Environment concepts?

Snowfly

just signed on an indie project as environment artist. i would like to give it my best, but this is totally new and alien to me. my question is, where do you start?

do i paint a scene that shows the color scheme & mood of the levels? do i sketch out the actual level layouts? do i draw concepts of the structures as standalones, removed from a whole environment?

anyway it would be nice to hear what the environment guys at your jobs give you to work from, cause aside from brushing up on perspective i am totally clueless.

MoP

Check out John Wallin's Gears of War environment concepts here: http://www.johnwallin.net/site/main.html

Feng Zhu's environments are also good for reference and ideas: http://www.fengzhudesign.com/gallery.html

When you say you're an "environment artist" on this project, do you just mean concepts? Or will you be doing actual models and textures of the environments too?

If it's just concepts, I wouldn't worry about the actual level layouts - leave that to the level designers.

You're right about mood and schemes - I don't have a lot of experience in that field, but from what I've seen, most environment concept in production work seems to be "set pieces" which are set in a small area of environment - pick a structure and a design which would be a good reference point for art and architecture style for the whole level, do a couple of different items for each level - I wouldn't draw them as standalones, give each set piece a bit of backdrop - nothing incredibly detailed, but enough to give a setting and sense of scale, design and location, etc.

Have you posted this over on CA.org too? This seems like a question that'd be right up their street.

shotgun

snowfly,
first of all you have plenty of talent and I wouldn't worry about it..
you sound a little bit skeptical of yourself

secondly, i would say you just draw whatever you have to, however you see fit, in order for you to convey your ideas to the other person.
do what they ask you to do.. but keep doing your own thing eh

Ninjas

I'm working as a concept artist on an indie project now. One thing I think is important is to draw a few pictures of each environment. The first one I try to keep simple and basic. It has all the things I know I want to be in the level, and I do color scheme and structures/ecology. From there I break out elements or make images of new elements (I get really good ideas when I am drawing, so often my first drawing doesn't have the "coolest" stuff in it" All of these look okay, but I usually only spend a couple hours on each. Then when I am happy, I will do a big finished drawing that has all the ideas blended together.

That is just for the concept stage. Then I guess you would do layout and modeling after that if you were doing those other tasks too.

Joshua Stubbles

Well, I'm a level artist, not a concept artist. Our art director doubles as the concept artist, since he's got a big 2D background in animation. He'll usually draw me up some rough sketches of the enviornment, and I'll get to building. Along the way, I'll ask what his idea was for certain parts, if they weren't detailed enough. Most of the time, I can take a lot of liberty though, and change things if I feel it's an improvement.

For the most part, I think it's rare that an enviornment artist does both the concepting and level design. Design work is just that - for designers. It's best to leave gameplay mechanics to them.

Snowfly

Thanks guys, this is awesome info. really helps to de-mystify the process.