Hi all!

I'm hoping you guys & gals can offer me some advice on my path to working in the game industry.

I am from a traditional fine art background- 2d sketching/painting, but I have worked in the architectural industry for 8 years before recently deciding to learn Maya with the aim to work at a game studio. I have only been using Maya for 4 months and have recently started a 3 month animation course using Maya. The course teaches traditional approaches to animation and applying them, though it doesn't really cover the rigging/modelling side. I want to gain skills that the industry needs but I am a little concerned that animation is too specialised and takes far more than 3 months work. Willl an animator be expected to be able to have very good rigging/modelling skills?

What I would like advice on is whether you think animation is something I should persevere in or whether modelling/texturing/environment art is more the direction I should concentrate on in order to get my foot in the door. I pretty much know the different kind of jobs you can go for in the game industry it's just confusing to try and concentrate on one or two or all areas of Maya!... I enjoy the animation side but my background is more in the 2D texturing and possibility the architectural side which I guess might lend itself to working as an environment artist... what would you suggest for me to get that first job?

Apologies for quite a muddled post but Maya is so vast it seems to have this affect on me!

Thank you.. hope you can help!

Martin