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Why Chose A Career In Game-Making - After Game-Loving Child Became Interested In 3DCG

Why Chose A Career In Game-Making - After Game-Loving Child Became Interested In 3DCG

This is a once upon a time story of Toha.

This is the story of a child who simply loved video games, who became interested in 3DCG and pursued his dream of "working in the game-making industry in the future.

 

The game FF7 is what got me interested in 3DCG

!

FF7 (Final Fantasy 7) is a PlayStation software released in 1997.

At that time, Toha was in the eighth grade.
I have loved video games since I was in elementary school, especially Square's (now Square Enix) RPGs. I borrowed FF6 from a friend and played it with beautiful dot pictures and a great story...

FF7, announced as the next title after FF6, was not a dot picture!

For Toha, who thought that "all games were made with dots," this was a huge shock.

I didn't know this kind of game existed in the world. I was like, "Wow, what a game!

I wanted to buy a PlayStation for sure, but my family was not rich, so we didn't have the money to buy a PlayStation...

I had no choice but to buy a strategy book and just feel like I was playing the game.

Then one day.

friend
friend

I've cleared it. You want me to lend you FF7?

Toha
Toha

But I don't have a PlayStation.

friend
friend

I'll lend you the PlayStation too?

Toha
Toha

Really? Please!

So we got to play FF7!
Thanks to my friend who lent me his Prestige and FF7 back then. I will never forget this favor...

And so the opening of FF7, booted up on a friend's PlayStation.

 

I was impressed.

This is so cool...! Is this real? I thought so.

It may not seem like much at all compared to today's highly developed computer graphics technology.

But for kids who were playing games at the time, it was the first time for them to see a CG movie.

In addition, the game FF7 was wonderful in terms of its characters, worldview, and storyline, and had a tremendous impact on Toha, who was in his second year of junior high school and was very impressionable.

I can assure you that without the game FF7, Toha would not be where he is today.

 

 

A Teacher's Words Change a Junior High School Student Who Hates to Study

・・・・・・

Toha, who enjoys every day thanks to FF7, comes to a reality that is not so pleasant.

Speaking of the second year of junior high school, it is just the time when you have to decide your career path. It is the time to take the high school entrance examination.

At that time, I unliked studying. Because playing games was much more fun than studying.

I studied at school because I didn't want to get a bad grade on a test because my parents would get angry with me.

I didn't want to study for exams or do anything like that.

 

At that time, the homeroom teacher gave career guidance talk to all the students in the class.

Says the teacher.

teacher
teacher

High school is a place to study
So, if you don't like studying, you don't have to go to high school.

Oh, seriously? But doesn't everyone go to high school?

teacher
teacher

You don't go there because everyone else is going there.
Some of them didn't go to high school and became master carpenters.

Really? I didn't know you could do that... I guess I won't go to high school then. I unliked studying.

I really thought so for a while, but the doctor also said this.

teacher
teacher

You don't have to go to high school, but you have to think about your future.

 

The child who became a master carpenter apprenticed himself to a carpenter without going to high school. That is how he became a carpenter.

What do I want to be in the future? When I thought about it, what came to mind was "a game creator".

I liked games, drawing, crafts, and making something with his hands.

 

It is said that love is the key to success.

If it is a job to make games, it sounds fun and I might be able to do it well, right? That's what I thought, even though it's simple... I started thinking about the cool CG I saw in FF7, and I wanted to make that in particular in games.

The career path for Toha will be decided. Go to high school to study computer graphics and become a game creator!

 

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Believing in the story of being able to study Computer Graphics, I entered a college of technology

?

I have decided on a career path, but Which high school can I go to study CG? I am not sure about this.

As you may not imagine, smartphones were not yet in the world at this time. Computers and the Internet were not yet in common use.

Even if a junior high school student wanted to research something, there was almost no way for him or her to do so on his or her own.

