Hello everyone in the world of Game Development :)

I'm pretty sure this topic will get moved soon.. and I would have posted it in the right forum if I wouldn't get too confused about the wide ranging structure of this community board ...(referring to the many categories and their rules/guidelines. Of course I thought about putting it into "Breaking into the game industry"...but I'm already lurking in there as a indie... so I'm not too sure).

So I ended up putting this into Visual Arts since I'm someone who loves to doodle and I'm looking for answers from insiders which are "working" in this business :P

My Question is simply if my experience including references are enough to risk applying at a game studio or if I should first consider to invest time and money in a school for gamedesign?

My references:
link
those are really just a couple of graphics I did over the past 2 years.
here's the latest Website design of mine:
link
A Logo render/cinematic for the indie company I'm still helping out (Ginetix Games):

">link

My experience (honestly):
- I'm a Blenderer which means there's seriously no Software/modeler Interface I couldn't learn. Even Firmware modellers... no problem!
-I know why faces need to be seriously connected (seamless), because of raytracing, lighting/shadows , in the worst case because of fluids and collisions.
-...all about Vertex groups.
-I know the differences between normal, bump and displacement mapping.
-Rigging (anchor points 2 paths) , skinning (vertex groups pinned to bones).
-even Ragdoll (with all its offset tricks). Every translation, transformation and rotation data I can write down for lazy programmers to make nice animations right from my intergalactic knowledge.
-polar mapping/sphere mapping
-mesh for game render engines only "triangular"
-UV coords and everything what comes with it.
-polygroups
-LOD (Lost of detail) modelling back and forth (subsurf and unsubsurf) for the extra fancy memory&FPS-heroes
-Texture Baking ect.
-I can even specify what functions I would recommend to a blender loader or model-loader in general to speed up the progress of modelling.
-Cinematics, no problem.
-Concept art... all goes.
-vector... working on it... never been for bezier much but everything else even right use of gardient works ^__^
-I can name all kind of compressions... I repeat them sometimes while sleeping
-RBG/RBGA is my second language besides #?????? and 124,16,50 (which is RGB) :P
-from 8 till 64 bit palettes.
-Texture maps always need to be power of 2
- My english sucks nuts sometimes but it's enough to return YAY or NAY... oh that leads me to my last point:
-I understand programming languages and their structure in connection with communicating with 3D Hardware. I know sounds odd, but here's an example: I prefer OpenGL because the 3D calling functions are much faster.

Ok now... if you would be a lead programmer or a lead designer analyzing all the things I wrote and presented would you invite someone like me for a chat or pretty much not?

Again this is serious! I don't wanna dare to apply anywhere without getting an expert opinion on that. Thanks in advance.

Mike :)

[Edited by - MikeBrown on July 25, 2010 10:56:30 PM]

Well, to be honest, don't get ahead of yourself just yet.

You still have some way to go before you should apply at any big studio, but you are definately on the right way.

Start by signing up at www.polycount.com , that place is full of industry artists, and they will often give some good feedback, but be humble when recieving it. It's the best place for any game artist to practice and get feedback on their work.


//fellow blender artist

Go ahead! You have what it takes to get in.

Your "artistic/creative" side is strong,
and rest of tech stuff you can learn inside of projects.

Only things missing from your list are:
animating, lights and shaders.

Now go ahead, and find companies that have NEAD for your tallent,
and send them FINE portfolio.

And remember that newbies in art section
can work as "helping hands" for veterans.

/Tyrian