[RESEARCH] Twitter, DeviantART and Linked In

Twitter

Link to my Twitter Page

Twitter is a great way to get your own name out there, whether you’re well known or no, you will always get people very interested in your own work. There are always options to link your blog, art page or even website to feed and tweet automated messages so that other’s following you will be updated with the latests works of yours.
What this means is, if professionals are looking for your work and want a quick preview of what they are putting themselves in for, they can easily click on the links provided on the Twitter page, or just research into what you tweet about and so-forth. The bad thing about Twitter is the unfortunate back log you may find as you follow more and more people. Some information is glorious and interesting, but at times, you can get much rubbish information which you really don’t need if you want professionals to approach you.

Linked In

Link to my Linked In Page

Linked in is a very professional website, that has many knowledgeable people that lurk around, very interested in your own work themselves. This is a more direct approach, and takes on the style of what Facebook does; it’s a social media for the working class/career based employees that are looking for (possibly) more work.
What you do is you fill in your details of the things you are, the things you have achieved, and the things you want to become. This way, when people look at your profile, they examine your qualities and the things which you have going for you, and they can then realise that you could be the person they were looking for. When that is the case, there is a way to contact through a personal message to the person you wish to speak to. From there, millions of things can happen. However, you have to be careful for whom ever is contacting you, because you never know what would be in store for you.

DeviantART

Link to my DeviantART Page

DeviantART is my personal approach to getting my own name out there. If you are artistic and want to make it easier for people to view your forms of media and get to know your own work better, DeviantART as a great set up system for both portfolios and image hosting. Millions of contributors place and post their news, images, write-ups, stories and many more every single day, and is one of the biggest running media websites.
DeviantART is full of great contributors  however you must be careful for what you search for, and what you use from this valuable website. Art Theft is quite common from this website, as it is with many others, but you can add your own mark on the images to stop that from happening. There are also groups and so many forums which you can join. It’s a great community, with unlimited image postage.

[DEVELOPMENT] What does it mean to become a Concept Artist

I thought I would make a blog post about my own personal approach to becoming a Concept Artist, and what I understand needs to be done to become one.
From a very young age, I have always wanted to become some one who creates something for another, to illustrate and define a world to a significant other. When you create and shape a world, it makes a something very personal to you, without realising it yourself, but people will remember you as that ‘person who made that world’. That is something special. That even applies to characters, weapons and all sorts of creations which make it into a final product of a story (or in this case, a game). Even if you are part of a team, part of a community, you will still get that satisfaction of saying that your part of the artistic side of a game will influence some one, just like it did for me.
Being a Concept Artist is hard, and I understand that. I have never been one, neither have I  worked for a huge company filled with professionally trained employees. But to have an impact, to have a say in the design or creation of something so big is such a lot of work, which requires a lot of thinking and processes that can lead from scientific research into design or just plainly creating a character with an enormous back story. You also have to have a consistent change in style to match and meet the requirements of the job, and to make great work of the style around the final product so that others can review and take notes from your own creations. Confidence is also something which you must have in your own work, so that you won’t be so frightened to express ideas fluently to other team members but also not stressing about how great the idea is. When having an idea in design, you will have to change it into something which resembles to the project any way, however it can then change how the creator sees the character and possibly keep some features from the idea itself. Finally, you must have such a keen interest in artistic values and design, even the media. Having this edge, this interest, boosts your confidence to create other things, other illustrations which have a different and moulded taste from something which you’ve been told to be influenced by.
I will admit, knowing all this information really daunted me at first, but when you think about it, when you have a long way to go, you can enjoy the flow of the ride that leads up to your dream. May it be harsh times or fantastic transformations in your life, you are going to find it hard either way you see it. Dreams are called “dreams” for a reason: they are hard to get to, but it isn’t impossible to achieve. To get that placement or even offered a chance to be interviewed and show off your most amazing pieces in your portfolio is a chance in a lifetime. Not only have you placed your foot through the door, but you have interested the very best in the great chain. This is something inspiring for many, but just remembering that something like this is not impossible, it will make things a lot easier for you.
But this isn’t why I want to become a Concept Artist. Just creating pieces of artwork to be used towards the final stage of a product is a great, but influencing some one, changing some ones feelings and thoughts on game play or a game itself is an achievement. To inspire many, like other fantastic artists have for myself, would be something quite dear to me. Inspiration is something which I have always lacked of, as a child, and even now I still struggle to push myself to move forward with my own ideas and designs. Yet, when you have some one which you look up to, when you have some one who will always be there to inspire you, to give you courage and determination. So much that you want to become that person when you grow up; that is the magic of art itself.

And that is why I want to become a Concept Artist, to inspire aspiring artists, no matter how skilled they are.

