Are Environment Artists Qualified To Work as Level Designers?
Hey All,
I've seen threads comparing the duties of level designer and environment artist in games (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84713), but wanted to know whether an environment artist is qualified as well to work as a level designer, either right away or after working at a company for long enough. I am planning to begin school in Fall 2015 and am trying to decide which area to focus on. Ultimately my goal is to work as a designer, but I figured that studying environment art would allow me the flexibility to apply for both level design and environment art jobs. Also, it seems like environment art would allow me to work at almost any size company, whereas strictly being a level designer would limit me to large/AAA companies. I already have a solid background in scripting/programming so I'm not worried about missing that if I go the art route. Also, I do have decent traditional art skills and am practicing daily and taking lessons to improve them.
Basically, I am interested in both art and design, and eventually want to work more on the design end, but knowing how competitive the video game industry is, I want to make myself as employable as possible. That being said, would going the environment art route spread me too thin if what I want is to be a level designer?
Since I'm on the outside of the industry looking in, it's hard to know the right path to take. Any advice you've got would be much appreciated.
Looking forward to hanging out more here. Seems like a great community!
Thanks.
I've seen threads comparing the duties of level designer and environment artist in games (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84713), but wanted to know whether an environment artist is qualified as well to work as a level designer, either right away or after working at a company for long enough. I am planning to begin school in Fall 2015 and am trying to decide which area to focus on. Ultimately my goal is to work as a designer, but I figured that studying environment art would allow me the flexibility to apply for both level design and environment art jobs. Also, it seems like environment art would allow me to work at almost any size company, whereas strictly being a level designer would limit me to large/AAA companies. I already have a solid background in scripting/programming so I'm not worried about missing that if I go the art route. Also, I do have decent traditional art skills and am practicing daily and taking lessons to improve them.
Basically, I am interested in both art and design, and eventually want to work more on the design end, but knowing how competitive the video game industry is, I want to make myself as employable as possible. That being said, would going the environment art route spread me too thin if what I want is to be a level designer?
Since I'm on the outside of the industry looking in, it's hard to know the right path to take. Any advice you've got would be much appreciated.
Looking forward to hanging out more here. Seems like a great community!Thanks.
Replies
I'd say that if you can't tell much from a level design / game design portfolio, then it's not a well designed portfolio (a nail in the coffin of a designer).
A good design portfolio needs to communicate to the viewer what they are looking at, and why. It's not really so indistinct from the actual level / game design process itself. A bunch of pretty pictures may make an art portfolio, but it's a failure for a design portfolio
Just doing environment assets will never qualify you for doing level design.
Level design is a part of game design, and does not require art per se. Level design is about
composition, user flow, leading the player, placement of important objects, balance and imbalance of opposing forces and resulting challenge.
With your art skills you can make great compositions and panoramas and use your color and importance knowledge to lead the player better (sizes, focal points, color, lines that lead your eye..) [this are skills that most 3D artists not have however!] but all the other stuff is not so much art related and needs a lot of training and knowledge that can also be done with simple cubes. As I game designer, I found leveldesign (atleast for competitive games) very challenging, but thats maybe my flaw.
Dont expect getting good at level design by modeling and placing assets, but if you do your leveldesign training right and can present that well (top down views, explain what things do, show paths, heat maps..) then having the environment skills on top can make you the alpha senior level designer I suppose.
My tip: model tons of modular stuff and then go full level design from then on, and it dosnt hurt having base geo levels in your portfolio. And try FPS, RTS and adventure single player design, they all require vastly different things
Oh and from my personal experience is it hard to make people believe you can do several things without having deficits somewhere, but doing multiple things
will only pay off later on. Doing env now and LD later sounds like a decent plan tho.
A related question is this: Is there significantly more competition for level design jobs than for environment art? I would imagine that game design grads with an amorphous or un-focused skill set would all be applying for design jobs, as well as QAs looking to move up, whereas environment art is limited more to those with solid 3D and environment art training. Is level design the job that everyone looking to get in wants, or is my perception of it incorrect?
This is something I have worried about and is the reason I started this thread. It seems companies, at least large ones, are becoming more specialized, and generalists are not so desirable. Maybe this is different at smaller companies, however?
You could use the specialized vs generalist argument within level design itself. Depending on the games studios make there's all sorts of jobs you can call level designer. And then there's the generalist level designer that does everything from initial blockout to final scripting.
