Do it for the money or do it for the passion?

When I went to Westwood and graduated with a BA in game art and design I was told coming in to the degree that there was going to be a shiny new job at the end of my 3 1/2 years of studding and that the industry was roses, sugar, and everything nice. I was wrong...

                We were sold a image of working in a creative environment making Video games, playing Video games, and talking about video games because we loved video games. I was going to come to work in a T-shirt with some smart ass phrase pointing the hilarities of life and then develop cool things in the computer to contribute to something I was passionate about. I was going to have toys galore in my work section and a nerf gun I used to shoot at ppl that pissed me off near dead line time.

                This is NOT what the game industry is. Do you get to work on game projects? sure but you better hope the studio you go to is not some soul sucking whore that will take all that is creative out of you. The hours are long as hell, the benefits suck, there is no retirement plan, and you live off of scraps to get by but at least your doing what you love right?

                Then I thought to myself "Man the movie industry has been around longer and I bet they got better benefits then the game industry which is still in its infancy right?" Nope it sucks... Rhythm and Hues filing chapter 11 bankrupt, laying off 250 artist, and WINNING the damn OSCARS of all things in 2013 just proved how much shit the CG industry in movies is in the toilet. Once again you will be hard pressed to find a company that offers good benefits like medical / dental, good pay, pay increase aka as raises, and getting paid for over time. For more info here is some great articles on the matter:

http://thebigsocialpicture.blogspot.ro/2013/02/the-oscar-protest-that-you-didnt-know.html

http://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/visualeffectsprotestatoscars/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oAMz0Ppi8tQ
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/an-open-letter-to-ang-lee/

               

                It's like artist are universally shit on but in the reality we all want cool looking stuff. Artist do this. At Gnomon your studding to be a VFX for movies or a game artist ultimately. I read and met allot of artist in the game industry and more I look at the other industry, movies, I am learning that the same thing is happening. You are going to plop down over 100k in loans or out of pocket. You are going to spend every min at this school working on your craft. Relies right now as it stands the industry your going into you're not doing it for the money. You're not doing it for the great 401K plan. You're not doing it because you are going to retire at 55 in Hawaii. You're doing it because you love it. I am probably going to live the rest of my life in debt from school but I want to do something that I truly love. I worked for 5 years to make money. I was doing pretty good for myself near the end and I learned something very important. Working for money to live SUCKS.

                I rather do something that I love every day and just get by on the bills then make millions of dollars but have to work 8 hours a day doing something I do not love. I am going to go forward remembering this for the rest of my life. It's like how my parents always told me. You're going to work for the rest of your life then you better do something you love.