Produced By - Insight #28 - Íris Santos and Connor McCoy: When You Become Part of Something Bigger
Episode Date: October 27, 2023Íris Santos and Connor McCoy are a couple of London based 3D artists, working in different industries but both contributing towards something bigger. Originally from Portugal, Íris is a 3D artist wi...th experience in graphic design, games industry and freelance 3D work for NFT projects. Currently employed in the automotive industry at Wayve, bringing autonomous driving to a new level, she’s working in Simulator, creating architectural props, building procedural worlds and diving into programming. Despite having a passion for art, she also likes to experiment with various art mediums and 3D software. Her recent focus has been on honing her programming and Houdini skills in order to develop tools and streamline the workflow for her team and herself. Born in the UK, Connor McCoy is a Lead 3D artist at First Light Games, working on characters, props and environments. When he was young, his older sister inspired him to become an artist. His goals were then propelled to new heights when he discovered the world of video games, comic books and the heroes who lived there. Along with Iris, Connor also explored the realm of NFTs as an artist. Even so, his most recent work is still connected to it as the game being developed by First Light Games promises to serve as a link between the Web 2 and Web 3 communities. Listen to this episode to hear 3D artists' authentic experiences working with NFTs, be inspired by the exciting visions they are both a part of and to find out more about the 3D art scene. Connect with Iris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iris-sant00s/ https://iris-santos.artstation.com/ Connect with Connor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-mccoy-16a85bb9/ https://www.artstation.com/connormccoy Trident Raijin: https://www.twitch.tv/tridentraijin Quotes from Iris: “More than games, those were the movies like Pixar and Disney. One day I was just watching and I thought, wow, how do they make this? It was magical and amazing and that thought never crossed my mind. So then I started diving into the possibilities of 3D.” “From the course perspective, I've always tried to push myself and I was fortunate to have a group of colleagues that all did the same. We pushed for each other and tried to reach above and beyond what we could do with the skills that we had.” Quotes from Connor: “I always had the philosophy of being the hardest worker in the room ever since my school days just because I am quite a competitive person and fortunately my friends at the time were also very competitive in an academic way so my friend would be like, I got B and I'd be like what you gotta B I'm gonna get A!” “And all of us put dozens and dozens of hours in. We stayed behind past 9 o'clock when they closed the university and we hid underneath the table so we could use the preview and then they eventually found us and kicked us out.” Connect with the podcaster: https://tomasloucky.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/ https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/ https://twitter.com/TomasLoucky Follow the podcast: 🌐 Website: https://produced-by-podcast.com 🔗 Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by 💬 Contact: https://produced-by-podcast.com/contact 📷 Instagram: https://instagram.com/produced_by_podcast 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5LHnM6YCaeVzIr0WatOsw 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@producedbypodcast 👾 Discord: https://discord.gg/8j3zNzwqJg ✉️ Email: podcast.produced.by@gmail.com Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e5Y8Wscx Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/produced-by/id1684669642 📨 Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7092551882589528065 If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it on Patreon. ❤️ 📭 Subscribe at https://produced-by-podcast.com/subscribe so that you don't miss out! Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLouckyStan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_byNewsletter: https://producednewsletter.substack.com/The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
After the whole NFTs venture, we then again started looking for jobs in the games industry.
And at the time, positions were not open a lot.
And it was also hard because at the time I was not a graduate.
So I couldn't apply for a graduate position, which now there's a fair amount of graduate positions out there.
So I couldn't apply for a graduate position.
But I was in between not really a junior, not really a senior,
so it was a bit of an odd one
and then I got a position at this studio
called Fire Without Smoke
which was not a studio that made games
but it was a studio that gets games from clients
and create cinematics for the games
and they worked in fantastic games
they produce amazing cinematics
I joined the team and I stayed there for about
three weeks to a month
and the people were fantastic
but I just, it wasn't what I wanted to do.
I wanted to make the games.
