Would I get hired as an environment artist without a traditional modelling DCC under my belt?
I'm currently studying a game art program that has been fairly messy in terms of curriculum so far, and as a result has left me a bit adrift in terms of skillset. The most we spend on a topic may be a month until moving on to something wildly different. For example in 4 weeks we would do a walk, run and jump cycle for a pre-rigged character before rigging and animating a pre-made car and implementing that in-engine; after that we had to visually develop a static scene in unreal as a group and after that 2 weeks of storyboarding.
Not only is there a big emphasis on group projects (four multi-week projects in as many semesters), but they have been actively discouraging the production of assets. There seems to be a focus on content creation in Unreal, so lots of megascans, mixamo, etc.
This may not sound so bad, but in all honesty I don't know whether I'm coming or going... For my goal as an environment artist it feels like program I'm on is a bit counter-productive. I have been following Maya tutorials and doing some basic props here and there on the side; and took it upon myself to get into Substance Designer in our recent group project (a brutal experience as no teacher had experience with it lol, got a nifty stone wall out of it though!). But I'm 6 months in and I'm not satisfied with my level at all.
The course is two years long with a 6 month internship and I'm pessimistic that I'd be able to contribute as an intern let alone a professional when all is said and done, as my school has me jerking between software and fields too much to get good at any one thing. (We're going to be doing concept art and 2D animation in the second and final year for some reason).
So that's a big reason why I'm asking the initial question. The other part is because I really wanted to learn Houdini and that was why I joined this particular school, only to find out it isn't scheduled at all this year and they don't know where to fit it in for next year. Reason why I want to learn Houdini so much is that flexibility and speed it offers for environments of any scale for a single artist as well as just the career opportunities it affords.
I was wondering if I just give it my all to learn Houdini as my DCC instead of Maya or Blender, would there be a place for me as an Environment Artist? As long as I learn topology fundamentals, it shouldn't matter no?
Not only is there a big emphasis on group projects (four multi-week projects in as many semesters), but they have been actively discouraging the production of assets. There seems to be a focus on content creation in Unreal, so lots of megascans, mixamo, etc.
This may not sound so bad, but in all honesty I don't know whether I'm coming or going... For my goal as an environment artist it feels like program I'm on is a bit counter-productive. I have been following Maya tutorials and doing some basic props here and there on the side; and took it upon myself to get into Substance Designer in our recent group project (a brutal experience as no teacher had experience with it lol, got a nifty stone wall out of it though!). But I'm 6 months in and I'm not satisfied with my level at all.
The course is two years long with a 6 month internship and I'm pessimistic that I'd be able to contribute as an intern let alone a professional when all is said and done, as my school has me jerking between software and fields too much to get good at any one thing. (We're going to be doing concept art and 2D animation in the second and final year for some reason).
So that's a big reason why I'm asking the initial question. The other part is because I really wanted to learn Houdini and that was why I joined this particular school, only to find out it isn't scheduled at all this year and they don't know where to fit it in for next year. Reason why I want to learn Houdini so much is that flexibility and speed it offers for environments of any scale for a single artist as well as just the career opportunities it affords.
I was wondering if I just give it my all to learn Houdini as my DCC instead of Maya or Blender, would there be a place for me as an Environment Artist? As long as I learn topology fundamentals, it shouldn't matter no?
Replies
As for student projects, I think they often have the problem of being too ambitious and then there's too little time for a good execution. A solution here could be to plan something more constrained, with the option to expand the scope.
I think if one is interested in making games, getting an overview of various (potential) tasks and dependencies involved can be insightful. Who knows, maybe what one enjoys most, is something one didn't yet know about. In the end, the best thing you can learn is how to best self-educate. The bi-monthly challenge on the forums features different environments you could try translating.
