Interviewee: Corral Breding

LCC Teacher (Animation 1 & 2, 3D Sculpting and Texturing)/

NuRealms Game Art Director

For this assignment I decided to interview Corral Breding. He teaches several multimedia classes here at Lane, and is also a Game Art Director at NuRealms. I chose to interview Corral since I’ve always had an interest in animation, as well as illustration, and wanted to know more about those fields, and the opportunities offered, that might find my skill set useful. I’m not certain I will choose to teach one day, but I also wanted to ask some questions about his teaching job, since I was curious by how he manages to balance multiple jobs and a home life. My curiosity about his teaching job grew as the interview continued, since I felt the way he came across his teaching job was unique and inspiring and it’s highly intertwined with how he started NuRealms. I really enjoyed talking to Corral, he gave me a lot of useful information and has made me aware of more job occupations that I might be interested in pursuing. He also was kind enough to offer to help me out in any way he can, like he does for many students already, so I was even more grateful for his time and kindness.

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1. Did you do anything during your time in college to kick start your career? (Self-promotion, etc.)

Yes, I self educated prior to attending LCC, and sought out game dev studios as well. Once I became a student and was close to graduating, I  started working at the college by accident. I couldn’t find an internship to graduate from the program, so I decided to ask the animation 1 teacher for an internship opportunity. I was allowed to teach the class some days,  as an informal student teacher, and help out in class, answering questions from the students. Both animation teachers retired later on and I was asked to replace them because of my prior experience at teaching animation. Due to not being able to get an internship during my time as a student at LCC, I decided to start an ongoing video game project for students who need to get an internship to graduate, but haven’t been able to. Unfortunately, I had to start NuRealms outside of school since the project couldn’t take place at the campus.

2. Do you have freelance experience? Is freelancing challenging?

Yes, I started out as a freelancer getting initial clientele from college and friends like many others. Later on I helped a web developer by making an animation for their web page. Not long after I was asked by LCC to do an animation of “Ty” the titan for the web page, and other promotional content for the school. I felt that one of the most challenging aspects was to have to do jobs that are not exciting.

3. What do you like least about your jobs? What can be challenging?

As a college teacher the 1st day of school is the hardest because of not being acquainted with the students. It was especially hard when starting out as a new teacher because of stage fright. On a normal school day, it can be challenging when students have a lot of questions.

As a game developer, keeping team consistency and achieving company goals with an ever changing staff, and staff numbers.

4. How do you balance your various jobs?

Practicing great communication with my family, and the college, to balance my schedule.

5. How did you decide to get into your current fields and what steps did you take to enter them?

I started as a traditional artist until the age of 25; my brother graduated as a game Dev, and was encouraged by him to start doing 3D art; I taught myself how to make 3D art prior to starting college. I had plans to get a bachelor’s degree after LCC but had to wait because of monetary problems. The most important step however is Keeping up with newest techniques and software programs.

6. What training would you recommend for someone who wants to enter these fields now?

For a 2D, 3D art/rigger,  UV mapping tends to have a lot of positions to start off in. It’s important to  figure out what you’re best at early on, LCC is good at having some classes that are relevant from similar educational programs overlap. Try to specialize in one skill, there are a lot of kind teachers here at LCC  to mentor you, and also try to participate in game jams outside of school.

7. What is the salary range for a person in your fields? Entry level to top salary?

For a 3D modeler or rigger the salary can range between $30,000 – $70,000 depending on the video game studio.

The salary for a teacher depends on the number of classes taught and seniority.

8. What personal qualities do you feel are most important in your positions and why?

I believe that the most important qualities to posses in my current positions are great communication, determination, patience, resilience under pressure and an ability to work as a team player. (It’s best to be very sociable.) In these types of fields there can be a lot of milestones and objectives, that can cause people to crush under pressure.

9. What are the tasks you do on a typical workday? Would you describe them?

First I commute to college, go through projects with students, work on them together as a class, answer questions from students, return emails, skype with teachers and students when needed, grade student projects and give feedback. After class come home to NuRealms, go through tasks of the day, assign tasks to the team, then go off on own, to work on other projects, 3D model, texture, UV map, and send to engine when project is finished.

10. What are the opportunities for promotion?

NuRealms: Leadership role (voluntary), step into director role if Corral isn’t available.

College: Promotion is based on time working at the campus and number of classes taught.

11. Is this field expanding? Taking new directions?

NuRealms: Virtual reality video games, for computer desktops, expanding since 2 years ago.Virtual reality is still growing.

12. What equipment and software did you need to start out your business?

We started out with 1 computer with an upgrade license copy of Autodesk Maya, copy of Substance painter, Zebrush license, team license for unity game engine, occulus rift. The monetary cost was around $2,500 to get started.

13. What related occupations might I investigate?

Some related occupations that might be worth investigating are web development, animation, stop frame animation from Lyca, game development, CGI and compositing for film studios.

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Some of the works made by the NuRealms team:

Click to view slideshow.

Check out their website at https://www.nurealmsentertainment.com/

-by Monica B