Blizzards Tips for a Game Artist Resume Submission

Game art is the meat and potatoes of our products. These are the characters and environments that give life to the gameplay and suspend a player's disbelief to a point somewhere in the realm of fantasy. Today, a good game artist needs to be both a conceptualist and a 3D animator.

We find that the best game artists also have a strong foundation in traditional media skills. We are looking for people who can conceptualize, draw, and render their ideas with ease and polish. When you submit copies of your work (remember, we can't return anything you send us), make sure you include your sketches as well as finished concepts. Incidentally, the best way to send copies of pencil work is to use a color copier, since a regular copier will not be able to reproduce the grays in your work.

So what type of concept work do we like to see? We're primarily looking for good character work. Pieces that really communicate a character's attitude and style, are the biggest bang for the buck in your portfolio. Other skills are important as well, but not quite as critical. If you have a background in industrial design, then marker renders and inked concept work are worth including in your portfolio. If you sculpt, include photos of your sculptures. If you have some architectural skills, submit your visualizations of environments and locations. If you are an interface designer, some screenshots of your work would help. But when it comes right down to it, we need people who can draw characters and visualize worlds. The other stuff is just gravy.

What we don't have much interest in seeing is fine art. Games are a commercial endeavor, featuring highly polished commercial art. A sample or two of fine art is acceptable and sometimes helpful, but you need to show us you can do the commercial stuff too. The kind of art we are really looking for falls along the lines of what you see in current video games, fantasy/sci-fi movies, comics and such.

The other half of the equation is your ability to visualize your work in both 2D and 3D computer media. Showing us your work in Photoshop or 3DS Max demonstrates that you have the basic technical skills needed to create art for computer games. Include a disk containing samples of your computer work (and make sure it's virus-free before you send it).

Finally, the best candidates can demonstrate an ability to animate in 3D. If you can take a character completely from pencil concept to a 3D-animated, living, breathing entity that appears full of life, style, and attitude, then you have the best chance to earn a spot on the team.