Nowadays, you can easily find out a school's curriculum by checking the school's website. But back then, all you could do was collect school pamphlets and look them up.

At that time, my mother came and said,

parents
parents

I heard that if you go to a technical college, you can study computer graphics.

Toha
Toha

I'm in!!

A technical college is a technical college of technology. It was a national five-year school.

It is usually technical college students who build and operate the robots in Robocon (robot contest). Robocon is held by the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, but there is also a computer-related department called the Department of Information Engineering.

Toha's mother says that if I go here, I can study CG.

If you ask me, the nearest technical college is located close to my house. If it is easy to commute and I can study CG, I have no choice but to go there.

Even though I unliked studying, I studied hard and was able to enroll in a technical college.

 

Toha
Toha

.........

But.

About three years after entering a technical college, I learn that there is no CG in the technical college curriculum.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering is indeed computer-related, but its main focus was programming.

There was a class called "image processing", but it was a technology for what we now call facial recognition and the like, never the CG that is used in games.

At a technical college where I was supposed to go to study computer graphics, Toha studied programming and other subjects for five years.

 

Well, you know - I couldn't do CG at a technical college, but I'm glad I went there as a result.

I can now use a computer, and my study of programming is not a total waste of time.

Also, thanks to the fact that we did not have to change classes for five years at the college of technology, even though I am not very good at socializing, I was able to talk easily with everyone in his class.

By the time students reach the fifth grade, it is time for them to decide their career path again.

 

Application to game companies for job hunting, but all fail

feeling sad

There are two career paths from a technical college: to go on to higher education or to find a job.

Since I wanted to work making games, I chose to get a job.

Job hunting by technical college students is a little different from the job hunting activities of the general public.

First, a company sends a job offer to the technical college. The technical college recommends one or two students who are interested in the position, and the recommended students are interviewed by the company.

If you get an interview with a company through a school recommendation, you will usually be accepted unless there are major problems.

For the company, a technical college graduate is also an excellent asset, with a lower salary and more specialized knowledge than a college graduate.

Such a win-win school recommendation system, however, you cannot get a job at a company that does not offer jobs to technical colleges.

 

What Toha wants to be is a game creator. There are some job openings for game companies coming to technical colleges, but even if there are, they are openings for 100% programmers.

Toha wants to do CG. That cannot be done by a programmer.

Even if I had never studied CG, I did not want to work for a company I did not want to work for without challenging myself.

So, over the objections of his teacher, he begins his job search on a free application basis.

I thought about various things in my way as an inexperienced person with no knowledge or skills and applied to several major game companies on my own. I would visit game companies and take entrance exams together with other students.

But. Well - it all fell completely.

Toha
Toha

Sometimes feelings are not enough.

 

By the way, the teacher in charge of the program, who had been opposed to the open-ended application process out of hand, said, "I'll wait and tell you if it doesn't work out," when she learned of Tohya's firm determination.

I applied freely and failed all of them, and when I found out that I just tried and failed, I was strangely convinced.

After that, I obediently followed the recommendation of his teacher and had an interview with a certain company.

 

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Worked in a general company and learned important things as a member of society

Portfolio~.

Luckily, the result was a pass and I was able to get a decent job.

The company where I have been selected for employment is a large company that has factories and offices all over Japan and is engaged in a wide range of manufacturing activities. I will be joining the IT department there.

It was an IT department, but I was not in charge of programming, but of managing system development costs and server-related expenses. Eventually, I would also do what is called in-house SE-type work at the same time.

To be honest, the work was not interesting to me. That's because I wanted to create CG, which is totally different from what I wanted to do. I was so sleepy every day...

But I really learned a lot at this company.

Toha
Toha

Thank you...

If I have the manners and common sense necessary to be a member of society, it is entirely because of what I learned from my seniors and superiors at this company.

As I found out later myself, the experience of working as a working adult in a general company will be of great use to me after I change jobs at a game company.

