34 replies to this topic

[marks]

seems some good topics posted her for 2nd and 3rd years hopefully they can be covered as they would help us lots

Which ones do you think are the most useful to you?

[Liam]

Which ones do you think are the most useful to you?

well as a year group for 2nd years, as i know the majority of us are going for interns, and would also apply to 3rd years for jobs.

"You could even mention your interview, like what questions were you asked, how should you conduct yourself and what things to mention that will paint you in a good light" - Nirvan

"What advice would you give to anyone looking to make it in the video game industry or film"

Daves general work questions - "yeah, I'd like to hear about how your working week is. How are you assigned tasks, what tasks you are given, how long you would be expected to complete certain things in"

just general interview questions and the process that comes with it, then the obvious advice to a newcomer trying to break into the industry. some pointers on your area of expertise be it film or game experience and workflows. then any insight into your daily routine within a company.

i know you are a games artist but maybe anything Animator related you know

(yea i repeated myself twice )

theres probably way more but these are the ones i picked after re-reading which i know many of us would benefit from hugely.

[marks]

Can´t wait for this talk, any ideas when it´s going to be?

Not really. I have to finish some judging stuff I'm doing for BAFTA, then actually write the presentation slides and notes, get them approved by CA ... then have the uni find a time slot for me. Realistically I'm thinking sometime end of feb / early march at the earliest.

Edited by marks, 04 February 2012 - 11:25 PM.

[marks]

I am quite curious as to your life outside of the industry, how much does this career effect your personal life?

...not much? I leave for work at 7.30, I get home about 6. Aside from some very irregular periods of crunch, theres not much to say? Its a job. An awesome job, but a job. You put it down when you leave the studio (for the most part). Working 24/7 isnt healthy for anyone involved.

[LittleClaude]

Hi Mark

When you have a date then give me a PM/email or phone and I will book you in. I will get someone to take you to and from the station as well, its about a 5 minute trip.

Thanks again.

Cheers, Neil

[marks]

Brief overview of the talk as it stands at the moment:

• Who I am
• Where I work & what its like
• What I do at CA
• How I got to where I am now

• Mods / Modding
• Networking
• Portfolio
• CV
• Interviews

• How to get a job
• How not to get a job

• How to be successful
• Fundamentals
• Time Spent vs Importance
• Transferrable skills vs software knowledge

• Things you are at uni to do
• Things you are not at uni to do
• Reasons why university is awesome
• Reasons why university really sucks

• Environment Art
• Colour
• Composition / Dynamic Composition
• Telegraphing
• Economy of Attention
• Form
• Detail
• Readability

If there's anything in particular you'd like me to cover - speak up I'm hoping to get the content approved by my work in the next few weeks.

Edited by marks, 16 March 2012 - 08:34 PM.

[LittleClaude]

Hi Mark

That all looks great.

We have had a mass interest from the industry in giving talks all of a sudden, we only have the 25th April and the 2nd of May left, is that okay with you? I hope so, if not then new term starts in September.

[marks]

Either should be fine, I just need to get the talk content approved by CA and Sega which I really have no idea how long it will take - shouldn't be a problem though. You honestly would not believe the amount of stuff I'm not allowed to talk about. There's a couple of extra things I want to bring along which are in the process of being approved by Sega, but thats just extra coolness, not a show stopper by any means.

So if you could provisionally book me in for 25th April, and I can confirm with you when I get the thumbs up from CA/Sega? It's gonna take me a good couple of hours to get to Herts, so I may aswell come down for the whole day (which I'm happy to do). I also have a friend who is interested in coming down to the uni for the day (he's interested to hear the talk), he's an artist at TheChineseRoom working on the new Amnesia game - said he'd be happy to talk to students and such aswell, would that be okay with you? Might provide an interesting perspective, as I'm guessing you don't get a lot of indie developers in.

[LittleClaude]

Hi Mark, okay you are all booked in, give me a PM if you have any troubles, and we can always talk on the phone if you have any more questions.

Thanks again,
Neil

P.S. Say hello to Vince, woudl he like to come as well? http://www.vincentch20.co.uk/

Edited by LittleClaude, 18 March 2012 - 12:44 AM.

[kull222]

should be pretty good from what the list said.

[plasmax]

List looks good. Looking forward to this talk

[Vick]

I`m curious on something that isn't in the list, I`ll just mention it and if you think it's worth touching the subject I`d be very grateful ...

So we all know how or try too to focus on the learning curve and academic habits before the job, but what happens afterwards ? How do you and your other fellow enthusiastic peers go about to better themselves after the job ends and they go home. Do you learn and practice enough at work and you fully detach from it afterwards, or come home, eat and open Photoshop and/or maya/zbrush and do some more stuff

Thanks,
VIck.

[marks]

I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean, would you mind re-phrasing the question? It sounds like its worth talking about, but it may have to be in the Q&A after the talk if I can't find a nice place to slip it in

[marks]

Yeah .. sorry :| I really can't apologise enough for cancelling at such late notice. Something unavoidable came up at work which was out of my hands. I'll try to reschedule for next semester.

[LittleClaude]

No worries we fully appreciate how busy your time is, at the end of the day we don't want to be a drain on the UK industry. Thanks again for your on-going support and feedback, someone’s got to kick the students into shape and it makes our job easier

By the way if you fancy a party then you are welcome to come to our end of year exhibition - http://uhanimation.c...mation-expose/. As our guest you will have the VIP treatment all day so come and relax and enjoy the industry talks and students final year films, enjoy a complementary lunch and even be one of the Judges. Then come along to the after party. Lots of industry and alumni will be there, Frontier, Rare, Blitz, Sony London, Crytek, Ninja Theory, Framestore, MPC, Primefocus and many more.

If you or any one from Creative Assembly would like to come then just drop me an email or PM and I will sort it out at this end.

Here are some examples of some of our past talks –

Sony, London

Rare


Best Wishes,
Neil

Codemasters
http://vimeo.com/38927471
Framestore
http://vimeo.com/5842753