[General Confusion]

when seeking employment as a conceptual designer, what would you suggest be shown in a portfolio?

Subject matter:
Do you recommend focusing on specific areas of interest, such as, characters, vehicles, environments, etc. Or do potential employers look for well rounded books, that show an artists complete capabilities.

Mediums:
Do you recommend including a varying range of materials worked with, including, painting, markers, digital?

Are these questions entirely relative to a particular studio? Considering there may be places that ..want.. to see specific material, and so on.

I may be a tad vague (possibly), but to state it in a much more simpler and direct manner; to have an altogether well rounded portfolio, what do you guys suggest be put in it.

I am gaging this in a very general sense. I don't specifically want to know what a game studio, as opposed to an effects studio wants. I'm just interested in hearing opinions, as to what is the norm.

thanks for your time


later

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State of Confusion

[LethargicBoy]

i think it really depends on the employer, i showed my interviewer this portfolio full of my nice pencil sketches and a little bit of photoshop stuff, i ended up getting the job but i rarely use the skills i've show i have in my portfolio, than again, maybe it's because i'm still in highschool. better than flipping burgers huh?!

[Chapel]

Well this may be the same or it may not, but when I was putting together a comic portfolio it was best to draw everything. Pin-ups are easy to make. They want to see if you can draw people interacting with people, cars, buildings, sci-fi.. everything. I'm not saying put 30 something pages in your portfolio. You just want to make sure you have a good representation that you can draw anything. Most of this would be represented in a storyboard, but for a concept position I'm not sure. Francis, spooge, or Fred can answer that I'm sure.

[Vortx]

The role of a concept artist is to come up w/ new designs and display them through drawings and sketches. Don't confuse concept art w/ illustration - big difference. In illustration, the final product is the illustration itself. In concept art, you're showing design through drawings, and it's usually taken to higher levels. The final product is not the sketch but something created from it (eg. you don't see Doug Chiang's concept art in star wars, but you do see his designs via CG or real models). My point is, the key factor in concept art is the ability to design new things, and showing them through good artwork. Another factor is time - you need the skillz to pump out many drawings on a daily basis, *and they need to look good*

W/ all that said, a concept artist's portfolio should contain a wide range of designs. Good examples are characters, creatures, vehicles, and environments. I don't agree w/ showing only 10-20 sketches. As a concept artist, you need to show off your design skills, speed and quality. So load up your portfolio w/ lots of designs. A good idea is to shrink your drawings down and place 4-5 of them on a single page. Add in a few fully rendered scenes as well, to show that you can do production and finished art. I also don't agree on the "targeting your company" thing (Unless you're doing freelance of course). If a company is looking for someone full time, why would they look for only a certain skill (like drawing only people)? That's stupid! Companies move from project to project, and they'll need someone who can adapt to them; someone who can draw anything. Unless you're looking to get fired after the project, show everything in your portfolio.

Things to avoid or have very few in your portfolio: anything that's bad (never show bad work, because people always remember the bad, not the good). If you're second guessing on a sketch, then take it out. Don't need to show too much illustration skills - e.g. Life drawing of your dog or oil painting of a chair...umm...okay...no need....your concept sketches should show off your drawing skills. If you're applying to a game company, then you should include 3D related stuff...especially low poly and textures (but this is where you read the job requirements).

Anyways, i bring up the illustration/concept thing because some people don't understand the difference. Don't mean to pick on you General Confusion, but i took a look at your web site. All your drawings are illustrations, not concept art. I know you are gonna update it soon....so i won't comment to much. Figure drawings, painting of lighhouses, or a sketch of a forest are *not* concept art. They show drawing skills, but don't show design and communication through sketching skills.

Man, this is getting to long. I need to get back to work. Maybe someone can help me add on more (you guys at presto?)....but hopefully this helped.

-feng

[General Confusion]

thanks for the replies, everyone!

Vortx, I don't think you're picking on me at all. You said exactly what I wanted to hear! I am an illustrator, and that stuff on the web is mostly just some crap I had laying around that I put up just cause people asked to see some of my stuff. Like you noticed, I have been retooling my stuff for awhile now, towards conceptual stuff, but it's tough, when I don't have anyone around to bounce stuff off of, cause, everyone I deal with are either illustrators or graphic desingers. Thanks for the comments, though, I appreciate it. When I get the time, if I could ever find some, I have been working on a total site design, and so forth. I will be putting up, what I feel is a more directed portfolio, to conceptual stuff.

If full blown illustrations are shown as an included sampling, (not as a replacment of conceptual stuff) will that hinder any possible employment?? Or is that an acceptable allowance?

later

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State of Confusion

[Francis]

feng's got a lot of good points. Illustration skills aren't an end in itself, but a means of conveying ideas. You're being hired for your ability to come up with stuff no one's seen before, or at least new ways of putting things together. Illustration skills are definitely helpful in terms of being able to convincingly portray your ideas. Your portfolio should not only be about your ability to draw a lighthouse (for example), but your ability to draw a lighthouse made of liver, sitting on the head of a giant infant. Okay, maybe that's a little weird, but the point is, the concept part of conceptual design is just as important as the ability to draw.

