Business Cards

So I checked the last few IPP emails that I had received to discover something that I had completely forgotten to mention. Last year I created a business card to try and promote myself, i done this shortly after my Pixar master class as i saw people handing them out to people after the lectures. I thought that was the perfect time to try and hand out business cards, and thought to myself, why haven't i done anything like that.
So soon after i started to check up online sites, where you could use there designs or create your own and place all the information you needed for possible clients to get in contact with you. The one i found to be the best was a company called Vistaprint.

The only thing about the card that i had created was that i now do not wish to be an animator, i want to be a 3D modeler, so i now have 500 business cards which i have no idea what to do with.


Here is the design of the current business cards i have which i know have no use for, and i now need to start thinking of creating a new one. I could use this template as i think it is very professional and tidy.

The next day i went back onto Vistaprint to start a new search on what i thought could be a possibly good template for a new business card. I used the same template as before but changed it so that i had my skill as a 3D modeler and took away a phrase as i was a little unsure if i needed one.



I have changed the layout to this business card as i wanted to try something a little different but once i had made it, i actually preferred the old layout. The good thing about me re-doing a business card is that i now have a website to promote which will greatly help to get a job opportunity. I really like this design but as i had this before i thought it was the best to have a new design, as i feel like a fresh start as i now have a new career goal.

As i was thinking a little deeper into business cards, i thought to myself, i can only really place one main area of arts onto the card, but what if i was applying for a job to be a concept artist, or to be a graphic designer as we all need a back up in case we don't get the dream job we wish for. So being a little opened minded, i thought to myself that it would be great to create some cards for other professions within art which i have skills in.



Here is something very different to my previous card. The image makes it very clear that this person wants to be some sort of 2d artist, weather it is to be a storyboard artist or a concept artist. The layout is slightly messy compared to my previous card as i did not want everything to be placed on one side, i quite like this card, but i think i need to think a little harder into the layout.



I went for this design as another way of showing my skills in a different area as it is a 2D drawing of what looks like Mickey mouse's hand but from the early 1920s. Disney is one of the most amazing companies through what they have learned and how they have changed as time has gone by, so this card spoke out to me a little. I thought i would put in two titles on my business card to show that i have more than one main skill, but once this was completed, i thought to myself that i can not really do this when applying for jobs. So back to designing i went.



I have now started to think a little more about my graphic design skills. Something simple, clear and to the point is normally the way with graphic design. Something that catches your eyes, even though there is not much detail to make it stand out. I like the layout i have done for this card, i feel like i have a title with the useful information underneath.



Here i have used the same design and layout but have changed the career title to see how it looked on a more graphical business card. My thoughts to this though are not so positive i feel i would be confusing people with mixed messages.




Here is a template which i have fallen in love with, everything about the card i love. The stencil is very much like the artist Banksy, who i think is fascinating. I like the layout as it is a little different to others but is still easy and clear to follow and read. The only bad thing about this is that it does not relate to animation, which is something i have found to be quite a pain. It is hard to show 3D modeling within a business card. My next thoughts now are to go and create one, using one of my 3D models and see how that turns out.



Here is a business card with one of my own 3D models. This was more of a test to have a quick look into how one of my own images would look. This image is not one of the best examples but i am now starting to get a better understanding on what is needed to create a good business card. Once my character have been rigged and textured, i instead to place her in a nice pose which would make my card much more interesting, i also need to thinking a little harder into the font and layout of my business card but once i have gone a little more 3D work, then i shall create my business card.

Promoting Myself

For the last few weeks i have been working on my online website to promote myself to the world which some of my best work. I have other categorizes then just 3D modeling as i want to show that i have other skills. I have included some graphic design work which i done in college as well as my own personal drawing of myself with friends and fan art. The more skills i have to show i feel the better. I do not want people to think that i am only good in one area of art, i want them to realise that i have a wide range of skills within the art media. I have placed my 3D modeling first as a way to show that this is my main area and the rest go in order of what i think i am best at.
The website will be added onto as time goes by and i have produced more which will be pretty soon through my course. i also have my CV on there in which people can download to see what jobs and experiences i have had in the past. I am currently trying to create a new CV which will be more of a graphic design layout, as i want to show my creative side even through my CV, so that is will start out when they are going through others. This is only at a starting point and will not be completed at of yet. But i do have an updated CV with all the information a client would need to know.
The link to my website is:
http://karenleighflint.daportfolio.com/

Here is a quick look into how my website is coming along.

To help to get people to see my website i have created a group on the social website "Facebook" where i have added members into my group so that they can see my website and for them to be able to give me feedback on what they think weather if is positive or negative. This has already proven to work, as i had someone comment on there saying that i should sort out a show reel and get some images of constructive overlay of my 3D models, so that people can see the wire frame and get a clearer understanding of how i made my model.

Here is a screen shot image of my facebook group, and can see how many members i have as well as comments that people have already made.

As well as this i have set up a skill pages profile as well as a linked in profile so that i can start placing up my skills. This will be a great help as other people who may be in the industry looking for new clients may come across my page and be interested in what i have to offer. This is something which i shall be updating regularly to see what is out there.



Here is a few screen shots of the social networks i have joined, i know need to make sure that i update them regularly and to check other people on there to see what they have to offer.

