CLINTON Crumpler - principal artist q&a

Clinton does more work than time allows. Owner of Dekogon, Principal Artist at Midwinter and also a mentor at CGMA, he pushes the boundaries of what is possible. In this Q&A we discuss how Dekogon operates, time management between all of his projects, how to avoid burnout, common mistakes he sees in Junior Artists as well as advice on how to better improve your portfolio.

Introduction

My name is Clinton Crumpler. I am the head and owner of Dekogon Studios, an Art Outsource company as well as a Principal Environment Artist at Midwinter Entertainment. I also teach a class on Unreal development and modularity with Computer Graphic Master Academy online.

I am originally from the United States, Virginia to be exact. I've been moving around quite a lot the last 10 years and have been living in Canada for about 4 years now.

As to how I got started, I originally went to school for Graphic Design in Farmville, Virginia. Yes, Farmville is a real place in the middle of Virginia. And yes, I get asked this a lot, lol. Shortly after graduating and receiving my BFA, I began feeling like I was missing something in the way I once created art. I didn't mind the commercial side of the business but I felt thinly invested in only using 2D spaces and advertisements to convey my artforms. So from there I decided to go back to school for my masters. At this time I knew very little about 3D and there was very little info or schools that offered a comprehensive 3D program. After doing a bit of research and touring of schools on the east coast, I found Savannah College of Art and Design, also known as SCAD, located in Savannah, Georgia. Once enrolled, I completed my BFA in animation to become better acquainted with the general process of using 3D. It was through these courses that I discovered a fond attachment to real-time rendering and creating game art. I preferred game art over standard film art due to the little to no wait times for rendering along with the quick turnaround process. I find that I am a finicky person when it comes to long projects, as most artists are. I like to continue to challenge myself in different and unique ways making sure to switch up my visual styles and goals regularly to keep my mind engaged. Games are perfect for this!

While possessing this knowledge, I continued for another two years at SCAD to receive my MFA in Interactive and Game Design. I didn't even know you could Master in games until I went there, lol. Nowadays it's a much more common program provided at many schools across the world and online.

After graduating from SCAD, I landed my first job about 4 months later at the Army Game Studio in Alabama. While I worked there I took on a lot of freelance contract work for about a year before I pursued another job in San Francisco; From there I hopped around a bit between a few different studios such as Bethesda and Microsoft. As for now, I have been at Midwinter Entertainment for about 2 years and I launched Dekogon about 3 years ago.

You are extremely successful in your career and have made a name for yourself in the industry. Can you talk about your career path from a Junior all the way to Principal Artist at Midwinter/Owner of Dekogon?

I find that continuing to push, grow and challenge yourself daily are the best ways to enhance your skills quickly within the game art field. Management and co-workers are able to recognise when you take initiative to tackle the tough problems and learn the hard programs and software as well as challenging the process when you think there is a better way to tackle it. Also the number one rule I have for all emerging artists - don't be hard to work with and don’t be a downer. I have found many talented artists who have been passed over for promotions or leadership roles because either no one wanted to work with them or they were consistently nay-saying something about the team, project or company. This is not to say don't think for yourself and form your own opinions. I'm only saying be aware of how you come off as a co-worker. Would you want to work with yourself? If the answer is yes, then great! If not then maybe consider ways to improve your communication skills to better engage with your team.

As for my career path, I have generally advanced for showing these skills. When I got my first job it was based upon a modelling competition that I had won, hosted by Polycount, that the studio had seen me in. When I got my San Francisco job I was selected due to my portfolio being laden with so many contract gigs that I accomplished along with really nailing the art test. Microsoft hired me based upon my active membership on Polycount while demonstrating my efforts to develop my portfolio while maintaining a full-time job.

This continued throughout my career as I showed each studio why I was an important and highly qualified addition to their team. You always want to question your worth in regards to a studio or company. Is what you are offering worth their time and investment? This is key to keep in mind to avoid taking rejection personally and to always find ways to better yourself and your art skills. 

