My Life Goal: Becoming a Concept artist For a korean/japanese gaming company

[infiniteeverlasting]

I'm curious on what you guys know about the japanese and korean gaming industry. I'm about to enter college (i'm a graduating senior high schooler this year) and It's time for me to chase after a life long dream.

I'd thought it'd be wise to ask you experts about japanese bussiness style and tastes that i'm unfamiliar with. All i know is japanese companies are extremely closed minded. They only want to see one specific style and that's it.

I'm going to art center college of design after the summer and will start my education in Entertainment Arts which is basically video game/film concept art. It is an extremely elite program with only around 70 kids in my year for this major.

The school is widely known for dominating in the american video game industry with literally half the most famous concept artists who've worked for games like halo 4, COD, etc. graduating from this school.

But the problem is, Japanese companies like Square Enix are extremely narrow in their decisions and tastes. I'm curious on how often it is that they try to throw something new for once in their games without getting all butt hurt about straying away from their traditional pretty boy pretty girl style.

I used to mainly do Fine artsy stuff but nowadays i've concentrated all my energy into coming up with fully original concept ideas and designs. I stray away from using any internet references so that I could have free-reign over these designs.

here are a few examples:

this is a battlesuit armor design, it shows a cyber-soldier's back facing us with a slight hint of his face showing as he turns it subtly to the right.
This is still a work in progress.


This is a transformers/gundam kind of mech design that I came up with. It's still work in progress since i'm failing to think up a good leg plate design right now.

If i could hear your opinions It would be extremely helpful.

thank you guyz.

[strikerhunter]

Fantastic artwork you have there, however whether it fits in the Japanese gaming/market is questionable. One thing I've notice in most Japanese games is that they tend to have some sort of cultural inspiration, whether it be the game's lore or design (character, area, monsters, etc.) so that might really restrict creativity to some extend.

Not to sound negative, but I highly doubt learning art here in the U.S. would even give you the knowledge on the Japanese taste. It would be better to learn from Japanese game design/art schools in that case.
My only advice would be is to spend sometime in Japan just to understand the art in person as well as the market, etc. or go play lots of Japanese games (both successful ones and poor ones) and look at them in an artistic point-of-view to understand what those design teams would want. And if you can, try to get some of their concept art to get an idea.

Dumb question: Why are you wanting to get into the Japanese games when you're enrolled in a college where most of the students (and future developer) dominants American games? A bit weird if you ask me.

[infiniteeverlasting]

Fantastic artwork you have there, however whether it fits in the Japanese gaming/market is questionable. One thing I've notice in most Japanese games is that they tend to have some sort of cultural inspiration, whether it be the game's lore or design (character, area, monsters, etc.) so that might really restrict creativity to some extend.

Not to sound negative, but I highly doubt learning art here in the U.S. would even give you the knowledge on the Japanese taste. It would be better to learn from Japanese game design/art schools in that case.
My only advice would be is to spend sometime in Japan just to understand the art in person as well as the market, etc. or go play lots of Japanese games (both successful ones and poor ones) and look at them in an artistic point-of-view to understand what those design teams would want. And if you can, try to get some of their concept art to get an idea.

Dumb question: Why are you wanting to get into the Japanese games when you're enrolled in a college where most of the students (and future developer) dominants American games? A bit weird if you ask me.

Thank you for your feedback, and i'll definitely take that cultural inspiration thing in mind.

And to answer your question, it's cuz Art center is top ranked in america for entertainment related/industrial related arts, ranging from automobile design to Disney and concept art Etc.

Just based on location, ranking, affordability, and the school's reputation/name i chose the school. I personally really liked the art style of the school as well.

The school is also weirdly majority Asian. As in a lot of people who came from Korea, China, Singapore, and Japan to study at Art center, so I still consider it the best place for me.

But from what I hear, there isn't any art schools that have a track or major made for concept art and entertainment design related stuff. So all these Japanese people probably came here for a reason. But I feel like they have an edge over me because, them being raised in japan/korea have a clearer understading of what the market is like over there, while I born and raised here in America (In terms of ethnicity, i'm also asian) have to kind of guess what it's like based on what I already see in the few games I've played (mostly Final fantasy).

I just don't feel like I have the insider understanding that they have :/. But the school is still good I believe, considering there's barely anything offered in Japan for what I want to do.

[ShinMaruku]

Since I have seen some westerners in those industries I will say you can most certainly make it there. Just need connections and a strong portfolio.

