Pro Life Post :: On Technics and Career Choices

Hey people,

After the last class i realized (even more) how some of you are really worried about the choices you will have to make, and what some teachers and other professionals say regarding technics and styles and how that would affect your careers.

So i 've decided to give you some of the information i 've gathered in these past 15 years, more or less, while studying and making visuals for clients.

I do not have the perfect recipe. But if i break down my career for you, you might get a clear example. It's a long article, so if you suck at reading, try to read a section of the post every day. I could have cut it in parts but i really want you to get the message in its entirety so you "find" yourselves faster. I will write about my choices, and what i learned, what i did wrong and the technics i used, so i am sure in there you will find useful info. In a later article i will also give you examples of very successful pros, who all have different backgrounds, paths, styles, technics and processes. To further push the point that technics, and processes are secondary to hard work, quality and good foundations. And so, should not be your main focus.

I will post some art from each period of time. I dont have everything anymore.  Due to a hard drive crash i lost my concepts from funcom, IFS, some volta stuff, and some Beenox stuff..... -___- sucks pretty bad.
Alright so here we go ...

First 4 years:

These i call the dark days ;)
Four years of odd freelance jobs that were not for clients in the entertainment industry (graphic design, architecture, children illustration, tv adds, marketing etc), just to get by, survive, and whenever i had a moment to spare i would work on my portfolio and try to improve. No cool tutorials everywhere back then...so no info whatsoever on how to be a pro. I feel these years are pre-junior years haha ! I sucked so bad... i don't think i deserved the junior title. Because a junior is suppose to be pro, a newbie yes... but still, a pro.
The only cool thing that happened is that i enrolled in a crappy graphic design school in a small city in France and i met  some cool people, and learned to use a computer other than to send emails. I touched a lot of softwares because the school program was retarded. So we had like 10 to 15 classes for different softwares. We did not learn anything but that killed my fear of softwares and nowadays if i want to learn and be good with a software, i get to it and really really learn how to use it, with confidence.

None of the jobs i did, were interesting back then, or making me proud. I couldn't even use that to look for jobs in games. It was really depressing. I used any technic to do whatever, just to get paid a little. But i learned a lot and eventually through hard work, and the help from my wife i nailed a job.

Enter the junior times: 3 years in total.
Half of those 3 years, I worked for a company called Funcom in Norway.

Back then, there were no specialisations in concept art. You had to know everything. So in Funcom, all of us did characters, monsters, weapons, props, vehicules, environments and marketing art. It was extremely hard but i believe that helped me a lot to get where i am today.

Even though i was a junior i got an associate art director role, and that gave me a huge slap in the face. It showed me the other side of the curtain. What leads and art directors need, and how much of a diva, concept artists are. It made me a better pro because i understood where my clients were coming from and how they saw us princesses ( code name for concept artists internationally ;) .

I mainly used 2d, digital drawing and painting at Funcom. Because using pictures was really really bad back then. More than frowned upon. You were a cheater, a loser and sucked big time if you used a picture and you were immediatly called out by every body around you. From 3d modelers, to game directors, art directors and concept artists etc. It was really frustrating because i needed to use pictures to deliver the required quality....tough times. Why ? Because my foundations sucked. It also shows you that there are trends, and technics that are in, depending of the year, or the online interests. So another reason why you should not pay attention to a technic because one day its in and the next day its out.

After almost two years i left for Singapore. And started working at IFS. It was an outsourcing concept art, illustration and comic book studio. Outsourcing studio means that bigger clients call them to help out on big projects. It is very common in games and movies. And again, since many projects of different nature come in, we had to do everything, and change styles and technics all the time to satisfy the mandate. So i did a lot of everything, from marketing posters for car companies, to animation concept art, coloring comic book pages and other stuff. A lot of digital 2d and a lot of painting over photos ( slightly different than photobashing i feel). Using photos was almost a necessity, and it was forcefully imposed by the bosses. Because those studios aim for quantity and speed to survive. Again learned a lot on everything.

I worked my ass off, like you have no idea, working in the morning before work and at night, and in the weekends to create my portfolio. I would create tons of personal IPs, with different visual styles and technics that i liked, to explore and challenge myself. None had a realistice rendering. Not one. And no photos. And i posted every week. Got some success online. Got some offers....

After a bit more than a year i left and started freelancing.

Intermediate years for 3,5 years give or take.
This is when things started to get interesting. I got bigger projects, took an environment class with Feng Zu in Singapore, and that helped a lot, got better jobs, better pays and i improved a lot....

Zbrush 3 came out back then, and i was in love, and saw the amazing potential it had. So i started learning the software, not like crazy because i was really busy but enough to get around. Then something funny happened. I did what i consider now, a mistake.

I sold out.

During my personal time, I started to do generic rendering like every body else, i became like the rest of the cattle. Going in the same direction. I wasnt producing with fun/love/passion anymore. My art became generic and less cool. Because i was doing stupid shit like....generic hill with castle and guy on horse with a stick. Generic scifi environment etc etc And also because my foundation skills were not good ( drawing, painting, color, values etc) well....my attempts to create realistic concepts were mediocre at best. Because i was afraid and insecure especially in front of  the new mass of amazing online talent, i tried to be like them...failed, I lost my online following and disapeared.

But on the pro side of things, it was cool, so that was a plus. I chose to move to Quebec City, to work for what had become my main freelance client. Another outsourcing studio, Volta.
Being in their studio did not work for me. I became an AD for them and even though i learned tons, i really did not like it there, so i stayed only one year.

