The "corona" update

A time to adjust to a new reality

April was a month where I decided to do some real assessment of what I really want in my next job. After fruitless job searches and an increased need to build a skillset, I decided to take a break from job hunting until I have built some kind of skillset that I will be able to use outside BD authoring.

As I have found, a certificate in web development does not really mean anything. A portfolio matters, and I do not have a portfolio that would impress anyone. All I can show off is this blog, which isn’t going to do much.

I have to show more than just this.

Game development beginnings

In the past weeks, I took online courses offered by Epic Games for their Unreal Engine and Unity Technologies for their Unity engine. Last week (as I type) I took Unreal courses almost every day, two hours per day, though admittedly, the Unreal Engine training courses do not offer a consistency that I wanted. I took their introduction in-class course (which I paid a hundred dollars for) held at their Epic LA offices back in late October, and it lasted one WHOLE day - not two hours - that got me really up to speed with the Unreal Engine world. The virtual training courses that Epic Games had this month did some help, but I honestly feel that I would have to take a day’s worth of courses to learn how to use Unreal effectively. I will have to make do with the Unreal Learning course tracks, which at least will do the job at my own pace.

Unity offered a unique Create with Code Live course track that I started to follow that was every hour each day. I found Unity’s courses to be a lot easier to digest and allowed me to get up to speed with my programming skills, even though they were specifically designed for those who are almost new to programming. Unity’s game engine uses C#, which is similar to Java, but it is a Microsoft developed programming language and architecture. The one thing that I really like about Unity is that its hardware requirements are not as high as Unreal Engine and it shows. Unity also has course tracks as well as Unreal Learning, and while I did one of their course tracks earlier, I think Create with Code has given me a good push into learning how to program a simple game.

I learned a lot more from Unity with their game engine, though I cannot say that I didn’t learn anything from Epic’s Unreal training courses.

Unity also offered discounts on their Certified User Programmer exam which will allow me to show off some kind of proof that I did some game development work, even though it isn’t paid. I plan to take one of those exams in mid to late May (the exam is said to be somewhat thorough and it is not likely open book due to virtual proctoring - which is not the same kind of exam I took back at UC Irvine’s certificate program where it is open book.)

Also, I decided to do something that I have rarely done, and start to learn how to do 3D modeling with ZBrush software by taking advantage of the software’s month long trial. Hopefully I will have a use for the Wacom Intuos Pro tablet that I have had little chance to use when I had my non-artist related job. After the trial is over I can decide whether to do a little modeling with the ZBrush Core suite, which is a lot cheaper than the traditional full suite (10/month vs 35/month).

Next steps?

Since I will be doing freelance online work even if I have a full time job, I am going to lean toward doing a bit of game programming.

I will plan to finish the Create with Code Live course track in May and take the exam, and publish a very simple 3D game I did using that course track. The game can be published online (Unity has WebGL module). Depending how I do with learning the Unity game engine, I may try to do a similar simple game with the Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine, however, is a very different beast than Unity, with a somewhat higher learning curve than Unity, though if you work on a major console / PC title, you will more likely use Unreal or an engine similar to Unreal. Unity is still favored for those working on games where the target platform are smartphones and tablets, or who want to do architectural modeling.

Also, I am going to research Gnomon Workshop and see what they offer before I splurge on the month long subscription of 50/month. No, I do not think I will plan to go to the Gnomon School - not yet, anyway. Someday.

Didn’t you consider doing photography as a second job?

The competition is just too cutthroat to do photography even as a side gig. I cannot expect to become a paid paparazzo overnight without going into serious debt. The aim right now is to enjoy photography without expecting any kind of payment. Perhaps a time will come when I want to do some gig work.

Will you be doing other things besides game development, like graphic design?

I do not plan to do graphic design as a career, as I have no training at an established school like Otis or Art Center Pasadena, and I am not willing to pay a hell of a lot of money to go to either of those schools even if I do well. I am going to, however, do a bit of graphic art, but only to make it supplement whatever I want to do - which is coding.

There is one thing I will not do: return to the same job that I did back when I was at my former worksite. There’s no market for Blu-ray Disc releases for movies. The software that is used to create them costs a fortune to license and the market for these “BD authors” as they are called, is getting smaller.

4K video is here already, and 8K isn’t far behind. Movies in 4K can be streamed and as broadband infrastructure gets better, no one will want to get a Blu-ray player anymore to watch them. 4K Blu-ray players are a small segment of the market. For most households, the only Blu-ray player that they have is the game console. Sony’s PS5 will have a 4K BD player, and so will Xbox Series X. Now, the Xbox One already had a 4K BD player, but the adoption rate is slow, and a key reason why Sony didn’t put one in the Pro PS4.

BD stand alone players do exist, but currently only LG and Sony make them (Oppo, Samsung and Panasonic have quit this segment already), and these players already work as streaming boxes. I do not see LG in this segment for long, and depending how Sony does, I won’t be surprised if the PS5 will be the only Sony brand Blu-ray player you will be able to buy. Many of the 4K BD players cost around 200-300, which is the price of a game console. Those people will simply save more money to get that or a better game console. Families these days don’t really watch a movie on only a traditional TV - they watch them on a TV, or a tablet, or smartphone. Movies are now streaming products.

All of the authors I know left to other jobs that pay more or have a better worklife experience.