Can you tell our viewers the difference between Lead and Principal Artist? What are the key characteristics of Principal and how do you get this role? 

Every studio has their own name attached to each role and what that means but in general, a Principal Artist is considered the highest role you can accomplish as a Production Artist. Which means you still enjoy working in a production scenario over taking more managerial roles and/or responsibilities, such as Lead Artist or an Art Director. So it’s an art over management kind of idea. As a Principal, you are considered the authority over your given speciality and are willing to assist others during the development to show them the correct processes and pipelines that you have grown to understand during your own career. With that being said, there is a lot of overlap with a Senior Artist but I would consider a Senior Artist as having the primary role of production instead of setting the standard and pipelines for the team. Again, it’s different for every studio so some studios might merge the two roles into one when it comes to their responsibilities. 

Can you give us an insight to your daily work schedule at Midwinter? What are you usually working on and what is it like in a AAA studio? I know many people in the industry and like minded artists would love a glimpse at what it’s like in-house.

Sure, I work remote with Midwinter so it's a bit of a different environment working from home than you might experience while on site. Generally, I start pretty early around 6-7am where I get through emails and initial studio cleanup and management tasks. The studio is less than 50 people so a check-in with all departments is feasible. Any bigger and it would be quite an ordeal to have everyone talk about their tasks. At bigger studios check-in typically consists of your direct team, like the environment team. Then throughout the day I typically work though my tasks and identify any issues with teammates who may connect me with different departments other than art. In a small team reaching out directly to a team member is fairly easy compared to a much larger team. Again, this is a very different scenario than a bigger studio. I finish work with Midwinter around 5-6pm and then either work on personal work or enjoy my leisure time after that. Most artwork based jobs you'll find are a lot of self management and mostly spent at your desk dealing with production tasks.

You were a Mentor at Think Tank and also Mentor at CGMA. Can you talk a little about the inspiration for this and what it’s like to work with upcoming artists? How do you help them deliver such high-quality content in such a short time frame with everything else you do?

I get asked this question a lot and I'll be honest I don't sleep too much, lol. It's a big passion of mine! I love helping and working with emerging artists which is also a pillar of what makes Dekogon what it is. I value my time, however when an artist comes to me demonstrating strong work with a strong work ethic I enjoy the opportunity to help them grow and develop their skill set. I discovered while I was in school that there were two different types of people, folks that were competitive and secretive about their skills and those that shared and developed their skills with those around them. I can tell you from experience it’s those that share their skills, ideas, and thoughts with their colleagues that prosper and really become pillars within the artist community. I would in no way be able to do what I can today without the knowledge shared by artists such as Ben Mathis, Sjoerd De Jong, and more. I had the opportunity of receiving such valuable insight before there were so many great resources available online as there are today. Continuing this trend to “pass it on” and share with emerging artists the knowledge that I have accumulated is very important to me.

It's rewarding to work with so many great new artists and see the amazing scenes they are able to create.

When you started Dekogon did you imagine it would grow to what it is today? 

Haha, not quite! I knew I wanted to form some sort of art commune and have the ability to work with other talented artists. Business was not my main focus going in but throughout the years of operation we have prospered into a full-time job for not only myself but also for so many other artists as well. In the beginning Dekogon’s purpose was to create a cycle that allowed artists to make great art, work with talented people and make a liveable wage for everyone involved. I actually speak with my long time Dekogon members about this all the time. Many of the initial artists that have been with Dekogon since the start are still active today!

I LOVE the community we have formed with Dekogon and all of the artists I get to work with are super talented. Surrounding yourself with humble and talented artists makes for a very passionate and fulfilling experience that carries throughout our work. All the artists that work for Dekogon are just as passionate about the work they do as I am. Forming Dekogon has allowed us to work together on projects and with clients which allows us the ability to share our love of the craft while making stellar game art for a living; it’s hard to ask for more out of life than that! 

With Dekogon, how did it start and how do you manage such a huge task force with everyone being remote?

