Seriously. I really wonder why they (and other companies) don't just hire 2-3 full time animators whose sole job it is to animate cards that don't have animations yet.
That way, every patch we'll get to find new animations like this.
I mean I know they're kinda doing this already, but that seems to be fairly rare and only happens with the big patches, if at all.
I led the VFX team until about 8 months ago, I can give you a really boring educated guess-answer towards some of the HS side if you want.:P (Specifically about VFX like Snowflipper's entrance, since the VFX team doesn't do golden animations.)
They are hiring VFX artists pretty aggressively - I think there have consistently been two VFX positions open at all times since I left, in addition to having already made some pretty stellar new hires in that time. It's just pretty hard to find them (this is true at every gaming company, my mates at Riot, etc. have the same gripe). There are very few experienced VFX artists out there that can be convinced to leave their current jobs, and even junior VFX artists who won't require a year-ish of ramp-up are still relatively rare (and Blizzard/games in general tend to overvalue seniority, so even really good juniors are sometimes snubbed).
On a more lovey-dovey team management note, getting to go back to a card you love and create new VFX for it is a treat that all the existing artists hope to be able to do too (like, the guy who did this one has been wanting to do it since Trolls or something, and finally got time for it as his mic drop on his way out). And as /u/SpysGreed accurately called out, there's a lot of new card art, and HS is adding a ton of content in general that needs VFX support, and all that gets priority. So whoever gets hired wouldn't get to be dedicated to these backlog VFX, the happy team fix is to grow the team to the point where there's actually consistent wiggle room in the schedule for everyone to pick up these sorts of pieces more often.:) And given how much content is being added to HS these days, that's probably a pretty big team that'll take a while to hire.
This is still a pretty simplified look at the team part (you also probably need another audio person, for instance), but you get the idea.
Anyways, they definitely *want* to be doing more of this stuff, and are trying to get into a place where they can - that's been true since before I was hired. Catching up to the point where you can justify lots of these tasks is just super frickin hard.
Also, if you know any talented game VFX Artists who are hiding in the woodwork, send 'em HS's way.
(and Blizzard/games in general tend to overvalue seniority, so even really good juniors are sometimes snubbed)
That's so sad. I've been looking for a job in my country (another art-field game related) and is so hard to find junior positions open... and to think Jr artists still have to go through that. Job market for games is tough I guess, you have to prove your value and keep pushing foward
Yeah it's really frustrating, especially because I've worked with so many amazing juniors and seen some amazing teams built by people who were willing to take on and mentor more juniors, I KNOW how awesome many of you are.
Honestly, if you can stomach the extra rejections that it will naturally incur, applying to jobs that don't specifically list a title is a pretty good numbers game to play (as a concept art example, you might apply to listings for both "Junior Concept Artist" and "Concept Artist," but ignore ones for "Senior Concept Artist." Additionally, many will list 2-3 years of experience as a requirement, but that's often kinda wishful thinking and they may take someone more junior if they're having a hard time filling the position. Many will still dismiss you out-of-hand, which sucks, but job applications are such a numbers game it can pay off eventually). Sometimes job listings are intentionally ambiguous on the level in order to cast a wider net, because a junior might apply to an "[X] Artist" position, but an [X] Artist won't apply to a "Junior [X] Artist" position. So it pays to cast a wide net yourself as well. (As an example, a junior could very reasonably apply to one of the two job listings HS has for VFX based on the requirements in it, but it's still titled "VFX Artist" instead of "Junior VFX Artist" because of aforementioned net.)
Which field are you in, if you don't mind me asking? And just to make sure (I'm sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious), you know about GrackleHQ right? It's my favorite game job board these days.:)
Actually I just got a job at a really good company this week, the demand was for a "mid artist" but I got the position of junior in the job offer (just like the wide range you explained) and pretty happy and relieved for that, but the road to get here for +1 year and lack of experience is devastating... and I'm just starting this journey.
The main issue is the eternal spiral limbo many people can't get through, specially in my country (Brazil) where native game industry is in a very narrow spectrum, and some english job terms get confusing to newcomers.
I'm a 3D generalist btw, aspiring to specialize in modeling some day.
I loved the website, I wish we got in Brazil some direct and condensed job listing like this one. Thank you very much for the consideration and tips.
