From Games Tester to Concept Artist?

[Chermilla]

Hey people how's it going?

I work in QA, (yes I know :S) and I've been working in the industry for three years now, (for two of the big publishers over here)...And I have a dream, like many people do, to become a concept artist. I thought after completing a diploma and degree in art that the best place to start would be at the bottom, and at least just try and get my foot in the door to try and make it somewhere that I really wanted to be.

However I'm STILL a QA Technician that desperately needs something more creative to do!!

Then I got a wondering,

I wonder if ANYONE that started off in QA has eventually realised their dream of becoming an concept artist, and realistically is it a good place to start if you want to go on to become a games artist?

Has anyone on here started out as a games tester to try and make it up the ladder to become an artist instead?

Is anyone else here also stuck in QA, having to constantly check TRC's and Standards for Sony etc and just plain sick of it coz they find it so frustrating because it's all they think about all day is art!!?

And finally, if anyone on here HAS made it, have you got any tips or stories to share on how you managed to acomplish such an amazing feat?


I've applied for endless amounts of art jobs but have never been successful, and this is why my aim is to improve sh*t loads this year if possible and get together an strong portfolio! I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place!! :teeth:



A very bored Chermilla who is still stuck in the office. xXx

[Seedling]

QA is a bit of an odd path to take to get to a game art job.* QA is more commonly used to get into game design positions. Most artists go straight into the art department as an intern or entry-level artist. Unless you are an amazing concept artist, you may have better chances if you try first for a modeler/texturer job in the art department.

By the way, if you are interested in reading it or contributing your knowlege of QA to it, I've got a games industry thread around here somewhere. There's a link to it in my sig.

Good luck getting the job you want!




*But then, this is coming from someone who has gone from game art to game design, which is just as odd. :-P

[romance]

I admit I'm not QA Tech, but can definitely sympathize. As can many artists here on the forums, having held onto dreary and mundane jobs while dreaming of becoming concept artists. So your not alone.

You have a HUGE advantage over most, IMO, your actually in the industry. Does your company have a concept department? If so, befriend some of the artists into helping you develop your skills, if you haven't done so already. See if you can't get tutoring from one (or more) of the artists.

I feel you'll find very few people in a similar situation as yours. As well, I would hardly be complaining about the mundane, as what your currently doing is closer to a concept position than a lot of artists will ever get.

-R

[otis]

Here I go..if it is long winded I'm blaming the cafeen in my coffee.


..Sorry, but the last post is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Who cares if you are IN the industry. YOU ARE in QA!
(Sorry but,... nobody at work is going to have the time to help you with your art skills.)

Instead, stop dreaming. Start pursuing!
Sorry, but you are actually hurting yourself. Hasn't anyone ever told you that if you want to be known or recognized as somthing you have to be doing it?

If you want to be an artist, you don't start off your carreer being somthing else first. :nohope:
(Unless you plan on working in the corporate world) But in the arts,..your portfolio gets you places.

Don't be like all the wannabe "actors" who move out to hollywood only to wait tables 24/7 for the rest of their lives. They ALL say, "I'm really an actor"..but all I see is a waiter taking my order. ; )

If you want to be an artist, you have to eat and breath your art. You have to surround yourself with others and constantly strive to improve your craft. Keep showing and submitting your portfolio. And most importantly, NEVER mention that you worked in QA. Becuase an Art Director won't care! -Get the picture? They want a great artist..not a great QA person.

Everyone at work right now(includiing your boss) sees you as a QA person.
You have to show people that you are an artist.

Don't quit your day job!! All I'm suggesting is see it as a "temporary job" for now. (3 years doesn't look temporary.)But if you really hate QA, then I'd suggest you taking a different day job..one you could actually enjoy and make more money in.

To sum up my first point. Chances are, if your ever get a concept art gig...you will probably find it in another company mainly becuase everyone there may already see you as a QA'er.

Oh BTW, DONT imply to your co-workes that QA is below you, and you really would rather be a concept artist! There are people who love being in QA!
And last but not least....Keep painting and working on your art. YOU are the only obstacle from becoming a great concept artist.

[2b BOY]

I assume you read Sloperama.coms Game Biz advice (http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html)right?

Yeah, I think QA is really a good path for a game designer and programmer more so than someone for the art department, or animation. I gues it all depends on where and who you work for. in the advice guide though, I think somewhere it says try to be a QA for a specific game studio, and not one of thos QA companies who outsource their testing for numerous other studios. Also, conferences are a big thing to go to as well. Practice practice practice, and try to be outgoing and build some bridges.