This was one of the biggest hurdles I encountered while owning my own business. Management is very hard to tackle by yourself. Working with many clients, artists and projects can quickly become overwhelming. This is where having the collab helped a lot during our entry level project as it showed which artists had the most experience, determination and an eye for detail as well as depicting who was most interested in investing their time with Dekogon. My art director, Taylor Brandenburger, was my first full-time employee and has been behind the scenes helping with managing almost since the very beginning. It wasn’t until later on that we continued to expand and add additional full-time artists and leads as the amount of contract work we were accepting had doubled, tripled and continued to grow. Now our management team sits at about 6-7 with the amount of artists ranging from 20-200 depending on how many projects we have going on at once and how many clients are asking for work. We work to maintain the ability to be agile and fit the needs best for whatever project comes our way.  We also use a lot of online tools to help us stay managed like Notion, Qwil and Trello to name a few!

When working with a team what do you find the most helpful traits for Junior to Mid-level Artists? 

Attention to detail and being a completionist are two things that are super vital to the business. Missing huge issues like giant texture seams, crappy UVs or other similar issues are a major red flag for me as an employer when it comes to attention to detail. Developing a keen eye to be able to examine your work to catch these issues is hard to teach but all the best artists have a natural prowess for it. Others can work to develop this skill to serve them in their careers.  As for the completionist aspect, this is in regards to the overall completion of tasks in a timely manner. We all wish we had a thousand hours to tweak and improve a prop, texture, asset or design but sometimes you cannot dwell when it comes to client work. We do the best we can do with the time given; maintaining restraint from going over the time limits of the project or failing to turn in a project on time are huge red flags that are a cause for alarm when working with artists that tend to miss these deadlines. Lastly, I would say transparency. There’s nothing worse than an artist that disappears to work on something then reappears weeks later right before the deadline with art that is completely wrong or not of proper quality. As this leads to all of the time being wasted and hours being sunk into art that could have easily been corrected from the beginning if the artist had communicated their process and pipeline more transparently. 

For artists just starting in the realm of 3D what do you think are the most important concepts to learn and any tools/software you would recommend learning?

It's hard to say but I would say colour theory, composition and a bit of lighting are by far some of the most important aspects an artist should pursue learning to make for the most well rounded Environment Artist. This doesn't come from a software package but more of a process of training your eye towards what makes a visually pleasing image for the viewer. These are skills that are adopted throughout every part of your process and are vital in becoming a talented artist.

What skills do you find most frequently lacking for artists trying to get their first job? How can they improve or learn these skills? When it comes to composition, what are some of the things Junior Artists or students are often lacking or forget?

I find that most artists who apply to Dekogon and other places I work primarily don't succeed because they are either not prepping their work or getting sufficient feedback on their product before they present to an employer. Your work is only as good as your weakest piece is a statement I am sure you have heard and this is so true. Many times I'll look at a portfolio and ask a student how many of your peers have you asked to review your portfolio? Many to my surprise, will tell me I am the first to see their portfolio. I should be the 100th person they have shown it to. New artists seeking employment should always continue to get feedback on their work to make sure by the time they get to the employer all of the small issues and flaws have been worked out! Also thumbnails are key; Always look at contrast, colour, noisiness and composition to make sure your thumbnail is compelling and grabs the employers attention. Getting an employers attention is always easier when your portfolio grabs their eye right away.

Lastly, email etiquette and professionalism. I cannot tell you how many emails I get where an artist asks for work but does not include any work or a portfolio link. How am I supposed to know who they are if I can't easily find their work? Asking a major company with thousands of applicants a year to go and Google you is a hard no and at most times your email will most likely find its way to the trash way before it gets to an Art Director or someone for review when you are lacking such key details within the email.

With the growing popularity of procedural workflows such as Houdini how do you think the job of an Environment Artist is changing?

Yes, any job that is related to tech is always going to change. When I started, Photoshop was the only way to make textures. Now look at all the possibilities when it comes to the texturing process. It's a great time to be an artist with so many tools, but also a challenging time as processes and automated services can replace many of the original tasks of an Environment Artist. Staying on the learning curve and pushing yourself to learn new software and processes are key to staying relevant. Also be sure to diversify your abilities. Don't pour yourself into one skill. If you are just the foliage or Substance guy or girl, what will happen in 5 years when an automated tool comes out? What other skills will you have to fall back to in order to continue to work? 