Edit: What about you, if you don't mind: working with VFX somewhere else? The VFX and animations entrances in HD are more beautiful each year, your work in HS is fantastic
Oh that's awesome, congrats!!! I honestly think landing that first gig is one of, if not the hardest part of your whole career, you should be really proud of yourself! Especially in 3D, the competition there is no joke and you've gotta be pretty dang good to be able to get in there these days (let alone in Brazil where, as you say, the options are much narrower).
The application limbo is so real, I'm glad you're out of it.:))
Yeah I'm doing VFX at a start-up called Moonshot now- actually with a few of the og HS devs haha.
And thank you!:D I'll tell the current team too, they're wonderful and I totally agree that they just keep getting better. Going into the Barrens pretty much blind is pretty exciting since it's the first time in years I have no idea what the VFX will look like.
(Update: I sent your nice VFX words to one of my friends who's still there and he just replied with "SCREAMS" and said thank you, you've made him very happy and he's going to pass it along to the rest of the team.:D)
Thank you so much, you're really kind. Artists need to cheer up each other right? I'll be sure to be looking into your website to keep track on your art there.
PS.: Not to abuse your kindness and patience to answer, I promise that's my last reply -- Just saw your demo reels and the effects there are build from scratch all by you? (each VFX artist is responsible for a X number of effects?) If so, I never thought a single person was responsable for so many effects, even the pack opening ones, which I'm always anxious to discover what we will get in the next expansions. I remember when I watched a VFX artist explaining how The Lurker Below splash damage effect was complex to build into the game and I was fascinated by it. If you know the one responsible for the entrance of Kargath Bladefist/Prime, tell to the artist I would sent it a box of chocolates, the card effect gave me chills when I first saw it. Extra kudos for you all!
Besides that, really sweet beautifull looking stuff you made. VFXs are personally my favorite visual art resource in Hearthstone.
Haha no worries, I'm notoriously happy to answer VFX questions! And thank you again for so many kind words!<3
To the demo reels - yeah, everything in my demo reels is stuff I made unless there's a little note calling it out at the bottom (for example, the gold exclamation point at the beginning of the Uldum Quest VFX was by John Zwicker, but it's super awkward to edit out so I just credit it instead :)). It's as you said, each of us would be tasked with x number of VFX for the set and those were ours to design and build with consideration for the mechanics, card art, feedback from others, etc. There are a lot of the typical little game efficiencies in there - most games including HS have a huge texture library built up over the years, so I wouldn't need to paint a new smoke puff or light beam every time and could focus on the special unique textures for that effect, somtimes you can sort of copy-paste one of your old token-hitting-the-ground-and-kick-up-dust impacts and tweak it to suit the need of the new VFX, those sorts of things. It makes tackling so many VFX a lot easier (and take up less disc space haha) when you aren't constantly reinventing the wheel, thankfully.:)
Lurker Below was amazing, the art and tech for that were both done by Nick (who also did our lil' buddy Snowflipper here) with help from engineering and he did such an awesome job! He actually made some really cool subtle updates to our VFX shader for that too, so that he could create better stylized water with it, he's just a crazily-skilled guy all around. And Kargath Bladefist/Prime was by Dominic Camuglia (whose first press interview should be coming out soon, I can't wait!), and yeah it's SO COOL, he did so well! He said to say thank you too, btw, he was very happy about that haha. That whole team is so skilled now.:0
Hadidjah
I led the VFX team until about 8 months ago, I can give you a really boring educated guess-answer towards some of the HS side if you want.:P (Specifically about VFX like Snowflipper's entrance, since the VFX team doesn't do golden animations.)
They are hiring VFX artists pretty aggressively - I think there have consistently been two VFX positions open at all times since I left, in addition to having already made some pretty stellar new hires in that time. It's just pretty hard to find them (this is true at every gaming company, my mates at Riot, etc. have the same gripe). There are very few experienced VFX artists out there that can be convinced to leave their current jobs, and even junior VFX artists who won't require a year-ish of ramp-up are still relatively rare (and Blizzard/games in general tend to overvalue seniority, so even really good juniors are sometimes snubbed).
On a more lovey-dovey team management note, getting to go back to a card you love and create new VFX for it is a treat that all the existing artists hope to be able to do too (like, the guy who did this one has been wanting to do it since Trolls or something, and finally got time for it as his mic drop on his way out). And as /u/SpysGreed accurately called out, there's a lot of new card art, and HS is adding a ton of content in general that needs VFX support, and all that gets priority. So whoever gets hired wouldn't get to be dedicated to these backlog VFX, the happy team fix is to grow the team to the point where there's actually consistent wiggle room in the schedule for everyone to pick up these sorts of pieces more often.:) And given how much content is being added to HS these days, that's probably a pretty big team that'll take a while to hire.
