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Ringling College of Art and Design 2024 Game Art graduates stepped off the stage last May and right into the workforce. Approximately one-quarter of the class was employed within six months, in an industry where it typically takes almost a year and a half for a graduating class to surpass 80% employment. “That’s a good sign,” said Game Art Faculty Scott Carroll.

Graduates have found jobs at various notable game studios and related companies in the industry, including Lightspeed Studios, Turn 10 Studios, and New Eden Interactive. The success of the Class of 2024 can be added to the achievements of earlier Game Art alumni, who now represent companies like Disbelieve, Pillow Castle Games, Red Storm Entertainment, Sucker Punch Productions, and ProbablyMonsters.

Among 2024’s Game Art success stories is Laela Russell ’24, who turned her student internship at Obsidian Entertainment into a full-time position there as an environment artist.

The Obsidian internship was the first industry experience for Russell, who had initially envisioned working for a game company with more stylized art, like Nintendo. But at Ringling College, she said. “I was quickly introduced to realistic graphics video games and the technical challenges that come along with creating hyper-realistic game environments. I found I enjoyed that challenge. Luckily, these are exactly the type of game environments that Ringling College focuses on, so my skillset grew naturally as I progressed through school.”

Russell gelled naturally with her Obsidian team and focused on making herself indispensable, even as an intern. (“One of the biggest lessons Ringling teaches is a good work ethic,” she said.) Now, as a full-time environment artist, Russell spends most days rotating between responsibilities—sometimes making and texturing props, sometimes creating foliage and other set dressing.

“As the project progresses in development, I’ve needed to make fewer props and can now fully focus on environment work like set dressing places of interest on the map, or painting foliage and landscape sculpting,” she explained.

“It means a lot to me to be able to be a working artist, especially with the state of the industry,” she said. “It’s easy to go to work every day when you’re making something you’re truly passionate about, and being a working artist allows me to do so.”

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