About Me

Hey, my name is Dan Hargreaves, a 22 year old student currently living and studying in Leicester. I was born and raised in a small town called Swindon which is a nice place to live, but lacks the lifestyle and culture of a city such as Leicester.

I have always been into design & art. From messing around with Lego as a child to create grand blocky cathedrals to making short cartoon animations in my mid teens with flash. Around the age of 18 I picked up 3ds max where I would create *very* basic models. After a few good months following online tutorials I started to make 3D models suitable for games. Years passed and at the age of 21 my skills in game art became good enough to work with a small indie team ( http://www.crystal-core.co.uk/ ) as the character artist where i spent roughly 8 months with the team working on “Conquest:Hadrian's Divide”. Sadly the team became very disorganised and our goals weren’t being reached at all so I left the team. This left my motivation for game art dwindling but the passion was still there.

I decided the best thing I could do to get my motivation back was surround my self with other aspiring artist, this lead me onto the research for a degree. After many weeks of research I had my eyes on DMU, as they have the most up to date game art course in the country, as well as being skillset accredited. So I applied with my new up to date portfolio ( http://artofdan.carbonmade.com/ ), and got accepted. Over the 3 years with this course I hope to iron out any work flow issues I have picked up as a self taught artist as well as honing my traditional art skills to become a competent character artist in the future.

For a long time ive had my eyes on working at Relentless as they are based in Brighton which is a beautiful city. Plus they are known for very rarely crunching for milestones, making for a more pleasant work life. Unfortunately they don’t have any art position going at the moment. So ill list another:

Below is a vacancy for a senior character artist at a new SEGA studio based in Dorridge:

DUTIES

• Spearhead the character pipeline satisfying the Lead Artist, Animators, programmers and designers
• Produce character art assets that meet the requirements of the projects style and detail
• Work with the producer to formulate the production schedule
• Manage any outsourcing requirements for the character

SUGGESTED PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Self driven individual with good organisation skills
• Able to work well in a team while standing out as an individual
• Amiable and willing to follow art direction and carry it out but with the objective of adding their expertise to the subject
• A good communicator and keen ideas person

ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• 4+ Years experience with 3DS Max and Photoshop, Zbrush/Mudox
• 2 + Shipped titles on PS3 or 360
• Excellent modelling and texturing abilities delivering performance and quality
• Excellent human anatomy knowledge supported by good drawing skills
• Able to develop custom character rigs
• Able to maximise the use of bespoke tools by using a natural sense of trial and error
• Knowledge of current generation shader capabilities 

As this example is for a senior position it requires a lot of experience for the role i.e. 2 + Shipped titles on PS3 or 360, which is something that only comes with experience while working in the industry, ive picked it as its the only character artist position I could find as it is a highly competitive role. The skills I have already attained and the knowledge I will pick up throughout this degree will make this goal more achievable. To get to this stage I need excellent human anatomy knowledge and drawing skills, which at the moment are my weakest points, so it is vital I improve in this area.

Stay Classy.....