If you want to do art...Then DO it already!

I've been asked by a lot of aspiring artists how I got into 3D and game art in general. So, here's my experience and what I've learned that'll hopefully provide some good advice.

First off, I've always been a fan of video games. When I was about 5-6 years old, I would go to my neighbor's house and play Super Mario Land and Tetris on the Gameboy and would later run home to play more on my SNES. My parents are both talented artists in their own ways (my mum is an impressionistic oil painter & my dad is a musician/photographer/graphic & web designer) which greatly influenced my choice to become an artist.  


As I got older, the game that really stuck with me was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I loved everything about it, and it's one thing that got me more interested in art. Pokemon was another big factor, as I ended up designing a few hundred of my own creators and started designing my own characters.


Throughout middle and high school, I started drawing, practicing photography, writing, writing music, and messing with graphic design in my free time. I spent a lot more time alone in my room creating art than I ever did with friends. 

I went to a small community college in fall of 2008 to start a degree in Graphic Design (this is also where I met my boyfriend !) In high school I went through a big phase of designing icons for Live Journal and my parents convinced me it would be the safest route for a career. By the end of the first semester, I realized I was more interested in the 3D Animation major Cody was in, and that would make a more enjoyable career path. I switched majors and braced myself for the awesomeness. Then... I was face to face with 3DS Max. A combination of my struggle to grasp the software and poor teaching, it resulting in me failing the class. Due to my struggle, I decided to look for help outside of school.

A group of friends introduced me to the 3d art forums online. Within weeks I was entering small challenges, conversing with professionals, and learning the workflow of 3d game art. It was great, but at the same time, I realized I was throwing away my money on school. I barely passed any of my classes, lost my scholarship, and was put on probation to raise my GPA. I struggled for the next two semesters and was forced to drop out.

After leaving school, I spent many months practicing. I had some pretty bad jobs, ranging from cleaning in an old folk's home to sitting at a table in a kitchen, counting out tips for waiters at a hotel. It's easy to get discouraged when you feel like you can never make it, but never doubt yourself. 


About a year and a half after dropping out of college, I finally caught a break. I was given an opportunity to take an art test and fly out to southern California for a 3d Character Artist interview! I was so ecstatic that I worked day and night on my art test 'til the day it was due. It was an amazing experience. The first time you walk into a game studio is so epic and overwhelming at the same time. I felt like I didn't deserve to be there, but it goes to show that hard work rewards, hard workers. 

The interview went great and when I got home, I was prepared to move across the country. A few days went by and news came that I didn't get the job. It was heartbreaking but I swear I hit a jackpot within the next 24 hours. The same day, Cody and I were hired as Contract Artists for Vigil Games. We MADE IT! 

These jobs helped me realize the type of artist I wanted to be. Not only that, but a professional member of the Polycount community found us. I learned and applied all the feedback I received and in a few month's time, I learned more in a month than a year on my own. But all things come to an end... 

9 months later, Vigil had a massive layoff. We were given 2 weeks' pay and had to leave the office on the same day. It was horrible and emotional not just that I had lost my job, but the fact that I wouldn't be working with the same group of people. But as soon as all that happened, we immediately got in touch with the Polycount community and began creating again.

Some people from Riot Games came down and held a dinner with all of us who lost our jobs. One of those people was someone we looked up to in the Polycount community and he offered us both an art test. We went home immediately that night and began working. Within the next few weeks, we landed our next jobs at Riot Games which would last us an amazing 4 1/2 years!


During that time, we met many new people and grew into mid-level artists. We've even gotten good enough to the point where we were asked if we'd be interested in mentoring other artists with what we knew. It was an amazing place to work and an inspiration for us to push ourselves even further. And so on the side of our jobs in 2013, we began developing a small game idea...

And then in September 2016, Cody and I left Riot Games to work as freelancers and focus on building our own game company - Thar Be Monsters!


Thar Be Monsters is a company we created after we had started up our own game idea called Blubber Busters - a sci-fi action platformer we're currently developing a slice of! Initially, after our leave at Riot, we launched a Kickstarter for the game with a proof-of-concept demo (mainly to demonstrate to publishers that we could make a game at all.) Unfortunately, we ended up canceling the campaign before the end because we would clearly not reach our funding goal - but we did receive a TON of amazing feedback and exposure that's helped us push on and continue development to this day. We're currently working on a real slice of the game with way more content in hopes that we can get the full game going sometime in 2018. 

...more to come soon!

Art requires skill, skill requires practice, practice requires effort, and effort requires you to put that pen/pencil/paintbrush/whatever in your hand and use it! If this is what you want to do with your life then make it part of your life. Post on the forums, participate in art challenges, talk to other artists and professionals, learn from tutorials, and always create. Every time you practice your craft, you will improve.

Don't make expectations of yourself. Your work will evolve and over time you will see change. 

If you want to know anything else or any other bits of advice, feel free to leave a comment! 

Stay positive, practice, and make art!

<3

Also, feel free to check out my tips for building a strong portfolio! ->  Maddy's Tips: Building a Strong PortfolioAfter receiving a few emails recently asking for portfolio feedback and general advice, I decided to write up a small list of tips that can help a student or graduate create a portfolio that game studios will want to look at (most specifically for Character Artists!)
Degree ≠ Job. A lot of studios don't look at a resume for where you went to school. The first thing they're interested in is the quality of work in your portfolio. If you have the skills, then you're more likely to get hired!
Do more than homework. Lots of college students get turned down by studios because they give them a portfolio that only has school work in it. Studios look for people that create more outside of class. It can range anywhere from fan art to designing your own characters.
Get online. Stay active on social media platforms like Twitter and game art forums like Polycount! Share your work and speak with other aspiring game artists and professionals as