joe randel's art dump

I received a note asking for some advice in working in the games industry.  I though about it and wrote down all I could think of that I’ve discovered in my career.  I liked it so much that I though I would share it with the rest of the world…  ^_^

I’ll tell you this about the game industry, it can be a tough job so make sure that you want to do it, and be prepared to work on games that you might not want to be a part of, it’s all a part of the industry.  You have to cut your teeth on the crappy stuff before you can be a part of the larger projects.  Be patient and don’t let issues with your current project eat at you.  Talk to your producer, talk to your studio director about what’s on your mind.  That’s what they are there for.  Push forward.  Never settle for being a grunt worker.  Learn all you can with in your studio and listen to what people say and keep that info in the back of your head, it will come in handy later.  Ask questions, ask all the questions you can.  If something doesn’t make sense, bring it up to your producer or at a meeting and then try to be proactive in solving it.  Have fun… your making games.  Play games, good ones and bad ones.  Especially bad ones.  You’ll learn so much from others mistakes.  Be your biggest critic but never trash your work.  Always know you can do better and then push to be better.  Don’t be afraid to walk away from your current studio to go to a better one.  Being too dedicated to your studio can kill you and your career.  Learn 3D.  Being 2D we have an advantage to learn 3D and then play for both teams because not all dedicated 3D people can draw.  Study design and layout, not only in games but in photography.  It will help you balance out your interface design.  Be comfortable with interface design.  Don’t be afraid to start over if it isn’t working.  Learn to paint.  Learn good colour theory.  Learn how light and colour effects moods and direction.  Push your ideas/animations/designs further then you normally would because you can always bring your ideas back if they go too far, but you’ll never know far they can go if you don’t take them there.  Finally, a good resume should only have 10 pieces of art.  5 pages or good life drawing, 3 design or work related pieces and 2 pieces of your fun work.  No anthro or goth/skull pieces should be in your portfolio.

I think that’s about it.  If any one has any other questions feel free to ask.

^_^

Little Big Planet seems to be a hot thing right now. Honestly, if I had a PS3 I’d go buy it. A new take on a old school platforming sounds so sweet, but in all honesty this more a packaged level editor then game. Now I haven’t played it. I’ve only seen clips and such online, but it’s so refreshing to such a product come out. Why? Because it’s literally a game teaching tool. Media Molecule are helping the game industry build more game designers with this release. Players get to build levels and share them with everyone. They’ll make first crap levels and then learn though mistakes and trial and error what makes good game design. Challenge and reward, choke points, difficulty curves, they’ll learn it all. All just for the price of a game and a little of their time.

It’s games like this that make me proud to be in this industry. It’s games like this that help promote, thinking, planning and creativity in it’s players. Now I just need to get involved in such a project.

I love wikipedia.  I usually get so lost clicking around from one entry to the next…  best productivity killer ever!

Here’s list of my wikipedia travels over the past week.

Pushing Daisies -> Severus of Napless

Silent Hill (video game) -> Slient Hill 2 -> Pyramid Head -> Flauros

Milk (film) -> Harvey Milk -> Hollow Point Bullets

Alien Ant Farm

Spacetime -> Fourth Dimension -> Fifth Dimension

PhotoShop CS4

Tiffany (singer)

Usagi Yojimbo -> Kitsune

Mega Man Zero (series) -> Inti Creates -> Fantastic Children

Communism -> Marxism -> Egalitarianism

Qur’an -> Muhammad -> Kaaba

Little Big Planet

Barack Obama

Nintendo DSi

Cam Woolly

Kimbo Slice

Tucker Bounds

Rosie the Riveter

(29075) 1950 AD

B53 Nuclear Bomb -> B41 Nuclear Bomb

Cobalt Bomb

Tsar Bomba -> Father of all bombs

Chicxulub Crater

So this weekend I finally make it to an x-ray place.  At this point my toe isn’t really sore anymore unless I’m on it all day or I put excessive pressure on it so I’m wondering if it’s all really worth it.  It’s not like they can do anything for it and it’s not on any crazy angle or anything and the bruising has gone down to the point where it’s almost gone.

When I get there I actually bring up these questions to the nurses at the clinic.  Now they can’t tell me my toe will be okay and I should just go home.  You know… liabilities and all.  But they do tell me that if the radiologist does find anything he really can’t do anything anyway other then tell me to splint it to it neighbour toe.  Which is just what everyone else has beeing telling me to do.  So I say thank you very much and decided not to waste their time with my “busted” toe.

Next stop, Wal-Mart.  I bought some gauze tape and now have two toes bound together.  What a strange feeling this is and it’s actually making the toe sore a bit.  Not because it’s being splinted but I think I have the tape to tight.  Going to have to experiment to see what works the best.

So that’s it really.  Sorry I don’t have a cool x-ray of my foot to share (that would have been awesome) but I really didn’t see it being necessary.  That’s me, saving the medical industry money one non busted toe at a time.

So this weekend I finally make it to an x-ray place.  At this point my toe isn’t really sore anymore unless I’m on it all day or I put excessive pressure on it so I’m wondering if it’s all really worth it.  It’s not like they can do anything for it and it’s not on any crazy angle or anything and the bruising has gone down to the point where it’s almost gone.

When I get there I actually bring up these questions to the nurses at the clinic.  Now they can’t tell me my toe will be okay and I should just go home.  You know… liabilities and all.  But they do tell me that if the radiologist does find anything he really can’t do anything anyway other then tell me to splint it to it neighbour toe.  Which is just what everyone else has beeing telling me to do.  So I say thank you very much and decided not to waste their time with my “busted” toe.

Next stop, Wal-Mart.  I bought some gauze tape and now have two toes bound together.  What a strange feeling this is and it’s actually making the toe sore a bit.  Not because it’s being splinted but I think I have the tape to tight.  Going to have to experiment to see what works the best.

So that’s it really.  Sorry I don’t have a cool x-ray of my foot to share (that would have been awesome) but I really didn’t see it being necessary.  That’s me, saving the medical industry money one non busted toe at a time.

Out of all the games you own(ed), which one hoe you put the most time in to?  I know the last time I played Final Fantasy III on the SNES it was at 88 hours, but I know I played the crazy hell out of Mario Kart DS as well.  I’m not sure which one wins out but those are the ones that have gotten most of my time.

With some Crazy Taxi bringing up the rear.

^_^