[DEVELOPMENT] Writing a Cover Letter

What I will be doing for my cover letter is basing it around a job which I have found through the internet.  It will be mainly for a dream job of mine, but it is just good practice to do and learn from it.

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Senior Concept Artist (Insomniac) – Gamasutra

A senior position is quite a hard one to get into, and in fact, requires you to have quite a lot of skill and talent that has been gained from previous, very big, positions. Insomniac is a very tongue and cheek company, but you still need to be as formal as you possibly can with a cover letter to get your own point across (even if it is about yourself).
I made sure to put down everything which I could have achieved during this appearance of job, and listed the key things which would hopefully get the attention of the person reading.

[NOTES] Creating a Sword in 3DS Max

[1] From the simple shapes, create a cylinder that is long enough to resemble a hilt of a sword. This will be edited later to be formed as a real looking handle. Make sure it also has 6.0 Height Segments which you can change in the Parameters.

[2] Grab the Scale tool, and with the Cylinder selected, make sure to scale it to shape so it looks comfortable to hold, like a handle should.

[3] Right click the shape which you have created, and on the menu that pops up go to Convert To and select Editable Poly. This will make the object editable.

[4] On the right menu, there is a tab called Selection. Under that, you can change to Polygon mode from there. This enables you to select polygons on the object. Move the camera around and click on the bottom polygon on the Cylinder.

[5] When you have the bottom of the Cylinder selected, right click again and click the little black box next to Inset. This will open another window, change the Amount to 1.0. This will give a small indent to the bottom of the cylinder shape. With the polygon still selected, move it down slightly. A small slope is just enough to give a rounded end to the hilt.

[6] Go back to the bar on the right, and under the Selection Tab, change the selection to Edge mode. On one of the horizontal edges, click on it, and go back to the selection tab. There should be a button which says loop; click on that and it shall select a loop around your object.

[7] The tab underneath the Selection tab is called Soft Selection. Open that up and tick the box which says “Use Soft Selection”. This will bring a rainbow like pattern onto your object and around the selection you have made. Where it says Fall Off, keep pushing that number upwards until the greenness of the colours is aligned with the top of the shape.

[8] Grab the scale tool and start scaling the shape between the Y and the X axis, to give it a small bump in the middle. This enables the shape to look like it is right for holding.

[9] When you are all done, untick Soft Selection. This stops you from accidentally scaling something wrong. From here, you can now begin to start making the hand guard.

[10] Go back to selection and reselect Polygon. Click on the top polygon of the hilt, right click and press the black box next to Extrude. Lower or heighten the Amount until it’s just above the hilt’s top edge.

[11] Select Edge mode again from Selection. Click on one of the newly created Polygon Edges, and select Ring, which is from the same area as Loop. When that is done, hold down CTRL and click on the Polygon selection. This will select all of the polygon’s around this area.

[12] Right click and click the black box next to Extrude. At first, it may seem strange because it’s all going by strange terms. Just above the Amount section is Group. Click on this drop down menu and change it to Local Normal. And as by magic, it’s all normal again. Give the amount as much as you feel the hilt should have and click OK. Use the move tool and move the selected Polygons slightly upward.

[13] Because of the new additions to the hilt, the polygons have seem to have taken on a jagged shape. You can change by the Polygon: Smoothing Groups (which is in the same right menu as Selection). Smoothing Groups make your object much more softer and rounder if there are polygons which are way too jagged. When you find the Tab, select all of the model and click Clear All, and it will clear all of the Smoothing Groups which have already been applied to the shape.

[14] Do this piece by piece: select the middle and press smoothing group 1. You will notice that it starts to straighten and smooth out the hilt again. Begin to do this to all of the separate pieces on the shape.

[15] Look back to the right menu and click on the Shape menu. Here, we are going to begin creating a spline which will result in our swords blade. Change the Maximize Viewport Toggle to the Front View. Click Maximize Viewport Toggle again and from the top bar of the main window and turn on Snaps Toggle. This will keep your spline from going any where else but the grid.

[16] Begin drawing your spline in the shape of a childlike sword. It may not make sense at first, but when we begin to give it some form, it will be easy to see what exactly will be done.

[17] Close your spline and come back to the Maximize Viewport Toggle, and move back to the perspective side. Right click the newly created spline and Convert To an Editable Poly. As you notice, it gives the shape a polygon in which we will start to Extrude.

[18] Go to Selection, which is in the right menu, and select Polygon. Click on the newly made polygon, right click, and click the black box next to Extrude. Make the shape as long as you need, but remember, this will become your blade later on, so try not to make it too long. When you are done, click OK and right click the shape again. Click Isolate Selection; this will move our object away from the hilt so we don’t accidentally make changes to that.

