Where do you start?

wirrexx

So i do know that we've been having these conversation for the past 100 years, but it is still fun and quite informative to know where an Environment/Character artist starts. 

I still haven't quite found my workflow for environment. I've seen people begin with blockout, other with textures and some with a high poly object for the scene. 

But my question is how do you guys start? 

Tad

in terms of productivity,  blocking in a lowpoly scene to get the general proportions down is a good way to start.
I like to do that then I go section by section building more detailed props / areas.

musashidan

This is a copy/paste from a post of mine on a similar thread 2 days ago. It's aimed at the poster from that but general enough to apply to anyone. The main thing is just doing. It. Start something. Streamlining your workflow comes later with experience.

Plan it out.

Search for some ref images for ideas/Inspiration. Or go outside and take photos of interesting locations.

Get a pencil and a notepad and write a list of what you see in chosen images.

Break the environment down into its fundamental elements: the terrain, a river, a footbridge, trees, a ruined wall, etc....

Write a list of assets needed for creation

Grey box the environment using simple primitives

Import them to your engine and walk around. Get a feel for scale and distances. Do some tutorials on setting up a 1st person character controller

Iterate on grey boxing until happy.

Do some lighting tutorials and light the environment

Create the assets one at a time. Do individual tutorials drawn from multiple sources. For instance: start with the lanscape/terrain. Find a good tut. Build it. Experiment.

Next search for a tutorial on how to texture it and create materials.

Build some more refined assets as a next step from the grey box. Learn from some more tutorials: how to model a rock, how to texture a rock.......etc

Set dress the environment and iterate some more

Do some more lighting and post processing tutorials.

Experiment. Iterate some more. 

Polish until happy.

And most importantly, don't waste the next few years looking for the ultimate, all-encompassing tutorial on a specific subject. Just learn and experiment and create.