How to be a more EMPLOYABLE artist in Video Games - Concept Artist tips. 

How can I be a more EMPLOYABLE artist in video games. Meanwhile here I am thinking "How do I even get employed with my art to begin with"

I think thebest advice was "learn 3d!" I'm not a concept artist but I'm working in product development and there are so many people that come up like "hey, I got this Idea - make it work!" Alright man but If you want me to model your vision you gotta come and help me do that. If as a concept artist you understand what the 3D Modeller needs you will be so much more valuable. Maybe something that takes you an hour of time to draw another perspective will save the 3D guy 2 or 3 hours of work AND you ensure that the outcome is exactly what you had in your mind when you came up with the concept. Understand the problems of the people that come after you in the pipeline and you will be a) loved by your coworkers for the work you do b) you will be of much more value to the company because if you were forced to do another job you could take on that quicker and c) you will be always the last guy they think of when a staff cut is about to come.

The painting video in the background looks like flipping fun. Thanks for sharing Trent!!!

U made me do thumbnails and stylized characters. Stepped out of my comfort zone, thank u for weekly motivation Trent ^^

It's the raw honesty that keeps me coming back with every new video, It's refreshing to actually see. Strange times we live, Instagram profiles that make everyone look like millionaires etc... everyone's trying to pretend to be something. But over here....ehh prepare to sacrifice all of your social life, you're never going to stop working or learning. If you love it you'll be on that road till death. Hehe, it's amazing to not hear it sugar coated or dumbed down. And that's incredibly respectable, love the channel keep up the good work. Take care.

Trent you are freaking awesome! Thanks for sharing again and again! 👏👏👏

Hi Trent, I am studying Fine Arts at the moment and dipping largely into Animation courses (where my university does concept art). Just want to say how helpful and how uplifting this video was. Super uplifting and makes me want to try even harder to push myself

For the past few months I've looking for a career change that involves art and the role of a concept artist really caught my attention. I don't have a body of work for that position right now and there are still a lot I need to learn, so I'm planning on dedicating the next several months to building that portfolio, improving my technical skills, and learning 3D art. This video was both really helpful and probably the most reassuring thing I've heard in my life so thank you so much. I'm probably being very presumptuous of myself about a career I haven't had experience in, but in this moment I feel am down to give up my every waking hour to being a concept artist. I've always loved drawing and I've gotten very seriously into creating stories, worlds, and characters in the past few years, but never thought I could make a career out of it, so I just kept it up as a hobby and over time, what I value and love to do with art gradually aligned with this job. Good luck to everyone who's new to the industry!!

I really appreciate this, it always helps to keep a positive attitude, and always try new things- grow and use those skills !

This, is kind of exciting. I really love being a jack of trades, doing a bunch of different kinds of art tasks. I like writing, modelling and animating. The idea that if I learn how to apply myself professionally could work in my benefit is really neat.

Just started watching your channel and just wanna say thanks! I appreciate you showing your skills and insight!

Love your channel Man! a lot of motivation for pushing my art forward!

I really appreciate the way your notions on market (supply and demand) feels geared on your considerations on every video. I think the same way values and structure are the fundamentals (basics) on art, those (supply and demand) are the basics of business. Thank you so much for your videos

Hey man. You made me buy my first drawing tablet and tutorials because I was really thinking about becoming an artist forever. I am drawing sketches for years now but want to make it MORE and more vibrant and useable. I worked on a VR game in the past and it was the best feeling ever. Thanks for getting me back on track and giving me this video to empower my choice. Thanks a million! cheers

Your characters are amazing! 💙also the tips. Thank you very much for sharing

Hey you did my question! Thanks a bunch mate! Great video again. I was surprised to hear you talk about something as simple as communicating with other departments and about thinking in solutions instead of problems. That's what they teach people in the military. (I did a 3D internship at the dutch ministry of defense.) I'd recommend the book "extreme ownership how u.s. seals lead and win" to anyone who found that bit interesting. And i totally agree about diversifying your skill-set. You never know when it will come in handy! Using 3D underlays for your painting for example. I'm thinking of learning some programming as well so I can automate some of the repetitive tasks I do in 3D. This helps standing out from the crowd imo.

This makes me feel good, at my current job I ended up do ok ng a little bit of everything for the marketing team and ended being a generalist I'm glad to know I could be useful

My dream right now is to work for Capcom as a concept artists, or artist in general. My brother recommended I research and I found myself here. Thanks! Great video.

I learned so much! I wanted to be a game artist since I was 10 and 2 years later I´m still working! I took some notes and I will try to better my knowledge and skill so I can finally get the job of my dreams!

