Hi all,
I need 5 (or more) statements from any professional game artist out there, be it texture artist or whatever, saying that all i need in order to apply to a similar position is a website with my portfolio works, a resume, and perhaps a business card to drop off with people i come across. that's it as for as "the essentials" go. unfortunately, the "proffesional" know-alls in my school insist that's not the case. and that i must create postcards and shell portfolios and whatnots. so please, if any of you wouldn't mind helping me sticking it to them, drop me a line. i'll be quoting your name and position.

thanks

(of course if any of you feel differently about what's essential in this field do say so)

All an artist needs is a portfolio and a resume to be considered for employment where I work, an animator would also need a demo reel as well.

Joe Wilson
Lead Artist, 8Monkey Labs.


This what you were looking for?

A website portfolio and a resume are that you need for getting a general game art job. For animators and effects artists, a demo reel demonstrating the animation in question would be necessary as well. For technical artists example code, scripts, tools, or rigs might be a good idea depending on their focus.

Ryan Greene
Lead Artist, Valkyrie Entertainment
Seattle, WA

I've worked with multiple game companies in-house and am currently working from home as a freelance character artist. All I've ever needed to get a job and all we ever required while I was assisting with hiring was a strong demo reel/ portfolio and a resume outlining their previous experience.

Gavin Goulden
Freelance Character Artist

I smell Full Sail.

i got both my game jobs from a recommendation from a friend, a website link and resume sent via email. in my interview i brought a porfolio book and a folder filled with images on a laptop.

Cory Robinson
Game Artist

it may not be the case, but they are your teachers and they give the grade.

All my company looks for when hiring artists is a solid portfolio (in website or demo reel form), a strong resumé and a good personal attitude. A degree of some sort will help, although not necessary, and previous industry experience is preferred.
I got several job offers after showing my portfolio website and emailing my resumé to various companies.

Paul Greveson
Artist, Splash Damage Ltd.

Hope that helps. Eyal, heh, I had a similar situation at my university - one of our course requirements was to make a portfolio website, but we were told to use Flash and make everything as animated as possible... I had plenty of discussions with my tutors about this (since I disagreed - HTML only, simple layout and quick images is all you really need).
I ended up getting a "B" grade for my website ( www.greveson.co.uk ) even though several industry veterans said it was all they were looking for in an applicant, and other people with crappy Flash sites which were awkward to navigate and had no content got "A" grades ... needless to say I got hired and they didn't [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Feel free to quote me on all that too if you want.

"All an artist needs is a portfolio and a resume to be considered for employment where I work, an animator would also need a demo reel as well."

Quoted for Truth, this is all I needed to get hired, and all we look at when hiring.

As a side note, the animation Reel needs to be available online, the days of sending out DVDs (or in my day, VHS) are gone.

Edit: Oh, and Quicktime is the preferred demo reel format because we can scrub thorugh easily.

A website is all you really need. Work + resume on it. That's how we roll.

Justin Dinges
Environment Artist, Raven Software

Portifolio website with gallery of pieces (and a reel especially if applying for animation), resume and business cards couldn't hurt, like KP said, a hard copy to bring in and go through with interviewers is also great.

Elliotte Bagg
Character Artist
Sandblast Games, THQ

It's simple. If they knew their shit, they'd be out in the industry making top dollar, not being smartass know-it-alls.

I've got 11(yeah I'm feeling old now) years of experience and have evaluated hundreds of applicants for artist positions. Never once have I heard anything about postcards or shell portfolios. Your people are full of BS and lingo. That's how people without talent and skill cope, by using big words and acting like asses.

To place some emphasis on what MoP said.. companies I've been at outright discard your portfolio if it's flash, unless it has an extremely impressive image on the splash page or something that doesn't need any clicking or navigation.
The simpler, the better, because we have to go through TONS of applications and are ALREADY on unpaid overtime, so don't try to be fancy and waste our time.

The whole point of those schools anyway is to make you paranoid thinking you need to pay for THEIR help to get by. That you even bother discussing this with them at all shows they got a grip on you, dude. Always remember schools, teachers, professors, rarely have any fucking clue what it's like in the real world. They could probably use lots of fancy words and excel graphs to "prove" how I'm wrong, but they couldn't fucking do the job I do, so let's leave it at that.

