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Student placement in the games industry, or: I want to work for BioWare
Reznik
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm currently in a multimedia program, going into my 3rd semester this September. In 6th semester, we get to do a placement for the whole semester.
I want to get in to the games industry in some way, 3D modeling or animation (or both, I dunno. We're starting animation this semester so I can get a feel for what it's like. Either way, I'm sticking with 3D in some form) so it would kick ridiculous amounts of ass if I could do this placement at a game studio.
My #1 top choice/wish/dream is to work at BioWare Edmonton but I don't know if they do placements like this, and I'm not sure how I should contact them because the addresses on their site seem to either be for troubleshooting with their games, people applying for jobs and sending in resumes and portfolios, or other businesses looking for contacts. I know there are some BioWare employees on the forum, but I'm not sure if unsolicited PMs to the known industry members are frowned upon or not... On some other forums I frequent, you're generally just not supposed to PM certain 'inside' type people.
In any case, let me see if I can organize my thoughts into some questions.
1. What would be the best way to contact BioWare Edmonton to see if they would go for a student placement like this?
2. If not BioWare, what other game studios in Canada should I try to contact? (being in Canada is a must; in Ontario is a plus but I'm obviously willing to move around the country for this)
3. Aside from practicing my 3D skills like there's no tomorrow, what else should I do to prepare for this? I've never held a job in anything even remotely close to the field I want to go into. I know nothing of the work environment, but I've heard it's high pressure and long hours... I can deal with that if it means I get to do something I enjoy
4. I'm not expecting to land a job with a major player like BioWare straight out of college, and I see a lot of the big name studios are looking for 3-5 years experience from applicants, so... what sorts of places should I be looking at to build up experience to claw my way up to BioWare's front door? Do a lot of people do freelance work or what?
I know the placement is still like a year and a half away, but I want to try and get things sorted out as soon as possible, or at least find some experienced people in the industry to talk to and get some advice from. And I know PA gets a ton of "omg i want to be in teh gamez industree" posts all the time, but believe me when I say I'm serious about this. I'm not going in expecting to be a 'game designer', I just want to do whatever it takes to be a part of the team.
Also: the program head is trying to set up a 1-year animation program, which I may go back for depending on how the placement works out and how I feel my skills have progressed when I finish the 3-year multimedia program.
And I guess if this helps get some answers, by the time I graduate I should have experience with:
-3D Studio Max (modeling and animation)
-Vicon motion capture system
-Zbrush (mostly on my own time, we don't cover this a lot in class)
-Maya (on my own time, we focus on 3DS Max in class)
-Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
-Flash (for use in websites and for animation)
-Dreamweaver (CSS, XHTML, Javascript)
-Final Cut Pro
-Soundtrack Pro
-Sony Acid
and also I believe this year we have a traditional drawing class. I've been drawing since I was a little kid, so hopefully by the time I graduate my drawing skills will be up to snuff. I still have a lot of work to do on anatomy I'm afraid, but it's getting there.
Whew, this is a lot to think about. Watch out, real world, I'm almost there!
MM 600 SUPERVISED PLACEMENT
512 Credit Hours
Prerequisite: Program Admission Requirements
Co-requisite: None
Students who are eligible for graduation and meet all departmental requirements will gain practical knowledge of a specific job in a multimedia or related industry by working (unpaid) on the job for 512 hours or 16 weeks at 32 hours per week.
I want to get in to the games industry in some way, 3D modeling or animation (or both, I dunno. We're starting animation this semester so I can get a feel for what it's like. Either way, I'm sticking with 3D in some form) so it would kick ridiculous amounts of ass if I could do this placement at a game studio.
My #1 top choice/wish/dream is to work at BioWare Edmonton but I don't know if they do placements like this, and I'm not sure how I should contact them because the addresses on their site seem to either be for troubleshooting with their games, people applying for jobs and sending in resumes and portfolios, or other businesses looking for contacts. I know there are some BioWare employees on the forum, but I'm not sure if unsolicited PMs to the known industry members are frowned upon or not... On some other forums I frequent, you're generally just not supposed to PM certain 'inside' type people.
In any case, let me see if I can organize my thoughts into some questions.
1. What would be the best way to contact BioWare Edmonton to see if they would go for a student placement like this?
2. If not BioWare, what other game studios in Canada should I try to contact? (being in Canada is a must; in Ontario is a plus but I'm obviously willing to move around the country for this)
3. Aside from practicing my 3D skills like there's no tomorrow, what else should I do to prepare for this? I've never held a job in anything even remotely close to the field I want to go into. I know nothing of the work environment, but I've heard it's high pressure and long hours... I can deal with that if it means I get to do something I enjoy
4. I'm not expecting to land a job with a major player like BioWare straight out of college, and I see a lot of the big name studios are looking for 3-5 years experience from applicants, so... what sorts of places should I be looking at to build up experience to claw my way up to BioWare's front door? Do a lot of people do freelance work or what?
I know the placement is still like a year and a half away, but I want to try and get things sorted out as soon as possible, or at least find some experienced people in the industry to talk to and get some advice from. And I know PA gets a ton of "omg i want to be in teh gamez industree" posts all the time, but believe me when I say I'm serious about this. I'm not going in expecting to be a 'game designer', I just want to do whatever it takes to be a part of the team.
Also: the program head is trying to set up a 1-year animation program, which I may go back for depending on how the placement works out and how I feel my skills have progressed when I finish the 3-year multimedia program.
And I guess if this helps get some answers, by the time I graduate I should have experience with:
-3D Studio Max (modeling and animation)
-Vicon motion capture system
-Zbrush (mostly on my own time, we don't cover this a lot in class)
-Maya (on my own time, we focus on 3DS Max in class)
-Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
-Flash (for use in websites and for animation)
-Dreamweaver (CSS, XHTML, Javascript)
-Final Cut Pro
-Soundtrack Pro
-Sony Acid
and also I believe this year we have a traditional drawing class. I've been drawing since I was a little kid, so hopefully by the time I graduate my drawing skills will be up to snuff. I still have a lot of work to do on anatomy I'm afraid, but it's getting there.
Whew, this is a lot to think about. Watch out, real world, I'm almost there!
Do... Re.... Mi... Ti... La...
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Reznik on
0
Posts
Pick up the phone, call BioWare, and talk to someone in the human resources department.
https://jobs.ea.com/jobs/jobposting.aspx?refresh=1&postid=a0z50000000GtUu
Location: Alberta - Edmonton (BioWare)
Role: Intern / Coop
Specialty: Software Engineering Intern / Coop
...