Over the last 6 months I have been applying for games jobs to get myself back on the career ladder. This has involved applying for 3D Generalist jobs at small games studios which I would like to work at. In November I was asked by Legendary Games Studios in Nottingham to complete a 3 day art test and create a Dreg character from their Warhammer game, Mordheim. I had to produce a low poly, hand painted character using templates provided and an art style brief.
3 days is a very short amount of time to create a character and I did it in a frenzied rush. The good thing about this task was that I learned about hand painting characters better in zbrush. I decided to model and UV unwrap the character in 3dsmax before painting it in zbrush. This method was good because I could paint over the seams to avoid any mismatch of the uv shells which would happen in photoshop. I will definitely use this technique on low poly characters in the future.
In January, after an initial video call interview with Reach Robotics I was asked to rig and animate a robot character for their mekamon game. This was an interesting challenge because the robot is a real world toy that could only use its legs to move in certain axis, so I had to design a rig that wouldn't bend or break while being animated and observed real world constraints like gravity.
I then did several animation loops demonstrate my animation abilities and practice using the rig. The shots I chose were a Sneeze animation, Trying not to be seen and a Lethargic wake up, which can be seen in the above video. I think I did alright in creating useful, expressionate animations but I still need practice and more in depth look at game animation if I am to successfully apply for animation jobs.
It was good to try my luck at these jobs. I really enjoyed the challenges set by these companies and definitely would like to get a job as a generalist in the future. I will keep applying for games jobs and believe that if I remain motivated and dedicated I will eventually get a job that's good for my skills and progression.
It was good to try my luck at these jobs. I really enjoyed the challenges set by these companies and definitely would like to get a job as a generalist in the future. I will keep applying for games jobs and believe that if I remain motivated and dedicated I will eventually get a job that's good for my skills and progression.
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