Done and dusted

so thats me done, turntable finished, final finished, essay finished, and now just for the pdf's to be sorted feels great to be done!

Roles and practices within the games industry

What is a 3D artist?

I will be discussing what is a 3D artist, their job role, and where they sit within a game company, I will also compare independent and mainstream 3D artists giving some in-sight into just how very different they both are while still being the same job role. I will then go into to discuss about how new technology has effected the creative outputs from the 3D artists and whether this is a good or a bad thing. Then to conclude with a look back at my original question and develop upon it with some words of my own.

In short a 3D artist is someone who creates the physical assets to be put in game, this can range from the model of the enemies to chairs right up to the environment, it has many forms for example, modellers, texturing, lighting, animation, which all require specific knowledge and a lot of the time (specially within indie companies) the modeller will also do a lot of the other rolls at once.

Contract vs Freelance

Contract:

Pros

No time searching for another job,
Being around other people helps with motivation to improve and impress when surrounded by artists who think alike,
Making a solid, set amount rather then having worries about finances,
Meeting people higher up the chain to maybe better your future,
Gaining the long term experience by working through the ranks to add to future CV's,
Keeping work life and home life separated creating an environment where you can relax.

Cons

No choice on work hours they are set,
Only one client where as freelance has the option to keep things entertaining by switching projects,
Possibility to make more money is not there, salary is set,
Travel costs getting to a studio and back, rather than waking up and working, this means less time is spent on a project.

Freelance:

Pros

You are forced to push yourself towards the best out there
Get to work across numerous titles and styles
Money, can be as much as double as in house
Independence
Get to work YOUR way
Claiming stuff for work purposes (legitimately)
Learning valuable stuff from your mistakes
Become very good with money
Don't have to move halfway round the world to work with top studios
Some clients give you a lot of creative control
Some places also give you the time to go all out

Cons

Doing your own taxes or paying for an accountant,
You miss talking to people,
Can be stressful dealing with all the contracts and stuff,
Takes a year or two before it starts to be constant,
Making mistakes early on is soul destroying,
A lot of projects get cancelled afterwards which can be annoying
Software is expensive,
Switching off is very difficult, no home office disconnect, work stays in your mind as it is at your home,
Sense of insecurity,
Some places want your work yesterday,
No sick or holiday pay, but can be negotiated if for long stints,
Quite easy to burn out.

As you can see both have great pros but also their downfalls, freelance being the tougher of the too, it is not guaranteed work but it does mean a lot more money but a lot more self promotion where as contract is set salary with no worries and concerns. If I were to take on one I would choose freelance, not for the money but for the variety of work and styles, this also means meeting new people and creating a lot of contacts for if I ever wanted to go contract in the future.

With the growing decline of traditional sculpting and flux of 3D software, the industry has seen a decreasing number of opportunities for traditional artists, these means two things A) Moving over too 3D software B) quitting all together, from what I have seen from my time talking to people working in the industry a lot have just stopped, they stopped 3D all together to do other things like go freelance for boardgames or model figures, or turn to 2D and ride up the ranks in that.

Now Traditional was never as big within the game industry if at all, but on a forum discussion I found made a very good point Username “Leigh” (2015) “Usually when we get maquettes on a production, they come from the client side” As far as freelance I have seen this a lot, clients like parts on a figure they want in game, for example clothing or fur on some braces and they have no other way of showing it other then the figure, it looks to be a useful resource that is catching on.

To conclude “what is a 3D artist?” a 3D artist is a lot of things, they can be animators, textures, they can run whole departments and own the company but first and for most they alter shapes to create things, things they refine and touch up to then go into a game to be sold and distributed for consumers to enjoy which can range from full blown AAA titles down to Indie teams working on the next mobile release, from contract to freelance across the world without them the development of a games industry would be short, we would still be creating 2D sprites that only run one direct on the screen, without them games would in affect not be as great and powerful as they are now.

Bibliography

leigh, january 26^th 2015, Traditional and digital sculptors in today's industry, CG society, Febuary 17^th 2015, http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-1250829.html