The more you talk about the difference between smaller and larger studios the more I want to work at an indie studio. I'd love to do a whole bunch of things, form UI to environment to modeling characters- having a hand in writing a script sounds like a lot of power, but it sounds fun! Once I get a laptop that doesn't try to die every time I open an Adobe program, I'm definitely going to learn Blender again. Also watching your timelapses are so satisfying

Great video, really helpful and motivating, thanks !

Thanks for your videos! Just stumbled upon your channel. Amazing content! Refreshing ideas! Thank you 😁

Oh forgot in one interview they even wanted me to manage production as well, troubleshoot manufactoring challenges. You truly need to be a tool for production.

Thanks for all those tips.!

It's like wanting to be a policeman but you don't know what's the big deal with justice

You make it sound like one is born into being a concept artist xD I know for a fact that I am not missing the creativity or confidence and I did blender for 2 years but if being a concept artist is really that exhausting I might just not be able to make it. I will try at least. My love for art at least won't be going anywhere :D

love how you're using blender 3d. Subbed just because of that. great advice too.

thank you Trent! Your advices gave me a lot , you a good mentor i guess)

really great info, especially on the differences with how smaller studios vs big AAA devs work. I have worked at both and each has it's own pros/cons. You usually have to be a lot more of a firefighter at a smaller studio haha.

Thanks for the great advice, though perspective varies from artist to artist. I have spoken to others that said you need to be great at one thing first, choose your strength and focus on that. My experience with product design indicates you need to be able to do it all. I have been the industrial designer, graphic designer, modeller, protype builder, soft tooling designer for (running small scale production.) Instruction manual designer, both separately and all at the same time working at a studio. It seems like its the same if I want to get into games, the learning never stops.

I have been in the games industry for 20+ years (no art anymore, though) and this is pure gold. Both for newbees and old farts like me. Newbees get a better understanding for what is needed beyond providing good work results. And for the old timers, a chance to reflect how they got where they are and whether they still have the game or became overly 'comfortable'. Plus, this is an interesting video about your approach to draw - i like the approach to paint from the silhouette and build up the character. Keep it up.

Really interesting, I was just thinking of learning a bit more of maya stuff. Maybe doing a character A to Z (concept sheets, modeling, uv's, rig, animation, etc..) to better understand the needs of my future coworkers

I have to give a thumbs up for the megaman legends reference, one of my favorite games.

very nice video and information. Thanks for sharing :)

I'm not someone who wants to become a concept artist, but these videos are awesome! Keep it up Trent! (I want to become a 3D environmental artist :D )

it's good to know the journey never ends

Just subscribed recently, I'm planning on going to an art school. I want to be a concept artist. Thank you for the videos they really helped me :-)

Hey Trent this was an amazing video with so much information to take on board, so thank you so much for that! I'm still studying a lot of this at uni however I'm being encouraged to put together a portfolio ASAP so I have somewhere to compile all the things I've worked on in classes and such. I'm pretty confident I can do that however you mentioned "being the guy who can write stories/create worlds" and I was wondering how that could be incorporated into a portfolio? I DM a dungeons and dragons campaign when I have the time where I have built the world from the ground up as well has written stories here and there and I would love to add these things into my portfolio to show future employers my potential and the extent of my abilities! Thanks again for the videos and if you get a chance to answer, appreciate all your effort in providing all this info and help!

it is good to hear that learning different categories of game development isnt stupid. lol :D great video!

I jsut got my first game job in small indie studio, and your advices are exaclty what I need :D :D Thank you so much ! I start next week, going to be jack of all trades :P it's a little bit overwhelming XD need to create character from concept to full, texturized 3D model :D

Just finished listening to the audio version of Warcraft Legends Book 2 and heard the shout out you got for doing the sketches. Now I regret not buying the physical book so I can see them! Any chance you have more vids of that stuff?

"How can I be a more EMPLOYABLE artist in video games?" Learn how to do every job that goes into making a video game lol

Cool model !

So informative! I can tell you listen to Tony XD Keep up the great work

Hi Trent. Awesome content as always. I wanted to ask a question. I want to get into concept art and I have always done work or thought of something when the tools were available for me so I want to ask whether you get your ideas and then learn how to do it? or you have the most of the required knowledge and then think about something and create stuff? what I mean is if someone is just starting to learn drawing and trying to get into concept art is it ok to not have ideas yet or the creativity and ideas should be within you beforehand?

Great and informative video! Do you think having an okay understanding of many areas is more employable than a deep understanding of one these days? thanks!

I have just started my second year in Games Design and we'll be looking at this particular subject more often than not! I'll be sure to send people your way bud!

As far as not having any ideas, I think that can be remedied, so long as you keep sketching, doing studies, opening up your visual library. Sometimes i have no idea what to draw, but then i'll sit down and sketch a random thing and theres times where it turns into a cool idea one can elaborate on or shift and change it. I don't think you always need ideas right off the bat, you can work into it so long as you're willing. Example: Maybe you are drawing a magical staff for water magic, so you add watery elements to a wooden staff, maybe the staff then is all water in itself, maybe you decide to make it like a trident, its just about building from something. Try to think of things that have to do with water. make mood boards for key things you want your water staff to have.

