Creature Garage’s Post

Set goals and track your progress. Define clear objectives and measure your growth to stay motivated. Establish both short-term and long-term goals that align with your aspirations as a CG artist. Break them down into smaller milestones that are achievable and measurable. Regularly assess your progress and celebrate your achievements along the way. Keep a journal or portfolio to document your work and track improvements over time. By setting goals and tracking your progress, you'll stay focused, motivated, and continually strive for excellence in your CG journey." Goal-setting is a powerful tool that helps drive personal and professional growth. By setting clear objectives, you provide yourself with a roadmap for success in your CG career. Start by identifying what you want to achieve, whether it's mastering a specific technique, completing a personal project, or landing a dream job in the industry. Break your goals down into smaller, manageable milestones that you can work towards. This will help you stay motivated and maintain a sense of accomplishment as you achieve each milestone. Regularly evaluate your progress, assess any areas that need improvement, and adjust your goals accordingly. Keeping a record of your work, such as a journal or portfolio, allows you to see how far you've come and provides inspiration for future growth. #GoalSetting #TrackYourProgress #MotivationMonday #CGCareerGoals #AchievementUnlocked #CGGrowth #PersonalGrowth #ProgressTracking

📰🚀 Stay in the Loop: Follow Industry News and Trends! 🌟💡 Aspiring and professional CG artists, are you ready to soar to new heights in your creative journey? 🚀✨ One key strategy to achieve success is to stay informed and up-to-date with the latest industry news, projects, techniques, and opportunities. 📰🌍 By actively following industry publications, blogs, and news outlets, you'll gain valuable insights into the ever-evolving world of CG artistry. Discover groundbreaking projects, emerging trends, and innovative techniques that can elevate your skills and keep you at the forefront of the industry. 💡💻 Engage with industry leaders, read interviews, and attend virtual events to expand your knowledge and stay connected with the community. Embrace the power of networking and seize opportunities that arise from staying informed. 🤝🌟 Remember, knowledge is power! By keeping your finger on the pulse of the industry, you'll be equipped with the latest tools, inspiration, and insights to propel your career forward. 🚀💼 Join us at Creature Garage, where we empower CG artists with the latest industry news, resources, and a supportive community that fuels your growth and success. Let's dive into the world of CG artistry together! 🎨✨ #CreatureGarage #CGArtists #IndustryNews #CGTrends #CreativeJourney #CommunitySupport #StayInformed #ProfessionalGrowth

It has been roughly a year since I graduated Uni, a year of entering the "Real world" as all adults like to call it, when reality gives you a nice kick in the face and all the routines and day to day activities either vanish completely for become harder to do. I have been a little fustrated, mainly at myself because of this, I grew stagnent over the year after loosing alot of my schedule and routine. Gone are my needs to get ready for School, gone are the ideas of homework and studying late nights for assignments due in the next morning, I grew comfortable in the parts of my life that didn't involve these stresses, I have grown comfortable and that fustrates me. I have learnt through the last year through a mix of job searching and some work in my spar time that in order to achieve my dream, I can't accept comfortable, I have two bits every day, you don't climb a mountain in one day, you have to start small and build yourself up, I have been given the skills to climb my mountain but I also need to more open to the world and showing everyone what I can do. So, one post a day. I will post at least once a day, progress on my practice, anything interesting that I see or people/words that inspire me, if I can manage to keep one post a day I not only build up a "Comfortable" feeling towards social media in general, but I can show everyone what I can do and get the critique and awareness needed to get to the top of my mountain. It has been my dream to become a VFX artist, to be involved in the Media industry, I worked hard to get my degree, i know now more then ever that i need to work even harder to see my passion become my future career and so the path to that goal starts now.

