Will I reach anywhere modelling vehicles?

emofruitcake

Hello, I have been trying to get into modelling vehicles for a long time since I have always been interested in cars for as long as I can remember,

but every time I start I don't understand if there's a career in modelling vehicles like cars, tanks, planes, trucks, etc.
Is there a specific position that a vehicle artist has?
Do I continue environment and prop modelling and do car modelling on the side?
Are there any freelancing options available if I get good enough?

For reference, I have been focusing on prop and environment modelling and I want to be an environment designer but if there's a future for vehicle artists I will definitely look forward to it.

tl;dr are there posts or careers as a person who makes vehicles in 3d

Neox

who do you think is building cars for racing games? military vehicles for shooters, planes for flightsims etc?

certainly neither the env nor the character artists

find the companies who work on vehicle heavy games, talk to them.

emofruitcake

Neox said:

who do you think is building cars for racing games? military vehicles for shooters, planes for flightsims etc?

certainly neither the env nor the character artists

find the companies who work on vehicle heavy games, talk to them.

Thank you. Up till now, I thought vehicles in games not centered around vehicles were just handed to the environment artists, this clears things up a bit!

Do you have any companies in mind?

Neox

i am a stylized character artist. do your homework. find out who is working on forza, need for speed and the like.

lluc21

There are definitely careers for vehicle artists. I'd suggest you looking for vehicle artists in ArtStation and seeing what kind of portfolio you should aim for. 
Here are a couple articles that explain the vehicle modeling for games workflow:
https://80.lv/articles/vehicle-production-for-games/
https://80.lv/articles/modeling-vehicles-for-aaa-games/

All games that feature vehicles usually have Vehicle Artists working on them, but the "easiest" way (not because it's easy, but because any other way is extremely hard lol) to get a job as a vehicle artist is to tailor your portfolio for a specific kind of vehicle. Racing games will search for realistic models of existing cars. War games such as World of Tanks will look for beaten up hard surface stuff with proper texturing. Others like Cloud Imperium Games would be looking for spaceships and that kind of "style".

I'd suggest you to look into Racing games as it is usually the places where they are hiring all the time and have a high need for Vehicle Artists.
You can look into EA, Codemasters, Playground, Gameloft, Kylotonn, Milestone srl... Basically look for a racing game that you like and find out who is making it. 90% they have vehicle artist openings on their website...

Zi0

emofruitcake said:

Is there a specific position that a vehicle artist has?

Yes, at Infinity Ward we have a vehicle team, CDPR has a vehicle team since they started working on CP2077, Star Citizen has a gigantic vehicle team and so does every developer that makes games about car racing.

emofruitcake

lluc21 said:

There are definitely careers for vehicle artists. I'd suggest you looking for vehicle artists in ArtStation and seeing what kind of portfolio you should aim for. 
Here are a couple articles that explain the vehicle modeling for games workflow:
https://80.lv/articles/vehicle-production-for-games/
https://80.lv/articles/modeling-vehicles-for-aaa-games/

All games that feature vehicles usually have Vehicle Artists working on them, but the "easiest" way (not because it's easy, but because any other way is extremely hard lol) to get a job as a vehicle artist is to tailor your portfolio for a specific kind of vehicle. Racing games will search for realistic models of existing cars. War games such as World of Tanks will look for beaten up hard surface stuff with proper texturing. Others like Cloud Imperium Games would be looking for spaceships and that kind of "style".

I'd suggest you to look into Racing games as it is usually the places where they are hiring all the time and have a high need for Vehicle Artists.
You can look into EA, Codemasters, Playground, Gameloft, Kylotonn, Milestone srl... Basically look for a racing game that you like and find out who is making it. 90% they have vehicle artist openings on their website...

Thanks a ton for this! this really cleared up my head! I'll do research and try to follow everything that you mentioned.

thanks again.....

emofruitcake

Zi0 said:

emofruitcake said:

Is there a specific position that a vehicle artist has?

Yes, at Infinity Ward we have a vehicle team, CDPR has a vehicle team since they started working on CP2077, Star Citizen has a gigantic vehicle team and so does every developer that makes games about car racing.

thank you for this!

anuragipushp

emofruitcake said:

Neox said:

who do you think is building cars for racing games? military vehicles for shooters, planes for flightsims etc?

certainly neither the env nor the character artists

find the companies who work on vehicle heavy games, talk to them.

Thank you. Up till now, I thought vehicles in games not centered around vehicles were just handed to the environment artists, this clears things up a bit!

Do you have any companies in mind?

From Activision to Rockstar, if there's vehicles invlolved, chances are they're developed by a dedicated vehicle art team/artist.