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Are women accepted in animation and game design?

Animation/Media Arts, Web Design, or Game Design?

  • Hi I'm an art student at UCSD and I want to transfer to an arts-only school to learn some form of design. I've been doing only fine arts (painting, sculpting, drawing) so I'll be completely new to design. I guess I'm interested in the three areas included in the title. I'd love to do game design because I love video games and like to make up characters, places, stories, etc, but I learned that it is very very competitive to get a job, and it's very low-paying... which is where web design comes in because it almost guarantees you a high paying job (correct if wrong). Plus you have the option to freelance as a web designer. And lastly, animation/media arts... I'm not really into it but it just sounds cool and fun I guess. I feel like it's going to be the most difficult of the three. Anyone who studied any of these, or works in one of these areas, please give me some insight...! And folks who work in the game design industry...is it worth it?! Thanks for reading :-)

  • Answer:

    Well, at the end of the day, you gotta just figure out what you're gonna enjoy the most. And you better enjoy it because you'll be doing it for a very long time. I'll also say that there are no guarantees in any of these fields. Web designers don't necessarily make a lot of money (depends who you're working for), just like games designers don't necessarily make little money. The video game industry, compared to others, is a relatively small industry. And as such, there's more competition. You either have to be insanely talented, or, and this is the more common scenario, you have to know someone in the business. Animation is kind of the same way, and aside from character design and sketch sheets, most of the actual animation gets done overseas in places like Korea because it's cheaper. Most of the shows on Adult Swim for example are art directed by Time Warner subsidiaries in the US, but animated in other countries and given back to us. Web design is competitive too, but the big difference is that it's a rapidly growing industry. Especially with the new developments in mobile devices and streaming platforms, and more so with new developments in web standards and HTML5 compliance among browsers (blah blah technical crap). The point is that it's growing, and as I look at the job boards week to week, "web designer needed" continually dominates the design category for job seekers. Once again, I have to say, a fat paycheck will just be spent on booze and anti-depressants if you hate your job. So pick something you enjoy. If you're passionate about any one of those areas and put the work in, I have no reason to believe you won't eventually get a job doing that. ..

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Game Designers actually make a pretty devent salary, $45k-$100k/yr with an average salary of about $55k/yr. Considering it can be a very fun and engaging career, it's not a bad choice. The problem is that it's not an entry-level position. Game designers very rarely get hired straight out of college. The typical requirement is several years spent working in the game industry in another position, whether it's art, management, testing, customer service, writing, etc. The other problem is that you didn't describe the role of Game Designer, you described the role of an Art director. Art Directors in the game industry make $65-$150k per year, but the role is absolutely not entry-level. The typical requirement for Art Directors is around 10+ years of experience. The reason for this is that the Art Director manages all artists, concepts the original characters, locations, general artistic feel, etc, and is typically responsible for budgetting the department as well as developing time estimates for art tasks. This knowledge only comes from several years of experience in a professional role. Regardless of what you decide you want to do, I usually recommend against going to private schools unless the state universities have horrible art programs (typically you can find at least one public university in the state that has a decent art program). Private art schools will cost a lot more, and with the economy the way it is now, you'll want a degree that's applicable to as many jobs as you can apply for (Art Schools may limit that if they're not accredited, or have something like "game design" in the title which can cause employers not to take the degree seriously). If you want more advice on how to get into the game industry specifically, check out my source. It's a collection of articles on Breaking into the Game Industry and covers several different types of jobs. Regardless of what you plan on doing, you're going to have to work hard and be persistent if you want into the game industry, or make it as a graphic/web designer. There are tons of people out there that want to do this for a living, so you have to stand out among the rest. Good luck.

Joe B

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