"Into the Sky and Above the Clouds" by Dara Anya: Into the sky and above the clouds, a cottage floats and travels all around. The man in the cottage who lives in happiness and peace, traded the noise of society for the music of natural relief. This project is inspired by a dream I have and my love for literature. This love for literature and language begins with my parents reading to my brothers and me authors like Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl and Arnold Lobel. My love continues with Chinua Achebe, Kahlil Gibran, Ted Chiang (my favorite author) and more. Books are capable of transporting us to unimagined worlds and undiscovered countries utilizing life as the inspirational pivot that propels our dreams, to overcome the self-manufactured constraints and realize the illimitable nature of reality to define perspective and meaning from it. Knowledge and perspective are interlinked. The more we have, the more we understand that all is one. The proliferating power of literature continues to be seen in visual adaptations such as Life of Pi (Rhythm & Hues), Arrival (Framestore, Rodeo FX and friends), Dune (DNEG), Coraline (LAIKA Studios) and more that continue to inspire my journey. I'm #opentowork at all capacities. Please share and reach out if you see my potential. I'm actively applying to full-time in-studio careers. I'm open to contracts and apprenticeships to vibe-check first. I'm interested in working in Film, TV/Series, Animation and Gaming. My dream is to collaborate on projects that promote wonder and imagination. Let's wonder together. Key learning points of this project: Houdini Digital Assets, Solaris, MaterialX, FLIP, Vellum, Smoke and Particle Simulation, GridMarkets, SideFX Software and more. Link to Reel: https://lnkd.in/g8KyxRWX Link to Resume: https://lnkd.in/eHvSuFDR Link to ArtStation Project Breakdown: https://lnkd.in/g8skvwGi Cottage and Waterwheel available for purchase on CGTrader: https://lnkd.in/gBXV3S2X

This is brilliant to see! Something I think the whole industry needs to be doing more of. Speaking, sharing and raising awareness at this level - Schools not just Universities and not just about research careers but operations and support as well... #marketresearch #mrx #marketingresearch

My Journey - 002 I planned a trip to Vancouver this past summer to visit my girlfriend. Since the Alpha Chromatica program is online, I figured I could study while traveling. But, as often happens, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Just days before my flight, I received a job offer to work as a freelancer on a movie—a one-and-a-half-month contract for my very first film project. Balancing work and study isn't uncommon, and I knew it was manageable for a short period. Here are my three key takeaways from this experience: 🗣️ Communication is Key It's crucial to fully understand the notes given to you. If something is unclear, don’t guess—ask. The sooner, the better; time is always ticking. Be clear and specific in your communication; no one is a mind reader. ⏱️ Time Management is Essential Learning to manage your time often means becoming comfortable with saying "no" and prioritizing tasks. This is a vital skill if you want to stay productive. It also includes planning for downtime and relaxation. Don’t underestimate the importance of sleep—a well-rested mind functions far better. 📝 Take Notes Don’t rely on memory alone—write things down. I like to confirm my understanding of my supervisor’s notes by giving a verbal recap of what the shot needs. I’ve envisioned working in film since the day I started my career in VFX, but the industry was in decline when I graduated with my Bachelor's in Digital Arts. Today, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities that have come my way. #VFXJobs #VFXCareers #CreativeTalent #CareerJourneyMM

As I said last week, I recently reviewed 78 portfolios from students seeking their first job in the entertainment industry. I created custom Loom videos ranging from 5 to 15 minutes to help students in the best way I could. I quickly noticed that I gave similar feedback to many aspiring artists, so I thought I would share the most common mistakes made by students and how to fix them. (Due to LinkedIn's maximum characters per post, it will be divided into 2 parts.) ✍ As a disclaimer, this is, as always, based on my own experiences, opinions, and talks I had with colleagues and friends working in the AAA industry in Europe. Depending on where you live, you might want to take a step back and ask around if this feedback applies to you too. 🙏 Let’s get started 🙌 ❌ People only comparing their work to the ones of their classmate. ✅ What you should do instead is look at the people ahead of you in the industry. They could be 2, 5 or 10 years ahead of you, it doesn’t matter. What matter is, they should be doing what you want to do later on. Start by looking at their portfolio and take an honest look at yours. Use PureRef to be able to put them side by side, compare and take notes. Their work is your goal, it’s you benchmark. Of course, their work will almost always look better than yours as they have years of experiences but if you managed to get 70% there, you’ll find a job once new opportunities arise. ❌ Thinking school is all you need to get a job. ✅ Art schools are vastly different from traditional schools such as medical schools, where a diploma means you can directly practice and find a job. Art schools are different, very different. The video game industry is somewhat unregulated, where diplomas don’t mean much compared to pure skills. Try to view school not as the end but as the beginning of your journey to becoming a professional artist. Think of it as an introduction to 3D, but know that it will probably not be enough on its own. You have to be curious and proactive to grow your skill set while being at school and after! ❌ Projects done during school are enough to get a first job. ✅ Don’t get me wrong. You can definitely find a job in a AAA video game studio with just your schoolwork. However, it highly depends on the individual, and continuing to work after your graduation is key to getting a job. Depending on your circumstances, it might be easier for some than others, but all you really need to do is spend an hour a day working consistently and making steady progress. This way, you keep growing and learning! I hope this was useful to you! You can find the Part II right here : https://shorturl.at/7KTLl See you there! 🔥