Oh man!! This is a great review! Don´t quit. Subscribing asap.

Excellent video! I was wondering what art package you were using in this video and why not photoshop?

Nooooo 😭😭😭 i‘m waiting every friday for your comment corner D: it‘s so helpful 😢 besides that great video as always ☺️

Hello, thank you for sharing your experience throughout designing characters as a concept artist. I have a question for you. I'm a beginner concept artist that would like to follow the journey along. Where do you find such inspiration, Does it come from a story? Do you have any recommended book you find it best to learn the concept of art? Thank you :)

I just graduated with a degree in programming, but now I honestly don't know where to go from here. I have ideas and I do draw, but I really don't have the tools or enough knowledge of the ones I have to really get a good start. I'll keep this video in mind when I can get moving, I just need to figure out how to properly start first.

Around minute 11 you talk about showing different skills. I am industrial designer and illustrator, also combine traditional with digital painting. I do character design, backgrounds, 3D modeling too.. 🤓and I used to think that having too many fields wasn’t so good because people could get confused “ what does she do ?”, but you made me consider that if you show and use different habilities you could be more versatile and employable, maybe is about making an organized portfolio showing your skills in different categories

Good luck That is Fantastic

I thought the game looked cool. maybe implement some of the blocks as targets to shoot whilst in the air? maybe you cant run further due to a wall so you are forced to blast your way through it? Great video and advice as well.

To be honest, those parts you say "You'll never stop" or "Forgot your social life" or "You gotta learn everything", well... I LOVE IT. That rappresent my whole life. I never stop learning. After 8-12hr I still come back home not to chill or relax like everyone but to sit down on my PC with my pen on my hand ready to learn more, to try something new. That's the things that i love about art, you'll never stop learning.

This was cool.

So I guess making a indie game is a good training, I'm doing the storyboard, character designs, illustrations, textures, Environment design, logo design, ui, sometimes doing animatics for the animators, reviewing the 3d modelers work and now learning some 2d vfx and putting it all together as assets in lights in the scenes of the engine I don't even know what that job is call, I was really worried about the fact of not focusing in just one job like I want to be a concept artist and just paint but I end doing a lot of more stuff, that I like anyway but feel like I'm not getting enough time for what I really want to be good at

HEY TRENT, can you do a drawing tutorial like these in your video? a simple tutorial. wow youre satisfying to watch

Thank you :)

this guy is insanly good

Trent, how do you take your character animations from raster to vector when going from photoshop to the game engine?

I am learning some stuff here and there before I go to community college just to get my toes wet. I literally just drew a quick sketch of a demon warrior and in the past I dabbled into unreal engine 4 and made an environment w/ mountains, gentle rolling hills, and have grass on lower levels.

The first rat looks so cool :O

I notice the mm legend van art reference

Wow, this was very informative and interesting. It felt long, but I still got so riled up that I couldn't stop watching it. Thanks for the video.

I learn texturing (substance painter, designer), modeling hardsurfaces and think about sculpting (so far I use this technique for sculpt rocks, dentrs, scratches on multiple objects) organic models. Also I'm learning UE4 (I use it for build scenes so it's kind of lvl design, lighting, importing meshes e.g created in blender3d by myself, texture etc) and I've less time to master one thing. It's obvious that one employee is cheaper than 2 or more but not everyone has ability and time to learn everything at the same good/very good level. I'm not working in the industry but I would like to do it one day.

hi! do i need to be a renderer or something like that for me to become a 2d artist? for now, i do graphic designs in ai and wanted to learn more about this job :)

Hey Trent, i see a lot of artists always recommend that to be a good concept artist or illustrator you have to be very fast, but what does it mean to be fast in the world of drawing and illustration, what is the optimal time that I should take to make a concept art or an illustration?

hey Trent, you look gorgeous, good work! =D

hello I just finished to write my game on paper and now I want to have an idea of the team members I need to make it real ;) I found your videos and I am planing to watch all of them on weekend and like them. I will be happy if you could point me all the specialists needed to create a game and description of their job and skills thanks

Hello trent, I want to thank you for these videos, bought your portfolio template and I've been listening to you most of the day while I've been organizing, your concept art vs illustration one was very informative to me. You mentioned here a few things I have questions on how many of those "dabbling" in 3-D and icons would you add? I currently have creature in the second skillset section because more than likely human characters would be a more hirable quality, however I love creating creatures so I at least wanted to include 2 creature concepts in my portfolio, one an alternate skins for their mounts the other a variation page. I do see the value in adding the icons and 3-D but they aren't my best quality, I'm still working my way around Z brush. There's also a if I'm going for concept art is it alright to have 4 illustrations among the concept breakdowns with the callout sections? Someone mentioned adding studies in lighting anatomy and color, in my head those are "in the dark" artworks they are practice and don't belong in. I'm working to make my portfolio the best it can be.

