Ask The Staff!

Because we're that awesome.

If you eat it on a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, you're probably going to eat it on the same as me. This weekend was an exception because of drill.

ss?

If you're talking about screenshots, I've only approved 1. That reminds me I have to report a bug to Scragg.

Before being modded yesterday, I would say... 7-9 hours a day. That depended on if I was at work and if I was at home after work (I spend half my week out of town). If I'm not at home in the afternoon then you can tack on another 3-4 hours to that.

You need to slow down!

Jaerik, what advice would you give to a graphic designer?

In which industry? Games?

Well in games and/or in general too.

learn illustrator by tracing photos

copy those you admire, and work from there

oh wait

not jearik :(

Don't do it. My dad is a graphic designer. He said Ii could do anything I wanted to in life but be a graphic designer/artist. He said as soon as he saw any good art from me he broke my crayons :p

I actually just recently changed my major from computer science (after 3 years of being in CS) to Art Graphic Design.

The programing courses I took in CS should still be valuable, and I was doing well;however, I realized that I wasn't enjoying CS as much as I should have. My father is also an engineer in computer science...so I suppose that influenced me to do CS initially as well.

I've always liked art, and I'm actually pretty good at drawing things, even if I do say so myself. I also took several art courses back in high school, even AP art too. Although I do have the problem of sometimes taking too long to complete a drawing or painting because I'm such a perfectionist. Anyway, I think Art with technology (graphic design) would be something I would enjoy doing more for a living. And there are different industries and jobs for graphic designers from what I understand.

Jaerik likely knows more about graphic designers than I do at this point, so I was interested in what he may have to say about it.

wat.


if you want graphic design, learn how to use every adobe program..it'll be helpful, as for the course, they wont teach you to be creative, thats something you learn.

as for copy paste... don't do that, it's gross and it will never teach you some creativity. Look at others work, to wonder how they do it but never copy paste...it'll hurt you in the end.

Just get yourself in the right mindset. Recognize that in gaming in particular, good art is just another commodity that is bought, sold, and negotiated like any other part of the product.

This doesn't mean it's cheapened in any way. It means that just like good code, or good design, it's a critical, self-contained package that needs to fill a particular slot on a bigger product for the whole thing to work.

Rock star game artists aren't the ones who run off from day one and try to force success by coming up with sweeping artistic statement on their own. They're the ones who first learn how to nail exactly what their customer (read: other people in the studio) wants, and then deliver above and beyond in a way that knocks their socks off.

also can jaerik let me know how the ffxiah looks to him =o ive always wondered how it looks from an admn's acc.

Example.

The best graphics artists I've ever interviewed, including some very impressive Art Directors that I've later hired, set their portfolio up this way. They explained the customer directive they had been given, and then proceed to show design after design, research sketch after sketch, study after study, iteration after iteration, and then like a dozen spectacular final versions of the end product. (Which were, of course, jaw-droppingly gorgeous or we wouldn't be interviewing them in the first place.)

They showed not just a damn good portfolio of very pretty art, but that the pretty art was targeted, directed, and executed in spectacular fashion according to the customer's direction. They proved to me why they would be valuable as an employee and not just as a good artist.

It looks mostly like you guys' interface, except where you get options like Edit or Delete on your own posts, comments, etc, I get them on every one.

Along the top of each forum page, I have a thin yellow bar with commands to move, sticky, lock, or "unmain" a thread. (Remove it from the front page index but otherwise leave it intact.)

On the Members Menu on the right, I have access to additional pages at the bottom which let me look up and cross-reference users by any method (account, character name, IP, etc) and edit any of their info. I have granular control over 12 permissions per user, from forum write to screenshot submission.

The user lookup page displays and gives me control over every comment, screenshot, forum post, or action you've taken on the site, across all characters/accounts, and allows me to leave comments on your record that are only visible to other mods/admins.

I have another interface that lets me alter the text of any part of the user interface for any given language setting, which is also how I set "yellow box" announcements on the left side of the site when necessary. And finally, I have a toolbar along that bottom that constantly displays database health, size, site response and page load time, etc.

What I do not have is any access to data which is advertised as "untouched by human hands" as part of the site's value. This includes any data gathered via your POL Linkshell Community Profile, or from the Auction House itself. It is important to leave this data "pure" so that users can trust it, even if it means I lose the ability to correct the occasional problem.

Thanks Jaerik.

I suppose salaries depend on the industry and the company too from what I understand, and well... also depends on the quality and experience of the graphic designer. Seems like something one has to work hard on, but if it's something one enjoys doing, I think it should still be worth it.

Naturally, I'll have to learn as much as possible, do the best job I can, and see where this takes me. I will surely have competition in the field of graphic design. Although I suppose this is the case in many other careers too.

Omg I love this thread, I was thinking of reviving it! :3

If it's helpful, I usually recommend people consult stuff like the yearly game industry salary surveys to get a feel for what the pay scales of each department, and various levels of experience within that department, are like.

Everyone's circumstances are unique of course, but it can be helpful to at lease get your mind in the right ballpark range to set your own expectations accordingly.

oh damn...I had an idea, but didn't know about the ninja comments on users. I'd wonder if I have some sneakys in there!

can you look up PMs, those are private i guess?

hahaha i can only imagine what's on darki's, stanflame's, etc.

or korpg's back in the day

We pretty much use it exclusively for documenting administrative actions that may have been taken by an admin/mod that another one wouldn't otherwise know about. That way we don't end up accidentally clobbering one another's decisions.

We're pretty professional behind the scenes, although you'll have to just take my word on that.

And don't ask an admin/mod to tell you if you have anything on your account. They won't say, and will just be irritated by the request.

PM's of course have to live in a database somewhere, so I'm sure Scragg or I could get to them if we really wanted to.

But we take user privacy pretty seriously, and have intentionally made it a huge pain in the *** to do so. So far I've never had the need.

Definitely. And I had actually searched for game designer and graphic designer jobs and salaries before... just to get a rough idea. I never came across the yearly game industry salary surveys site though. I'll check it out, thanks for the link.

Oh Jaerik, do you have the option to see who is rating down posts?

I do not.

Headed home from work. 'night guys.