[19] Now go to one of the ends of your blade, preferably the open one with no polygon attached at the end, and go to selection. Here, select Vertex and begin selecting the points one by one around the edge of the end of the blade. Now use the Scale tool and start scaling the shape inwards so it makes a point at the end of the blade.

[20] Go to edge mode in the Selection tab, and drag a selection box (by clicking and dragging) across the top and bottom of the blade itself. Spin the shape around to see whether you have selected both sides of the object. When that is done, right click the shape and click the little black box next to Connect. Here will draw out a few lines which will go along the shape itself. Creating new polygons. Add as many segments as you wish.

[21] When you are done with that, and you feel like you have as many segments as you need, go to Maximize Viewport Toggle and go onto the side view. Whilst the Vertex selection is on, start playing with the vertices on the end of your blade to make it curve in slightly.

[22] Right click your blade, untick Isolate Selection, and begin to move your finished blade to on top of your Hilt. Move it around and change the shape of it by using the move tool and scale tool. Getting it right, and how you like it, is important.

[23] When you have done all of that, and you’re happy with how it looks, create textures and render it.

[RESEARCH] The Theory of Illustration

(These are just my notes, quotes and thoughts from the wonderful book Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective by Alan Male.)

I chose this book because, as an artist myself, I have always been interested in Illustration and what goes behind the images produced.

The Difference between Research and research
Research in Illustration is key, fictional or non-fictional you will need to have a vast understanding of the world around you before making statements in drawings. This ensures that the person looking at the illustration slightly understands what it is on the page but they are still there contemplating on what the imagery actually means. This goes for any form of art, but because illustration is used to illustrate a certain subject or scenario, it is more key.
As this is a normal state of mind for illustration, the difference between Research (with a big R) and research (with a smaller R) determines that outcome of a concluded image. These terms are normally assessed at the “early stage of development” (Research, Illustration | 01 | Education, Alan Male, Page 32), meaning that tasks go under way to know how much time has been spent on one project to make it complete.
Now the difference; research (with a small R) consists of just gathering random images or products needed to make a final item, not fully ‘researching’ what exactly needs to go into the illustration; to make it a believable piece. This has been a “debate in relation to Art and Design” (Research, Illustration | 01 | Education, Alan Male, Page 33), according to Male, as it is unsure that whether this is a real way of artistic recreation. This debate comes from reference; references are often used to construct a being straight from other things which already exist in the natural world. Then this information, which has been accumulated into the reference, then draws the viewer to examine and create their own imaginative feedback. Without conducting research into reference and historical materials, things which are “influenced by something real” (Research, Illustration | 01 | Education, Alan Male, Page 33), then creates a problem with visual communication.
Research (with a big R) on the other hand, has more in depth detail which takes a whole new direction from just gathering relative images. Full of “academic discipline” (Research, Illustration | 01 | Education, Alan Male, Page 33), having the will to press on through hundreds and hundreds of historical, environmental and many other facts and files to progress on a piece. With Research, it broadens into a wide range of ideas that can be contributed into one single page, making it flourish with more development ideas that, previously, couldn’t have been possible with just selecting images for a lone illustration: “Illustration practice becomes more holistic” (Research, Illustration | 01 | Education, Alan Male, Page 33) – Research is more thurow and shows true companionship of examination with the artist and the illustration.
So when you figure that Illustration is all about teaching the viewer something spectacular, it is important that there is a historical meaning, a natural resemblance to our own world. Also shows the stages an artist has gone through, bringing forwards detail, understanding, and concepts that could trigger the imaginative mind.

[RESEARCH] The Industry and Me

Section 1: You & The Sector

What is your specialism?
My specialism is Concept Art, or Character Design. I hope that some day I will be able to become a Concept Artist, so I practice and hopefully will build my portfolio into something which attracts quite a lot of attention to potential employers in years to come.

What work based experience do you already have?
I have worked in retail for a few years, which really builds up your communication skills towards customers/clients, and how you should address yourself towards a person. And also, production skills and imaginative skills are also required in retail; placing products in viewable areas where a customer would be attracted to, creating obvious plans which distracts and portrays advertisement to a certain product.
During secondary school, I did work in a Graphics Design company (KallKwik) and learned a vast amount of design tips from the designers. What I learned was very interesting, and has changed the way I look at digital art: How images are different on screen then on print, the tasks need to be completed to fully finish a product for a client (colour, illustration, alignment, etc.), and how there’s only a certain amount of colours which can be used for products.

What kind of Work Based Learning would benefit you the most?
Any art based sector would really benefit the area which I would like to get into. May it be illustration or a designer, it would really help on becoming the concept artist I want to be. I believe that just learning about the art and design industry could really peak my interests and bring more knowledge into my own work and portfolio.

