Artist Roadmap

1. If you could project out past graduation, what is your overall career goal? 

I understand a lot of 3D artists work freelance, but something about the lack of consistent work seems like it'd give me some pretty major anxiety. For that reason alone, I'd probably seek traditional employment. At this point, and given the current state of the games industry, I'd be happy to work on just about anything without much preference - but ideally I'd like to work on a AAA game for a major game studio. This would give me the chance to network and interact with a larger pool of people. I'm also entertaining the idea of working outside of the entertainment industry after Erik's lectures in game lab, possibly hard-surfaced work in the simulation industry.

2. If you could project out into starting your career, what sounds the most appealing to you? 

I find myself gravitating more towards character art, after having dipped my toes into environmental art in my first semester. I don't find making background art assets very interesting, and it really hurt my motivation. During this period, I was also doing a personal project of a character, and I found myself exploring programs to help me design outfits for the character. Marvelous Designer is something I want to get better at. Besides characters/clothing, I would also enjoy working as a hard-surfaced artist and weapons/prop artist. There's a lot of overlap between outfits, hard-surfaced art, and weapons/prop art.

3. What are some of the top companies that you are interested in working for? 

Based on what I enjoy and what I know of the companies, I'd really enjoy working at Valve, Capcom, and Bethesda.