The Rookie Contest 2020 - And all the way up to here -
Original Post - Artstation 2020
Okay, here we go.
I started to use Artstation last winter around December 2019. I knew about the website around half month before it but I just started in the 3D world and I didn't have anything to show. I come from an audiovisual background as Film editor/Colorist (www.FranVergara.com) and in the summer of 2019, I just decided to focus on the videogames industry. I used to work as a freelance in London. For the last 3 years I did all kinds of content: some good, some great, some unpaid, some please-take-the-money-and-run. but after my partner came to live with me I started to work full time in an advertising company to save money. After one whole year making adverts for banks and the army mainly (I really regret this) I just quit, I decided to quit to study and learn to become an Environment Artist.
Picture from 2017 in Granada, Spain, by Fabio Albarracín
Do not misunderstand, I hate advertising but I love the cinema. The strongest tool that has kept me going is storytelling, become a storyteller. I found in my young career very different ways to tell a story: drawings, photography, video, and now 3D. I experimented a lot and I think that finally I found the best way of storytelling for me.
Drawing, around 2014
I like editing films, before that I also was a camera operator for a while and photographer. I found that I prefer to help to tell the story in the post-production room, where you have the story in pieces and you need to use your creativity to create something new. After a few months of basic 3D courses I just couldn’t stop, I love it. I really do. Even I couldn’t stop learning while working in office job, I brought some 3D books to read in my commute. Create, literally, anything from zero, from a CUBE! was.. well, an infinite possibility of creations, magic! After some basic character courses and without a job, I had to choose which way: characters or environments.
Picture from 2016 in Granada, Spain
Now that it's really easy, but at the beginning was a bit harder since I didn't make any prop, only the models from the course I did meanwhile I was working, and after freelance's work, so after work's work. I chose environments for the possibilities of storytelling, and when I started, I just went with everything I had.
My first "decent" work was a Japanese Urban Street, which I loved and I didn't believe It was me who made that. I thought that an environment without a story is a poor env, this is why I started to make cinematics, fill it with stories and with the help of the voices of my partner and my flatmate, I brought to live the characters that I put on it (an immense thanks for them! <3). I'm influenced by all the books, comics, films and series I watch, also photography and art from other artists. I uploaded that environment at the beginning of this year, and my most recent project was a prop turret that I did to apply to a certain company for hard surface and space games. Right before that, I participate In The Rookies 2020 with my four environments, that's all I had. All I had in my public portfolio at least because I also did a lot of projects that I didn't finish, or that I didn't know how to finish, or even that ones which were absolute garbage.
Picture from 2018 in Brighton, UK
After two months, I received great awards in each contest I participated, two "B" levels in Game Development and 3D animation, Finalist for the internship of Ninja Theory (Now maybe I'm a bit glad to not to take the train to Cambridge every day) and an Excellence Award with good opinions of people from the sector over my work. THAT'S a lot! I have a lot to thank for the contest and for sure I'll participate next year to get the Rank A!
I feel that after that, after all I learned, after all these days without sleeping and some other sacrifices, this is just the beginning of a new phase. That is why I started this post and with it, a blog here and on my website; to tell my experience, collect it and share with others. If the 3D community has taught me everything through sharing, share knowledge,
At the moment, I think I need to create a new env, a "killer scene" as someone told me, more complex with a full breakdown, and of course, it's own story. I was thinking to spent the rest of summer 2020 working on it, and then start the job search, but that's another story! :)