Heh, hard part for me is the networking part. Shy as hell.

[romance]

Otis - Perhaps you missed the point of my post, or perhaps it wasn't clear enough in the first place, but I wasn't trying to imply that Chermilla, (or anybody else in a similar position), rely solely on someone else for help or to outright teach them everything they need to know. I agree with most of what you have said, particularly this bit of information: "You have to surround yourself with others", as it was sort of the intention of my initial post.

It doesn't hurt ask questions and get advice from someone who's doing the type of work you'd like to do. Heck, that's pretty much CA. I guess the point I was trying, but failed to make, in my previous post was, that Chermilla may be in the unique position to get critiques, tips, encouragement, and everything else CA may offer, minus the spam, first hand.

"Nobody at work is going to have the time to help you with your art skills". Um, why not? I know more than enough people who do on a daily basis, and some are concept artists in the game industry. Ever spend your lunch hour on CA replying to questions, posting your work, just giving back to the community? I don't see why someone couldn't take a lunch hour, or even a couple of hours after work one day to help another person out.

-R

[Tully]

I'll go with you, Romance. Though QA may not be the ideal path to get onto the art side of things, being in the industry would help tons if you have the skills. As with any job, knowing the right people can get you ahead of the next guy. You don't need to worry about networking because it's already easy for you to get your art in front of somebody who matters.

If your skills aren't up to par, it's up to you to get them there. Make friends with the art people so you have the opportunity for pointed advice. Or hang around here. Preferably both! Good luck to you.

[0kelvin]

Although QA isn't the perfect path to get into an art position, it's a really good job to have in the meantime. I think otis is entirely wrong in saying art directors won't care. 3 years of experience in game production (QA or not) is a huge leg-up. Obviously a strong portfolio is needed, but between two artists of similar skill, the one with 3 years in the industry will get the job hands down.



0kelvin

[Magic Man]

Although QA isn't the perfect path to get into an art position, it's a really good job to have in the meantime. I think otis is entirely wrong in saying art directors won't care. 3 years of experience in game production (QA or not) is a huge leg-up. Obviously a strong portfolio is needed, but between two artists of similar skill, the one with 3 years in the industry will get the job hands down.



0kelvin

This is true to some extent, assuming the tester has had a good track record and a verified interest in the games dev. pipeline, they will have an idea of the innerworkings of games companies, so they could, assuming having a high degree of illustration qualities, hit the ground running.

There are a hell of a lot of QA dope smokers though lol.

[Chermilla]

I've read all of your comments, and they were all really helpful so thankyou!
Otis you made some really valid and strong points that made me do some thinking. Romance, OKelvin, Tully and Magic Man I agree with your arguments also. 2bBoy, yeah I've read up on the Biz stuff many a time, but thanks! And finally Seedling, thankyou! :)

Well anyway in response to your comments, firstly Haha well I ain't into smoking dope, but I can see why people have this view of people that work in QA, because I have worked with some proper 'slackers' who just use it as 'an easy option', I don't though (as you can see by me being dedicated to it for three years). I know the likeyhood is that QA will not assist me in getting an art position, but I figured that at least playing some kind of role in the industry somewhere would be good experience.

Unfortinately both the companies I've been/are currently at (Sega and 2K) are publishers and not developers so theres no on site artists to speak with :( We have a marketing department, but they mostly handle the box art positioning/promotional stuff.

I worked for Sega for a couple of years and eventually became a Team Lead, now I'm at 2kgames and specialise in PlayStation Standards, I don't really do functional testing anymore, thats done over in the USA and then we get the code afterwards and have to to all the standards runs for SCEE...It's more technically challenging than plain testing but is probs even more mundaine!! I miss functional testing but the pay is less!!!

I'm thinking that maybe working for a developers in QA to start with would of been a better move, at least then artists would be on site to speak with/make friends with which can't hurt! There's a mobile games company near me recruiting for QA staff now and the salary is pretty high, I was thinking of appying there, I've heard mobile gaming is the next big thing and is expanding at a very fast rate, I thought that the art positions may be slightly less demanding for mobile games than for example next gen games? But I could be completely wrong!

Just breifly though I'd like to tell you a short story of a horrible experience I had involving my artwork and the industry...