The more you know about the fundamentals of drawing the figure, vehicles, architecture or objects, the better you will be at drawing the characters, environments and things that you make up, but you also have to have the ability to come up with the new and interesting ideas as well.

Hope that helps a little.

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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[spooge demon]

I am not sure how much help I will be here.

The only thing I can relate is what I have done, and what worked for me, so don't take this a recommendation at all. It does contradict what has been successful for a lot of others.

I remember Bob Peak speaking at school and he thought a disheveled coffee stained portfolio showed experience, whereas a slick book showed "art school, just out of."

I present that thought at face value. Not a recommendation. Interesting, though.

When I was doing the rounds, I had up to a hundred pieces thrown is a beat up case. I have never matted or framed anything in my life, thank god. You can tell from my crappy web page I don't think much about presentation or marketing. When I brought 10-20 pieces, it did not work as well. With art, presentation is less important, because anyone can see your competence right away. Evaluating a systems analyst or something makes one rely on indirect measures that are not as accurate. Presentation and polished shoes become quite important. I have been told I went to meetings at Digital Domain barefoot. I don�t remember this, but I could see it may have happened And you have a free spot, so to speak, because people expect you to be a little weird being an artist.

I think you have to judge the intelligence and competence of who is going to be evaluating you. If you get someone who is good, it does not matter much-show them everything, they will appreciate breadth of skill and flexibility. Include life drawings. If you get some idiot bureaucrat at an ad firm who is covering their ass day in and day out, well, you don't want to go there anyway. Bu you need to spell it out for that person and not confuse them. Leave out life drawings. Polish that turd.

Another idea about concept work- a lot of places, games especially, really don�t want anything creative. They wish a few clich�d shapes rearranged into something that is not actionable. They are turning out product, and that is what they want from you. If you try to do something different, you will be in a heap of trouble. The amount of time and effort that goes into creative work is daunting. It is so much easier to recycle. I find I am doing this way more than I would like, but that is the pressure of commerce. You would be amazed how often I am asked to copy something and change it �some.� It is amazing that good work is done at all. Keep this in mind-creativity costs them time and money and is a pain in the ass. Give these types exactly what they want. They will never see it �your way,� no matter how much better it is.

So be very observant about the company you are applying at, and the person to, if you have access to that info. A lot of companies will tell you exactly what they expect, so the whole point is mute.

Hey, cool, I just found out that the seven deadly words are not in Microsoft�s spell checker! I can just see the memos now. Hahahahahah!

[Francis]

I just wanted to add a note to Craig's thoughts about game companies. Since I've only ever worked for one company, I probably have to defer to his experience with a wide variety of employers.

This might sound a little company rah rah - ish, which if you know me isn't what I'm usually about. But in the case of Presto (and hopefully at least a few other game companies) the art department is encouraged to place a premium on design and originality. I guess our current project is both a good example of that and at the same time also an oddity in the industry, where we are basically attempting to make something as far removed visually from other games (well except Myst and Riven of course) as possible. But this attitude of placing a lot of importance on the quality of the art and design has always been present at Presto, at least as long as I've been employed here.

The tendency to stick close to the proven formula in terms of aesthetics or design is a result of the suits and their bottom line. Since games are becoming more of a major league investment for publishers, they are less willing to push the envelope and risk that lowest common denominator dollar.
However, I don't think in applying for a design position in the game industry, it's necessarily helpful to make a portfolio which consists of "clone" art. The people at the game companies who are reviewing your art and making hiring recommendations based on your creative/design ability aren't necessarily the same ones who spend their days thinking about how to maximize the profit.

Anyway, like I said, this is based on a very limited sampling of game company employment, so take it for what it's worth.

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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[spooge demon]

I agree with Francis. If you are being interviewed by the a human resources type, be mindful of that. IF it's an artist, you can be a little looser.

Games are big business, as are effects, they are not run by fellow geeks anymore.

[LethargicBoy]

i'm really stressing about what i'm going to do out of high school and this information really helps a LOT! sorry if this is a little irrelevant, but i had to express how much this discussion is helping me with my planning.

[yoszi]

I have a related question. What sort of portfolio I should prepare for ID school interview ? Pencil, marker, only my own ideas, does this matter at all ?

[WacoMonkey]

Boy, am I glad I waited, otherwise I would have been writing forever!

There is a lot of good advice above, in fact nothing I would contradict, except anything stated as an absolute. There is some truth to all of these approaches, and I have encountered almost all of the above situations in different contexts.

I've been on both sides of the fence, and for the last 6-7 years at least I've been responsible for all of the art hiring here at Presto, so here's my $.02, for what it's worth. At least this is what I would be looking for:

- Only show work you feel is representative of your current abilities. Don't show old work that you've moved past just to flesh out your portfolio, it will only bring your work down. However if it is a good design that shows your versatility in another area, but perhaps you rendering has gotten better since, use your judgement, it probably won't hurt. Don't show school exercises. They tell me nothing.

