Widunder

So, finally the time has come to talk about how I got this job. And what happened along the way.
Soundtrack for this evening is: Engel – Absolute Design

So, July 2009. There I was, out of a job. I instantly began to work on a portfolio using all of the material I had so far. Including some new stuff from GRIN. I also wrote a new resume and wrote several cover letters and just sent everything out to different game companies. One mistake I did here was that I didn’t really ask people for comments and critique on my portfolio until after I sent my first batch of applications out. And the ideas and tips I got from my co-workers and friends helped a lot, so my second version of my reel was much much better than the first.

The first batch consisted of about 10 applications. These mainly went out to the bigger companies, such as Blizzard, Epic, Valve, Id, etc. I didn’t actually expect to get any decent answer from them. Partially because I was still “green” within the game industry. I was in my second year as a professional. And also partially because of the difficulties to get me into USA. If you don’t have something like a bachelor’s degree it’s very difficult to get the government to give you a work visa without a big amount of experience within your field.
During the following couple of days I continued to send out applications to every company I could think of. I sent some out to new up starting companies that people told me about. One of them answered fairly quickly; Ruffian Games, from Dundee in Scotland. They wanted me to do a test for them where I would animate standard kind of animations for a bipedal character in 3d Studio Max. Some examples of animations they wanted to see was walk cycle, getting hit, falling down, getting back up, etc. At first I accepted, but then I was lucky enough to get an answer from Epic Games. They wanted me to do an animation test for them as well. They had sent me a Maya rig of the standard enemy soldier from Gears of War.

Locust from Gears of War

The test consisted of three parts;

1. Run cycles
Knowing what you do about the Locust, create a run cycle fitting for his character.   Use one of the following moods for how he’s running;  fleeing run, attacking aggressive run, sneaking run, injured run, etc. (you can come up with your own, just let us know what you were going for)    After a few cycles, transition the run into a second type of run. (i.e. sneak run switches into angry aggressive run)

2. Mantle cover
Sticking with the second run type from part 1, have the Locust maneuver into cover and then mantle over it.    The in and out frames should match the first frame of the run cycle.   The cover_wall prop is included in the scene.  Please move the prop to where you need it.

3. Melee gun hit
Using the dummy punching bag (cylinder) in the scene file, have the Locust Grunt do some sort of melee attack on the punching bag with his gun.   This animation can be as long as you want, and there’s no limits on how far off the origin he steps.    The melee prop is included in the scene.  Please move it to where you need it.

I did not get any specific deadline, but they wanted me to send it in asap. I decided I could probably do in 4 days total and that I would do this test before the test for Ruffian Games. Mostly because I was more excited about the company itself. Epic Games isn’t something to sneeze at. And also because this test seemed more fun.
So, I did their animation test and sent it in. As I thought it took 4 days. I sent it in on the fourth.

During the time I was doing the Epic test I had been in touch with a couple of recruiters/head hunters. One from the company “UKGames” and one from “Amiqus”. Both had contacted me through LinkedIn (a career based community site, www.linkedin.com) and said that they could hunt jobs for me. As this doesn’t cost anything I accepted. One of them had quickly contacted Bizarre Creations in Liverpool and they was really interested in my work. I had a telephone interview with them which went really good. I wasn’t really used to telephone interviews so I was a bit nervous. But I focused on being myself and giving simple answers. The questions was kind of standard, like “what have you done at GRIN?”, “what where your responibilities?”, “are you exprienced with tasks like X and Y?” etc. In the end also wanted to see an animation test. They wanted me to do a guy lifting something heavy, which is another excellent exercise for an animation regardless if it is a test or not. It is also very difficult. I could’ve used a Full Body IK rig from their site, as they had details and supplies for this test on their website but I decided to use a free rig called “Max”. Creds to Peter Starostin for the excellent rig! This test took me about 3 days do complete the test. The problem was that I was off and on about it because several things being in the way. Such as planning to move back to my parents once again, and also a metal festival which included that 5 people would sleep at my place. I have nobody to blame but myself and this really reflected my work as well since I began working on it one day and finished several days later due to a “pause” because of the festival.

One of the following days after I sent the latest test in, I had to move out of my apartment back to my parents. Luckily I had rented a fully furnished apartment so it was a really simple move for me. Just one car full of stuff.
Anyways, once settled in at my parents place I just kept sending out different applications. After a while I kind of ran out of studios to apply to, but the idea was to just send stuff out everywhere. Even to studios who didn’t really actively look for animators. The good thing about this is that you don’t get stuck in a big inbox with thousand of other animator applications.

Several days went by. Then Epic Games sent me a mail and asked me some things about my workflow for doing the tests, and asking me if I had a Bachelor’s Degree since it’s difficult to get a work visa without one. I answered their questions and told them that I did not have a Bachelor’s Degree but hopefully it was possible to solve this problem anyway.
Another couple of days went by, and finally they mailed me again. They told me that the only visa I could get was good for 18 months, and that wasn’t worth it for them to sponsor me for this. Which I understood, it’s not worth it for them to pay a lot of money to the government to get me into the country, then spend a lot of money and time to get me into the projects and pipeline in the studio, and then send me back home 18 months later. In the end of this mail they asked me “If you are interested, we could send your stuff forward to our studio People Can Fly, in Poland”. I respectfully said “no thank you, I’m not interested to work in Poland”. Why? I guess because of all the prejudices I (and many other people as well I think) had about Poland, that it would be a very torn down place with very low living standard.
The funny thing is, they still told People Can Fly about me and recommended them to check me out. So a couple of days later I got a long mail from People Can Fly in which they explained to me that Epic Games had recommended me to them which basically never happens, that Poland isn’t a bad place and a little bit about the studio in general and a bit about the project. They invited me for an interview, and after a mail like that I couldn’t say no.

PCF Logo

During the same week I was also invited for an interview at Bizarre Creations, plus an interview at Lionhead in Guildford. Several days earlier I had a telephone interview with Lionhead which went well. Very similar to the one I had with Bizarre. So now I had three interviews lined up, so I was very fortunate. Several of my ex co-workers didn’t have any at all yet. This me be because of pure timing, and probably because I started working as hell the second we got fired, but I don’t know.

One of the recruiters also got me the chance to do another animation test, this time for Ninja Theory Ltd, also in England. The test consisted of using the rig they had sent me and do a series of melee attacks. They could be as long or short as I wanted to and could consist of as many or few punches/kicks/what ever as I wanted to. I accepted of course because I didn’t wanted to take every chance I had to get a new job. The problem was that I was very stressed and unmotivated about doing this test, since I was only thinking about my upcoming trips to Poland and England which was only 5-6 days away.

In the end I some how managed to finish the test but with a lacking result in my opinion. Since I just wanted to finish it I rushed through it without any decent planning being done. This is very clear in the result as the second half of the entire animation isn’t what it should be. I should really have took more time to plan ahead. Totally I worked on it for about 3 days, off and on. It’s not something I’m proud of at all and I don’t use it in my portfolio. I haven’t heard anything from Ninja Theory after I sent this in, I don’t know if it’s because my test was THAT bad or if it is because the recruiter that was my contact to Ninja Theory noticed that I already got a new job before they managed to answer me. I know however through a friend of mine that they filled the position about a week ago. Also, in the end I decided to let Ruffian Games know that I wouldn’t do their animation test, since that position was on a contract for a limited time. And these other jobs was permanent.

End of Part 4!
In the next part I will go through all of the interviews and also the making of a decision.