It seems many developers frequent the boards (who works for who by the way?) and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the "getting your first job in the industry" situation I'm about to find myself in. I'm poised to receive my degree (in Game Design) next year and would appreciate some more inside perspective on the current job situation (IE hard to get the first job but after you've gotten that job you're taken more seriously) I've asked such questions to many of our school's speakers (people from Red Storm, Sammy, EA, etc) and contacts in the industry and the general consensus I was given was that it's basically split into 2/3rds. What you know and who you know, which piece of the fraction depends on the situation. So basically my question is how did you get your first real job in the industry?
The job I'm shooting for is not a commonly hired one (Real time demo/cinematic director and my portfolio will predominantly highlight this fact) so right now I'm just looking at level design (preferably) or animation jobs. I prefer Max more then Maya at the moment, but I can handle Maya. What's the current outlook? Should I be making contacts like crazy this GDC?
Edit = Had an extra word in there heh.
[ June 08, 2005, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: Kreve ]
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
quote: The job I'm shooting for is not a commonly hired one (Real time demo/cinematic director and my portfolio will predominantly highlight this fact)
That's awesome. I can't answer any of your questions, but do you have any of your portfolio online?
Posted by Kreve (Member # 8110) on :
Not until this fall, I should have some UT 2004 cutscenes I've done. I did some really really early work in the first cutscene for the Worth of Souls Mod for Warcraft III at the school but I'm not sure if much of it has survived as the project seemed to have floundered. (Working in the restraints of WCIII turned out to be a pretty fun challenge, considering the characters can't do many actions or show emotions so you have to try for a more exaggerated visual storytelling, lots of interesting angles)
Actually looking through my old pictures I'm finding lots of old things I did heh.
Here's the work in progress on the 3d Hurricane animation I made from actual hurricane data for a boss's presentation at my summer job (I work at a atmospheric research center) http://home.comcast.net/~keyihtoll/Web/hurricane.jpg
I'll dive deeper, see if I actually have anything online.
[ June 08, 2005, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Kreve ]
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
I'm interested in this too, as I'll be a full-on character animator by the time I graduate next Fall, and games are a common place for a new animator to get started.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)