Today, I thought I write about my visit to the Bradford Animation and Game Festival.

It was my mission to wake up at 7:00am everyday and somehow drag myself home at midnight onwards the following day for 5 days. XD

 

 

Now as an Game and Animation student, I couldn't resist purchasing passes to both catagories. Marisse (tutor and mum of our lot;) thought I was nuts but then the rest of my classmates wanted to join in on the fiasco aswell haha. All in all £160 was the total cost for the trip which I thought was ok at the time.

 

It was a great city to host an event like this, so me and my friends decided to explore! There was a huge bookshop with my name on it, however I decided for my friends sanity not to venture inside. :D These five days were a pleasure to attend... And the goodies we recieved was a welcomed edition to the trip... well that and the free wine they were giving away in the evening:D

 

So who did I meet?

 

 

 Christina Phelan from Valve

At the conference she was great to talk to, a talented hard working young woman. But she advised me to stop using mixed media and instead focus on digital art and animation. So as you can imagine, I was horrified at the prospect of giving my fine art abilities so I turned to the other developers for advice...

 

 

 

 

 Mark Shipiro from Coraline and ParaNorman

Brilliant talk, we ended up watching ParaNorman which was great, a pleasure to talk to. I showed him a few of my rough sketches in my sketchbook and even signed them for me! XD

 

 

 

Lucas Hardi from Bethesda

During the talk, Lucas wanted to educate us on identifying inbetween Reality and imagination. Mentioning Skyrim only a couple of times (understandibly) the talk very very in depth to which i found interesting to listen to. At this point... My classmate Les decided to fall asleep during his talk, abit too close to the shoulder haha. After getting beaten up several times, he tried to nod off on someone else who then joined me in beating him up haha

My favourite Speakers



Joel Smith from Sony Entertainment



David Brown, Phillip Gray and Bill Martin from TT Games

 

   

                                      Lucas Hardi from Bethesda Game Studios

                              

 

 Christina Phelan from Valve

 

 

Neil Thompson from BioWare

 

He was giving away free collectors editions for mass effect 3!

 

 

Tomasz Zawada from CD Projekt RED S.A.

 

This was a vital talk as Tom explains the pros and cons with the animation and game art industries. From this talk it would appear as though my skills as an artist would fit in perfectly in the Game art industry rather than animation. Don't get me wrong animation is a valuable asset to have but  personally, my heart is not in it which is why I greatly admire those working in this profession. Tom explained that some companies will often aim to soley make a profit rather then showing their passion and talent through the games. I was very saddened to hear this. Ontop of this; your colleges arn't very supportive of your work so there will be some negative rivalry and overtime will be daunting. wheras the games industry differs greatly. Yes there is rivalry but these guys will help you and educate you to what they know etc. Joel Smith confirmed Tom's opinions and was one of the few people to offer advice and work experience opportunities:) Smith explained that they don't want someone with all the skills and standards, instead they look for someone with talent, passion, personality and eagerness to learn and improve their style and standards.

 

After each talk, I would sneak off from my dear colleges (Dan Lowrie, Dave Thomas and Gareth Evans) to talk to everyone in the talk to ask:

 

1. Do you offer work experience?

2. What inspires you as artists?

3. Would my skills be an issue for your comapny?

4. What advice could you give me as a person who uses unconventional media rather than digital?

5. Do you have a buisness card?

 

All companies except VALVE, were very supportive of my differences as an artist and gave me buisness cards so I can apply for placements. I couldn't thank them enough for their help and understanding.

 

I know this may seem like I'm ambushing them but let me explain, it's getting harder and harder to get into the games industry because everyone applying is doing the same standard and of style of work (brilliantly I might add:) so I need to make myself different from the others. As an artist, I am desperaste to learn, that's why I ask about work experience. By doing this; I will make myself more attractive as an artist to work with. I recognise that experience and knowlegde will serve me well.

 

 

It's all very well producing beautifull peices of work, but if your one of the guys who wants to get into the Game or Animation industries, here are a few tips from me:

 

1. Attend Game and Animation Festivals- these will be vital help to you!

2. Apply for work experience (Make sure you show your enthusiasm)

3. Ask questions and speak with the game developers. (Their advice is like gold dust)

5. Publish some of your work on a blog (They have people looking out for new talent all the time)

6. Be yourself and don't be afraid of your diffrences:)