Personal Animation Journal
I actually had a clear goal of what I wanted to do in the future a long time ago. As a student who studied architecture as an undergraduate and character animation as a postgraduate, I had two directions I was interested in for my future job. One is being a concept designer who does pre-design for game art, including character design and environment design. Another one is to do cutscene or event scene animation for video games, including animation director and storyboard artist.
• Where would I like to work?
As a deep gamer who has been in touch with many games since I was a kid, I would very much like to have the opportunity to get into famous game companies and be involved in the production of their classic IPs or new IPs. If this dream comes true, I think I’d be very proud to say that I played this game as a kid gamer and I grew up to become one of the creators of this game!
I did some researches and was interested in these companies for a number of reasons:
- The art style of their games matched my aesthetic;
- Their company values matched mine;
- The company was based in my favorite country or city.
Ubisoft Entertainment （France）
This is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, For Honor, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Tom Clancy’s, and Watch Dogs. (From Wikipedia)
I was very impressed with the Assassin’s Creed series and their restoration of the city’s context I found very admirable. If I hadn’t had the chance to visit these cities in real life, I feel like I would also have been pleasantly surprised to visit the entire city directly in the game.
–
–
–
Nintendo （Kyoto,Japan）
Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985.
Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Switch. It has created numerous major franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Kirby, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Star Fox, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Super Smash Bros. Nintendo’s mascot, Mario, is internationally recognized. The company has sold more than 5.4 billion video games and over 800 million hardware units globally as of 2022.
Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as the Pokémon Company and HAL Laboratory. Nintendo and its staff have received awards including Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering, Game Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, and British Academy Games Awards. It is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market. (From Wikipedia)
I can say I’m a huge Nintendo fan, several of their IPs are ones I grew up with, The Legend of Zelda, the Pokémon series, the Super Mario series, and the Star Cappy series.
Recently I’ve started to get very interested in the Splatoon series, I think they’ve been very successful in shaping their IPs, from the character design to the level-designing, it’s all very fascinating. If I could work for Nintendo one day, I would be crazy happy.
–
–
–
Activision Blizzard （California，US）
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi Games. It is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol ATVI, and since 2015 has been a member of the S&P 500 Index. Activision Blizzard currently includes five business units: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Major League Gaming, and Activision Blizzard Studios.
The company owns and operates additional subsidiary studios, as part of Activision Publishing, including Treyarch, Infinity Ward, High Moon Studios, and Toys for Bob. Among major intellectual properties produced by Activision Blizzard are Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s, Spyro, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Candy Crush Saga. Under Blizzard Entertainment, it invested in esports initiatives around several of its games, most notably Overwatch and Call of Duty. Activision Blizzard’s titles have broken a number of release records. As of March 2018, it was the largest game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalization. （From Wikipedia）
It goes without saying that Blizzard is simply too well known. My favorites are the art styles of Hearthstone and Overwatch. Also used to be one of the players of these two games. And California is indeed a dream place with a very mature gaming, animation and film industry.
–
–
–
Mediatonic (London, UK)
Mediatonic was founded in September 2005 by friends Dave Bailey and Paul Croft, both aged 21 at the time, during their final year at Brunel University. They decided on the opening in a drunken conversation at the university’s student union bar. With an office near the campus, they set up the company as a work-for-hire studio to create Flash games and sometimes skipped lectures to accept calls from clients. Snowman Salvage, a game that was part of Croft’s dissertation, was Mediatonic’s first release in December 2005.
PopCap Games, Big Fish Games and PlayFirst were early Mediatonic clients and, among others, Mediatonic produced Flash conversions of Bejeweled, Bookworm, Diner Dash and Poppit!. It also created Amateur Surgeon, an original game, for Adult Swim Games. Mediatonic was profitable enough in its first year that, following Bailey and Croft’s graduation, the studio moved to a former government building in Westminster in February 2006 and hired ten employees. Other early games by Mediatonic included Meowcenaries, Gigolo Assassin, Must Eat Birds, and Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess. Having reached 25 employees, Mediatonic moved to new offices near Covent Garden in February 2008. (From Wikipedia)
I think it’s so cute after watching the promo video for the Fall Guys. It would make me want to get involved in the making of it to the extent that I did. And as this company is also one of the more well-known game companies in the UK, I think I’ll try to put in a CV if they’re recruiting.
–
–
–
•The roles interest me.
I am interested in the position of concept artist or storyboard artist.
Because those are very visual forms of expressing the world view of a game. And also good ways to help with marketing strategies.
I had the opportunity to work with some concept artists during my internship at NetEase in China, and most of them were character designers. I also have a lot of artist friends who work as environments concept design(Landscape design artists), so I have an insight into both paths.
As I know, the work of the junior concept designer is the second part of the art team. From my understanding, the whole team will have leading artists who will set the art style for the project before the concept designers make their designs.
– Concept artist. (Character designer / Environments designer)
Once the character designers have the background outline of the character, they spend a lot of time making mood boards, finding references and then brainstorming a set or several different versions of the character design in a short period of time. After choosing the one they are most happy with, they then start to refine the details of the character and draw the three views of the characters . Sometimes more detailed weapon or prop designs are needed, as well as character movement designs, skill effect displays, and character expressions on their faces.
For environment concept artists, I initially understood them to be the group of people who draw illustrations with a strong sense of atmosphere. But then I realized that the work of an environments designer is actually very similar to that of an architect, except that the scenes they design may not exist in reality, but they can be made entirely in a virtual world. This job is to design a building or a sand map that fits the theme and context according to the introduction by writer. If necessary, a plan, elevation and section are also required so that the 3D artist who is handing over the design can more easier turn it into a model. It’s always better to know some 3D skills for environment concept artists.
– Storyboard artist / Animation director for Cutscene or event scene in video games.
There are two positions I’m also interested in regarding animation in games: animation director or storyboard artist. When playing a game there are always clues that trigger an event, and in order to give the players a background to the event, an animation film is always performed. I would also like to be involved in the creation of this animated episode to give the player a sense of immersion. It’s a game where the players themselves are moving forward step by step, and they would be disappointed if they had to watch a boring film after they spent pretty much time finishing the tasks for the game.
Storyboard artists need to draw every key frame, including transitions from shot to shot, so they need to have a pretty deep understanding of the camera language.
–
–
–
During the Christmas break I will start to build my personal website and make a portfolio. Then I will start to submit my CV to my favorite companies. I wish things could go well then.