A bit ambitous!

Hey, I was looking around this site thought I’d just post in the hopes of anything. I’m 17 and in 5th year in Cork, I know I might be getting a bit ahead of myself but I really want to get into games industry when I’m older. I love games and I’m very artistic(so that side of games would suit me best. I was wondering if their is anything I can do at this stage that I can do to give myself a head start.
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Hi,

Search the forums, this question has been asked a lot over the years and there’s definitely been plenty of good advice provided by this sites members. ;)

Happy christmas

learn zbrush

BlackAndRedFlag

1. Continue to develop your "traditional" art skills. Life drawing, sketching, photography, lighting and colour theory, etc. Consider a degree in fine art, visual communication, or equivalent.

2. Pull down 30-day demo’s of 3DS Max,
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=5659302&siteID=123112

and/or Maya
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7635018

both ship with plenty of tutorials, which will get you up to speed on pushing and pulling verts.

3. Training DVD’s. Invest in some training DVD’s from Gnomon or similar. These are real gems, and provide years of insight.
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/ijo01.html

4. Online portfolio. Get an account on DeviantArt (or equivalent) and put your work up online. You will get plenty of feedback, and direction from people who are mostly worth listening to.
http://www.deviantart.com/

5. Magazines. Invest in a year’s subscription to ImagineFX, 3DWorldMag. They are an excellent source of industry knowledge, trends, showcases, portfolios, competitions, conferences, etc.
http://www.imaginefx.com/

There you go. There are 5 pretty specific steps to becoming a game artist. Follow those, thoroughly, (complete all the tutorials, don’t give up after just one) and you stand a good chance of making it into the industry.

Of course, the key, core skill is that you have natural artistic ability, and plenty of perseverance.

Any questions?

Jediboy is right…

Learn how to use photoshop, create textures and learn the basics of a 3D package (Like Maya or 3DSMax)

Then you can practice creating models such as cars, guns, trees etc..

Create your own textures for them and UV Map them.

Get trial editions of most of the programs I mentioned (see above)

If you want to do 3D or 2D art then find out what courses there are and their requirements. It’ll give you an incentive to study :p

[Edit…Here is the level you should be at after 3 years of animation school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiARsQSlzDc ]

Here’s some student work at the school (Media Design School) where I work:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=media+design+school&search=Search

http://www.mediadesign.school.nz/courses/3d-animation/