Picture unrelated to topic, doodle I made on Photoshop
Sometimes I worry about art students trying to get into the entertainment industry with their naive outlook. Many of them believe that they want to go into Pixar in animation, or video games they want to go to work for Blizzard . In truth I feel its a very competitive and cruel industry especially due to the art aspect. If purely an artist the odds of getting into one of the major companies is extremely hard.
You cant just get a mere A in all your classes and expect a job when you graduate. In fact you have to be THE BEST to even have a chance. Its not just matching up to most of your peers but rather being the top 1% of your class, and even that it is rarely sufficient. This may also be why a lot of students that go for design majors eventually end up in fast food or working at starbucks complaining how their majors were useless. Its not the degree that counts but rather the portfolio. In a sense besides hard work you need natural talent similar to how it is in professional sports and I feel very concerned for my peers with the idealistic outlook.
From a personal point of view, I do decent in illustrations but I cant get a job with these. I have tried to apply for concept artist positions for major game companies and they dont even bother with me. Now this may sound like Im being arrogant of my skills, but I know a lot of artists want to get into these positions, to even stand a chance they have to be able to easily draw at a much higher caliber to even stand a chance of even being considered for a interview. Now I have decided to go a different route instead of going the all art route after realizing this.
The issue I noticed is that even with this high competitiveness there really is no gold at the end of the rainbow. Animation and concept artist jobs pay like crap. Also many designer and art based jobs are based on contract, once your done they get rid of you. Those anime fangirls and boys that want to draw for japanese companies will be hard pressed after realizing that there is no incentives for them to hire foreigners and you get paid horribly in making $1000 a month. Also, most people have the ideal that they can make stuff they want in the industry, dont be so naive. Unless you are at the top you work under direct orders of your director and slave away for 10 hours a day or more. Its highly competitive with very little reward.
This is a cruel reality, in truth I believe even in IFDM probably less than 1% of the students will ever reach their idealized goals. I suppose if they diversify with a technical skill background like programming they can greatly increase their odds, however artists alone is a very dangerous road to go down. I believe that getting some technical skills to supplement your art is good but also learn a bit of business so you know how to market yourself competitively. Sometimes its not what you know but rather who you know. This really is a dog eat dog industry, then again I cant really comment on others since I am engaging a even more dangerous approach myself...
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