Good luck!
you might have a job a little faster if you only focus on a single thing, but in long run it is better to have broader perspective
so I wouldn't say you wasted your time with that
in case you never heard of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills
The best teams in the world have regular cross training where people with different skills teach that skill to the others. It makes the entire team better. In game dev, you dont need to worry about your coworker getting blown up and having to do their job, but if you have a good handle on what they do, and why, you do your job better, because everybody is working towards same goal, and everything depends on one another.
if looking for a job you find less competition if you do something many other people cannot do, or will not do
this is good actually, because the most interesting things, people usually fear
Houdini has reputation for being hard to learn and technical, so there is fewer people using it than learning how to model an AK-47 or a babe
how in demand is it here or there? you probably need to find people who are where you want to go and ask
it is not so much the software somebody hires for, but the problem that you solve using the software
If you can explain a specific problem and how you solve it, that makes you an expert. If you know some tricks with a tool but don't have a problem to apply it too, you might be helpful but it's a guess. So if you can demonstrate what sort of flexibility you bring to a certain type of project and why that is needed, that is better than saying, "I know this software, which brings flexibility and modularity." That is just buzzwords anybody could say. It does not prove that you understand common game dev problems and have some experience and ingenuity to know ways to solve them.
It is probably best to figure out which corner of game dev interest you most greatly and pursue that. if job security is your primary motivation, a career somewhere else would be better (even laying concrete for the city which you can go do right away)
finally, dont get too wrapped up complaining about whatever courses you took didn't prepare you well. Nobody is going to look after number one, except for you. So get serious and treat your future like you would if you were going to war. Use others help as much as you can, but only count on yourself for what is important.
Also does the school provide industry placements and employment assistance?
The main reason to do a program like this is for connections though your teachers and the schools connections with local studios though alumni working there and industry partnerships.
As for what you're learning, it does seem that the school covers a lot in a short time, and while group projects can be an asset, the result might not be very favorable if everyone isn't able to give their best.
Considering your advice, maybe the school has put me in a better position than I realised because I have rigged, animated, modelled, textured, baked, made shaders, etc. It's just that a lot of the knowledge hasn't been retained because of the pace, and it feels like I'm very tutorial-dependent when producing anything.
Just to clarify though, dropping out of my course or giving up on being an environment artist hasn't ever crossed my mind. Upon reading my original post, I know the post probably came off more as me venting and complaining about my current school, and that's my bad.
It was more than upon researching environment artist job postings, there is always a specific request for "proficiency in a 3D DCC such as Maya/3DS Max/Blender", and I was wondering if Houdini would be considered in that bracket if I can indeed use it to solve the same problems that you're talking about. Like being able to batch UV or using the PDG graph to render a bunch of variations of an asset/simulation simultaneously for example.
I don't want to devolve the post into the same tired "which software is better" debate because most popular software, such as Maya and Blender, are chock full of features that allow anyone to do anything if they really seek to master them.
"A polygon is a polygon," as I've seen on the forums here a few times
It just feels like Houdini has the most upside. Also, because I'm a student, it makes more sense in my head to go for the steep learning curve as I have the luxury of time more than I would as a professional.
Probably important to note that my school has a board of advisors comprised of industry professionals who have explicitly stated they want students to have Houdini knowledge coming out of the course too
Their whole ethos is to get their students out into the working world by hook or by crook, and because it's based in Sweden with a few studios around the corner, it works pretty well.
I think their approach is more suited for their programmer and game designer courses, though, as an artist's prospects go as far as their portfolio can take them from what I've heard.
I've noticed that the more successful art schools, like the Gnomons and the Think Tanks, have incredibly long courses focused on a particular asset's specific workflow, which results in very high-quality work and understanding. Just looking at the output of those schools' art programs compared to ours confirms which approach is more effective for artists.
Think I'm actually going to enroll on Think Tank's Houdini for Film or Games online course after I graduate here, but will give it my best in the meantime!
this is partly because you'll almost never get to touch it but mostly because the things you make need to be editable by everyone else and if nobody else knows how to use it they won't be able to. oh - and the skillset isn't directly transferrable to other DCCs either of course
Should you learn houdini ?
absolutely.. people who are good at Houdini (by good I mean that they can solve new problems rather than just replicate stuff they saw in a tutorial) can earn a shit load of money doing it if they can find somewhere to work.
