HOW is it that you thought the exact same way as me???? I am a software engineer too (cs degree but more trained in data science), and just want to become a concept artist in gaming industry!! (Asian too, sadly and ironically). I have the same feeling that programming is not right for me and I am just "living by" and not reaching my potential. Although most of my colleagues are just as not passtionate as I am hahaha. I am fine with coding front end, if it's not too challenging, but dealing with current management and daily schedule is another story. Backend, I can't bear it at all lol, but SDE is good pay, and everyone else is doing it so you feel like "it's by default what a Chinese student/worker in US should do". But I don't have the motivation to get any higher or do leetcodes to jump to another company. How am I going to make a career out of this? My company sucks btw, everyone is stressed out and just wanted to leave :(. Like you said, even if I were able to climb the ladder to reach the management level... well, I don't quite even want to to begin with... I wouldn't like that kind of life. During the past 1-2 years a lot of things happened. That had got me reconsidering what I really want to do in my life. Do I want to make my dream come true or is it only a dream? I asked myself "if you are gonna die tmr, what are you going to regret about that you didn't do?" For me it's "Not living up to my potential and have my own work (like manga)", but defo not "doing enough leetcode to get me into FAANG with big signon packages" lol. I have long passion in art too - not painting but line art, like manga, storyboards, etc., but my skills are only hobby level and super basic. I like to plot and write storylines too. Drawing is essentially something I would do the entire night, fully immerse myself into. In my vision of a "successful" life (I do want to climb that corporate ladder, just in the right path), I am not sure if being an artist can lead me to that, since we all know that artists don't make much, but I am very sure it's not as some sort of "director of SDE" either lol. In fact instead of becoming a concept artist so fast - like you originally planned, which I know will take a looooong time for me - I was directly looking into technical artist, where I get to still use my programming skills and not waste my used-to-be-smart brain lol. But the thing is I don't know if I will like being a TA or not, or how long it's gonna take to find a new job, considering the current market. But I am not plannning to quit my current job (I do have to work to legally maintain my status in US for now and I want income lol), will just learn myself on the way, and I am already anxious enough so I really get you. Also considering how horrible work env is at my company, time is ticking for me :(. I do have the worry about paycut too, but I mean in my company with a good salary isn't making me any happier, but depressed instead. I was in fact happier and more passionate while I was working as a data scientist before with minimum pay required by US labor law lol. Thank you so much for sharing this. Your journey (still, pretty fast and impressive!) has encouraged me that others can do it too, even without too much experience. Please keep posting your journey and sharing your experience!! Means a lot for fellow career transitioners, especially who are in the exact same situation as you, albeit I'm probably older XD Also if you don't mind me asking, what programming languages are mostly used for VFX? I may have to learn new language in order to become a TA... If being a TA/VFX artist, do you still need to learn all those drawing fundamentals like composition, anatomy, etc.? Do you have any good resources to learn TA? Sorry I am asking too much, I just feel like I found my gang lol 找到组织了！🥺
I really do not have a single original experience ☠️ Jokes aside, I feel like most VFX artists didn't set out to be one, a lot of us came from different backgrounds, and some I've met are from software/tech too! The struggle with money is definetely real too especially from SDE, I've even stopped talking to my engineer friends for a while just to stop the anxiety (even though none of them meant to be mean, it's just my ego). It's really hard to separate our accomplishment with money as we're so used to measure everything with money, but I do believe doing what you love is key to excel in a craft, and excellence will turn into money (in the long run at least). This article has a lot of wisdom in it, read it a lot when I was working on becoming an artist! How to do what you love: paulgraham.com/love.html As for resources I could make a video talking about it, but a quick answer would be Unreal's content example and Ben Cloward's channel. Both great to get familiar with VFX/TA for games! And if you want to go into stylized VFX like me, VFX apprentice is the go-to online course!
@@geodraws Thanks so much for sharing! Please keep sharing your experience and knowlege! Your video makes a difference for certain people.🙏 Talking about money I totally understand, and ego too. Our company offers decent pay (we are not big tech companies) in the area, even more than big names like microsoft (in our city), but apparently that's NOTHING compared to salary in Bay Area lol. I got decent pay by local standard but have no chance for promotion or raise, you work your a$$ off and couldn't even get a "more than expected" end-of-year evaluation that only gives a 0.5% raise every year (lt's like only a few hundred bucks diff annually). I don't even take pride in what I do. Sure I do make a difference - making websites look and function better, but no sense of achievement at all 😅 I also agree with your saying excel in what you love will turn into money in the long run. I feel like a walking dead now being an ordinary sde lol
thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm on 1 year break like you were, trying to get my way to the VFX and Tech Art world. I've been a gameplay programmer for almost ten years, but it always felt a bit off to me. It took me too much time to realize I belong to the art world more than to tech. I'm still working on my portfolio, had many ups and downs along the way, but I'm still fighting. I need to hear someone with a similar story with success at the end. Your smile when you said that you are already living your dream was so natural and priceless. I wish you all the best, thank you for the motivation, and yeah- f* it! I will become a VFX artist or die trying 😁 Cheers!