The work was not interesting, but my seniors and supervisors were respectful and nice people, so I found myself thinking that it was not interesting, and before I knew it, four years had passed.

 

But I still don't want to give up on my dream! I decided to change my career to become a 3DCG artist

in feverish haste

At that time, we heard that two senior employees who had been good friends with us since we joined the company were leaving one after the other. One was going to become a nursery school teacher and the other was going to become an interior coordinator.

Does everyone have something they want to do...Toha had something I wanted to do, too, though couldn't...

I felt a little sad, but then I thought, "No, but wait".

Can I still change jobs? Even seniors are changing careers to other industries, maybe there's nothing I can't do?

Once I started thinking this way, my thoughts became stronger and stronger.

I'm sure that once it was ruined and I had convinced myself of that, I still had unwillingness to become a game creator.

And then...

Let's give it another shot, just to be sure! Next time I'll study CG properly before applying!

and begin the job search to become a 3DCG artist.

From here on out, I wrote in What Working Adult With No 3DCG Experience Does Became 3DCG Artist.

 

Conclusion

tapping out

Thank you very much for reading my long, long-time ago story.

If you have read through this article, I hope you know a lot more about Toha.

I may not be able to thank you, but if there is anything you would like to ask me, I am always available to answer your questions.

You can do this through a comment below the article, through contact, or on Twitter.

Toha
Toha

Please feel free to do so.

 

↓ If you like, you can also read some of the popular articles on our blog~

List of comments

  1. しゅうへい says:

    Nice to meet you.

    I was looking for information that explains 3D models in an easy-to-understand way, and I came across this blog by Toha.

    Not only was it easy to understand, but the simplicity and leanness of Mr. Toha's modeling and the motivating proportions and quality of his study made me even more fascinated.

    Thank you so much for running this blog and publishing this information.

    I agree with you about the FF7 story, and no game later or later in life has given me more excitement than that one.
    (Probably the same age.)

    Perhaps that is the commonality that allows us to share in the beauty of Mr. Toha's modeling.

    I will continue to support you.

    • Toha トハ says:

      Hi, Shuhei!
      Thank you very much for your comment.

      I am very, very touched by your kind words...!
      Since the only 3D models available to the public at the moment are the Toha model and the Secchan model, I'm not sure if I can make them available to the public or not.
      If you read the blog, you may be thinking, "This guy, Toha, says a lot of things, but how much can he actually make? I thought that the readers of this blog would be wondering how much he can actually make.
      The fact that there are people like Shuhei who find Toha's 3D models attractive gives me great encouragement for my future creative activities...><
      Thank you so much!

      I am also very happy to have met someone through the blog who can share the excitement of FF7 at that time.
      I'm so glad I created this blog! I will keep up the good work! I am so happy to have created this blog!

      Our blog is gradually becoming more contented, and we've been working on a new blog.
      After a while, I would like to produce 3D models for the games I want to make.
      Once we have a 3D model that we can show to the public, we hope to publish it on our blog or Twitter.
      If you like, please take another look at it then!

      Shukei-san, I am very happy to hear your words of support. Thank you very much.
      Please come back to our blog anytime!
      I will continue to update the blog slowly, but in a long and thin way.
      I would appreciate it if you would continue to be good to me.

  2. りん says:

    I am glad to meet you

    I'm 23 years old and have recently taken an interest in 3DCG!

    I read your blog with great interest.

    After graduating from high school, I had been working as a freelancer for a long time and was thinking that it was time to get a job, when I became interested in 3DCG.

    I have no knowledge or skills in 3DCG, so I am studying for the 3DCG certification until I can save up enough money to pay for my computer and tuition at Digihari. I passed the basic exam in July, so now I am studying to pass the expert exam.

    However, many people say that certification tests are almost meaningless, so should we devote the time to study in textbooks to the time we spend making them?

    I am 23 years old, and even if I study at Digihari for a year starting in April, I don't think I have much time before I start job hunting, and I want to learn 3DCG as efficiently as possible and find a job.

