Business Card and Future Skill Planning

This week I decided to go ahead and make myself a business card and get it printed. It has made me think about how handy a business card actually is, and what a massive impact it can make as a first impression. This made me think a bit more deeply than simply printing my name and number on a card, instead I need mine to stand out! After all, you only make one first impression.

This got me thinking about what a character modellers business card should look like. I figured that some character work would be nice, as it ties in with the profession, but it had to be tactful, and well placed, no point handing someone a card with a super high detail sculpt on. I eventually went for something a bit more subtle, and used my Mr White model from the first semester, but blended him into the design so that he doesn't stand out like a sore thumb. As for the design of the card itself, I wanted it to reflect my website style, so tried to build something around the same white and grey tones of my portfolio.

Anyway, without further ado,  here's the card design.

The other thing I have been looking at over the past week or so, is skill set after uni. As defeatist as it sounds, the rational part of me knows I am unlikely to land a job as a character artist straight away. So the logical thing to do is to go back to environment and prop modelling as well as making characters. This skill set differs from my own, and therefore I needed to make some sort of action plan for expanding my skill set.

Heres what I came up with:

• UDK - I haven't really touched the UDK, apart from out of necessity with other projects. After university, I plan on diving head first into the UDK. I plan on making a small set piece, including an environment piece and a character.
• 3DS Max - This is a bit of a no brainer. Lots of companies out there use max, so it seems like another tool in the belt that is easily learned. I plan on using max to create the aforementioned scene.
• Modular Building - This one passed me by too. I have heard a lot about building modular environment pieces, and as much as I understand the premise, I think i need so work to back up that knowledge.

I believe that these are a good foundation set of skills to focus on post university, I believe that my first art position will have to come from a junior position, so I need to demonstrate that I can make props and environment pieces as well as characters if I stand any chance of a job.