QUT animation and marketing graduate Holly Noble has always dreamed of amazing worlds. She originally wanted to be an astrophysicist and study space, but now she has the qualifications and skills – and the fabulous new job – to create 3D worlds for gamers.
Holly is one of 3500 people graduating this week (July 26 to 29) at QUT's mid-year graduation ceremonies at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
She completed her double degree in June – a Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments majoring in animation, and a Bachelor of Business majoring in marketing – and has already landed a job as a 3D artist with French video game publisher Gameloft.
Their Brisbane studio is one of 18 Gameloft development studios around the globe.
Holly said she had always been a gamer – and came from a family of gamers – but also loved astronomy all through her childhood in Warwick, in southern Queensland.
She loved space so much that she wanted to be an astrophysicist, and originally enrolled in a science degree with a physics major.
"But after six months, I decided it would be a job with too much report writing for me, and I started looking for other degrees," she said.
"I actually did the Match My Skills quiz on the QUT site and at the end it suggested some degrees including the Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments … I was like: Wait a minute! I didn't know that was a degree! This is what I'm meant to be doing!"
She combined her games degree with a marketing degree – which she says was valuable in teaching her how to think about things from an audience perspective – and is graduating with an impressive GPA of 6.1 (out of a possible 7).
She was hired by Gameloft before even finishing university.
"One of my uni projects [shown in video below] was in a student showcase at the end of last year and some of the Gameloft representatives came along," Holly said.
"Their Brisbane art director, Liz Ballantyne, was there and she got my details and asked for my Instagram so that she could follow my work. A couple of months later she contacted me to come in from an interview – and I got the job!
"Liz is now my boss and she's someone who really pushes for women in the games industry … the industry is growing so much and I'm excited to be part of it."
As a 3D environment artist, Holly uses computer modelling to help create the digital 3D environments that form the backdrop of games.
"I can't actually tell you what my current project is, but it is a mobile game," she said.
"My whole job is amazing though – the culture at Gameloft is great and everyone there is amazing – we even have a dog in the studio! It doesn't feel like a job, I just get to spend time doing what I love."
Holly said her family had been super supportive of her career path.
"My mum and dad have always been very 'Do what you love' – and this is what I love," she said.
Anyone interested in studying the Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments or Bachelor of Business – or any other QUT degree – can find out more at the QUT Open Day on Sunday, July 31.
