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Environment sculpting

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Hi I've been trying out Zbrush and love it, I was wondering how often environment artists use it? If for example a statue needed sculpting would studios normally get a character artist to do this?

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  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    It depends on the studio and project. At my studio, only the character artists have access to ZBrush. Other studios give environment artists ZBrush if you're making a sculpted styled show. Really depends.
  • jamespr
    Oh ok thanks for the reply :)
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Situation and role dependent.  Same as @Ashervisalis, I've had senior/lead environment artists at InXile do their job WITHOUT Zbrush, and make side mention of wanting to learn it eventually.

    If anything, the path of immediate education for environment art is in large part spurred on by just making content work in engine, and the technical art involved.
  • jamespr
    Situation and role dependent.  Same as @Ashervisalis, I've had senior/lead environment artists at InXile do their job WITHOUT Zbrush, and make side mention of wanting to learn it eventually.

    If anything, the path of immediate education for environment art is in large part spurred on by just making content work in engine, and the technical art involved.
    Interesting, so would you say most environment artists spent the majority of their time optimising and in engine? I've been doing research but I'm still somewhat unsure as to what an average day would look like
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    No.  Not to my knowledge.

    Environment Art can break down into, but not strictly, sub roles like Level Artist, World BUilder, and Environment Artist.  The Level Artist and World Builder typically work in engine MOST of the time.  It's not to say they can't build assets on their own.

    Here's the stickler, it is mostl likely you're going to have to know how to do both in-engine and out of engine work,
  • Meloncov
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    Meloncov greentooth
    Yeah, the ratio of time spent in engine vs time spent creating assets varies massively between studios, and between artists within a studio. Definitely something to ask about during the interview process. But as a job-seeker, you need to show proficiency in both.
  • jamespr
    Makes sense, thanks for your time guys :)
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