Interview with Marshall Womack (Fossil Software) by Antonio Neto
Q.
For someone that are beginning the studies, how do you see the
technical and the artistic skills aspects? What kind of foundations
it's important to have?
For someone who is beginning, I'd say the artistic skill is the most important thing to have. You can always learn the technical stuff, but it's much harder to teach someone to "be an artist". That takes time, experience, mistakes made, lessons learned. Now days, the technical side is a much bigger part of it, though and shouldn't be ignored. I'd strongly advise learning programs like 3d max, photoshop, and zbrush (or mudbox). Those are the core programs I've used my entire career.
Q.
What books do you have or recommend to someone else that want to work
making 2D/3D Environments?
I don't read a lot of books on making 3d environments, but I would highly recommend taking online or video tutorials like those offered at www.Eat3d.com. They offer a variety of tutorials to help practice your skills and build strong portfolio pieces. Also, they have fun contests from time to time (where I'm often a judge) and I've helped some contestants get jobs!
Q.
In your opinion what's make a demo reel a winner? And what you look in
a recruit for intern?
In my opinion, unless you are an animator the traditional "demo reel" is sort of an out of date concept. What's more important is that you have several very strong images on your website (of course you need a website!), and don't show a lot of "less than awesome" work. Sure you may be proud of past work, but really you should only show your very best.
For recruiting an intern, the artist really has to blow me away with talent. Generally, the bigger companies don't' hire many interns (like id or midway back when they were around). These companies are more interested in people who have experience, and have been through the gauntlet of a game being shipped. There are lots of people with a few years experience who you are competing against, so you really need to stand out. Take whatever you are interested in, and make a killer portfolio piece out of it. Or if there is a specific company you want to work for, model something that could fit in their game style. But whatever you show, make it look as good or better than what you see in the best games out there.
Often, when working on a video game, you have more strict limitations than when you are building stuff for fun. When your art doesn't have to perform at 30 or 60 frames per second with dynamic lighting and effects, then you can take some liberties to make your art look better. You can use slightly larger textures, and slightly more polygons. (unless you are taking an art test with specific instructions). But my point is, make it look completely amazing and don't hold back.
When I was involved in the hiring process and interviewing candidates at id, I would look for the following:
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Several examples of Outstanding 3d modeling ability: organic or hard surface, just better be great
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super-realistic texturing with believable wear and tear (not over the top rusty hunk of junk),
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attention to material surfaces: What is it made out of? Does metal look like metal? Concrete like concrete? Plastic like plastic? Glass like glass? I love seeing a variety of material types in one scene.
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UV/Texturing Layout: Not checkerboard models, but your final textures. Its nice to see your ability to use space and detail effectively
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High Poly skills: Not just talking about zbrush work, but whatever high poly models you would use to generate normal maps from.
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Show some images of your work in various stages: just the model with wireframe overlay and no texture, model with texture and materials, model with normal map and no diffuse texture, and finished result.
Q. Ok Marshall, for conclude what advices and tips did you give for
people that are starting?
For people just starting or trying to break into the industry, my advice is to be persistent, and work for it! Take any online tutorials you can find, post your work on artists forums and ask for feedback, reach out to contacts in the industry and ask for critiques of your portfolio (if they have time), and continue to explore ways to improve your ability in every way. Also, take any internship you can get! Even if it pays poorly... getting your foot in the door can be the hardest step you ever make. Even if companies are not "hiring" contact them anyway and offer your services as an artist or intern. And don't expect to land a gig making 80k a year for one of the big game companies, fresh out of school. More than likely you'll start out either as an intern at a big company, or as a junior artist with a much smaller company who you may not have heard of. But spend the time to do your part! Make your portfolio the best it can be, and then continue to improve it. A good practice is to evaluate your portfolio and cut your worst piece every few weeks, replacing it with a better one. After a few months, you've had constant practice and should have a much better portfolio. But keep it up! Make it better... Continue learning and evolving.
Thank you Marshall for your time and patience, I hope that you and the
people enjoyed this interview.
About Antonio Neto -
Student from Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Antonio Neto wish to be a 3D environment artist. He is focused on looking for a way he can replicate the real world inside a computer and create beautiful environments that have the capacity to convince people they're real. When he was young, his dream was to work for Squaresoft on one of the Final Fantasy projects, but now he's aiming for game cinematics – somewhere between feature films and games. As student, his goal is trying to archive the quality and level that Blur Studios has in their works.
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