It's been one month since I started my first game job ever, a temporary position at Piranha Games, and I feel like writing some thoughts about my experience thus far. Some of these include work ethics, what it's really like to be in the games industry, and things I learned.
It probably has to do with the fact that everyone here is doing what they're passionate about. Because of this, everyone is really nice, outgoing, and welcoming. I could claim that I've been in quite a variety of work environments in the past, and this industry is really quite unique. There are no work politics, ego, or any bs animosity that my certain past workplaces had between people just because they didn't have anything else to do.
I have become more interested in people in general. There is a good book called How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie that explains in order to be more likeable you should be genuinely interested in people. This advice is very applicable to the professional world, and especially the games industry. Everyone is doing and have done cool things, so there is always something new you can learn from talking to people.
On the topic of work ethics, I had a sense of largely how an art role is supposed to operate going in, but there were obviously some things I had to learn about being in the workplace I had to pick up on. As much as everyone is welcoming and would like you to ask questions, people are still very busy, so I wouldn't want to bug people all day long. It just comes down to being independent, yet curious and interested in picking people's brains, and be respectful of their time and wisdom. For example, as an art role I thought the objective was to make things and iterate and keep bothering the art director to review it until he's satisfied with your work. This might not be the best case. As an artist you have to be critical of your own work, make revisions you determine to be right, and decide for yourself when it is finished.
It is a tendency of human nature to expect a list of clear and concise instructions on exactly what to do. That is not how creative work operates. No one has the time to take of you, you're an adult, and you are given the freedom in this field of work to determine what works best.
For process I am constantly trying to find ways to work faster and achieve results faster. That may be using more hotkeys to get functions done quickly, photoshop actions, etc. At the end of the day however results are what is most important. Hotkeys and macros and automating workflows are the technical side of getting things done, and the other side is artistic vision, design sense, and the kind of knowledge one needs to possess in order to achieve results.
Some of the guidelines I've come up with throughout my learning through practice, on the topic of texturing, are:
1. Nothing in life is ever a flat colour. And this applies to all texture types and all materials in the world. A red pillar is never pure red for example, there are holes and imperfections on the surface, miscolorization, oxidation, layers of stuff in the concrete, etc. Different areas of the surface of an object are exposed to different things, like sunlight or lack of lighting, dirt pile-ups, that changes the colour. These imperfections are everywhere, even in new things, and make them read more realistically.
2. Accent the edges and darken the creases. A way to highlight, give emphasis, and sharpen an asset.
3. Build dirt passes to darken closed areas and sunbleach passes to lighten open areas. In essence it's similar to the above principle. It's nice to give emphasis to different areas and make a piece more dynamic.
5. Start with base material first, then layer up everything else. This is fairly intuitive at this point.
