Carrie Warwick - Junior Character Artist @ TT Fusion

Carrie was also a Student at The University of Bolton studying Games Art which she graduated with a First Class Honours in 2013. Shortly after graduating University, Carrie was then employed as a 3D Artist, Rigger and QA Lead at Rivet Studios Ltd. She spent 8 months employed there until the company suddenly went down. Shortly after, she was employed as a Games Tester at Rockstar North for 3 months on a set contract. Next she applied and created an art test for TT Fusion where she was successful.

To start off the guest lecture presentation Carrie decided to change the usual approach and first give us some advice on approaching certain aspects when it comes to applying for industry jobs, CV and portfolio building, and also the dos and don’ts when it comes to interviews. Carrie stood out to me as she too knew what it was like to be a student studying and working towards getting a games industry job as she stated before the presentation: “This is so weird, considering I was sitting in the same seat you’re all in 3 years ago”.

To the right is a screenshot of an art test that is particularly for Environment Artists applying for the specific role within the company Splash Damage. As you can see the test asks the artists to create a section of an environment while sticking to a certain pipeline. This is to show that the artist can handle a full asset creation workflow, which includes modelling, texturing and high to low poly model baking. This allows the employer to see the potential of the artist’s work when working to a strict brief. The artist will then be judged on his quality of work and whether or not he has hit the brief perfectly enough to be successful in his application.

Throughout the presentation Carrie covered every topic that is useful to me as a student studying to further my skills and to eventually get a job in the Games Industry, from CV building to tackling an Art test that is set by companies. Tackling an art test was a really important part of the presentation for me due to most AAA companies will ask you to create a specific piece of work within a certain time limit to test the skills that you have. The tips that we were given were extremely useful such as making sure you Research the test thoroughly, use reference, scope out the competition and also to be reasonable with the time limit you have, she described that it would be better for you to hand in a finished piece rather than a half-finished piece. Art tests are extremely common within the games industry within higher studios for example AAA games. The specific tests are designed to test the certain artist on the skills that will be required for the job. This test will be specifically set to the job that the Artist is applying for, for example it could range from creating Environment Assets to creating a Character depending on the job they are applying for. From research I have found that the Artist is given around a week to specifically create something that the company has set for a brief.

References: Environment Art Test | Splash Damage. 2015. Environment Art Test | Splash Damage. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.splashdamage.com/envarttest01. [Accessed 27 February 2015]. Carrie Warwick, (2015), Carrie Warwick [ONLINE]. Available at:https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_120_120/p/3/005/069/267/236a62a.jpg [Accessed 27 February 15].