Today's class had special guest Mr. Matt Charles from Gearbox Software come and speak. Mr. Charles is a graduate from University of Texas at Dallas and a former student of mine. He now is working as a producer on Borderlands 2. he discussed with the class how he went from Q&A to Producer while at Gearbox. Sharing with the students that it helps to have a programming and art background to be producer, so that you know the lingo for both sides.
He went on to say how putting up your best work first, with the amount of hours it took you to make it, your poly/tri/vert count. Displaying your high poly and low poly along with wire frame was needed in your portfolio and always put up your different maps. He said its not necessarily important to learn several different modeling packages, but actually learning how to be a great modeler is.
He discussed what it is like to be a producer and how rewarding it is. One of his questions to the class was what is the number one reason why most projects fail? The answer was lack of knowledge in requirements needed to complete a task. For example if a modeler is told to go make something from their lead but never asks what the lead wants in it and has to go back to ask. Well multiply that by the number of employees and their ya go.
Being a producer he was able to cover a wide range of topics, which really benefited the students since not all of them want to be Modeling/Texture Artist. Some of his important lessons for my students is to make sure that you communicate well and manager your time wisely.
PS. I will try to bring a better camera than my iphone for my special guests.
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