We actually found it pretty hard to find any multiplayer level designers, or at least experienced ones. Linear singleplayer maps, bot scripting, scripting some sort of dramatic final confrontation, none of that means anything to multiplayer design. And hell, different multiplayer games have completely different design requirements because they play completely differently.
Great advice here.
More of an aside than and answer to your question: The cool thing about environment art is sometimes you'll have to level design while you build your sets. Smaller dev teams wont have the luxury of a dedicated designer, so sometimes you luck out and get to wear multiple hats, which includes the layout to your dungeons.
Alternatively, Studios with prop artists, layout artists, designers, etc. Are way more specialized and clear in what everyone's roles are.
A level design position COULD include some rough modeling and/or BSP work, and lots of lighting, composition, etc.
An environment artist position COULD include layout work, lighting, composition, etc.
There COULD be a lot of overlapping skills, and there could not be. It depends on the studio, really. What it comes down to is that studios with these types of generalist roles are usually running more lean and expecting everyone to wear different hats, because they don't have extremely specialized jobs.
Environment art is different and does not qualify you to do level design (or vice versa), as generally the enviro artist will simply make assets for a level thats already been thought out and tested quite alot; a proven level.
Like cman2k said, they do have some overlapping areas. But being good in one field dosen't make you just as good in the other; they are distinct for a reason. If you want to try to learn both, start with level design and work all the way up to polishing the level with art and so forth. Multiplayer levels would be a good place to start.
Any thoughts on the difficulty of getting a job as a level designer vs as an environment artist? Are their more people competing for level design jobs and less available, or are both equally competitive?
I'd say they are about equal, but level design might be a bit tougher to get, although like any other job in the industry it does rely on your portfolio quite alot. Level designer is also a good starting role if you want to move up to something like a game designer within the company in the future as well, so they are often seeked out by new employees who may want that job.
I'm an environment artist but during my career I've definitely done a lot of level design myself. Mainly because the more people you put on a level that has specific roles the more waiting for approval you have to do. (ie wait for another LD to do the work and then you can jump on it and make it pretty) Especially during times when higher ups wants to change things around.
If you're able to slam out some kick-ass level design and also being able to art it then you're golden.
I started my game career as a level designer when level design meant doing everything scripting, layout, sound, environment art, lighting, and camera placement... so on... Than as games became far more complicated to make, I transitioned into environment art role, but I still kept my design skills going through out. As time went on though I became a texture artists since I figured out I prefer to make textures which means being in zbrush or substance designer more than modeling everything. I still help on all aspects as a texture artist by doing environment art and some design responsibilities. Makes me a great bug cruncher person, since texture artists do not get that many bugs towards the end compared to design or environment side of the team... so I end up helping on bugs towards the end a lot. I feel that if your really want to be tempting to studios you do have to be versed in other areas but try to master one. Also time will give you different experiences. Did I know I was going to do textures all day? If I thought that from the start I would have said man that is boring... I think it is important to try different stuff as you move forward with your career.
Also people have transitioned from environment to design. Bruce Straley use to be an environment artist for example and transitioned into design now game director at ND.
Be open to change be open to new art techniques and new possibilities, but when you are in the interview narrow it down and say yes sir I am a texture artist etc... I will do this only
My short advice would be that if you want to learn env. art too, dont go trying to learn how to actually model environment art from scrathc. Just learn what makes environments and props look good (will be useful when you need to communicate with environment artists), and how to modify assets. (for example how to make 1 metre high pile of logs 2metres high, so it can be used as a cover)
LD is more technical planning, blueprint of a level, lots of flow charts, annotated diagrams of scene play etc.
Although 3d artists can often set dress.
Sorry for so many questions, but just to make sure I'm clear, is it usually the level designer or artist that places the 3D assets within the level? Only building 3D props and modular pieces all day seems a bit tedious if you don't get to arrange them within the level and make it all kind of come together. The idea of "world building" (and I'm using using that term not knowing what it means at an actual studio) is what seems most interesting to me. I love the idea of imbuing story and character into the environment, but maybe that's not really any one job?
Well in my experience, a person who takes all assets that somebody else made (the prop team etc) and places it a level, is a level artist/world artist.
A person who does both set-dressing and actually makes a lot of art themselves are: Environment Artists.
But then again, all studios, all publishers have different names for these positions.:poly142: