Future Ideals

Sonicay

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if everyone here could help me with the answers im looking for.
Im working for a IT company atm as a IT technician and im doing Game developing part-time with just me and my friend.
I want to earn more $$$ and the IT Technician story is not doing it for me and my Game Developing journey has just started, i have one of 2 options :
* Software Development
* 3d Modeling/Artist

Which is the best to study part-time and will give me the most rewards.

Thanks in advance.

Elyaradine

When you talk about "rewards", you seem to be focusing purely on financial rewards, in which case the risk vs. reward of game development currently makes it a pretty dumb investment in general in my opinion. If it's purely about money, you're likely to be better off working toward a career in a bank or in engineering. I imagine that within IT, there are possible entrepreneurial paths that combined with a lot of work and some luck can make it pretty lucrative.

Programmers are generally paid more than artists on average, but there's a pretty big overlap that depends on skill level and experience.

My impression is that degree courses that have foundations in maths, physics and computer science are pretty consistent, and those degrees are more meaningful; and that there's an extremely large variance in the quality of education in the art-related subjects. As far as I know, science and engineering degrees are subsidised, so the fees for those courses are significantly lower than the fees for art degrees.

I personally find colouring pixels and sculpting verts much rewarding than writing code. I am able to create work that is almost universally and immediately accessible, and I find that to be enormously rewarding. And because I make art in my free time because I enjoy it so much, it makes it easy for me to get much better at it, and makes me much more valuable as an artist than I would be as a mediocre programmer. When I chose to be an artist, I did so because I simply couldn't imagine myself being happier doing anything else, even if I were to struggle to pay rent. (My first year's salary would've made paying rent quite difficult.) I had running scholarships when I studied art for academic performance that reduced my fees by 75%, which made it a much more viable path.

I would recommend picking the career that you think would make it easy for you to work hard (no matter what it is, whether it's in game dev or elsewhere). When it's easier for you to work hard, as long as you're being quite disciplined about saving, I think the money takes care of itself.

Sonicay

@Elyaradine Thanks for the input, it is for financial reasons yes, but its not that i am struggling, its just my passion is for creating games, now with where i am at now, im not getting far, and i was happy with that because i am doing part time my game dev and in my free time because its fun creating my models and working with my friend.

But as seeing that one of those 2 choices can give me a higher increase in the financial department and help me with my game dev for the future aswell, why not?
So what i meant with rewards is, lets say i am done with studying one of them and i chose programmer - you saying that it gives a bit more than a artist - So i can brake it down like this :

Programmer : Gives more pay - Can help friend with coding.

3D Modeling : Gives less pay (but more than im earning now) - Can help myself with learning new stuff and better my own models etc.

Thing is, i can decide to go into game dev only in the future, for that is where i am happy- but atleast i studied one of the 2 above to even help me with that and have a better job in the meantime aswell.
Thanks again Elyaradine

Sonicay

And what places do you guys recommend to do Part-Time study for Programming and 3D modeling?
Like Damelin etc.

Pierre

I'd like to weigh in. I love creative art, it has been a life long passion and my style is best described as outsider art.
but when choosing a career i focussed on money. I'm 34 working as a senior developer and the pay is good. I make a comfortable living.
At home i focus on art and game dev combined. I'm not specialized , and my turnaround time is longer than others, but I'm self sufficient with highly technical programming as well as creative visuals...which gives me a lot of freedom.
The two skills can combine for some very unique dynamic results, that i wouldn't even have thought about if my skillset was one sided.
So...
When i get to a point where i sell a game, the financial reward will be a bonus, but right now, i write games as a labor of love.
Software development was definitely a more financially secure option for me.

Sonicay

Thank you very much for that weigh in @Pierre, really appreciate it.

Still would like to know what places are the best to do part-time studies at, for the reason that i wont leave my job to go study when i can rather do it while working :).

Pierre

@Sonicay it's a pleasure. Unfortunately my skills are mostly self taught but elyaradine and some of the other younger users might have some suggestions. I'm fairly certain that there are several institutions offering part time/ correspondence classes... anybody?