3D Modeler

Last year i wanted to be an animator for gaming companies, and thought that would never change. But since doing the final year of my course, the job role has completely changed, which at first was a little annoying, i knew what i had to do in order to get into animating but have felt that i have had to restart all of this. But with that said, i am glad i now know what i need to do in order for me to now be a 3D modeler. Modeling for my project this year has been really enjoyable and have learned new skills since doing modeling. I even took on the role of character modeling, which is something i had never even touched before so i had no idea on where i was headed, but now i look at what i have achieved, i know i wouldn't be at the stage i am today if it wasn't for me staying on.
I have learned a lot about modeling, from vertex, to faces, to extruding and mirror, most of which i did not know before.
Now that i have learned so many new skills i now that i am starting to have what it takes to be a 3D modeler in the industry world.

Learning

Since doing the BA in Animation, i have learned so much more than what i had in the previous years, and glad that i stayed on to finish my course. With the current project i am doing which is called "Summers Treehouse" i am the director of the team, which is now the second time i have been a team leader for a project. This has been great for me because i have been learning many skills which i will need in the future. I have had to do a lot of problem solving with my team mainly due to our story line, we was at first given a time limit of four minutes for our animation and a few weeks later, we was told we had to cut it all the way to just over a minute. This was quite a situation as my team members had no idea of how our story could be cut down without just scrapping the whole thing. This took some time to solve but after a while i managed to solve the problem by taking elements from the story we were going to do and place into a new one, this was hard as at first i felt the story would not flow, so i took some elements of a previous story we had thought of to try and make everything run smoothly and for the timing to be right. Our project has taken may turns on the way which i have had to solve but have always ended with a higher result.
I also had to create a time schedule for myself and the other team members, so that they know the time scale they have in order to complete each task. creating this took quite some time as i had to know everyone's roles, and even though we all had our main areas, we also had to take on others which we are not so strong on as we are only a small team, so we have a lot more areas to cover than other groups. I created this through a programme called shotgun.

Here is a screenshot of Shotgun, you can see where i have created the roles for each member and had to create the time it should take for each task.

As well as sorting out the teams schedule i have also had to work on my own one, which doubled the work for me but as able to keep afloat with all the work.

Being the leader for the team has been hard, and i have had to face a few issues with our team, but i have been confident and spoke clearly on what has needed to be addressed and how to deal with them. I have had to make sure that everyone keeps with the deadlines given, which has been hard as we have had technical problems along the way.

Square Enix Europe

Today i found out something which could be a great help. I found out that there is a Square Enix here in England, and they are based in Wimbledon, which is only about 30 minutes from where i live, i was amazed to find this out. Sadly there are no job openings for the job role i am looking to go into. Three out of the five jobs currently going you have to be able to speak German and French and the other two are related to web design which i do not have any skills in. I know i would not be currently able to apply for any of these jobs, but now that i know there is one base in Wimbledon, there is a higher chance to be able to get into Square Enix, without having to try and learn another language or move home.

Now to be able to try and get a job, i will roughly need at least four years experience within a games company, i will need to have been involved in at least two games which will have been realised. I need to know how to work with a team and individually, be able to lead a team, know problem solving and time management. I have lots to experiment with and learn from trail and error but i am sure within time, i will have all of the above and be able to apply for my dream job.

Searching

I have recently been trying to research for game companies around London which i may be able to try and apply for some work experience and after some searching i found a online social networking site where someone asked if anyone knew any gaming companies around London and was given this link:
http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?query=London&Submit=Search

This this found i was pretty shocked on how many there were in London, most of which i had never heard of but now i know that there are more companies out there then what i ever thought.

My next step is to find out about some information about a few different companies and then try to apply for some work experience. This all sounds easy but i know it wont go a smooth as to what i am hoping.
The one which is most local to me is in Croydon called "CoyoteDev" but once i done some research into them, i had found out that they do not exist anymore and that they are trying to sell there domain name. This is a shame because this may have been a company close to home which would have made life a little easier but sadly not, there is no contact details either as i was hoping to contact them to see what happened, but it seems to be a dead end.

So moving on the next closest to home is a company called "Splash Damage" who are located in Bromley. They are currently working on a game called "Brink"which will be there first game to be realised. They are currently only a small company but some of there staff have worked on previous games called "Quake" and "Mass Effect". The game trailers look very interesting and they look like a company i would be interested working for. With there contact details online, i decided to give them a call, i can get the information direct and i will not have to wait around for a reply from an email, which may never even happen. So, i gave them a call and they were very kind yet formal about how they are currently not doing work experience because they are only a small company, but they are hoping to be able to do so in the future and that i should keep trying.
This was a little disappointing but i understood as they have not even realised there first game, so they are not a big company as of yet and they probably do not have the money to do any resources.


Here are a few images from the Splash Damage website where i found out most of the information i needed. I shall keep this company in mind for the future and hope that they will start to do work experience in the near future.

Time to research into more companies.

Square Enix

Square Enix originally known as Square Soft were the company who created my favorite game Final Fantasy VII. They have always been my biggest inspiration for wanting to work for the gaming industry.
I would love the opportunity to go and work for them, they are my goal to try and achieve in my life. So with this thought i have been doing some research into them and found out that they are only based around Japan and USA, although i already knew this, this has made me think that i would have to move across the world to try and work for them, which at the moment is very unlikely. I need to gain experience and get a career somewhere in England first and once i have all the experience and skills i need, only then can i think of moving. But another thing to keep in mind is that i may need to learn another language, for example Japanese. I have always wanted to travel there, so i have always had this thought in mind.
Most of Square Enix job roles want you to have at least four years experience in the gaming industry.



Here are some screen shoots from there careers section, above is for just one of the job roles within the industry. They only place up the experience you need when there is a certion job role available, but they are not currently looking for 3D modelers so i can not be completely sure on what experience i will need, but this gives me a rough idea on what i should be looking to aim for.