Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Know Your Limit πŸ’£

Onegai shimasu (γŠγ­γŒγ„ します)  πŸ™‡

It takes a long time, and diligence, to be really good a something. Some people have a natural knack for whatever they are good at. You can't be great at everything, though. I recently had a discussion with one of my students who wanted to be good at everything. I said that it was impossible. Our industry wants people to be exceptional at one thing. To be good at others. And then willing to learn new skills later on. Even in indie studios there are people who have specializations yet have to do a ton of other work because there is no choice.

The best way to be good at something is to love what you're going. I mean really love it. Where you can see yourself practicing this thing because you find it fulfilling in some fashion. Once you get really good at it then you can pick up other skills or add to it.

I don't think I'm good at drawing. I struggle with it. I can get by enough to communicate what I need, and sometimes that's enough. I am very good at hard surface modeling, especially robots. I enjoy it. I'm really good at fine art photography. I can't live without taking photos, although I enjoy it as a side gig and not my main source of income. I'm good at other things and really such at others (no one will ever see my animations).

I thought that being good at everything was going to make me more valuable when I first started. I was wrong. All it did was make me just passable. Once I focused one one thing, and got really good at it, then I was asked to do other stuff. I still held on to being really good at that one thing, which was hard surface modeling. Afterwards I added UV mapping to my skill set. I found that I enjoyed it. UV mapping drove other people insane! So I took advantage of that }:-)

I always tell my students that if you do the thing you love, everything else will work out. Which is why you can't be good at everything. You can't love everything. You're only human and can't split yourself that much. Follow what you love, what you can do every day without loosing your shit, and learn other skills on the side.

If you attempt to be great at everything, you'll be great at nothing.
A paradox? Maybe. Yet it's the truth.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Grunt Work 😀

Onegai shimasu (γŠγ­γŒγ„ します)  πŸ™‡

When you first get into the industry you will not be giving the glory assets, no matter how good you are. Those items will be reserved for the more experienced team members. In the game industry you'll probably be given mundane assets, like crates, or background animations, or something else that is considered grunt work.  When I got in I had to make dozens of UIs with a maximum of 2 colors, black and green, and a resolution of 640x480 each. Eventually, down the road, I got to make cool stuff. Even help develop whole worlds

Again, remember that you are a part of a team. The project comes first, not your ego to make awesome assets. In most industries you will start at the bottom. Sorting the mail, organizing some asset library, monitoring a render farm, rotoscoping, etc. And they will be low impact gigs that can easily be replaced by another person. The newbies get these jobs because the upper team members want to see how good you are at what you do: can you meet deadlines? can you take direction?  No matter how lowly the job appears you still have to do the best work you can do. Even if it lasts a while (if it lasts more than a year, or so, and you see no upward movement then you need to reevaluate the job). 

You might also be asked to do some pick-up work that is not your specialty for any number of reasons. Usually it's because the team is short on staff and you have bandwidth to do more work. Sometimes the work may not be portfolio worthy. Don't complain, do it anyway and get it out of the way. Now, if its unethical or really way outside your expertise, that's a different story. Talk to your manager and see if there is another way. If it's something you can do then do it. The task may not be beneath you, you're just letting your ego getting in the way. The faster the mundane task is done the faster you can get to your specialized sexy stuff.

This may be different in an indie company. In that case everyone pitches in on the grunt work because everyone is on the hook to get the project done at a high quality. No matter what situation you're in, there is no room for prima-donnas.

This rule also goes for jobs you man actually don't like (until you find something new). In my past, there were companies and teams I was not a fan of. I even got passed up for promotions at one job years ago. I still did my work to the best of my abilities and I got some really good portfolio pieces. More importantly, I got the respect of other team members and made good friends. And these will stay with me for the rest of my career.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Nothing is Sacred πŸ’”

Onegai shimasu (γŠγ­γŒγ„ します)  πŸ™‡

One of the things that we have to do as creatives (art, programmers, etc.) is to stay current with new tech, art styles, whatever. If we don't then, we become irrelevant in a very short period of time. That means being flexible and being open to change. Most of all it means that you have to LET GO OF OLD STUFF. For example, holding on to old portfolio pieces will not only date you, it will keep you from moving forward into new areas. I'm in the process of changing my portfolio and eliminating 4/5 of it. I don't remember the last dev who used basic to code anything.

You also must be able to receive critiques with a plan to take the ideas that are actionable and implement them for the future. That means looking for people to critique your work who can give you feedback that is more objective and  relevant. You also have to take some critiques with a grain of salt, especially if you get a visceral reaction. Some of the critique might just be personal tastes.

The bottom line is that you MUST be willing to learn new things, change, and adapt, unless you plan on becoming a relic. Example: I am finally wrapping my hear around linear workflow for games. It's finally making sense and I plan on teaching it to my students. Sometimes, I learn new things from my students, which is very exciting.

Anyone who claims to know everything about a particular subject is FULL OF IT. There are always new things to learn in your field, no matter what it is. You must maintain a culture of learning inside yourself at all times.