Texture Games Artist, advice + help needed.

Hi all, I'm currently studying Multimedia Design at Uni, I really want to get into Games Design, Texture Art. The thing is theres jobs avaliable but that'll be a in a years time after my final year, what I wanted was advice and help on what really impresses Games companies, what sort of things should be in my portfolio, would sketches and ideas prove useful, or does anyone have URLs of sites/forums dedicated to Games Design then. And what kind of photoshop would really prove to them my skills. Is any1 else interested in this?

GamaSutra is a good place to start for game design...

I would imagine most companies would want to see a good portfolio of past work, and excellent creativity and drawing skills. Thanks to the Mod community, it would be easy to get a lot of real-world experience by doing some textures for Mods of Half-Life or Quake or something. There are also a lot of 2D projects that need pixel artists, etc. I'm sure there is plenty of ways to get some work experience out there if you look for it.

feng rocks

i'll second what deker said, thing i've read have indicate they'd like to see real world texture examples and that you know how to create textures for 3d models. doing player skins, level textures for mods, etc., gives you a great way to show that you can do that. if you know someone who does 3d modeling and can work with them that'd be a great idea too. and traditional art skills, for any design/art field but ESPECIALLY texturing, are a huge plus.

chris