Their Game Artist program didn't get approved by the Swedish Education Board for next year...
And what of Houdini Engine for Maya/Unreal and Unity, GoZ Bridge?
The other points stand though.
Its always possible to keep developing your artistic skill set and knowledge of other programs to apply to other studios outside Sweden
There is considerable material available for free online, you can also purchase tutorials through Gnomon and other online portals such as Vertex School and flipped normals.
Think tank online is good, but it works better if you are looking for work in Vancouver Canada since many of their instructors have connections with local studios there.
What they teach you can learn online for free.
I'd also recommend that you use your current status as a student to gain access to free student versions of 3D packages which you can then use to practice those pipelines.
For game studios who are established in certain programs, they do allow for flexibility if say you chose to use houdini instead of maya and they have the budget to provide for a license.
But most AAA studios are very rigid in their workflows and provide the time to learn it, it does take much time to get good enough to follow it.
Like at EA, the traditional character art pipeline that I followed to make my portfolio (before I upgraded it with similar toolsets) was totally redundant since their entire workflow uses base geometry, scan capture and plugins to make everything.
I just had to learn the order in which to push buttons and the skill aspect was in finishing the characters.
They automated and outsourced everything they considered to be a time sink and are very interested in AI solutions.
Many studios are prioritising their investments in art outsourcing and tech art. So if you are down to it, I'd look into making a tech art portfolio for longevity.
For a regular artist portfolio you do need to demonstrate what the listing asks for, but in general hiring in the game industry isn't very transparent so I advise networking for referrals.
https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/me-indie/maya-indie
check if you are eligible, IIRC it is like $200 a year or something. until you are working professional, or making big money, may not need to pay that ~$2k per year
Yeah I'm not going to drop out, was thinking more to join Think Tank after I was done here just to really zone in on building the hard skills; Futuregames has been pretty valuable already in regards to just networking and I've already had a couple of studios inquire about my availability for an internship even though I suck.
I've had a Gnomon Workshop subscription since I started Futuregames, I've bought Daniel Thiger's SD fundamentals, Unreal Sensei's masterclass, Micheal Gerard's SpeedTree fundamentals series, etc. Feels like I almost have too many to be honest haha
I have already started a dialogue with Think Tank and they have quite a few mentors based in Europe and Scandinavia actually! Apparently, they even have a scheme where the student can choose an artist they want to emulate and, if they're interested, Think Tank pays that artist to mentor. That's pretty much what sold me on that school in particular.
Funnily enough, since starting this thread I have been reflecting on what exactly it is I'm drawn to the most and it does seem to be the more environmental tech art kind of thing. For our first group project, I tried to build a cable tool and ivy generator in Houdini (first time properly using the program dunno what I was thinking) and in the second I wanted to build a procedural cave material in SD. So perhaps I should take your advice and start a tech art portfolio! I have about 3 months left of my first year, so will try to at least get an industry-standard prop on my portfolio just to show that I at least know how to put one together.
Then Houdini and Unreal all the way for my second year!
Applying for a Technical Artist Job // Skills, Offers, CV (youtube.com)
Lots of stuffs! Seen a few discussions here on polycount about the job role too, but I think that seeing as I know I want to make engaging game environments faster and easier so I think my portfolio should focus on maybe examples of how I could do that. So a couple generators with Houdini and Blueprints, and a couple of shaders should do the trick!
• learn Houdini now, if you want to learn it.
• learn Blender (or any other regular modeling software you have access to) now. Attempting to get a job as an env. artist without knowing how to *model* is kind of pointless IMHO ...
• show your portfolio, so that people can give you actual, practical advice.
All that said, nothing wrong with applying if you feel like you got what it takes. But giving any further advice is really quite impossible given that we don't know where you are portfolio-wise.