1704x1278
depression-gq-7au....jpg
🧵 Everyone is younger than me in this industry
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 13:03:54 UTC No. 858352
How do you deal with this fact? I'm 27 and started quite late at around 22-23. I do work in the industry and have my share of featured work and published articles, but every time I find out about the age of some successful artist I knew for years, it feels like a punch in the gut.
I always hope they're at least a few years older since they are sometimes already lead artists at big studios etc. and then they end up being younger. I can accept it at times when they got into 3D in their teens and have many more years of experience, but sometimes there are even situations where people started only a couple of years ago and already work at studios like Sony Santa Monica. Now THOSE realizations are suicide inducing.
I try my best not to compare myself with them and focus on improving my own skills, but at times it is really hard to deal with it and I often question my life choices because of it. I'm also aware it's the "never enough" symptom, because a few years ago I wouldn't believe I would even reach my current status, but still.
Majority of AAA games seem to be made by basically children, and I only realized that once I got into this industry.
There are also times where I go through people's CV and just can't figure out how did they get to art directing / lead positions in some studio when they only started working in the industry a year prior and their portfolio during those years was worse than my first pieces on ArtStation. It makes me question if I also fail to properly market myself. I'm a freelancing contractor though, and even though I worked on pretty well known projects so far, maybe being in that position is also problematic if I want to grow and climb up the ladder.
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 13:09:50 UTC No. 858353
>>858352
How much younger?
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:00:10 UTC No. 858356
>work in small studio for a year
>hey man, can i call myself a lead now?
>sure
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:00:56 UTC No. 858357
>>858352
This is going to sound like a cope, but corporations love compliant/obedient workers. Young people are mainly chosen for that very reason.
It's not bad to be an older person in the industry. If anything, I think media would be 10x better if it had mature people like it did in the past. Older people are nuanced because of their life experience whereas younger people hop to extremes because they're told an idealized version of life.
>There are also times where I go through people's CV and just can't figure out how did they get to art directing / lead positions in some studio when they only started working in the industry a year prior and their portfolio during those years was worse than my first pieces on ArtStation.
Connections play a role, but they also did work that you weren't aware of.
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:53:01 UTC No. 858368
>>858352
Get over it Op. Everybody ages and it'll happen to you in a blink of an eye.
Life is too short for you to be uncomfortable at whatever age you're at because whatever youth you still have isn't gonna last much longer.
Personally I'd be rather sad if the kids of today wouldn't run circles around the younger me. They have all of our combined knowledge to draw upon
and the information you can find today on any topic covered in comprehensive videotutorials are far from the careful reading of reference manuals
and obscure forum posts we had to go on to teach ourselves this art back in my day.
>Also you are only 27 dude. You basically stopped being a "kid" yesterday. Spoken @ 39.
>If I complained about my age the people pushing into their 50's would feel the same way about me "stfu kiddo".
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 15:04:12 UTC No. 858370
I'm 81 if that makes any difference
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 17:25:33 UTC No. 858393
>>858352
Well, can you make quality work? Can you work for 12 hours per day? Can you beat the price to quality of your competition? Young people have the advantage that they have much more energy and are willing to work for a pittance.
Getting hired is only one way to make money. You can also try and figure out other ways to sell your work.
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 18:08:21 UTC No. 858406
Are you a white male?
That might be the problem
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Oct 2021 18:22:55 UTC No. 858408
>>858352
i started at 28, and desu, who gives a fuck. I basically started from scratch without even knowing how to draw a circle, yet im still here, its all about practice, most where just practicing earlier than you, thats all.