Should I persue a career in video game art?

Seek a college that offers IMGD (Interactive Media and Game Design) as a major. At my college, students majoring in IMGD concentrate on either the programming aspects or art aspects of game design.

Edit: Dammit, I’m sorry, I read your original post as ”How should I pursue…”

I was actually looking into a program at the Art Institute of California/San Diego specifically designed for game art. It’s a lot less to do with the programing end of it and more geared toward actual drawing and rendering. Thank you for the tip! I will look into IMGD!

That program sounds like pretty much the equivalent of an IMGD with concentration on art. Seems like a good fit. Good luck!

I don’t think it would hurt to try to teach yourself some of the technology involved either. Blender is a free, open source, cross-platform program for creating and animating 3d objects. It’s a little awkward to get used to at first, but there are tons of free screencast tutorials out there to get you started. I know there are lots of open-source games out there that would love to have a talented artist contribute art assets. Perhaps you can link up with fellow artists on the project and they can help coach you through some of the techniques. This can be done on the side, in preparation for school.

Also there are online stores where game developers can buy models, animations, and other art assets from artists, so this might be a reasonable way to make money, and gain experience while you’re in school. An example of one such store is the Unity 3d Asset Store.

I forgot to add: welcome to Fluther!

I agree with @gorillapaws, I think you should do some dabbling. It doesn’t hurt to know what you’re dealing with, and it wold also be nice to know that you actually like that aspect of the art.

Thanks @gorillapaws. Those are some excellent resources. Very helpful.

Start by putting together a portfolio of your work and start looking at the art schools…. One of the best art schools in the country is RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). They are expensive to go there so if its too much to attend there I would look at different art schools in your area.

Games are a growth industry and they are always looking for real talent. You’re going to definitely need a good portfolio depicting characters who would be great game heroes, villains or damsels in distress. Show each in a range of motion, expressions and emotion.

My youngest son is in the industry. He’s a Senior Quality Control Supervisor. That means he gets paid to play games and write up the pros and cons of the game-play. His undergraduate degree was in Viola performance plus music compositio from Berkeley College of Musicn. . He also got a BS in military science in the ROTC Program at Northeastern University. He also had both a technical and arts background from high school, having split his time between Virginia Beach’s Ocean Lakes Math & Science Magnet School in the morning, and the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts in the afternoons; a seemingly strange background for the video game industry, but he’s got just what it takes for Harmonix: the developers of music game hits like Rock Band and Dance Central.

If you are truly interested enough in working in the game industty, PM me with ways to get in touch, and I will ask my son to contact you and see if he cn helpn