Redundant from Krome - New Chapter in my Career

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Well by now most people in the video games industry would be well aware but its definitely a very hard time to be working on our line of work. Unfortunately my position was made redundant a week back as one of the Senior Concept Artists at Krome Studios and so begins a new chapter in my career and not just the end of one.

As most people would expect its never an easy thing to be put in such a situation, especially in such a small industry as there is within Brisbane Australia. One thing I do know is that with change comes growth, and with this period of soul searching and uncertainty all you can do is stay true to yourself and your passion. People will always try and dis/encourage you and put thoughts into your head and you will become very easily impressionable to throwing the towel in altogether but you need to stay the course, remember your skills and what they are worth and find a new avenue to enjoy the fruits of your hard work so far. Like the rest of those made redundant in my industry all around the world, I will not lose focus of why I started doing this, and these people need to remember that we are the talent and without the talent the Publishers dont have a product to sell. Publishers are already at a stalemate. The next few years will see a MASSIVE downsize in the number games published, and the majority of these will be sequels or Original IP from proven companies like id, Lionhead or Bungie or Publisher owned studios like Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft, EA or Infinity Ward. If the remaining studios dont intend on making DLC/casual/social or online games Im afraid their business strategy just disappeared for the next foreseeable future unless they can partner with a Publisher to produce regular and quick turnaround Licensed IP. Sadly this is the state of our industry, and for those studying still hoping to join it, I wish you all the best in trying.

While I still have a strong desire to work within the gaming scene and produce AAA titles which are both innovative as well as fun to play the realization that without relocation there just isnt many jobs around. Its a giant game of musical chairs, and all the chairs I see appear to be taken for the short term. With this being the case I have decided to attempt to kick start my freelancing buisiness until I am again employed and focus on improving my skill set which I have not been in a position to improve over the past half decade. Some of these areas include anatomy and character dynamics, storyboarding and storytelling/narrative, polished illustration level rendering techniques and product/prop design. For so long I have focused on my speed, range of ideation, colour theory, presentation techniques, composition and environment design that I truly feel this is a chance to improve and round off my skill set so that I'm an even more rounded artist and illustrator for the next Studio which picks me up. I have no doubt that over the next coming months with the free time now available to me I should be able to adequately focus on each specific area in such as way that working fulltime never previously permitted.

Ive decided to step further into freelance illustration focusing on covers, promotional, editorial and poster work for the video game, film and tv and visual entertainment industries much along the lines of one of my biggest inspirations Marko Djurdjevic.

With this new development unfortunately any and all tutorials I was working on are cancelled including my already completed Colour theory tutorial as I hope you can all understand. Ive spent so many years helping others improve their skills that I fear I have let myself down. It wont be long until Im right back up again, you just wait and see.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any commissions or freelance work at autaux@gmail.com or just to say howdy dudey and remember to visit my website over the coming weeks/months as to my progress.

www.AdamNichols.net

Take care of yourselves, and your families,
Adam
© 2010 - 2024 Autaux
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AndrewFroedge's avatar
Very best of luck to you my friend. A glass to freelance ...yay!