Ok, I see your point here but what about sound-design? Have I learn it as well?

My question is how did you get a job like how do you get a project from from who did you get a project

As a 3D modeler I really like this advice, although I think I need to heed it carefully. There are some tasks that with no formal training, are too much to take on in a professional setting. For instance, I could try to learn rigging, and that might be really helpful in some teams! But I don't want to be a rigger, and spending time learning how to rig as an amateur takes time away from me learning how to be a better modeler, or it takes time sharing techniques with peers, which would be far more helpful in that setting imo.

One thing I'm always worried about is the software most of the professional artists use to illustrate. I've been using Paint Tool Sai for at least 5 years and now I want to do everything on Photoshop, but i can't even sketch something there cuz of the lack of stabilizer. It's not just about the lineart, but I don't feel any stimulus on working on PS. Since Paint Tool Sai has photoshop integration, I don't see why I'd have to migrate to PS, but even so I still feel like it would give me a better impression at companies if I was using PS for drawing and painting.

Awsome

i've always thought it was weird when people say they want to be an artist making unique things but they have no ideas... and i'm just like, i don't want to be an artist, but all I have is ideas and i want more than anything to get them out of my head and i certainly don't have the money to pay other people to make them for me

Hello, just a newbie about to enter college, do game studio companies look for a specific degree for this kind of Job??? or does my portfolio matter more than my degree??

im work 9-5 job and making comic part time. Is my 1 page per week is acceptable because i may transitioned to full time doing comic in future.

Hello mr Trent. Do you believe that a background in traditional drawing and painting will help me become a concept artist?

What software did you use to paint the concepts & model them in 3d?

Do I have a bad taste about color and form? I mean, I see other artists and you making drawings and sometimes when you add color, you do it using color theory and some other times you just make it eyeballing the colors. And it seems easy when it is seen from the outside or in a finished artwork, but when I do it I always have doubts even if I'm using some of color theory, and that makes me think that maybe it has something to do with eye education or the famous visual library. I try to all this and still feels like my colors are bad and sometimes the same happens with my shapes. How can someone improve that keen eye for color and form?

I noticed you were messing with the UV in maia for the models. Were you using one by one UV block? Or were you using more? Thank you

What would concept artists need from narrative designers/game scipt writers in a larger pipeline?

Hi! what software is used at 1:08" ? it seems to be photoshop (dot psd opened in top) but i never see this UI before. thanks everybody for the answer

Any one knows videos/sites with tutorials for HUDS/UI and icons?

Can you please tell me the tools/softwares that you are using in this video ? It was very inspiring to see someone drawing concept arts.

You're literally what I want to be when I grow Up ;_;

So I also want to work with more indie game studios over big AAA companies but idk how to gear my portfolio toward this since its kinda broad what studios actually work on.

I can sorta relate to the guy that says I can't think of anything,with me it feels really forced,maybe I'm just not quite used to that workflow,but I used to imagine these huge adventures or fights as a kid so I doubt I can't think of anything ,its just an uphill battle to get that momentum,I guess?

I would like to know what institute or university would you recommend me to go to

I just recently had the epiphany of becoming a digital artist, I’ve been an artist since I was a kid but never thought it’d be something I could do for a living so Instead I went into healthcare and I hate it. What can I do to prepare before I go back to school? Any tutorials and or software I should start messing with?

Is it possible to ba a half-time concept artist? Let's say an elder who wants to do something for a couple of hours a day when retired. Would he find a job in game development?

wow tio eres un pro

My question is, how to make yourself more employable in terms of entering the industry? If you don't have access to feedback on a consistent basis, and school is not an option for you at the time, then your improvement is much slower. Even with taking online classes, it's not substitute to raw, real, consistent feedback. I keep hearing that studios are looking for someone who already knows what they are doing, but for anyone coming into the industry they won't know until they are coached on the process. When applying studios don't have time to review your portfolio to explain the "why" it was not strong enough to make the cut. Mentorships seem to be a rarity, and unless you have a community of artists (which not everyone does) to help you grow, experience is the last resort. If you can't get your foot in the door at studios, then the next option is freelance. If you are backed in the corner of not having enough experience to get a job to get experience, how do you make yourself more appealing? Projects help, but they cannot replace the pipeline experience from working on a team.

Im considering being a concept artist and when I draw I tend to make new things or people that don't exist, but Im not sure my ideas are truly good ones. Nor am I sure if I want concept art or illustration.

Those mouses are cute xD

What program are you using to draw on?