Brampton Scary School 2. Stylzed PBR Environment.

JordanN

Ok, starting this thread again after the last one broke down into fights.

There is only one disclaimer. Critiques are always welcome but I will NOT get into any arguments over them. I am told I do not have to accept every criticism and I'm allowed to make some art decisions for myself.

Brampton Scary School

A normal day of school, was later turned into a day of nightmares. Reported sightings of paranormal activity and mutant monsters, forced entire classrooms and faculty personnel to drop what they're doing and leave. In addition, a janitor has been reported gone missing in the school. Having now been abandoned, a general inquiry has been put forward to find out what the cause behind all these events. The only volunteers are three girls. They now set out at night to investigate this haunted establishment.

An explanation of my artstyle.





I have listened to critiques that are asking for better asset quality. I am redoing assets to bring texture quality above 1024 x 1024 and will include more geometry and normal maps.

An example of a new texture. The Locker shows off grunge and chipping material similar to a real locker that was beaten up or left alone for too long but all of this was painted using different brushes.

huffer

If you're trying to save memory, you can use albedo tint to color the texture in different colors in-engine, color doesn't have to be on the texture, and if you're not using normal maps, you can tile that texture, make the sides overlap, etc. Are you going to add vents/keyslot/handle to this or there's going to be separate geometry for that?

JordanN

huffer wrote: »

If you're trying to save memory, you can use albedo tint to color the texture in different colors in-engine, color doesn't have to be on the texture, and if you're not using normal maps, you can tile that texture, make the sides overlap, etc. Are you going to add vents/keyslot/handle to this or there's going to be separate geometry for that?

Some of the locker doors are are going to be open, so there's definitely two elements. On the doors, I want to include the vents.

Old reference:

BARDLER

This is not a critique on your art, this is a critique on your process and what you should expect.

You call yourself an environment artist, and your resume says you are graduating in a few months. I am assuming you have aspirations to work in the game industry as a environment artist in some capacity. What studios do you want to work for? If you had to pick 4-5 studios you really want to work at, who are they? This is an important question to ask yourself because it allows you to create a bench mark for yourself as an artist to be able to work towards. I do not want to elaborate to much on that point until you respond first, if you wish to hear me out, if not then just tell me so.

Here is the harsh reality of being an artist in the game industry. Nobody will look at your portfolio for more than 60 seconds, maybe not even more than 30 if they are in a rush. All those words and stories you want to tell is all great, but nobody hiring an environment artist will read it, and they sure as hell are not going to put on a VR helmet for it either. You have 30-60 seconds to communicate your skills as an artist in a series of jpgs, that is it. If the story is a fun extra bit that helps you get motivated to make a project that fucking go for it man. However, if you let the story hold back the quality and potential of those final jpegs that will sit in your portfolio you are ultimately hurting yourself. Looking at the work you have shown so far on this project I think you are doing that to yourself.

If you are into VR, that is awesome, it is a really interesting growing area of the games industry, I totally get it, but you need to understand the art process for making a VR game is no different then a regular game. I wouldn't be surprised if there are studios making VR games where the artists and art director go days or weeks without putting on a VR helmet. VR adds potential performance limitations like you have posted about, but it has zero impact on the quality of the art style and art direction.

Here is my last point, maybe you don't want to be an environment artist. All your posts and stuff you do, I get the sense that you are more interested in the design and story of what you are making. Which is perfectly fine, and totally awesome! In fact there are jobs in the game industry for narrative designers and writers which do that type of stuff.

I feel like you get frustrated on this forum because people keep focusing on your art, and not your experience you want to create. This is an art forum, and that is what we do here, and every thread you make that is what people will critique and talk about. We scroll through threads, looking at jpegs, and in about 30 seconds have formed a critique about the art. The story, your process you have laid out, your experience, and all that stuff you focus on doesn't matter in that critique because good art should be able to stand alone without all that.

So in short, go do what you want man, if you want to make a VR mini game thing then go for it! If you want help with making better art for that then listen to the critique you have been given because the VR game and the art are independent of each other.

JordanN

So I just had a long talk. A job is more important to me and unfortunately, it means this environment has to go.

I still believe in the idea behind it, but I accept it wont get me the career I desire. To quote a movie that describes this best,

"It's the video game Polycount deserves, but not the one it needs right now"

I'll bump this thread back up in 2023 or something.

Earthyn

Glad you came to that decision buddy! Once your established in the industry maybe you can revisit this idea!

Secondly Keep up with posting your art, we all want to see what you can come up with!