Image source: Joystiq.com
What does it take to be an artist at Blizzard, one of the top gaming companies on Earth? Artist Marie Lazar offered a sneak peek into this legendary company after her truly enviable stint as an art intern.
Gary Platner, the World of Warcraft lead environment artist, explained what made Marie’s work stand apart from her competitors, ”It’s all about the details. When we create art for WoW, we have to follow some rules. Pieces must have hand painted textures that match our unique art style and they must tell a story. Marie’s work does this very well! And, if you look close enough, some great details come through. It’s a library of the afterlife floating on an island in the sky! There are book references everywhere, books lying around, book grave stones, even the roof is made to look like an open book. All of us could look at this piece and come up with a great story.”
Image source: Joystiq.com
But what led Lazar to be such a detail-oriented artist? According to Lazar, it all starts with passion. “I’ve always loved games, but it never really occurred to me that making them was something you could do for a living until my senior year of high school,” she said. “Over the years, I naturally gravitated towards environment art. I think it’s because exploring is one of my favorite things to do, and my strongest memories of games are always of the places I visit.”
In the market for a new job? Lazar also suggested that new artists should customize their art specifically to appeal to certain companies. “I had already been trying to emulate WoW’s texture style,” she explained. “It’s difficult for would-be artists to know what to put in their portfolios to attract their favorite companies, and contests like this give them a good goal to work towards.”
Image source: Joystiq.com
Lazar’s interview reveals the importance of a lot of the things that we’ve been saying all along. If you want to get ahead in the art world, you should involve yourself as much as possible. Lazar played the video games of the company she wanted to join, she attempted to replicate their art styles, she kept a folder of Blizzard art so that she could reference their work, and she entered a Blizzard art contest to make a run at the top prize.
Lazar went the extra mile, and she was truly rewarded for all of her hard work. What kind of artist wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to intern under Blizzard? Who knows — maybe you could be next!
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