Yes i am the one year wonder....

Until i found a job with Beenox Activision. Worked on an Old Man Logan game that got cancelled. Best project ever so it's cancelation hit me really hard. Good. It was a great lesson. I had a great AD   ( happens to be my CEO and creative director now), he pushed me really hard, and i improved a lot. Then we did some Spiderman game and some skylanders stuff. Not my kind of thing....I was mainly photobashing back then especially for environments on Spidey. And this is when i realised that photobashing had become my crutch. And that no matter how i trained, my foundations skills sucked big time. STILL. Without the right photo....i was useless.
Dont get me wrong i was still very productive, fast, and had crazy ideas all the time. Those things were my strength. But even so, i was extremelly behind, struggling when i did not find the right photos and compared to the rest of the artists at CGHUB... The posting plateform back then...i was bad. So i started working like crazy on my time again, for like six months. Non stop. Building my skills, at night and weekends, no vacations etc.

And i dont know how but i nailed a lead job at Ubi Montreal for Farcry 4.
(I later realized that no one in Montreal wanted to work with that team and that AD, so basically they needed a pigeon from outside town, to fall for the offer ;) ) That was me yo !

Enter the Senior years; FINALLY ! 4+ and counting.
1 year at Ubi Mtl, learned tons again, did just characters, and lead a team of concept artists. I also found a nice art atelier, with a good teacher. To pratice my foundation skills...FINALLY !

So every saturday no matter what...i was there for a full day, drawing traditionaly and painting with oils, from life, objects, still life studies, and live model studies. With pencils, charcoal and oils. Long studies, no gesture exercises, no speed painting, no rough paintings, just hard core ultra rendered extremely long studies, sometimes 8 days for 1 study... and this is considered short in fine art.

That changed my art and gave me a tremendous boost. I would work traditionaly on saturday, go to work on FC4 during the week and then at night and on sundays, i would work on my personal stuff, trying to use digitally what i had learned traditionaly. I did that for a year and a half, oh and i was also freelancing for Applibot during that whole year, but eventually i left Ubi when i got my permanent residence.

I set up shop as a fulltime freelancer.  And got the best three years of my life and my career.

Out of nowhere, i was getting offers every month regurlarly, and in peak seasons, what i call hunting season, i would sometimes get 3-4 offers per week. Clients where calling me for my art, and i realized i had a good reputation, so my soft skills and professionalism were paying off. So was my intensive traditional training. Most of the ingredients were there and i could feel the huge difference in my art. The change had finally come and the career i had worked so hard for, was begining.

For those crazy intense and busy freelance years, i worked on many projects, mainly realistic visuals because that is what i have in my portfolio. I used ALL technics and ALL processes. I worked on many different genres too. Horror, post apocaliptic, historical, shooters, scifi.... you name it. And i did visuals that were fully digital 2d, no photos, no 3d. Some others were 3d plus digital paint, some fully photobashed, some a mix of the three...again you name it. I learned a bunch of softwares because that has become a sort of hobby of mine, and i have a lot of fun trying to fit them in my pipeline. Because....i want to..not because my clients need that. My clients have no clue what tool and process i used to create the visuals, they cant tell the difference. Anyways, as long as they are happy, why should they care.

Conclusion:
In my to do list of softwares to learn and implement in my workflow i have .... more or less 5. And i will get to them. But no matter how many softwares you know, if your foundation skills are not at the appropriate level, it wont matter. Your visuals will look bad. Period.

I am extremely fortunate that i can choose who i work with and choose how i create my concepts. And i know many people in similar positions. Like i said i will provide different examples of artists, to make sure you understand the following. Technics and tools do not matter.

What are the common denominators ? The ingredients that you keep on finding in these peoples careers and art?

Hard Work, Consistency, and Discipline
Solid Foundation Skills
A Clear Direction

What is a clear direction ? They know who they are, what they want, and where they are headed.

Saying that photobashing ( or any technic)  is more important/better, than  another...is as retarded as saying that using a round  brush is better than a square brush. A technic is a tool, it is a way to get where you want to go. A 2B pencil or photobashing? No difference. The difference is you, your design sense, your foundation skills and the passion that you have for your visuals. What will you make with that 2B pencil? What will you make with those photos. I dont care, no one cares...but it better be damn good.

At the begining of your career, those first 2-4 years depending, you will obviously try to learn as much and try to deliver what your client needs. On your spare time, you will work hard to get where you want to be. And slowly but surely if you are consistent, you will get there. And you will be able to choose your clients and projects. Eventually.

So for now, try to have a Clear Direction, be patient, if a teacher tells you do this or that, say yes teacher, to be polite and give away a pro attitude...and kill it during your spare time.  Same with clients. At the begining beggars can't be choosers. If you have a preference for scifi or for fantasy or whatever, and hate doing the other, or if you are forced to photobash and feel like dying inside, well turn it around, own that scifi project you hate, and own that technic you do not want to use....those are learning tools ! Try and learn as much as possible because when you go back to the genre and technics you like...what you learned on the others will make you a stronger and better artist.

Work hard to have the luxury of choice. Work harder to have more choices than the person next to you. Because you can be sure, many of us are grinding away right now while you are not.

Hope you find some useful info here or that it helps you be less afraid of choices. And less worried about technics. If you found the post was too long, well you are not reading enough. Last week, I started reading my second novel this month.