what to work on as an enviromental artist

IronHawk

When going for an environmental artist position what is best to submit? Should I focus on props or complete scenes?

What is the day in the life of an environmental artist like? Is most the work done in Max/Maya or is there some done in engine tools like Hammer or UnEd.

So far I've focused on complete scenes prefering to model structures in Max since engine tools are going to differ from one studio to the next.

any help on this would be much appreciated.

thank you

- Jesse

FunkaDelicDass

If you are applying for an 'Environment Artist' spot, you should have some examples of full scenes. Usually companies will differeniate between enviros and props artists in their listings, if they only want props builders.

With full scenes, you should have experience building skys and have a good understanding of lighting, whether it's old vertex baking or per pixel stuff, in addition to the modeling/texturing stuff. Don't underestimate the importance of good lighting in enivro art.

Some studios have in house tools that interface directly with Max/Maya, so you don't need to use an editor like Hammer or UED. It certainly helps to have some knowledge in an external editor though, as it shows that you understand the more technical aspects of enviro art (zoning, portaling, pathing, etc.).

The typical day of an enviro artist is working all day making an area look pretty, then having a designer walk in at 5pm and say they're redoing the whole layout.

...just joking (but it happens)

Rick Stirling

Having a LOD version of your scene is useful to.

Ryno

Environment arist can mean a lot of things. Technically, an environment artist may be required to make everything in the game world not related to characters. I've done a ton of different duties in an environment artist role, and some of my co-workers had even more random stuff that they focused on at some point or other. Here's a list.

1. Skyboxes
2. Tiling terrain texture sets
3. General prop modeling/texturing
4. Buildings
5. Vegetation
6. Terrain modeling
7. Lighting
8. Particle Effects - Clouds, smoke, dust, rain, etc.
9. LODs
10. Shader setups for different surface types

If you're thinking of focusing on an environment art job, I'd put together a nice little scene that puts together several of these and other little assets into one cohesive little set. A nice piece of terrain with some good texture variation, some props, a pretty skybox, maybe a building or two, possibly a tree and a little vegetation. Show the finished mini-scene, then if you'd like, show off each of the bigger ticket prop models on its own.

Props should have diffuse, normal, spec, and scene should have lighting. Bake it if you like, but at least show that you can light it. Lighting should match what is going on with the skybox.

If you wanted to go nuts, add some subtle particle effects, show skybox and lighting variations for different times of day/seasons or whatever. This would be a very nice portfolio if it all fit nicely together.

okkun

To increase your chances, try creating something realistic. Fantasy painterly environments are great but you could really limit your pool of potential employers.

Look at a what the majority of upcoming games look like and try to reproduce something that would fit into most of them.
Unless that is you're targeting a specific company. In that case look at their stuff and try to reproduce it.

If you use reference/concepts for your scene also show the originals as that will show that you can work under direction if supplied with the right materials.

Quality over quantity

Environments take a long time to make, no one is going to expect you to show a complete game level you did yourself unless you've had previous employment as an environment artist.

Jeff Parrott

Kickass art. I hate seems large levels that look like crap. I'd rather see a few props that have amazing detail in the model and textures. Full scenes are fine, just don't half ass it.

los

What Ryno said.. Another good thing, major plus, would be to show them that you've worked within a game engine and used its lvl/env. editor. Possibly load your environment in the engine and show it off that way rather than submiting screen renders.

Biggest thing is to show them what they want to see. If its a studio working on a WW2 game show them specifically battlefields and shit that would pertain to that environment.