I didn't want to get the product and, you know, make a cinematic out of it.
Sorry, can you, for someone who doesn't know what is cinematic?
So, cinematic is technically what we did was we get footage from the game and create a whole, like, trailer experience.
So we create a whole sort of, you know, a film out of it.
And then, yeah, I mean, it was fun.
We played with the characters, we played with things that were yet to come out to the public.
Some games are still being worked on nowadays.
So it was very exciting on that end.
And the team, again, was fantastic, very quirky people, very supportive, very knowledgeable.
But unfortunately, it's not what I wanted to do.
And because it's not what I wanted to do, I didn't want to stay and beat around the bush for too long.
If it's something that I know, it's not out of my interest.
So then in the process, I was still looking and this company called Wave contacted me for
a position of the three generalists.
But the way they approached me was more of getting or providing me or giving me a position
of being more like a programmer, Python programmer, and making tools, which was something
that I had never done at the time.
And I said, wait, I had never coded to that extent.
I don't want to be a programmer, I want to be a 3D artist.
Then they said, well, but you can also be a 3D artist.
So that's the job with a 3D generalist.
It's doing a bit of everything.
And I think that's really interesting, especially coming to nowadays, the world with AI coming along.
I feel like being a 3D generalist is...
The future.
Yes, it's the future.
But you also get to experience and be knowledgeable in multiple subjects, not just the one.
They specialize on.
So then I did the interviews. It was five odd interviews plus an artist. It was a lot to get through.
But I finally got the job and I was very happy about it. And Wedges is a fantastic company and they are a technology company so they're not a game studio.
And they're currently working on creating or producing a software for self-driving cars. So they are Kings Cross-based and they've got cars going around, found driving
themselves and as part of the company they've got simulates them, which is what I work on,
creating visuals.
So I do 3D.
I've started working with programs that at the time I had never worked with, like Houdini,
for example.
Most of my team actually has VFX background, so it's really interesting that a lot of people
come from a similar industry and put together their knowledge from games and VFX to bring
up this simulator for something completely different.
from the entertainment industry.
And yeah, the company has supported me
a lot of learning developments.
Now I also code for the company
and create tools for the softwares that I use.
So I feel like I've been in the company for a year now
and I've been very fortunate.
First of all, with team that I landed on,
they're amazing people,
always pushing and supporting me.
But also the company itself
and the potential that it has to change the future.
It's something that everybody should be looking for
it too. Yeah, I was going to say that sounds really exciting at the same time working on something
with such a vision and like a purpose to make a difference. That sounds really cool.
Yes. And is it like something similar to what is autopilot in Tesla, for example, just to get an idea.
Yes, it is, but what we're doing that is quite different. So we have a fleet of cars that we
modifying. We use Jaguar iPases so we don't have our cars like a lot of companies that produce
the software for their own cars like Tesla does for example. What we try to do is to scale the
technology so we would put this software in a car or in a van and they would perform the same.
So we can scale it across multiple cities, maybe in multiple countries, who knows?
Yeah, that turns amazing. What about you, Connor? What's your current job like?
So my current job, as I mentioned previously, is an NFT games company.
It is an interesting position to be in because I am very much a realist artist.
And I should create realistic characters.
The thing that really compels me is sci-fi visuals because it's what inspired me to go into the world of games.
The current game position I'm in right now is the opposite.
best in time. It's a
Basel Real game for
the mobile, so it can
only have the certain amounts of
fidelity, and
the art style is a bit more
stylized in itself.
So it's a bit more simple.
The forums are a bit more
QD and so on, so it's not
something I had imagined myself
working in. However,
the opportunity presented itself to me
after having the
NFT part that I did.
And it's something I didn't want to turn my nose up at.
Interestingly enough, at the same time, I was being accepted at this company.
I was actually interfering and doing the art test for Hello Games, the people who make No Man's Sky.
So that is exactly where I wanted to be.