Respect, man! Your story is truly inspiring. I have been an admirer of how professional and effective you are as an VFX artist, and now my respect and admiration went over the roof. Its truly an honor to be working with you.
loved this video, thank you so much for sharing your story! im looking to be an environment artist in the gaming industry 🙂do you have any tips for networking? its the only aspect i think i lack in right now.
If the goal is to get a job, I'd say quality and consistency is the key. Focus on making your best work, and post good work consistently, then let the algorithm do its magic✨
pretty inspirational story! I also want to be a VFX Artist too but I hesitate to apply for job offers or even asking for a chance because of the lack of my English knowledge. English is not my mother language so I don't think I would communicate well during the interviews. I am trying to improve myself and my portfolio tho. Thanks again for great videos!
Yeah, I'm lucky that English isn't a problem for me and that help me with a lot of opportunities! But I'd say for artist roles, you just need basic conversational level English, it's mostly the portfolio that they look at!
I'm a developer too, and really have a big passion for music, and music production. Similar to you, there is technical side where I think I could go to bridge that gap. Do you think it was worth it to get that job inbetween to get somewhat experience, or do you think you should just try and nose dive into the action? (I won't take your response as gospel, just something to consider)
Yeah for sure! I think my experience at the studio in Taipei definitely helped with landing my current job. Employers don't like to take risks so the more you can prove you know what you're doing the better!
I’m hired at Tuatara and do work for Fortnite, but I think the gaming industry in general don’t care about degrees, the portfolio would be the most important for sure!
HOW is it that you thought the exact same way as me???? I am a software engineer too (cs degree but more trained in data science), and just want to become a concept artist in gaming industry!! (Asian too, sadly and ironically). I have the same feeling that programming is not right for me and I am just "living by" and not reaching my potential. Although most of my colleagues are just as not passtionate as I am hahaha. I am fine with coding front end, if it's not too challenging, but dealing with current management and daily schedule is another story. Backend, I can't bear it at all lol, but SDE is good pay, and everyone else is doing it so you feel like "it's by default what a Chinese student/worker in US should do". But I don't have the motivation to get any higher or do leetcodes to jump to another company. How am I going to make a career out of this? My company sucks btw, everyone is stressed out and just wanted to leave :(. Like you said, even if I were able to climb the ladder to reach the management level... well, I don't quite even want to to begin with... I wouldn't like that kind of life. During the past 1-2 years a lot of things happened. That had got me reconsidering what I really want to do in my life. Do I want to make my dream come true or is it only a dream? I asked myself "if you are gonna die tmr, what are you going to regret about that you didn't do?" For me it's "Not living up to my potential and have my own work (like manga)", but defo not "doing enough leetcode to get me into FAANG with big signon packages" lol.
I have long passion in art too - not painting but line art, like manga, storyboards, etc., but my skills are only hobby level and super basic. I like to plot and write storylines too. Drawing is essentially something I would do the entire night, fully immerse myself into. In my vision of a "successful" life (I do want to climb that corporate ladder, just in the right path), I am not sure if being an artist can lead me to that, since we all know that artists don't make much, but I am very sure it's not as some sort of "director of SDE" either lol. In fact instead of becoming a concept artist so fast - like you originally planned, which I know will take a looooong time for me - I was directly looking into technical artist, where I get to still use my programming skills and not waste my used-to-be-smart brain lol. But the thing is I don't know if I will like being a TA or not, or how long it's gonna take to find a new job, considering the current market. But I am not plannning to quit my current job (I do have to work to legally maintain my status in US for now and I want income lol), will just learn myself on the way, and I am already anxious enough so I really get you. Also considering how horrible work env is at my company, time is ticking for me :(. I do have the worry about paycut too, but I mean in my company with a good salary isn't making me any happier, but depressed instead. I was in fact happier and more passionate while I was working as a data scientist before with minimum pay required by US labor law lol.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Your journey (still, pretty fast and impressive!) has encouraged me that others can do it too, even without too much experience. Please keep posting your journey and sharing your experience!! Means a lot for fellow career transitioners, especially who are in the exact same situation as you, albeit I'm probably older XD
Also if you don't mind me asking, what programming languages are mostly used for VFX? I may have to learn new language in order to become a TA... If being a TA/VFX artist, do you still need to learn all those drawing fundamentals like composition, anatomy, etc.? Do you have any good resources to learn TA? Sorry I am asking too much, I just feel like I found my gang lol 找到组织了！🥺
I really do not have a single original experience ☠️ Jokes aside, I feel like most VFX artists didn't set out to be one, a lot of us came from different backgrounds, and some I've met are from software/tech too! The struggle with money is definetely real too especially from SDE, I've even stopped talking to my engineer friends for a while just to stop the anxiety (even though none of them meant to be mean, it's just my ego). It's really hard to separate our accomplishment with money as we're so used to measure everything with money, but I do believe doing what you love is key to excel in a craft, and excellence will turn into money (in the long run at least).
