What are the mandatory skills to be an environment artist?
Hi, I'm a student and I really interested in environment art and level design. I want to know the mandatory skills to be an environmental artist. Should I learn 3D modeling and sculpting? I have no experience with 3d modeling and sculpting. I made some scenes using unity. But I got the assets and props needed to make these scenes from the assets store.
I have a passion for making worlds and environments. but I'm not very interested in learning 3d modeling and sculpting. So what are the mandatory skills to be an environment artist? should I learn modeling and sculpting? or should I switch to level design? Sorry, I really need some guidance.
Replies
@janiya one of the common advice to this is study and observation, and have art foundation
An environment artist is typically responsible for making the assets that go into a scene/level, so 3D modelling is pretty mandatory for making 3D assets, yeah. 😁
Level design is more about designing those spaces for gameplay, not necessarily building them. The role in which you build levels/environments from those assets is called something like 'world artist'.
Environment artist is almost always someone who is expected to produce assets, especially at the junior level. You often have to work your way up from small props. To be honest part of the reason I chose to go into environment art is just that there are more environment artists than anything else.
Level artist? Maybe what you're looking for. This isn't always a distinct role and I'm not sure how many junior positions there even are for it. For sure there are level artist / worldbuilder roles that don't require 3d asset creation skills, it's always a big plus though. You'll need to understand optimization and technical budgets/limits, if you have a phenomenal portfolio but it's all unoptimized and you have no idea how to make it perform better you'd probably fail interviews on that.
Good level designers are awesome members of the team, but they're usually not even touching the polished art and might just be doing like interaction scripting and not even touching layout.
if you want do environment art, focus on art sense, observation and study anything around you, less rely on made asset
In big studios there are of positions where you only work in the engine with premade assets. But its easier to get a job i you have modeling and texture skills.
Modeling
Sculpting (not mandatory but very useful) & retopology
UV Mapping & Baking
Texturing (prop and tileable textures)
Terrain sculpting and Set Dressing
Lighting
For me the standout areas that make a good environment artist is telling a story and how you capture that story through a camera.
Modelling, texturing, lighting etc. are expected core foundations for an environment artist, some artists excel more in specific areas (take lighting for example) and sometimes end up pursuing a Lighting Artist or Material Artist focused career afterwards.
Something my lecturer told us in university : No matter how good your model looks, if it's not lit and composed well, it will negatively impact your scene. I say it's great to study some key shots from films (and games even) and study the lighting and composition and why it draws you in.
For me personally, I'm more of a big picture type of person. Everything else is refinement and will improve with a lot of practice (improving your texel density, sculpting, topology etc.).