Essential Skills and Programmes for 2023
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Hi everyone,
I am currently studying MA Game Art & Design at the University of Hertfordshire coming from a background in Architecture.
I wanted to ask the community about the basic skills and software and programmes you would recommend I learn first thing (asap). I want to go down the environmental artist route and some props/asset creation. Though I do expect I'll hit most aspects of game design sometime down the road in my career.
For software I am currently focusing on Blender and Unreal Engine.
1) Are there any other essential programmes which are used a lot and do different things to UE5 and blender?
2) What pipeline/workflow skills do I need to get a grasps of? My lecturer sad I should learn about creating high and low poly assets so I can bake High quality textures onto low poly models.
What other things are good to know?
3) I don't even know where to start with creating textures so advice on that would be very much appreciated!
I'd ideally like to get my head around these basics over the next 3-4 weeks so that I can go onto creating my concepts and ideas for the rest of the semester.
I am currently studying MA Game Art & Design at the University of Hertfordshire coming from a background in Architecture.
I wanted to ask the community about the basic skills and software and programmes you would recommend I learn first thing (asap). I want to go down the environmental artist route and some props/asset creation. Though I do expect I'll hit most aspects of game design sometime down the road in my career.
For software I am currently focusing on Blender and Unreal Engine.
1) Are there any other essential programmes which are used a lot and do different things to UE5 and blender?
2) What pipeline/workflow skills do I need to get a grasps of? My lecturer sad I should learn about creating high and low poly assets so I can bake High quality textures onto low poly models.
What other things are good to know?
3) I don't even know where to start with creating textures so advice on that would be very much appreciated!
I'd ideally like to get my head around these basics over the next 3-4 weeks so that I can go onto creating my concepts and ideas for the rest of the semester.
Replies
To practice environment art, I would choose a small scene, either from an concept or photo reference, and recreate it in engine. Best keep it small at first, but with diversity to learn different techniques.
On second thought, maybe it's better to focus on a single asset first, getting that all setup and presented in engine, to get familiar with basics.
You could share your progress and thoughts to get feedback. Personally, I used the bi monthly environment challenge in the past to try out different things: https://polycount.com/discussion/233882/the-bi-monthly-environment-art-challenge-september-october-86#latest
Good luck!
Edit - Other notes/thoughts:
- inspect sample content to see how things can be done and to raise questions
- use sample content (e.g. Megascans) as benchmark and filler assets
- documentions (although sometimes outdated) are useful to read up on concepts/functions
- do blockouts and check content frequently in engine, not just at the very end
2. What your lecturer said is most important.
3. Start with Substance. Spend 1 minute a day being deeply thankful that you don't have to learn texturing with photoshop and Xnormal.