Interior design background trying to transition into video game A&D - where to start?

rattar

Hey guys,

I have a bachelors in Interior Design and am looking to transfer those skills into the video game industry. I primarily worked with SketchUp, AutoCAD and Photoshop to create and render my designs. Based on that knowledge I was wondering if some of you could recommend where my best starting point would be if I wanted to transition into creating architecture and interior design for video games.  I realise that AutoCAD might be the only transferable skill but I'm completely open and willing to learn new programs.

My two biggest questions at the moment are: What sort of job position would my past experience serve me best in? Based on those positions, what programs would be essential for me to learn for me. 

Are there also any programs worth noting when it comes to designing VR worlds?

Any help or suggestions you have for me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

-R

aryarie

rattar said:

My two biggest questions at the moment are: What sort of job position would my past experience serve me best in? Based on those positions, what programs would be essential for me to learn for me.

I would say that you would be looking at becoming an environment artist as it sounds like you already have the skills for creating things like props, buildings, interiors etc.

To begin with you might want to pick up an educational version of either 3ds Max or Maya as these two are the industry standard tools. I'm not sure how they compare with AutoCAD/Sketchup. Photoshop is also industry standard for creating textures so it's good that you already know that.

You'll also need to get used to working with a game engine like Unreal Engine (i.e. getting your assets into the engine and building your environment).

rattar

This is extremely helpful and I appreciate your help. 

I think I'll do some research to determine which of those two I would rather start with. Same with Unreal Engine I'll do what I can to familiarize myself with it and try to put something together.

Again, thanks for the help!

Kevin Albers

Max used to be more commonly used for environment stuff, but I've noticed a gradual shift to Maya, so I suggest learning Maya rather than Max at this point. You can probably keep using Sketchup if you like it and are fast with it...you can do basic architectural forms in Sketchup, and should be able to import that into Maya to refine the basic forms and create game-usable assets.

For texturing, Substance Designer and Substance Painter are quickly becoming standard tools, instead of most texturing being done in Photoshop, so I suggest learning both of those tools (note that Maya and the Substance tools all have cheap Indie versions, which are fine to use). Using Photoshop combined with Substance Designer/Painter is a great combo workflow.

Most or all of your skills should transfer quite nicely. Having good design/art sense is super helpful, of course, and learning Maya will not be too hard since you already have some experience w/3D software.

If you are good at visual design, I suggest doing a bit of concept work as you go along. In the AAA industry, you might usually work with someone else's provided concept, but being able to do the visual design aspect is very helpful as well. 3D design approaches are fine (e.g. if you like coming up w/architecture designs by fiddling around in Sketchup, that's a fine approach to keep using).

Eventually you should learn Zbrush as well, but it's so different from other software that you might as well hold off until you have put a bunch of time into Maya (or Max) and Substance Designer/Painter.

I should point out the the game industry is flooded with more potential applicants than it could possibly hire, probably by a factor of 10 or more. Hopefully you've already considered this. Being good at stuff is not the same as being able to be hired to do that stuff, which is unfortunately the case for most 'creative' careers.