Concept Artist for Games OFF-SITE

[raybender]

Hi guys,

ii´m in need for some advice.

i am a freelance illustrator / concept artist. and i would really like to do some work for AAA Games. my problem is that i am painting for 2 years now and havnt had a single Concept Job for Games.
Dont get me wrong, i am totally booked up with commercial illustration and it pays very well, but it´s not what i want to do! I want to design Spaceships and cool Enviros!

But i dont know how do get these jobs ???
I think my portfolio is not too bad, but its like no gaming company is working with off-site Artists.
I send my portfolio to game companies, but get two types of answers: 1. sorry we dont need a concept artist, or 2. you can have a job on-site, but not off-site!

So i wanted to ask the pros here if thats what you experienced, too.. is there no way to work offsite for a gaming company ?

i really hope to get some advice here.

here are some examples of my work:


http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/299/7/a/aurelie_intervention_class_by_raybender-d31juzl.jpg

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2010/312/9/4/arsenal_explorer_by_raybender-d32f8ho.jpg

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2010/271/e/b/tempelhof_eingangshalle_by_raybender-d2znaou.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/175/6/d/Weather_Control_Station_by_raybender.jpg

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/139/0/3/abandoned_mall_by_raybender.jpg

http://th07.deviantart.net/fs40/PRE/i/2009/022/3/e/SteamPunk_Octopus_by_raybender.jpg

[MiniGoth]

Hi Ray!

Those are some delicious paintings you have there. I'm wondering if not having some things might be holding you back.

Do you have examples of character sheets? A whole ton of wildly varied environments and characters for a game company to look at?

My other suggestion, if you have the time, is to hook up with a smaller company, or even a small unpaid project - so you have a history of working as part of a group.

Illustration, while you have clients and briefs, seems to be a more solitary industry in terms of art. As in there isn't a team of animators and modelers waiting to turn your character into a moving being, or your environment into a 3d series of planes and objects.

Also, how many game creation forums and such do you hang out on? Meeting people is also part of the job hunt.

[Baron Impossible]

So i wanted to ask the pros here if thats what you experienced, too.. is there no way to work offsite for a gaming company ?

I can't speak beyond my experience, but from my experience, no. In the past six months I've been offered a couple of contracts for concept work but as soon as I said I can't work on-site, that was it.

Nice work, BTW, I recognise that last one from the Steampunk judging :)

[raybender]

thanks for the answers ! i will try a few more months before i start concentrating on illustration work ...

[snatti]

hi, i am not a proffensional but the i thought if i had a game company i'd rather have all my employees on site were i can look at how they are doing, saying if i want to remove something or add, much easier then send the work back and foth, atleast i think this must be the reason, the paintings look awsome by the way

[Sogbad]

I'm an experienced AD in the games Industry so from my experience we do use outside, offsite concept artists but it's usually under specific conditions, the internal team can't produce the amount of work required or a specific need arises that calls for a specialized concept guy, for example a concept guy who's fantastic at vehicles or creature design or has a style that fits with the game vision, or of course a big name for vanity’s sake ;).

As for your portfolio, you're obviously a talented illustrator but it would help in your quest to get concept work if you had some more samples of your design work, the sketches and process that leads to the final concept, the design and ideas are more important than the final render, obviously depending on the target audience.

If you want to focus on environments design a specific environment, either make one up or design an environment for a known game, and show the ideas and design work that you can create for the environment, design details, thumbnails, different concepts, lighting and color studies and then a final illustration to show the design off in it’s best light.

[ryansumo]

Concept art is very rarely farmed out, even for someone as talented as you are. Perhaps an idea would be to band together with a bunch of other artists so you can present a team to a company instead of an individual?

[raybender]

@sogbad thanks a lot.. that helps! i somehow never thought anyone could be interested in sketches and thumbnails of the process, but of course thats a good point..

@ryansumo.. already thought about that, but teaming up means
that you should at least live in the same area, but there are no other concept artists where i live.