If you were starting your career from day one over, what would you do and where would you focus? 

I have been asked this quite a lot and I don't know what I would do differently. Sometimes I think you need to fail first to succeed later. I don't think there is some magic combination of things I did right or wrong that lead me here but a combination of all my successes and failures that grew me, my art and Dekogon in the direction it's heading today. I think the biggest advice is to stay true to your morals and in general, just be a good person to yourself and those around you and good things will happen. Work hard, maintain dedication and don't give up. Many days I get imposter syndrome or I feel like the day was a bit of a failure or waste but don't let that influence the following days, weeks or months. Pick yourself back up and get back to it the very next chance you get!

Do you do anything to start your day modelling? Such as a warm up or?  

I tend to start my day with at least 10-30 minutes of just looking at new art on Polycount or Artstation. This gets me pumped to start my day and engages my mind with the craft. After this it's typically straight to work for me :)

When considering cinematics, do you often have them planned from the start of the environment or plan them as you create the environment? 

This is something I am still getting better at. Moving shots are always harder to nail down and establish at first over still compositions. I tend to start with a few compositions I like from my blockout and work with those first to get what I want then come back at the end to establish the moving shots I like.

When working with Level Designers what do you find is the best approach to provide or receive feedback and changes either artist to designer or designer to artist?

Always start with a blockout and get that approved or at least looked at by design. You can save yourself hours of headache later! Also, collaborate with them. If they have suggestions on how to better the design try to work together to find a means between art and design. Many times you can come to a conclusion that you'll both agree on!

How do you prevent burnout when working on so many different projects and mentoring programs?

This is a very common problem for artists. I always suggest to my students to avoid making massive maps and thinking too heavily on game design in their initial thoughts. Many times students will try and incorporate game design, sound, VFX and other disciplines in their preliminary planning. So they will form massive level layouts and try to prepare the blockout of a scene for weeks. These things are important in a production setting but for personal artwork, focus on the art and keep the scene tight and contained. No one is honestly going to care that your underground lair has 42 rooms. When showing the end result on Artstation no one has the tolerance or interest to look at all 200 images of your advanced layout and process. So keep it tight and interesting! I’d much rather look at 2-5 really compelling images of a small scene to see how talented an artist is than a bland, huge level laid out with sparse amount of props and tons of small technical issues showing.

My strategy to preventing burnout involves working on a few personal projects at once while cycling through them. Also, I take breaks in my work. For a few weeks I will work on personal art and for the others I’ll play games or scope out other artists work on Artstation, Pinterest or Polycount. Keep your mind fresh and engaged and always try to switch it up when you start getting bored or overwhelmed!

Also… dogs… lots of dogs. That always helps :)

Do you have any helpful tips when lighting your scenes?

Yes, I tend to avoid doing all my heavy lighting till the later part of my scene creation as it allows me to avoid mixing colour lighting information with my texturing of assets. Also checking your texture values in a neutral scene will ensure that when you do get to the lighting portion, everything will work together.
I tend to like limited palettes with my personal scenes. I will choose 2-3 colours that show through my scene as the primary colours and this not only runs through the art itself but how I choose to light the scene. 

Do you have any additional tips or advice to share with our readers?

Never stop learning. Always find ways to engage your mind. Never be afraid of criticism of your art. I find if someone is critiquing it, it’s because they are seeing ways to make it better, not as a personal attack. Also if someone takes the time to give you critiques they believe in your ability to make it better. Otherwise they would just have said, “yep looks fine”

It was great chatting with you today and thank you for all your insights!

Of course. I am always happy to share my story and knowledge with the community. Thanks for having me! If anyone is interested in learning about Dekogon and myself check out our website www.dekogon.com or my personal portfolio www.clintoncrumpler.com