This is still a pretty simplified look at the team part (you also probably need another audio person, for instance), but you get the idea.
Anyways, they definitely *want* to be doing more of this stuff, and are trying to get into a place where they can - that's been true since before I was hired. Catching up to the point where you can justify lots of these tasks is just super frickin hard.
Also, if you know any talented game VFX Artists who are hiding in the woodwork, send 'em HS's way.
Hadidjah
Yeah it's really frustrating, especially because I've worked with so many amazing juniors and seen some amazing teams built by people who were willing to take on and mentor more juniors, I KNOW how awesome many of you are.
Honestly, if you can stomach the extra rejections that it will naturally incur, applying to jobs that don't specifically list a title is a pretty good numbers game to play (as a concept art example, you might apply to listings for both "Junior Concept Artist" and "Concept Artist," but ignore ones for "Senior Concept Artist." Additionally, many will list 2-3 years of experience as a requirement, but that's often kinda wishful thinking and they may take someone more junior if they're having a hard time filling the position. Many will still dismiss you out-of-hand, which sucks, but job applications are such a numbers game it can pay off eventually). Sometimes job listings are intentionally ambiguous on the level in order to cast a wider net, because a junior might apply to an "[X] Artist" position, but an [X] Artist won't apply to a "Junior [X] Artist" position. So it pays to cast a wide net yourself as well. (As an example, a junior could very reasonably apply to one of the two job listings HS has for VFX based on the requirements in it, but it's still titled "VFX Artist" instead of "Junior VFX Artist" because of aforementioned net.)
Which field are you in, if you don't mind me asking? And just to make sure (I'm sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious), you know about GrackleHQ right? It's my favorite game job board these days.:)
Hadidjah
Oh that's awesome, congrats!!! I honestly think landing that first gig is one of, if not the hardest part of your whole career, you should be really proud of yourself! Especially in 3D, the competition there is no joke and you've gotta be pretty dang good to be able to get in there these days (let alone in Brazil where, as you say, the options are much narrower).
The application limbo is so real, I'm glad you're out of it.:))
Yeah I'm doing VFX at a start-up called Moonshot now- actually with a few of the og HS devs haha.
And thank you!:D I'll tell the current team too, they're wonderful and I totally agree that they just keep getting better. Going into the Barrens pretty much blind is pretty exciting since it's the first time in years I have no idea what the VFX will look like.
(Update: I sent your nice VFX words to one of my friends who's still there and he just replied with "SCREAMS" and said thank you, you've made him very happy and he's going to pass it along to the rest of the team.:D)
Hadidjah
Haha no worries, I'm notoriously happy to answer VFX questions! And thank you again for so many kind words!<3
To the demo reels - yeah, everything in my demo reels is stuff I made unless there's a little note calling it out at the bottom (for example, the gold exclamation point at the beginning of the Uldum Quest VFX was by John Zwicker, but it's super awkward to edit out so I just credit it instead :)). It's as you said, each of us would be tasked with x number of VFX for the set and those were ours to design and build with consideration for the mechanics, card art, feedback from others, etc. There are a lot of the typical little game efficiencies in there - most games including HS have a huge texture library built up over the years, so I wouldn't need to paint a new smoke puff or light beam every time and could focus on the special unique textures for that effect, somtimes you can sort of copy-paste one of your old token-hitting-the-ground-and-kick-up-dust impacts and tweak it to suit the need of the new VFX, those sorts of things. It makes tackling so many VFX a lot easier (and take up less disc space haha) when you aren't constantly reinventing the wheel, thankfully.:)
Lurker Below was amazing, the art and tech for that were both done by Nick (who also did our lil' buddy Snowflipper here) with help from engineering and he did such an awesome job! He actually made some really cool subtle updates to our VFX shader for that too, so that he could create better stylized water with it, he's just a crazily-skilled guy all around. And Kargath Bladefist/Prime was by Dominic Camuglia (whose first press interview should be coming out soon, I can't wait!), and yeah it's SO COOL, he did so well! He said to say thank you too, btw, he was very happy about that haha. That whole team is so skilled now.:0