Paths to being Epic: Finding your role in the Industry Andy Bayle - Apr 18, 2012

Transcription

1 Paths to being Epic: Finding your role in the Industry Andy Bayle - Apr 18, 2012

2 Who is this guy? Production Team Localization Coordinator Production Assistant Test Expert Shipped Title Experience UDK Shadow Complex Unreal Tournament 3 Bulletstorm Gears of War 3 Raam s Shadow Fenix Rising Forces of Nature

3 I love Video Games! What next? Administration Operations HR Animation Rigging MoCap Audio Music SFX Talent VO Business/Marketing Sales Advertising Public Relations Design Game Designer Production Project planning/scheduling Programming Platform/Engine

4 Designer Level Designer Visual Environments England High School hobby Long Break in toying with this stuff University Studied Illustration Concept Art

5 Designer Level Designer Visual Environments Unreal Tournament 3 Launches in 2007 Posts every stage of his level development Call from Mark Rein Entered the Make Something Unreal Contest Won! 3 Stages These were collaborative efforts with a small team No prior real experience Internship After 10 months, hired

6 Artist Modeling and Texture Art India, High School 3D not available in schools Had a gap in interest Worked saving money for College College in California Realized that school wasn't everything that was needed Find additional information on his own 3 yrs, No breaks - No summer holidays - No Christmases Slept 2 hours per night - seriously Because he loves Art

7 Artist Modeling and Texture Art Polycount.com Just putting up the work Asking questions of the community Collaborating Shortly Rocksteady, Blizzard, and Naughty Dog were calling Rocksteady But, then Epic called Met Epic people at GDC Got the opportunity to do the Epic art test NC for 3 month internship By the end, Epic wanted to hire him

8 Animator Animator - Cinematic and In-game Vermont High School Tons of Art Wanted to be an Architect Technical side of Engineering was a challenge Art School Decided to go for Computer Animation Fought the tough parts everyday Drawn to animation from doing tons of Flash bringing the still images to life Also loves creatures - both aesthetic and motion 4 yrs BA

9 Animator Animator - Cinematic and In-game Really wanted to get into big studios: Epic, Valve, Naughty Dog, Bioware Also looked at Hasbro toy shop Sophomore year A prior graduate of the school was hired to Epic Companies were looking for interns to send in reels A call to come do a technical test Started an internship summer with Epic Junior year Did another summer internship Senior year Got an offer

10 Quotes If you can do nothing else, get into collaboration with some people who are making cool stuff. Soak up all the knowledge you possibly can, if ever presented with an internship! Everything you can. School doesn't teach you to create awesome. It gives you the tools to discover what it is you can do that is awesome. Rely on yourself to improve your quality. Teachers cannot teach you to reach the pinnacle. They just can't, you have to do that yourself. You can learn to love what you do, or love what you do innately. But, must love it, be passionate about all aspects of it, or you are wasting your time. It only gets harder and harder, if you do not love it.

11 Quotes It requires a 100% commitment. 7 days a week, 12 hours a day in the labs. It really took that much work. You have to love it and live it. Never accept that your work is good enough to meet the quality bar you are aiming to reach. Overestimate your quality bar, always, then continually drive to reach that bar. Getting to a starting point. I never knew how to begin, but once begun, things got easier. Rework everything, you need to fail and rework. If you don't, you won't... ya know? But, instead of giving up, do it again, but better. You might plateau for a while, but it is enlightening when you break through. It is exciting to see great work coming from you.

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