- Bring all of your best work, regardless of whether they apply to the position you're being hired for. Make sure you present the work you think they want to see first, but also bring other work to show your versatility. I don't agree with narrowing down to your best 10-20 pieces, but you should know what they are, and make sure you show them first. If the interviewer likes what they see, they will inevitably want to see more. Show them. If they don't, well, it wasn't because they were intimidated by the volume of work!

- Bring personal work. Professional work is good, but I want to see what interests and inspires you. If you're right out of school, i will not be impressed with just school projects, I want to see that you are driven and focussed enough to still be doing work for yourself.

- I always want to see a sketchbook. More than anything else it shows me how you think and how creative you are. I've hired people on the basis of their inspired doodles after being unimpressed with their polished work. Technical skill can be taught easier than creativity and inspiration.

- A note about interviewing: organize your presentation as best you can before the interview with what knowledge you have about the job. This is where you have the opportunity to put your best foot forward. But once you get there... let the interviewer run the show. They know what they're looking for and they know what they're looking at. Don't flip pages for them or try to explain something they've already passed over. If they pause on something, they're interested, feel free to expand or let them ask the questions. If you're dealing with an art director with some experience, they can probably tell more about what went into your work than you can. No art director will be impressed by how cleverly you came up with something they've already decide they're not interested in. If they scan through your stuff quickly, or don't look through all of it, don't take it personally. I can tell within the first couple of pieces whether there is potential or not. If I have time to give constructive feedback, I generally will. If I don't, trying to push it won't help.

[samdragon]

I'm preping my portfolio,and here is some of the advice i've gotten. hope it helps you out.

Try to arange your portfolio for a specific job. Don't just throw everything or anything in there. Try to match what it is your applying for. For example, if you're applying for a character designer or whatever. It wouldn't make much sense to have a bunch of space ships in your portfolio.

Try to limit your portfolio to 20 or less pieces of artwork.
Make sure all the work you show is your best and it all has some sort of consistancy to it. One bad image can ruin the intire portfolio. If any of your artwork was a group project, make sure it sez so somewhere.

I've also heard that's it a good idea to present everything as nice as possible, so don't have everything scattered out or loose. Try have them matted or backed.
If you are making copies of your black and white work, get color copies. It will pick up the greys alot better.

If you want to know what game studios want, visit thier sites. most are pretty specific about what they want to see in a portfolio. You would be surprised at how many people ignore what they want. It's obvious that not all companies have the same titles, one company might have a game artist that does everything from level design to textures. While another company will have a game artist who does nothing but conceptual stuff.
make sure you understand the each companies requirements. I've got a growing list of 40 or so companies and each one requires different skills for the same title.

One thing Fred pointed out to me, that is very important. Let your portfolio reflect the job you want. If you just hand them something with a little bit of everything and no specific field, you may get hired. But, they will place you where THEY think you're most needed. So you might end up doing something you don't like, this can lead to a cycle of bad things.

I have yet to find a website or forum that actually discuss what happens durring an interview for a type of job like this. maybe Fred or Spooge could help us out on that one.I guess most of it's pretty much the same as any interview, but sometimes I wonder?

One more thing. More and More game companies are looking at website based portfolios now. They are also taking cd-rom submissions for portfolios and demo reels. So that's something to concider too. I've emailed some companies and most of them are kind enough to reply to some of the questions I had about submitting stuff. It's alot cheaper than calling
Hope this helps you out. and remember, if you land a job, share the info.
good luck

[LethargicBoy]

this info is extremely usefull!!!
more
more MORE!

[General Confusion]

excellent information everyone, I can't elaborate further, just would like to thank you guys for your input!

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State of Confusion

[black_fish]

Just to add a little something about game companies (since I've been in a lot of them):

- Know what position you are applying for and try to show a portfolio related to the position. The game industry is often VERY technical and VERY picky. For example if you are applying for a Texture artist position, show textures done digitally with the standard industry formats (like 64x64 pixels, or 128x128...). Just showing some nice watercolors of a brick wall, or some architecture drawings won't be enough. You need to be technical!

- Show some style. What I always look for in a candidate is a style. If you don't have a style there are very little chances that you'll be hired, and if you are hired you'll be working at the low end of the art process. What makes a good game is 50% style. Show that you have some!

- 20 to 50 pieces in your portfolio is good. Less than that is suspect. More than that is boring. Usually the people reviewing a candidate have a very short attention span

To conclude: don't put bad stuff is your portfolio, don't put life drawings, don't put photo montages or manipulations, don't put anything that is not 100% personal and original, don't wear a tie, don't call everybody 'sir', don't be late OR early at an interview, and please please show some enthusiasm for the job

[This message has been edited by black_fish (edited August 22, 2000).]