Section 2: Research

What have you learned about the area of the sector specifically relating to your specialism?
Going through various blogs of Concept Artists, I realise that having quite a grand range of styles which you can flip back and forth on, and a understanding to how images are created and portrayed into games themselves as a whole.
This is a standard way of approaching concept art, as when you go from client to client, there is no doubt going to be quite a change from the previous job; it’s always worth being able to bend your own artwork to meet others needs.

What have you found out about the sector with specific reference to job/career opportunities?
What I did was look at a range of job opportunities which lurk around in the games industry, break them down into smaller pieces to see the requirements necessary for an artist. With this information, I have combined a list together to relate to when I’m trying to think of new ways to improve myself:

• Practice with various styles. Concept Artists, specially 2D artists, do not stay to one style consistently.
• Speed sketching is key. This is a small one, however it’s good to be able to get your whole idea across quicker then just making the designers wait around for your final ‘sketch’ product. 
• Learning various skills. Including technical skills, or even some coding. This is so that you can easily expand your ideas and show many ways in which you approached your task.
• Having experience. This one is tricky, as it requires you to have already had some experience in the industry (and very hard to come across). However, shadowing someone is also showing you have had experience some where in the field.
• Confidence. A common mistake which is made by many artists is that they’re not confident with their own work. Having confidence will push your work further in Concept Art (because people will then critique) and will enable you to learn new skills.

What opportunities have you found for work placements/experience/etc?
Most of the opportunities have requirements for very skilled artists, which need a lot of experience before hand in other artistic duties. This results in needing to complete other job roles to finally fold into the ones which are being advertised. Here is the research I conducted to find out certain qualities you need to have to become an artist:

Concept Artist in Dublin (Link): Looking for an artist who has a range of skills and techniques which can be used as reference outside and inside the creation of the game. Also wanting the ability to problem solve and complete tasks at a certain date with no exceptions.
To gain these abilities, you would have to practice each day, endlessly, to gain experience of different styles and techniques. They are in need of some one very skilled that requires no training, unless needed for a specific area, which is always required in a place quite high up in the employment chain.

GUI Author/Artist in Guildford (Link): Working closely with the overall games design and technical side to the art. As the game is focused very much on artistic vision, there is need for very technical experience as well as a artistic touch. You must be very experienced in design.
Having a vision in design, you must have had other experience in art and design before approaching the subject. This experience could come from education or a work placement, but you also need to meet the requirements of a great artist who is skilled in technical jobs. Having a wide range of skills in hand could be handy if ever faced with a job like this.

Lead 2D Concept Artist in Germany (Link): To be lead, you have to have power and knowledge. Quick sketches and full illustrations to show a team what you would like for the final concept art product of the game itself. (This also includes story boards, characters, vehicles, etc.)
When being a lead in a design team, it’s quite a hard job at first. It’s not something which I want to become, but it would be nice to have input into something very detailed. Being able to take control and ask everyone whether they are okay with an idea you have created is a very big job role. It requires more research, more determination and charisma (as well as a full understanding of art).

Section 3: Conclusion/Next Steps

In relation to your research into the sector and opportunities, what have you learned about your current and potential position within it?
What I have learned from my research is a three main things; experience, confidence and artistic potential. There is a lot more then that, I know, but to become some one like JenZee (Concept Artist for Bastion) or even Gilles Beloleil (Concept Artist for Assassin’s Creed III) there requires a lot of skill and potential involved in your artwork. Is there a way you can bend your style to a way the lead art director would like it to be? Can you make many unique concept sketches in under 10 minutes? Sometimes these things really don’t matter, as the employer some times will go only for the one style they want. However, to have multiple styles and skills under your hat, makes you more flexible if the product ever changes course.

As a result of your research, what do you now think will be the best form of WBL experience for you?
It would fantastic to learn in a team, or possibly shadow a skilled artist whom is already in the industry. Having the knowledge passed down to you, and shown in front of you (I feel) is much more better then reading step by step what Concept Art requires you to do.
However, the job could consist of anything. Following an illustrator through different stages of drawing and research, a designer going deep down into folding out the plans which they have created; any artistic area will help me benefit in learning something for the industry.

What will your next steps be in securing a placement/ project/ etc. for next year’s WBL?
Search for places that will take on people for work experience, preferably close by so that it’s much easier to move between home and job. Whether this searching will consist of asking others or searching on the internet; hopefully there are a few (which could help me learn exactly what is needed from an artist in the industry). Or: I am willing to create a project with a group to help another company with their business (which will boost my team building skills, and learn how to work in a team, following orders on what should all be done).
I feel both will help me develop my skills, or help build myself to feel more confident in working in a team.