Can I Survive With No/Little 3D Skills?

[CKeene]

Unfortunately in addition to the few companies that have multiple concept artists, many companies are now just outsourcing for concept art. I expect that will become the norm as there is really no place for an artist who just does concept art beyond the pre-development phase. Possibly promotional materials, but again, that can be done on a contractual basis.

But taking your question at face value, yes you can. Learn to texture. Learn to make awesome effects, technical art, etc. Diversify your 2D skillset. If 2D art is your passion, then by all means, stick with it.

But there are nearly always spots open for 3D modelers, and that number will only increase in the future as teams begin to need more modelers per project.

Every studio will probably use traditional artwork in one form or another but I can't think of one that relies solely on it.

If you mean traditional as in 'pencil and paper', then yes, definitely. Digital is far less expensive, far less time-consuming, and fits into the pipeline much better than traditional artwork.

If you mean traditional as in '2D art', then I must strongly oppose this point! Most casual games make use of Flash or a similar 2D animation package, and that market is booming. Many indie developers use Flash or create pixel art for their games to make their art aesthetically pleasing without having to invest in the software to compete with the AAA developers.

[lazybum]

Actually, you can. The majority of the concept artists in our studio have little to no 3d skills (including myself.) And game studios are actually moving more towards dedicated concept artists instead of just relying on the 3d artists to provide concepts. Why? Because as game visuals get increasingly better, they actually require better levels of concept art that the modelers just can't provide. We are actually seeing more 3d stuff being outsourced because it is easier when you have good concepts to work from. I actually see more concept positions opening up for this reason. The field is getting more and more specialized as the industry matures. We are even starting to see art directors with little or no videogame backgrounds just because the guys with videogame backgrounds many times just don't have the vision to meet the demands of today's games.

[Vig]

Concept artists are not in high demand and normally concepts are either contracted out, or done by an artist already in the production pipeline with some spare time. Its kind of rare for a studio to have a dedicated artist just for concepts. Even more rare that they would hire someone without prior experience.

It helps greatly if a concept artist not only has 3D experience but production experience. They'll know the rules to play by, such as not designing characters with a bunch of hoses going from the back to the arms, or capes, long flowing hair. They'll also be able to knock up not only action poses but also create character sheets that 3D artists can actually use to build off of.

What you might also want to check into and might be more available, is texture artist positions. Of course knowing 3D would also help as you're sometimes required to unwrap models, and possibly remodel parts. And knowing how to produce tile textures as well as work on uniquely unwrapped models.

so can you survive as a concept artist, possibly but I wouldn't hold out. If you take some time to learn a few buttons you'll be vastly more marketable, and the chances of some place picking you up and you working your way into a concept only position will be better.

It will be VERY useful to learn a 3D app even for concepts. It can be great to layout a city block using primitives and paint over the render. You can even pose generic skeletons in different poses and paint over those. It happens more then you might realize. Its used in comics, as well.
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