When I was at a Publishers I made friends with a Producer and their Art Director there and they hooked me up doing some original concept art for a big upcoming next-gen title that is due to be released on the 360. I had to rework all the original characters from the previously released games and that and make about four new ones of my own, which I did over a couple of months. They took my designs to their office in Japan along with some other artists from other companies and they chose to use mine as it was the feel and look they were after. Then they asked me to sign this contract, It seemed legit but basically said that they would take ownership of my artwork (like games companies do), but I would be fully credited for it in the final game as 'Original Concept Art by' etc...

They then passed my art onto several dev teams for their artist to rework and improve upon my designs as they still hadn't decided which one they wanted to use...Then a couple of months later I landed a better job and left, as did the Art Director I was working with so he handed the responsibiltiy of making sure I was credited for my work to this proper asshole that worked there that I KNEW wouldn't give me any credit (He despised us QA guys it seemed for no real reason, he was just arrogant and stuck up really), he was supposed to E-mail me updates as the prevoius Art Director did letting me know what was going on witht he project, but I never heard from him again...

When the game is released I am DREADING seeing my characters in their full glory on screen and I'll have no credit given to me for them what so ever...It will break my heart, so I'm preying and hoping that whatever dev team (even if they have chosen one yet which they should of) is making the game that their artists have changed my art so much that they no longer look anything like my ones...Because it would really break my heart otherwise, seeing them. :'(

[Seedling]

I’ll second that having games industry experience of any sort will be a plus in the eyes of an art director. But you need the art skills, too.


When the game is released I am DREADING seeing my characters in their full glory on screen and I'll have no credit given to me for them what so ever...It will break my heart, so I'm preying and hoping that whatever dev team (even if they have chosen one yet which they should of) is making the game that their artists have changed my art so much that they no longer look anything like my ones...Because it would really break my heart otherwise, seeing them. :'(

If you want to work in games then you’re going to have to set aside such possessive feelings towards “your” work. By the time a character is in a shipped game, dozens of people have contributed to it and altered it. All of those people are not going to be listed in the credits for having worked on that specific character. And the concept is not given some special credit for being the origin or sole creative input into the thing (and they aren’t the sole creative input.)

My husband worked as a year as the art director of Lord of the Rings Online. By the time the game ships, there will have been multiple art directors. In all liklihood, only the most recent one will be listed in the credits as “art director”. That’s just the way it goes.

Having contributed a handful of concept art, you are perhaps entitled to getting your name in the “special thanks” section of the game credits, but you can’t expect more than that. (I’ll probably be listed as a “special thanks” name on LOTRO myself, after having spent a year on the team.)

A games industry job should be about doing what you love, not about a few pixels that scroll by on a credits page that most people never read.

[Chermilla]

Yeah I guess so but believe me this particular publishers was very corrupt and they treated their employees (especially the ones involved in QA), really poorly. Even when I was Team Lead on a project they put some other guys name from the companies name in my place even though he had never even touched the product once just because he was mates with the Producer!

I accept your point as being very valid, but sometimes people just take people for granted a little too much in certain companies and are pretty ignorant towards their workers feelings. Luckily the company I work for now treat all of their employees with the upmost respect, I never realised until the past year that you could be treated as well as this until I landed a job here, and I'm very grateful I did!!

It just upset me and made me angry that they made me feel very used, I would be more than happy though if I was actually working as a full time games artist that the company took my designs and did whatever with them as when you're officially an artist for them they own all the artwork you produce understandably.

Well I'll make sure I'm not as foolish as that again!! :)

[otis]

Cherm,, you still have your original concepts right? If those characters are any good, inlcude them in your portfolio. Honestly, nobody really cares if your final design makes it into a game. As concept designers you are mostly just a "wrist" who is paid to crank-out millions of designs. Who cares which one the client likes? That's always out of your control.

Like I said before, it ALL comes down to your portfolio. Plus, how FAST, PROFFESSIONAL, and LIKABLE you are. (Reputation)

If you want to be married to your work, I strongly suggest you do your own art.

IMHOP, a concept art job is still just a JOB. It's a great job to keep your skills sharp, fast and polished. And one of the best day-jobs to have "to pay the bills". But remmember: you will never get credit for what you create.

I would be more than happy though if I was actually working as a full time games artist that the company took my designs
Wrong. The grass is not always greener on the other side. NO JOB in the world will make you happy. Happiness comes from within.

[Magic Man]

Happiness comes from within. [/B]

Amen to that.