Games Development Jobs

Modern video games are getting more and more graphically intensive, so games development projects are calling for more and more artists to be involved in creating the various art assets required, which may range from two dimensional bitmapped artwork through to 3D modeling and animation.

The following artistic skills are always in demand by game development companies, and the most important thing you can do is demonstrate as many of these areas in your portfolio of work.

2D Artwork : Normally this refers to the creation of bitmapped images, either from scratch or using some source material such as digital camera images, with the most commonly used package being Adobe Photoshop. Skills in creating vector artwork using packages such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw are less called for, but still useful to know about.

q	2D Animation : Creating animations in 2D is less important these days but it is still of use for handheld and mobile phone games.

3D Modelling : The ability to create 3D models in packages such as 3DS Max or Maya is pretty much a standard requirement of a game artist. When creating sample models to add to your portfolio consider creating a wide range of different objects, from people and animals through to cars, furniture etc. Try to create something that would be likely to appear in a game, but also try to be original in what you subject you choose. Also consider creating low, medium and high polygon count versions of the same object (e.g. 100, 1000 and 10000 polygon versions), that look as similar as possible, as this is a much used technique for keeping games running at a decent speed.

3D Animation : Whether cleaning up motion captured animation data or animating a character from scratch, being able to show that you can create interesting looking animations is a very difficult skill to master. It is recommended that you create some good common animations (e.g. Walking, running, jumping) and perhaps combine these all together in a pre-rendered animation to show how you can blend between the different movements. What you animate is less important. Creating a simple human figure out of boxes can be enough if the character moves in a believable manner. Facial animation and lip-synching are other areas you might want to consider adding to your portfolio.

Traditional Artwork : Never under estimate the importance of traditional artistic skills such as drawing and painting. Games developers often have a need for creating concept artwork during the design stage of a game, and often drawing a picture is the most immediate way of getting a creature or environment design across to other members of the team. Don’t be afraid of including scans of traditional artwork in your portfolio, but be sure to label them clearly so the person reviewing your work doesn’t come to the wrong conclusion about how the image was created!