    The next month of certification is November, and I would appreciate your opinion, if you don't mind, on whether I should make an effort to produce it on my computer right now.

    • Toha トハ says:

      Hello, Rin!
      Thank you very much for your comment.
      I am very happy to hear that you are a 23-year-old who has become interested in 3DCG, and I am very happy that someone like you is reading my blog!

      Well, first of all, congratulations on passing the CG Creator Certification Basic!
      As a matter of fact, before going to Digihari, TOHA also obtained the CG Certification Level 3 (now called CG Engineer Certification Basic).
      Here I would like to express my frank opinion of such toha.

      To be clear, I don't think a CG certification will give you an advantage in finding a job!
      I also have, so I put my CG and color certifications on my resume, but I have never had my qualifications mentioned in an interview.
      We have not heard of any cases where qualifications were a deciding factor in the selection process, even at the document screening stage.
      Also, I myself have not experienced that the knowledge I studied to qualify for the CG certification is useful in business. (I no longer remember what I studied...)

      I looked at the reference questions for the CG Creator Certification Expert on the CG-ARTS website, and they are incredibly complicated!
      Perhaps, but it seems to me that if someone who is currently active as a professional 3DCG designer were to take this exam, it is not uncommon for them not to pass.
      The reference problems seem somewhat like physics or math problems, but I have the impression that this kind of thinking is not likely to be used in actual 3DCG production.

      So, as for the "certification test is almost meaningless," it is true when it comes to employment.
      However, I don't think it is meaningless to say that I studied for a certification.
      Knowing something as knowledge is certainly more useful than knowing nothing.

      However, what Rin would like to know most is.
      Which is more efficient for getting a job, studying for the November exam or actually creating 3DCG on a computer? I think it is.
      As for Toha, I would answer that if Rin-san is looking for a job right away, he should produce 3DCG.

      However, you are planning to study 3DCG at Digihari for a year starting in April, and now is the time in between, right? If that is the case, I don't think it is a bad idea to take the CG certification test during this period before school starts.
      And if school starts in April, there will still be time to make 3DCG after the November exam.
      Whether it is a certification exam or 3DCG production, Rin's attitude of actually taking action and trying to do it will lead to employment more than anything else, Toha believes.

      If I were to recommend something else to do before going to Digihari, it would be to try out the 3DCG software that will be used at Digihari.
      I think they will teach you how to use 3DCG software at school, but you won't have to fumble around in class if you know how to use it first.

      This is a bit long, but that's all I have to say about Toha's opinion.
      I hope this helps Rin with her choice--I'm rooting for you!

  3. りん says:

    I couldn't figure out how to reply to your earlier reply, so I'll make a new comment m(. _.) m

    Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

    And thanks for going out of your way to find out about the certification!

    After considering the opinions of Mr. Toha, I have bought the textbook for the November certification test anyway, so I will study for it.

    And I will concentrate on studying 3DCG software between after the examination and when I enroll in Digihari.

    After that, I'll work hard on my digi-hali assignment!

    I was worried that what I was doing was a waste of time, so I was very clear on the path to my goal.
    Thank you so much!

    I will keep referring to your blog.

    Also, I am supporting Mr. Toha, who is working hard as a free-lancer, with your permission (^^)

    • Toha トハ says:

      Rin, thank you so much for your reply~!

      I'm glad that Toha's answer helped Rin, even if only a little!
      I know that your schedule must be quite hard, studying for the exam, studying 3DCG software, and studying at Digihari, but please don't overdo it and keep going at your own pace.
      I don't think there is any way that Rin-san's hard work is a waste of time! It's a personal desire of mine...

      I'm taking it easy on the blog, but please take a look at it again, even if it's just for a break from your studies.
      Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard on this project and look forward to working with you in the future!

      (The reply button was missing, so I made it appear! Sorry, thanks~)

Toha
Toha

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