[Outrider]

Since I have seen some westerners in those industries I will say you can most certainly make it there. Just need connections and a strong portfolio.

Yeah, I can't stress the importance of having good connections and a good portfolio. Any time you go to a conference or job fair, make sure you get peoples' business cards, give them your own cards, hit them up on LinkedIn, etc. Even if there's nothing you can do together at the moment, it's great to have a bunch of connections in your back pocket.

I'll also agree with everybody that your work looks pretty great.

[Fusionxglave]

I just have a quick question.

I can give you the real review or give a positive review.

The real review is just grossly negative and will possible get me kick out of this thread.

The positive review is when I do not include any of the negative.

If you want to be in a Japanese company or Korean company you have to do more than your -own ideas-, companies are looking for people who will work for a long time not for a couple of years. And do not expect any vacations or sick days to often. Plus working even at home and alot.

I'm not a Korean or Japanese Company but I'm quite sure that respect is very high.

Pls don't be mad at me.

[infiniteeverlasting]

I just have a quick question.

I can give you the real review or give a positive review.

The real review is just grossly negative and will possible get me kick out of this thread.

The positive review is when I do not include any of the negative.

If you want to be in a Japanese company or Korean company you have to do more than your -own ideas-, companies are looking for people who will work for a long time not for a couple of years. And do not expect any vacations or sick days to often. Plus working even at home and alot.

I'm not a Korean or Japanese Company but I'm quite sure that respect is very high.

Pls don't be mad at me.

Actually good news is:

I just heard back from one of my Alumni friends last night currently working in his own private studio. (He's worked on Big Triple AAA games with his buddies such as Halo 4, assassins creed etc.) he says gets a lot of Korean clients from overseas to develop designs within a 1 month time frame and then they give you huge sum of money, there's no contract. It's more like client work. I was told by my uncle who works in Korea as a programmer that ACCD students are so famous in korea that most koreans travel to america to study at ACCD so they can get a job in korea in the concept art field which is hilariously ironic considering they hafto travel overseas to learn how to do the stuff they are, arguably, the best at already

I'm actually pretty confident that I'll be in a good shape after I graduate now after hearing and researching more.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND HELP GUYZ! i was really stressed for the past few months just thinking about my future and what I want to end up doing. But in the end i think i hafto keep an open mind and be ready for anything thrown at me. I mean If someone offers an opportunity to work at an american company it's not like I'll reject, I should still take advantage of all the things that come to me and feel thankful for it.

P.S. The "long term working thing" only applies to 3d modelers, animators, and programmers. Designers seem to have pretty nice free reign, it sounds too good, almost like a google job.

[Fusionxglave]

Actually good news is:

I just heard back from one of my Alumni friends last night currently working in his own private studio. (He's worked on Big Triple AAA games with his buddies such as Halo 4, assassins creed etc.) he says gets a lot of Korean clients from overseas to develop designs within a 1 month time frame and then they give you huge sum of money, there's no contract. It's more like client work. I was told by my uncle who works in Korea as a programmer that ACCD students are so famous in korea that most koreans travel to america to study at ACCD so they can get a job in korea in the concept art field which is hilariously ironic considering they hafto travel overseas to learn how to do the stuff they are, arguably, the best at already

I'm actually pretty confident that I'll be in a good shape after I graduate now after hearing and researching more.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND HELP GUYZ! i was really stressed for the past few months just thinking about my future and what I want to end up doing. But in the end i think i hafto keep an open mind and be ready for anything thrown at me. I mean If someone offers an opportunity to work at an american company it's not like I'll reject, I should still take advantage of all the things that come to me and feel thankful for it.

P.S. The "long term working thing" only applies to 3d modelers, animators, and programmers. Designers seem to have pretty nice free reign, it sounds too good, almost like a google job.

Whew what a relief,

Okay thanks for the heads up sorry if I saying anything offense and good job on the getting the job

[Outrider]

develop designs within a 1 month time frame and then they give you huge sum of money, there's no contract. It's more like client work.

I think you're aware of this but your post was a little unclear, so just to clarify: ALWAYS have a contract in place for your freelance work. It protects you and your clients.

I'm assuming what you mean above is that there's no long-term contract.

[infiniteeverlasting]

I think you're aware of this but your post was a little unclear, so just to clarify: ALWAYS have a contract in place for your freelance work. It protects you and your clients.

I'm assuming what you mean above is that there's no long-term contract.

yea that's what i meant. As in they give you the project to do, they're not really hiring you for a long time so you can work with multiple companies on different projects etc.