Where can you go with hand-painted texturing skills?

OrganizedChaos

Hand painted textures are great, I love making them, the whole process is just.. relaxing. So I'm wondering, where can you go with them? Who uses hand painted textures besides Blizzard, Valve, ArenaNet, Carbine, and Runic Games? I just can't come up with many names on my own and figured this would be the best place to ask.

EDIT: What I mean is what companies use them primarily? I'm also referring to the more painterly style- I know you can make realistic looking hand painted textures if you try. Also, I understand that having hand painted skills is a good foundation for any 3d artist

Forgot about insomniac games-

Tom Ellis

In my opinion, being able to hand paint decent textures is an important skill regardless of whether you're attempting to recreate a 'Blizzard' style. There are also so many variations of the style that you're not really limited to just the fantasy genre usually associated with them, Valve, as you mentioned uses them to great effect in TF2 in a more semi-realistic way.

I could be wrong but Darksiders has a kind of painterly look, and may have used some hand painting textures.

Borderlands is another example of toony realism.

So being able to paint textures is a great all round skill, even more so if you consider and take advantage of their versatility.

Ubisioft also has a couple of games you could check out, The Settlers 7 features some awesome stylised work, which I believe Neox worked on quite extensively. Ubi's Naruto Rise of a Ninja is also visually really nice with a kind of cartoon like painted look.

OrganizedChaos

Hm, I suppose I worded my question wrong- edited

Thanks though- I can't believe I forgot about Darksiders! I loved that game
And Settlers 7, Neox has some really inspiring work all around

vcortis

Hey, you've named a lot of the big ones. But there are more.

Riot Games, Mythic, Junction Point Studios (Epic Mickey), just to name a few. A good portion of MMO companies seems to be hand-painted (because of WoW) too.

Ubisoft also had Red Steel 2 which is heavily stylized.

Honestly I think it's hard to say because a lot of time I think it's on a per-project basis. Though there are definitely companies who specialize in it...

Eclipse

Gameloft and other mobile developers still use pretty much 100% hand painted textures. Right now afaik if you want a safe(ish) hand painted job, mobile/iphone is the way to go for at least the next few years.

OrganizedChaos

Thanks guys!

Vcortis- you're right, it really is hard to say, a team working on something painterly could have done something ultra hardcore realistic as well. I appreciate you pointing out those companies!

Eclipse- I guess I'm wondering more along the painterly lines - very good point though

Pseudo

The majority of companies making childrens games and games licensed from animated movies are doing hand painted textures.
People often overlook those companies, and yes I know it's not nearly as impressive to tell the girls at the bar that you are working on "Barbies Extreme Pony Makeover", but the pay is just as good and the jobs are often more stable then some of the AAA studios.

Michael Knubben

Pseudo: If you've got a list of companies that you think are being overlooked in people's search for jobs, feel free to list them!
It would be much appreciated.

Stability is something that's increasingly becoming 'a big deal' to me, having lost two industry jobs in their first year due to budget cuts (leading up to bankruptcy) or bankruptcy.

yiannisk

we use painterly look too and it's hard to find artists who can pull it right!

OrganizedChaos

Seconding what MightyPea said- Whatever you know about would be helpful to list.