This article has a lot of wisdom in it, read it a lot when I was working on becoming an artist!
How to do what you love: paulgraham.com/love.html
As for resources I could make a video talking about it, but a quick answer would be Unreal's content example and Ben Cloward's channel. Both great to get familiar with VFX/TA for games! And if you want to go into stylized VFX like me, VFX apprentice is the go-to online course!
@@geodraws Thanks so much for sharing! Please keep sharing your experience and knowlege! Your video makes a difference for certain people.🙏
Talking about money I totally understand, and ego too. Our company offers decent pay (we are not big tech companies) in the area, even more than big names like microsoft (in our city), but apparently that's NOTHING compared to salary in Bay Area lol. I got decent pay by local standard but have no chance for promotion or raise, you work your a$$ off and couldn't even get a "more than expected" end-of-year evaluation that only gives a 0.5% raise every year (lt's like only a few hundred bucks diff annually). I don't even take pride in what I do. Sure I do make a difference - making websites look and function better, but no sense of achievement at all 😅 I also agree with your saying excel in what you love will turn into money in the long run. I feel like a walking dead now being an ordinary sde lol
I wish you all the best for what you always do!!
and please many tuto..please about niagara...
Coming soon! Though I’m planning more videos about how to use math in VFX, hope you’ll like that too!
@@geodrawswoow Math for VFX that sounds pretty good to all of us lol
you are great in everything bro, continue
thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm on 1 year break like you were, trying to get my way to the VFX and Tech Art world. I've been a gameplay programmer for almost ten years, but it always felt a bit off to me. It took me too much time to realize I belong to the art world more than to tech. I'm still working on my portfolio, had many ups and downs along the way, but I'm still fighting. I need to hear someone with a similar story with success at the end. Your smile when you said that you are already living your dream was so natural and priceless. I wish you all the best, thank you for the motivation, and yeah- f* it! I will become a VFX artist or die trying 😁 Cheers!
Wow nice! Sounds like we’re on very similar paths, you’re going to do great! 💪
Respect, man! Your story is truly inspiring. I have been an admirer of how professional and effective you are as an VFX artist, and now my respect and admiration went over the roof. Its truly an honor to be working with you.
Thanks Earl! Thanks for the kind words haha, it means a lot man!!!
thank u bro, very motivationary😎
As someone whose not enjoying their job and contemplating leaving my job by 2024, this was inspiratinal.
Thanks.
Glad you find this helpful, you got this!!
loved this video, thank you so much for sharing your story! im looking to be an environment artist in the gaming industry 🙂do you have any tips for networking? its the only aspect i think i lack in right now.
If the goal is to get a job, I'd say quality and consistency is the key. Focus on making your best work, and post good work consistently, then let the algorithm do its magic✨
pretty inspirational story! I also want to be a VFX Artist too but I hesitate to apply for job offers or even asking for a chance because of the lack of my English knowledge. English is not my mother language so I don't think I would communicate well during the interviews. I am trying to improve myself and my portfolio tho. Thanks again for great videos!
Yeah, I'm lucky that English isn't a problem for me and that help me with a lot of opportunities! But I'd say for artist roles, you just need basic conversational level English, it's mostly the portfolio that they look at!
Wow amazing story. I'm a software engineer that would like to become an artist 🤔
Go for it!!!
I'm a developer too, and really have a big passion for music, and music production. Similar to you, there is technical side where I think I could go to bridge that gap. Do you think it was worth it to get that job inbetween to get somewhat experience, or do you think you should just try and nose dive into the action? (I won't take your response as gospel, just something to consider)
Yeah for sure! I think my experience at the studio in Taipei definitely helped with landing my current job. Employers don't like to take risks so the more you can prove you know what you're doing the better!
At least you used your CS degree mine is just for show, I am still going to become an artist just feel bad for my parents money though
Did epic games care if you had a degree or did they hire you based off of your art that you were posting?
I’m hired at Tuatara and do work for Fortnite, but I think the gaming industry in general don’t care about degrees, the portfolio would be the most important for sure!