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Your people are full of BS and lingo. That's how people without talent and skill cope, by using big words and acting like asses.

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Or they get a job in marketing for whatever publisher you are working for. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

Seriously, keep it simple. Flashy stuff will only lose you jobs. It's the quality of the content that is important, the presentation should be understated and have a bit of style at most. If it requires more than three clicks or five seconds before the employer is seeing the high resolution images that they are interested in, you'd better rethink your site design.

BTW, what the hell is a shell portfolio?

thanks people, keep'em coming and please state your name and position.

the thing is, postcards, shell folios, etc. are expected from all students coming out of the illustration department in my school. what's missing in this consideration is that not all students have the same goals.

when i argued this point vs. my teacher, who is actually a remarkable artist and bright individual (note to per12, he refused to believe me. when i proceeded to argue that i had no interest in business, in general, he debunked me saying it is a requirement of the class. pfff. to which i would have said "well who said i wanted to take this class anyways? money-oriented classes should not be mandatory in an ART school, and students should not be expected to or encouraged to peruse one financial goal or another. the financial success should naturally stem from the art, so let the art take care of that. a portfolio should reflect the individual's art, and not the financial goal (assumed relevant by the school). If there's a specific field geared towards, then the portfolio should be made in accordance to the demands of this particular field. Simple logic, but the school fails to comply.

now this is taking this discussion to a more personal story about my school's illustration department and how it operates, which is wrong, imo. so, hopefully, these "proffesional opinions" might help me make my case. if not, well, there's always thesis next semester...... [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

"all i need in order to apply to a similar position is a website with my portfolio works, a resume, and perhaps a business card to drop off with people i come across."

That is my exact opinion.

edit: whoops, didnt see you had enough.

per: its not so conclusive. there are some ridiculously talented artists teaching, as well as some horribly bad ones. all in all its a system, poorly managed might i add, through which thousands of students go through. for these students, i wish to make it better. i already know i'm right, but i am, but of course, not a "professional" [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Btw, for your business cards, make sure you have one side of it blank for people to make notes on the back, if I got one that's average with nothign to write on...I'd just chuck it away.

Fuck all I have is my web site, printed portfolio, resume and polycount.

It worked for me. No demo reel. No fancy schmancy printed dvd transforming reel holders.

Jesse Moody Senior Environment Artist Midway Games Chicago

judging by what you said your teacher said, what with these things being a requirement of the class, this isn't gonna help your case at all.

we'll see about that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

you just keep them pro-opinion statements coming, and i'll do the talking.

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i add, through which thousands of students go through. for these students, i wish to make it better.

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that's awesome. You sir have inspired me.

I had no webspace or online portfolio of any sort when I was contacted - just what I had shown in this community and cgchat. I landed the job with .zip of my work and an interview.

Ian Wells,
Artist
Iron Lore Entertainment

actually, ian, it was the avatar.

I got my current job with my portfolio web site, resume and an interview.

Ted Lockwood - artist
Valkyrie Entertainment

a site and a resume is whats pretty much required to have to get a job, usually a site with a portfolio is all it really takes, resume is kinda secondary, they'll look at it if your work is good. now its not a complete necessity but all the other junk WILL get you noticed easier etc, having something physical laying around is a much better reminder than an email with a link, its only going to work if your work is already stellar, but say you really want to work somewhere and if you put a little bit more effort into presenting yourself to that company and make them feel like you really want to work there and nowhere else that'll take you that much closer to getting hired. Keep in mind its really in your hands, lots of companies use recruiters and are actively looking for people all the time, but most of them go through tons of portfolios daily, its in your hands to make them want to hire you and no one else. But thats just fluff really, if you're good you'll have a job, i think bobo for the longest time just had a resume and his wip folder... with jpegs in there listed alphabetically... lol

Argh, know-it-alls...
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At Threewave we hire based on talent and your own personal attitude. We review artist candidates daily and the best thing you can do for yourself is get the art in front of our eyes as quick and painless as possible.


An online gallery and/or demo reel has been the best way to do that.

I personally have been contacted numerous times throughout my career about art jobs and I've only ever had an online gallery which included my resume.

Adam Bromell
Supervising Artist, Threewave



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Hope this helps!