Want To Be A Games Artist?

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Getting a Graphic Artist job, in the Games Industry
This is guide has been produced by one of UK's leading developers - Codemasters, and provides invaluable, first hand advice on how you can best position yourself for getting a graphic artist in the video games industry, assuming that this is what you want to do for a living.

It assumes that you are still at school or college level and maybe deciding what courses to take, what qualifications and skills you will need.

What should I do now to prepare?
The first point is to clarify what course to take at college or University. I personally started with a general college course covering graphic design, furniture design, product design and jewellery. This teaches you the basics in 3d and 2d, colour and imagination. Being able to draw well helps, but not all the best traditional artists make the best game artists.

Once initial college education is complete, you may want to opt for specific courses in Multimedia and Games Production for general art disciplines, or alternatively traditional and digital animation courses can teach you the necessary skills to become an animator. Many of the current staff at Codemasters have graduated from interior design, graphic design, automotive design, fine art, architecture and web design, so limiting yourself to a specific games course isn't always necessary.


What type of art jobs are there?
There are many different types of art positions at games companies, which cater for all individual tastes. The most common roles are that of 2d/3d artist and animator. The 2d/3d artist generally produces textured models for in-game use; this could be anything from a building to a complete landscape. You can specialise even further by focussing on a particular subject matter such as cars or character heads.

Our animators bring our in game characters and environments to life through traditional key frame animation or motion capture application.

There also more specialised roles such as concept artists, GUI (graphical user interface) artists and marketing artists. Concept artists spend most of the early production phase sketching out character designs, architecture style and vehicles, whatever the game genre demands. Our GUI artists develop the interface for such games as LMA manager, where excellent typographic skills and interface design are paramount in order to help the player navigate through all areas of a game.

The much sort after marketing artist position, allows you to produce marketing assets at high resolution for print, video and web distribution, so you can see your masterpiece on the latest cover of a games magazine!

Okay, so what else do I need to become a successful Codemasters artist or animator?
So, you've graduated, and you have a degree or equivalent. The next thing is the all important enthusiasm. Then you've got to have stamina, be able to understand where you've gone wrong and improve on it next time. You've got to have a burning desire to create the best graphics for the best games on the planet, second best isn't good enough.

Game art is not always exciting, here comes the reality lesson. Sometimes it can get boring, all jobs can, but not all jobs allow you to be at the forefront of gaming technology and have fun with like minded artists like you. Finding challenge in everything you do, even when you've done the same graphic 10 times.

Then there's the technical element. Every piece of art has to work alongside hundreds of other pieces of art and code. A wheel has to rotate and an elbow has to bend, and you have to understand this as well as make stunning eye candy. You have to be an engineer as well as a designer, and learn to understand and push the technical constraints of every console and graphic technique available.

Software Skills
Once you've accepted all aspects of the job, you then need to know some industry standard software and terminology. There is always software snobbery in the world, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter that much whether you use Lightwave or Maya to create your masterpiece. Software knowledge isn't compulsory at graduate level, but if you really want that edge over the next candidate, knowing at least one 3d and one 2d software package is vital. We provide training, although most applicants are normally taught common software packages from University.

For those of you who prefer to teach yourself and need some guidance, the main 3d packages we use in order are 3d Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave and Softimage. The main 2d package is Photoshop, but Paint Shop Pro is also a good starting point. Too many people rely on the features of the software to add common special effects to jazz up their artwork, believe us; we've seen it all before. If you can't afford expensive software, there are plenty of graphic art magazines giving away slightly old software for the cost of buying the magazine, not to mention shareware software from the internet.

The internet is also a fantastic source of knowledge for training and games techniques, try these for starters www.gamasutra.com, www.highend3d.com, www.cgtalk.com and www.cgchannel.com.

This brings me on to my next point....

What does an employer look for?
For an art or animation position the most important possession you should have is a good showreel. I can't emphasise this enough. Poor or rushed showreels are obvious, as is copied artwork or clichéd special effects such as lens flares. This is your chance to make an excellent first impression. So what do we look for?

Firstly, show us work examples that will inspire us and also tell us what areas you're interested in. If you want to become a character artist, make sure that you have a good textured character model in your showreel, supported by some original sketch concepts.

If you want to become the best animator, don't download a motion capture file and apply it to a stock model, instead make a simple model and bring it to life with your animation talents.

Secondly, once we've seen how well your showreel demonstrates your talent and skills, we'll look at your qualifications. Then at interview, we'll want to see that you can think as well as visualise well. Being able to problem solve is as important as accurately drawing a real life scene. Also fitting into a diverse range of personalities and becoming a team player is just as essential.

Thirdly, a passion for games. Knowing or wanting to know how games work as well as why they look good is vital. The ability to analyse a graphically successful game is paramount in achieving graphic god status!

What kind of salary should I expect?
An entry artist can expect a starting salary of around £17,000 - £19,000 depending on your educational level, experience and where the job is situated within the UK. If you are coming from a different discipline such as graphic design, we'll take into consideration the experience you have and the unique skills you potentially could bring. Obviously as you progress through the ranks you can expect the salary to rise. If you have what it takes, then Managerial positions await you. These range from Group Leader to Lead Artist or Principal artist.

Working environments
Each game at Codemasters is developed in a Studio managed by a management team of a Studio Head, Producer, Lead Artist and Lead Programmer. There are often sub groups specialising in subjects such as characters or cars, lead by Seniors or Group Leads.. All of these people have years of experience between them to make your learning experience easier and enjoyable. The teams work on a title at a time, varying in size from 28 up to 50, depending on the scope of a game. Most titles take about 18 months to complete, with defined development phases. These phases start with design and prototyping, through to development finishing with testing and quality assurance, and at each step you'll learn a whole new set of skills to complement your existing ones.

Conclusion
If you love making stunning artwork to make delightful games, and have the enthusiasm and stamina to contribute towards a product that is sold to potentially half a million gamers then making games is for you. Who else gets paid to have this much fun?

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