Elyaradine

I believe Karuji's doing the Computer Science degree through UNISA, and I believe they offer both part-time and full-time correspondence courses. (A friend and ex-colleague I know takes degree full time while also working as a full time game artist.) There are a whole bunch of non-university places that claim to teach programming, but I can't think of any that I can actually recommend. (I don't know of any programmers working in the local game industry who graduated with a certificate or diploma from one of those courses.)

The Open Window in Centurion has part time 3D courses (not sure where you stay) if you want a classroom. I'm sure there are others. The thing I want to stress about "learning 3D" is that most places that teach that will be teaching software, which is only part of the puzzle. I've seen concept artists and illustrators who drew great work on paper or in Photoshop create competent work in 3D as their first model. I've also seen plenty of students graduate from courses that teach 3D software, with a good understanding of what the capabilities are of the software, and a good understanding of workflow and 3D pipeline, but who simply have unattractive portfolios that make them unemployable as game artists. So while there's nothing wrong with taking some 3D courses, it's arguably more useful to learn to draw and paint, and to draw every day, and fill up sketchbooks.

There are some online courses that are pretty good, where you get feedback from a lecturer (who has impressive credits and works at a reputable studio), and which are comparable in cost to taking a course at a local art school where a lecturer may have almost no game dev experience. Some of the reputable ones that come to mind include: The Gnomon Workshop, CGSociety's CGWorkshops, CG Masters Academy and Schoolism (who're running a super affordable Kickstarter right now). There are also many, many cheap art tutorials available on Gumroad (thought they're somewhat difficult to find unless you're following the artists directly; Kiwijuice has done a pretty good -- though incomplete -- job of compiling them).

I also want to say re-iterate that I'm not paid badly as an artist at all. I think at one point my rent was less than 15% of my income, and I was able to put more than 50% of my income into savings each month. (My standard of living has since increased, so the ratios are no longer as favourable.) I could pay for myself to go to GDC three times, and regularly sign up for online art courses. I believe I'm paid better than some friends of mine of equivalent experience who work as accountants, bookkeepers and programmers. So it's absolutely possible to make a comfortable living as an artist if that's what your heart really wants, but I do think it's more difficult and requires a lot more work and luck.

Karuji

Seems like I've been pinged.

In general the UNISA stuff is pretty much like the art stuff Elyaradine outline. You can study programming, and you can make it through the course without becoming a good programmer. I normally headdesk at a lot of UNISA stuff because I spend my days programming, and I'll sit around programming because I enjoy it. This leaves UNISA as a kind of list of checkboxes that I fill in and receive some kind of arbitrary number which says I am so skilled. In other words it rarely adds value to my already existing knowledge base.

If you have no, or little, knowledge of programming, and apply yourself too and beyond the course material provided than it will very likely be of benefit to you. The course will have little directly applicable work to making games, but the fundamentals are what make a good programmer. I would also advise taking as many math modules as you can and leaving out the informatics.

Also seeing as you're working as an IT tech the course will offer quite a few insights since it feels more geared toward that kind of work than the CS courses offered as full-time by other universities.

Sonicay

Thank you very much for this information @Elyaradine always been a fan of your art and thank you @Karuji for the input on programming and that you study with UNISA.

I will do a bit more scouting and searching and then see which one interests me the most and go for it. I see you guys also bring in a lot of game developing in this post, its true that i do game dev already but this is not just focused on game dev. This which im going to study for, is for a career path while doing game dev as part time, just to make that clear. The skills that i learn from this career path is a bonus to "help" with my game dev that is part time. But if i stated the obvious again, sorry about that :). Im really thankful for all the replies.

Also as i have seen that @Karuji said, the knowledge that i will gain from studying programming wont help that much in creating a game, but im sure it will make it easier for me to know how it works? And my friend which is already doing the coding will even be able to explain something to me if its a bit vague.

@Elyaradin - I see what you are saying with even having the papers behind your name wont help you (maybe a bit) , but it all falls to your portfolio in the end and how much it shines *bling bling*. And it requires a lot of dedication and constant daily practice. I will look at all those references you mentioned and look more into it - thank you.