Most common mistakes and how to fix them for aspiring artists in the entertainment industry after reviewing 78 portfolios - Part II. The first part was posted on my profile last Monday. Missed it? No worries, click here to read it : https://shorturl.at/O4gHN 🔥 Disclaimer, this is, as always, based on my own experiences, opinions, and talks I had with colleagues and friends working in the AAA industry in Europe. 🙏 Done catching up? Let's get back to it: ❌ Using custom websites ✅ When it comes to the video games industry, using a custom website like Wix or Squarespace is more annoying than anything else. What you want to do when sharing your work is to reduce the friction as much as possible between your work and the leads looking at it. Having a custom website with a custom navigation and layout goes against that. By using ArtStation, you keep people in their comfort zone as they already know how to navigate through it - quickly. This is especially important when applying to a large studio which might receive several dozen applications. No one wants to learn how to go back to the home page when you have five seconds to spend for each candidate while all you can see is a “build a free website” banner at the top. ❌ People making themselves extra hard to find online ✅ I completely understand that most people want to protect themselves and their personal life online by using pseudonyms. However, here we’re talking about your professional career and to get a job, you need to be as much visible as possible. Meaning, your LinkedIn name should match your ArtStation name which should also match your email, making it easier for everyone to know who you are. I had several students who forgot to link their ArtStation, and since it wasn’t the same name, I couldn’t even find it on my own. Most studios won’t have time to deal with this kind of issue, so keep your professional presence online consistent and easy to find. ❌ Students don’t know what is expecting from them ✅ Most students that I gave feedback to had a strong foundation regarding their 3D artistic skills. However, when looking at their portfolios, it was easy to understand that they had little to no clue about what was expected from them. My advice to students reading this is to find a mentor, a master of their craft, and ask them to share their knowledge and time with you. They will offer advice and guidance on your core skills, but more importantly, they will give you context about the industry and how a production usually works, allowing you to have a better understanding of what is expected of you from the studios. To be clear, this is an extra investment from you, but in my opinion, it’s totally worth it to speed up your path to becoming a professional artist, so why not start now? That’s it for me! I hope you found these two posts interesting and useful. If you need anything, feel free to reach out through email or in the comments below. Always happy to help! 👋

A few weeks ago, an Aspiring Concept Artist booked a call with me to understand why he cannot even access the interview stage when applying. His strategy at the time : - Following all the latest famous artist tutorials and trends - Crafting a portfolio with only flashy keyframes just like what we see from the seniors on Artstation - Having "a bit of everything" in his portfolio, except for callout sheets, props and design iterations - Apply to all the super prestigious senior-heavy companies Result : Zero interview 😓 (yeah, shocking I know…) This is just an additional moment where I realize the gap between my mentees and a lot of aspiring artists. My mentees : - Focus on 5-6 companies doing similar work - Make sure they hire artists with their level of experience - Understand what they want in production - Strategize their entire portfolio around proving they understand what will be required from them - Produce content that stand out rather than looking like 48764 artworks we have already seen on Artstation - Create work that show their abilities to design and iterate and facilitate the life of 3D artists - Optimize the user experience of their portfolio so it's easy to access - Make sure their application documents are ATS friendly and genuinely tailored to each company. - And prepare interviews properly This strategy can be adopted easily if you make the effort to stop and do your research for a moment. 👉 You want to learn how to do it? Look at this, it's free : https://lnkd.in/dhP9F8-M

Don't Judge the Quantity over Quality here are some of my school Projects and Internship 3D models that I would like to highlight https://lnkd.in/gR-XvxT9 #3D #Autodesk #Maya #3Dmodeller