What can I do with an art degree?

What can I do with a year 4 degree in art?

• Right now I'm about to finish my first year of college. Majoring in art. But doing my own research I find you don't really need a degree for it. All it can do is let you be a teacher, and I don't want to do that. From my understanding all you need is a good portfolio. What I would like to do is graphic design, or work in the gaming industry somehow. I would love to be involved with the game industry, because gaming is my passion, and I love to draw, but what are my chances? How do I get started? Would I just need a good portfolio or do I need a degree. If so what kind?

• Answer:

  Well depends on what your passion is. You could go to an art school that gears directly toward your interest (Like game art and design or animation or graphic design) This will help you on the right path. You need to practice and keep drawing and build up your portfolio. A degree is always nice. Also, let's not forget the opportunities college can give you (networking, job leads, internships, hands on experience, etc) What are your chances? Just depends on how talented you are and how good you are with people. Network and volunteer and get internships. Study up in your spare time, get books that will help. Also, what do you like about gaming? Do you like the characters or the actual animation? Do you like 2D flash based games, or 3D games (I'm guessing 3D?) Are you interested in the character design? Product design? Special Effects? Background design and layout? Modeling? Rigging? Texture? think about all the aspects that gaming actually has. It's a lot of work but keep practicing and work hard and it's very rewarding. You will probably have to learn Maya or 3D Max. Something you should definitely check out is SIGGRAPH, it's an international conference and exhibition on computer graphics. It's a wonderful opportunity to go and meet people and learn all kinds of new things and technologies. Talk to people you know, let them know what you're interested in, start now! it's never too early. Start volunteering somewhere. Look online for blogs that people have done and search for game art. Ask the professionals for tips. Start your own online art blog and keep people posted on your work. There's a lot for you to learn. Hope I helped. Just remember your success is ultimately up to you