Vis Dev job - just let me freak out a second
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I was approached for a Vis Dev job for a major IP developer (not the big boys, but big enough to make me grin). I have studied Vis Dev as my MFA major, so I cannot say I’m totally unprepared, but I`ve never done professional Vis Dev, so I’m freaking out nonetheless.
They pay by the hour (which is common in VisDev) and they cap the first stage at five hours. So basically I should just draw and deliver anything I have after five hours. They are exploring three character designs and they want „rough sketches“, no color, unless I prefer to work in color, and as many variations as I can conceive.
Obviously, I’m not going for five hours, I’m going as long as it takes to impress them - yet not look like I’m overdoing it...
So, to calm me down - has anyone here an idea of how rough is „rough“ at the blue-sky stage and how many variations a large studio would expect to see from a five-hour stint? @Jake-Parker @Lee-White @Will-Terry maybe one of you can put in a word of guidance? I’m not going to count research and warm-up into the hours. The pay is generous enough not to be stingy with time... -
@smceccarelli Cool!!!
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Congrats! thats so cool, and well deserved! Perhaps you can check out some art of books to see what 'rough' is. The sketches in Peter de Seve's book will help you aswel I think. Good luck, you can do it!
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Congratulations!
You will knock it out of the park! Maybe if we all yell @Jake-Parker !!! he will hear and come help. 
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@smceccarelli - Yay yay yay!!! I'm so excited for you. You so deserve this and I can't wait to hear how it all goes. You're incredibly talented and kind to boot. I'm sure you are going to do a wonderful job.
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At long last! I’m very excited for you, Simona. This job will definitely be the one that will put your foot in the door. No matter what the outcome, I believe you’ll do great being the talented and tenacious artist that you are.
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@smceccarelli This is so great! Congratulations and good luck!!
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AWESOME!!! I'm happy for you! I can't help with any info but I'll certainly say congrats on your opportunity!
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That's amazing! Congratulations!
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Wow! Its so awesome when what you've been working toward for so long starts happening for you. I have no idea how to answer your questions, but I'm sure you will do it well because you always do great work.
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Exciting news! Congratulations, Simona. I can only imagine what you must be feeling – no one wants to mess up a great opportunity and no one wants to come off looking like a novice. My only advice would be, please yourself. If you like what you produce, 9 times out of 10 the client will too. After all, they picked you for a reason. If you’re happy they will be too. Also, I guess if I were in your shoes, I would take my cues from Carter Goodrich. His work seems to reflect various stages of “rough” and his creations made it to the big screen. Good luck! I love your work
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Thank you all for the encouragement and the vote of trust...you have a better opinion of me than I have!! I’m at the eight hour of sketching, I’m exhausted and I don’t like anything of what I´ve done....I guess it´s normal? I´ll put in a few more hours tomorrow and then call it done. I cannot do too much and claim it was five hours of work, otherwise I´ll set expectations I cannot fulfill!
I guess either I’m ready for this or I’m not...and if I’m not, there will be another chance when I am
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@smceccarelli I think it was Jake Parker who said something along the lines of "get the bad drawings out of the way first." So just look at it like that and hang in there for the next round!
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@jon-anderson Yes he did! And it´s true, it takes at least an hour before I can produce anything usable.
But his comment didn’t take deadlines into account, I’m afraid -
I know your work and process very well. You are more than qualified for this. Your "rough" stage is beautiful. Go get 'em!
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Wooo! Congratulations! :)))
Have fun with it! -
Thank you @Lee-White and everyone for the support - you demonstrate again and again how important it is to be part of a community...
I've just pressed the send button because I just can't put in any more hours without feeling like an idiot - sending in something like 25 designs, none of them really great. Maybe one or two ok ones.
Trying to channel Marco Bucci saying that "the big chance" doesn't exist and that if you keep doing the work, chances just keep coming. ;-)) -
@smceccarelli I'm not familiar with the industry so I may have misunderstood the scope of this opportunity. Is it a one shot thing or does this one opportunity consists of several phases or rounds of sketches per se? Hopefully if there's another go at it you'll feel much better about the work. You contribute so much to this community and we are all so happy for your opportunities and to likewise encourage you when we can.
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@jon-anderson They don’t say much, but my interpretation is that they are using this round to pick who they will be working with for the development of the show. An animated series can take months or years to develop and 5 hours is not even a scratch on the surface - even if they hired a bunch of artist (which I’m sure they did, because I only got a small section of the brief). Either that, or they are just collecting a bunch of ideas to pick the general look and then they work in house....either is possible.
In any case - these five hours pay about 100 times better than the educational books I’m working on right now. It would be nice to have more of those
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@smceccarelli what an awesome opportunity! Your work is always top notch. Thanks for sharing your experience so far, so interesting!
