Update
Class of 2022 Game Art graduate, Harry Hartwell has just been announced as one of the IG50 2022 Winners. This initiative seeks to highlight talented people who have not yet got their foot in the door of the UK games industry and is open to everyone regardless of their background, as long as they are not currently working in the games industry or are re-entering the sector having previously worked in the same role.
Harry is a Prop Artist, specialising in creating weapons and props as in-game assets. His graduate portfolio project, AKB-407, was inspired by soviet rifles and future dystopian war game series such as Fallout and Metro. He says that his project was about, “Creating realistic/stylised props for hero and environment, ridden with storytelling detail. I’m always seeking ways to share stories with every project I create.”
Course Leader, Jacqui Edwards had this to say about the scheme, “This is a great opportunity for recent graduates from UK games courses and we are absolutely delighted that Harry has been selected. Harry’s graduate project, demonstrated beautifully what Game Art is about – imaginative visual storytelling with high level technical skill and creativity!”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE AT WORCESTER UNIVERSITY?
University was very welcoming and friendly, and it is local to my home. My older brother also graduated from the university studying Graphic Design. The tutors are from industry and the course suited my interest.
My first two years were dominated by Covid 19 so I had to find ways to study from home. It was ok for my subject. I managed to stay in touch with tutors and friends through Discord and exchange ideas and communicate throughout the pandemic period. There were some problems with accessing the facilities such as motion capture studio, but we all learnt to live with them.
Staff and tutors were very helpful.
WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?
I specialise in 3d arts. This is the main reason I applied for this job.
HOW DID YOU GET THE JOB, ANY ADVICE?
I had good advice throughout my studies. I had industry standard portfolios and I narrowed down my specialism early on based on advice from Jacqui and Chris.
I used LinkedIn and Arts Station to look for work. These two were the most useful sites for job hunting in my subject.
After usual submission of CV and portfolio I was offered an interview. It was very speedy process, all over in 30 minutes. It is always important that you are honest with yourself and be yourself. It would have been helpful if I had more advice on salary and terms and how to negotiate.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB? AND THE LEAST?
I was offered an attractive job because of my specialism and I will be working with a team of other artists. I will be working on big client projects such as Man City and McDonalds. But most exciting of all, I will be attending the Roblox Development Conference in San Francisco . I will be able to learn of new developments in game building and I will meet experts from around the world. Our company is game branding and advertisement agency. I would like to work on actual Game construction projects in the future.
HOW DID YOUR GAME ART COURSE HELP YOU?
The course gave me the freedom and flexibility within the assessments. I was able to experiment and focus on my interests, such as asset and environment design. The tutors were from industry, so I was well guided towards my career choice and advised on employment and preparing portfolios.
It would be good idea for graduates to be able to get advice on their career after graduation.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO YOUR FORMER STUDENT SELF?
A good piece of advice I thought that I would give to my former student self is to experiment and learn plenty during your time in the course to eventually find what you’re passionate about and love the most, but at the same time be aware of the market you’re going into and do some research on what is in demand right now – for me, I had a passion for weapon and prop art but what is very much in demand is environment art. If I knew this, I would’ve focussed on environments a bit more as I also love making them but simply wasn’t aware that weapons/props were a more niche role. I was lucky to find a generalist 3D Artist role, as opposed to the little amount of prop/weapon roles I found. I applied to environment artist roles but lacked evidence of my ability to make them in my portfolio. Still, I had a routine of looking for jobs everyday and working on a project to further my portfolio, I encourage students to never give up on the job hunt and just get stuck into doing it. While I feel I got a stroke of luck with my opportunity, I still applied everyday to no avail with applications left without reply. Don’t let this stop you and just know eventually you will get somewhere if you truly believe in your skills. When writing cover letters and speaking in the interview, I did with confidence because I knew I was more than capable of doing what I was applying to do.
WHICH MODULES OR LESSONS DO YOU MOST REMEMBER?
I enjoyed the most Environment Design and the Final Project. The tutors’ advice was very knowledgeable and gave me real world experience. This also prepared me towards my specialism. The module briefs gave me every opportunity to be creative and experiment my ideas.