It's sci-fi, it's realistic, it's hundreds of different worlds,
I could be the curator and the art designer of my own planet.
creating all different types of things.
However, this is one thing that I thought anybody else listening to this podcast
will probably run into if they go into the industry at some point.
It's probably not so much interesting now that remote working is a thing,
but or it could be the commute.
I wanted to be able to get to work and get back home.
Within about 40 minutes to an hour.
However, this studio was very far away from where I was living in time.
It will take it be two, maybe two and a half hours to get there.
And because of that, it was just unfeasible.
Even though the studio was fantastic,
they've already created a game that I've already put hundreds of hours in.
And I had already completed and passed the art test.
So it was already a good point.
But this studio, it had an interesting philosophy.
It had technology that was trying to push the boundary,
which is something like I'm always keen on.
And it was closer.
and the people who I spoke to you,
they had the charisma and they had the information
and the passion to sell me on something,
which is something that I've always receptive to.
If you could convince me of your dream,
that I'll believe, whereas the other studio
didn't really try to convince me
because they saw themselves as being established
Games company, First Light Games.
They were trying to be the new kid on the rock
and trying to push ahead.
And that is something that I really appreciate
and something I wanted to join in and be a part of,
because the power of indie game studios
is you have a freedom to be able to create your vision,
whereas AAA Studios, you're very much bottlenecked into being a specific thing.
That being in the case,
I joined the company as a 3-E generalist,
very much like how I noticed is.
And I've always been a 3-E generalist.
As I mentioned previously,
I always tried to do massive projects
where the stroke was so huge that I had to cover multiple different facets.
and that has very much carried forward into this studio as well.
I've been at the studio for about a year now
and had been fortunate enough to be promoting
to the late 3D artists of the games company.
So we are trying to push forward
and make the game as wide-reaching as can be
and a great introduction for people who are in the Web 2 world
for those who don't know.
The traditional internet, like what we have right now,
YouTube, Google,
or Yahoo! Instagram
is considered Web 2.
Web 3 is everything that can
include the blockchain, so NFTs,
cryptocurrencies and so on
is considered Web 3.
And our game has the promise to
be the bridge between the Web 2
and the Web 3 communities.
And I find that very interesting.
And being in the position of being
the lead artist on this, I could very much
put my footprint in this game
and very much be myself because I've always wanted to be somebody who has fingers and all the different pies.
So being in this type of studio as an indie game dev and a free guy is working with these amazing people.
I very much hateful of doing that.
So I really do enjoy myself doing this.
But it's also very stressful as well because being the lead, there's a lot of responsibility.
but also the team is not very big.
So I'm pretty much working on a large section of the game.
And of course that has its various stresses.
However, with the support and with the passion and the drive
that myself and the team have,
I know it's something that no matter how difficult it is for now,
as we expand it as we go on in the future
and deliver this vision and deliver this ideal
to a lot of different people,
it's going to be experienced as going to know as well.
Our target audience is people who are
playing on mobile devices. Eventually, it'll probably expand
to more PC and console-based people.
But right now, we want to be able to deliver this game
to as wide a platform as people as possible.
And what's the easiest way to do that?
On the thing that you carry around the V every single day,
that's where it will market.
And is there a specific date for release?
of the game?
So at the moment we are in a transition period from how the game was to this new vision of the game.
I'm not going to say too much because we actually have a fantastic community person
who's all over this. So, shameless plug, join the first light game to Discord and see all of
this information because the game is it's coming along and it's going to be fantastic. And we have
lots of great community events that link our player base with the devs we want to have this
position where the game is for the community as well as made by the community so we walk under
the suggestions of what other people say what our community said we want to feel like in the world
of web 3 and you being entitled to own your own assets you also have your own voice so with the
power of web 3 and having the great community people that we did were able to live
to our community and really make impact the changes into our game that can make it the best for what our players and eventually the world be