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Leicester, United Kingdom
Studying BA (Hons) Game Art Design at De Montfort University. It continues to be challenging as much as rewarding. Primary outcomes include 2D and 3D projects and 2am coffees.

Sunday 10 March 2013

Generalism/Specialism

Areas of the industry are being ever more divided into smaller factions, this is partially down to the increase of new technology, therefore more unique fields need to rise. I found this list off Skillset for our line of work, I mean just look how far the tree branches spread!


This course itself covers many areas of work and already we want to have a vague idea as to which area we want to specialise in, having been asked this question last year. Whilst back then I wanted to try and be an 'everyman', being reasonable skilled in the major areas of work; however I've quickly understood my ''strengths'' and weaknesses, the latter being definatly aimed at characters, and considering this semester has consisted mostly around characters I feel that it's a miracle I managed to get through it.

Being a Jack of all trades and being a specialist in one single area. These two polar opposites produce quite a debate, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I mean if an industry was full of everymen, then with their average level skill in everyhting then nothing in particular would stand out in the final product.

On the other hand, whilst having an in depth knowledge of a unique area of work, the danger of putting all you bets on one table is that there is a chance that the jobs that focus on that line of work is that it may become obsolete with the evolution of technology. Furthermore smaller industries who have stricter budgets and more limitations would rather have a team of people who were knowledgeable in more than one field, enlisting specialists is a luxury they may not be able to afford. Despite this though, being a specialist makes you unique, makes your CV stadn out from other applicants, its  agood tactic to sell yourself to the employer.

In a way this reminds me of the class specialisation in MMOs almost every class has various specs and it's there choice how they specialise, they can devote all they're knowledge and time into one spec, or be a hybrid and be able to change for the sake of the team etc.

The general 'solution' to this is to aim to be a T shaped person. It is these types of people that industry wish to employ. The concept of this is sorta literal:

 
Or see it as a tree; at your core you have an area or expetise, a area of game production in which you know inside out, and then you have branches which represent other skills which you're adaquite in.


In general I would like to be a concept artist, yes I know that title can be perceived as covering numerous areas. Ideally I want to work on environments and perhaps vehicles, however the majority of the time you find yourself working on stuff you're not entirely happy with, jobs like this in the industry usually have colleagues frequently working outside of their comfort zone for the good of the project.
 
Although to be honest I still feel torn between 3D and 2D, as I still enjoy both equally....until the point where it just doesn't work out that is. I guess my favourite part of the 3D aspect is the modelling, I expect it's because at that stage I have a firm knowledge of what I'm doing or because I'm supplied with the reference.

I really want to aspite to be a T person, and I know that at this stage in the degree we should have a sense of direction, yet part of me is still hesitant to officially put all my eggs in one basket so to speak, it could turn out to be a bad move in my chosen area, who knows?

So to give a reasonable answer to this: 3D modeller > Environment artist > Level artist

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