Topic: What to learn?

[meldavid]

Say someone hopes to join a team of console game developers in the future, perhaps in 3D sprite animation and design, or creating original music for the game... what technical/software skills would that someone have to learn? Is there specific software that is being used to develop, for GameCube, say?

[Shift Key]

You'd need a Computer Science degree, no less.
Sure, you could learn the bare bones of coding or 3D graphics or something, but companies these days want people who aren't just coding freaks, but are able to work in a team environment, meet deadlines, and are productive - which is one of the skills gained from tertiary study.
As for specific languages, I'm not sure what the current generation of consoles use -  and it is kinda irrelevant, because you can learn once you've been hired. That's where the degree helps - getting a start.

[KDR_11k]

For graphics you're going to use 3D Studio MAX or Maya and texturing in Photoshop. Don't even dream about it, those packages cost 2000 USD minimum. There are free versions of those packages available that come with less features and more proprietary lock-in.

GMAX (mini version of 3ds MAX)
Maya PLE (mini version of Maya)

GIMP (free Photoshop replacement, not nearly as good but has to do)
Blender (free modeling package, suficient for learning the basic techniques)

Depending on the development house you'll either be required to have any combination of MAX, Maya or Photoshop knowledge or just a kick ass portfolio. Generally, your portfolio is your biggest asset. Your education is unimportant. It might sway the oppinion of the HR droid, but since ultimately the art director decides you're going nowhere without the portfolio. Often it's recommended to have a grade outside of the game industry so you can fall back on something else if it doesn't work out.

Further requirements are a passion for your work, team play and willingness to work double hours without overtime payment.

Joining a mod is recommended since it both improves your skill and teaches you some of the basics of game development. Some companies demand shipped titles as past experience so they know you can handle the extreme pressure crunch time can cause.

I think there's a lot of people who can answer this more accurately than me over here.

BTW, there's no such thing as 3d sprites. Either that's voxel graphics (deprecated) or 3d mdels. You could have 2d sprites a la Doom, but that's deprecated as well.

[Ocarina Blue]

Well, KDR summed it all up pretty well, but there are a few things I could add. First of all, if you wish to be a designer, write design documents and keep them. Make them pretty brief (a few hundred words), or even just keep a notebook of ideas. Even if they don't ever ammount to anything, writing is an important skill that you'll have improved. Writing is important if you're a designer.

Another thing to consider is learning the very basics of programming. If you can do this, then you'll know much better what ideas of yours can actually be implementsed, and could even earn brownie-points from programmers by suggesting ways in which they could be implemented. I'm a bit of a Python fan myself, and there are lots of good tutorials out there. I think the language of choice for most coders of console games would be C or C++, but they can be difficualt to learn, especially if you aren't planning to use them full-time.

Othe than that, GamaSutra (you need to sign up) is not only a pretty good news site, but it has regular articles from people who work in the industry.

I'm not a modeller, so I won't really be able to help you with that, but another free piece of somtware you could check out is Wings3D. I've heard some people like it more than Blender.