and you know, you're increasing what you already were doing, you know? Yeah. Like take take your take your walk cycle instead of just you know, guy walking three quarters at me looping, do that and then show me something with a dynamic camera, right? Like it's just plussing what you already have. You don't have to do a whole 'nother thing. It's like enhancing it. All right. Thank you very much. Hello. Hi. I'm preparing a portfolio

piece for Tech Art and uh my question is that uh because Tech Art is so diverse, so um I'm debating on if should I should I focus on just one special specific area like rigging or should I just show that I have know-how know-how thing every every dimension in general? Yeah, it's a tough one. Um at some point you're going to have to realize that a company is also going to have to be compatible with you and not just Google the scattershot broad approach. I would rather show someone show really peak excellence in a in a technical area and also show some ancillary knowledge around that area like Python or like HLSL or like really nice shader work that's visual and beautiful and shows complexity. Um so, I think when you're starting out, I'd rather see you get good at something very specific and show mastery there and then express a little bit of ancillary mastery around that and then you're just

going to have to wait for the company that matches well with needing that part of you. I think it's going to take you a long time to get really really good at a really broad array of things and have a portfolio like that. So, that's not where I would start. If it were me. Thank you. I appreciate your answer. Um hi. I'm wondering if there is a a tasteful way to sort of show a time frame in which you worked on a portfolio piece. Like uh maybe game jams or like time lapses or something like that. I guess in my opinion the time doesn't really matter. It'd be the quality. Uh and I know like it's kind of common to be proud of how fast like a turnaround time was, but honestly, man, if if it's bad, it's bad. It doesn't matter how long it took. And if it's good, it's good. Um things like speed, turnaround time, shortcuts, workflow, I can teach you that, but it just needs to be good. We're already going to get that from you with the test, which we're never inevitably going to give you. Okay. The test is already going to tell us that. All right, thank you. Mhm.

Hi. Um I was wondering, so everyone says you should have your best piece first in your portfolio, but what if your best piece is not one of your most recent? Um does that reflect badly on you? No, I don't really I don't worry about uh your portfolio necessarily being chronological in any way. Okay. Um some of my favorite pieces are a couple years old, and I'm very jealous of past me. But that's still work you've done, and it's, you know, in recent enough memory. I think that's totally fine to structure your portfolio as strongly as possible. Okay, thank you. Hey guys. Um I'm Andreas, so I'm a final year student majoring games art, and I specialize in environment art. So, I want to uh my question is, is personal branding important? And also presenting your work, so like uh

uh getting screenshots from a game engine, especially like uh kind of like uh shooting camera. It should be like something like more cinematic, so uh inspired by uh movies, or more like uh game uh related, so mostly like uh first-person view, or third-person, so I mean, it it it's a tough one Uh it's because some of this comes down to the company you're applying for. So just know your strength. This is one of those areas where we're not going to be able to tell you what's right because we don't know what you're good at. When in doubt and the options are wide, pick one thing. So if there is a lot of context and you're like I could go anywhere, I could do anything, that means you just haven't kind of settled in yet and we don't actually want to see those decisions happening in your portfolio. We don't

want to see see the schizophrenia of the decisions. Pick something and show some some kind of apex decisions in that area and we actually don't care what you pick. Just be good at something and that's where you start. Okay, now I'm just thinking about how do you present your work? Is that like a bad way to present your work or like is I doesn't really matter like yeah, just I like this angle. Yeah, it's like composition is okay. I just take a screen and like We'd rather just see that you have good taste. So it's not really about that decision. It's about doing something aesthetically pleasing. It's not really about the presentation per se in that regard. Maybe like look for reference. Yeah, that's a good point. Okay, thank you. Thank you for a great advice guys. I have a question regarding using specific software to create art. So basically you can use whatever program is in the market right now like Photoshop, or Paint if you're desperate or basically you can model in Maya and animate in 3D Max. So basically does

it make sense to apply for a Maya specific company if you're using 3D Max for most of your work? I mean I don't really care what you're So basically I'm asking whether quality of the work is more important than the tools that you're using. understand Max you're going to be able to figure out Maya eventually. All of our All of our guys make have made a shift at one point or another whether it's animators going to Maya. Some of our modelers now going to from Max to Maya. Um if you understand one, you're and you're good at it, you'll be able to we usually reasonably confident you'll be able to figure out the other one. And honestly, I don't really care it again it cuz it now comes down to what's in the game. Whatever gets me to the game model, I don't really care. So, I mean we're pretty I mean a lot of us are pretty flexible about like what your authoring tool is. It doesn't really matter anymore. Yeah, so thank you. I mean for me personally, I've gone from like LightWave to XSI to Max to Maya to Max to Maya. Now

Max and Maya again. All of my team they use whatever they want Max, Modo, Maya. But in the end it'll just all go into the game engine. So, as you as long as you show that knowledge of putting something into a game engine like the real-time aspect of it, that's all that matters to me and we can work we've worked our pipeline to accept it's agnostic. It can take whatever, right? Uh something like Substance is just really more of the you know, pack leader in that way. But what you really need to know is like PBR. You need to know like real-time shaders and how to properly create textures for, you know, modern engines, right? So, it's not you can do that in Photoshop if you want. You might be able to make paint You might be able to do it in paint. I don't know. But but it's the knowledge that matters more than whatever software logo is on your art station. You know what I mean? Cool. Thank you very much. Yep. Hi, thank you so much for the uh talk.

Um you mentioned earlier that you would look through people's social media after they piqued your interest um to see if they're not an ass. Um would you be suspicious if you looked up someone and saw that they didn't really use Twitter or Facebook very much? Would that be a red flag? No, not at all. Okay. Thank god. Well, now I am. Get his name. Hey. Thank you very much, guys.