Level design vs. 3D Artist?

buddikaman

I was curios if there is a higher demand for level designers or world builders as there is for Character modelers or related positions?

Right now im pretty much concentrating on character building but have heard its hard to break into industry doing that, i was curios how level design compares? As im thinking about making the shift over. Pretty much, i want to concentrate on whats gonna get me into the industry, can anyone comment on the supply demand for various positions?

THanks!

-Buddikaman-

rawkstar

just look at job postings... there's some here, but they're all mostly art related, check out gamasutra for a more accurate view of who's in demand and what not. character modelers are pretty low on the demand list, most places have maybe around 2-4 of them on a project, unless its an mmo, but they're really not that hard to find, and the competition is pretty tight. environment artists though ARE in high demand, thats probably the one position that just about EVERY company is always on a look out for, especially if you're really good, its hard to find good people to do environments since everyone wants to do characters.

level design is a little weird, different companies have different definitions for level design positions, at some you'll actually be building the level and maybe even creating some props for it, at others you may only do gameplay scripting and placing enemies and gameplay specific stuff, in generall though the requirements for getting a level designer job are kind of subjective... they basically "make fun" but fun is different for different people, and a lot of level designers i've worked with didn't really "make fun" so ... if you can take a bunch of existing assets for any game and arrange them in such a way that its fun to run around in... they got a job for you most level designers don't make any art, and are in general discouraged from doing that by the art team, but alot of times they do it anyway just because of tight deadlines and miscommunication, so knowing how to model and texture will help you land a job as well.

on a scale of demand though it'd probably go something like:

character artist < level designer < environment artist

hope that helps

EarthQuake

There is demand for quality people at any position you could specialize in, as far as a higher demand really thats not a question i think anyone actually knows, its not like every company gets together and polls who they are most often hiring and such.

Level Design to me means someone who designs the layouts, sets up the flow of the level and does all of the scripting and ai work, places sounds, particle effects, etc.

Then you have people who are more environment artists, who will model props, buildings, go into the level and do more visual tasks, placing things, lighting, etc etc. Sometimes you'll have someone who is just a modeler/texture artist and dosent really do any work with the level builder as well.

Every company is different as far as what these jobs will actually entail, but i wouldn't suggest trying to get into level design if you dont actually want to heavily do game design tasks, as apposed to just modeling/texturing.

Many people will tell you environment art is easier to get into, truth be told it takes just as much effort to be a great environment artist as it does to be a great character artist, and both of those will always be in very high demand. Entry level positions in either arent really in high demand, as they can be pretty easy to fill.


That being said, what you should do is think to yourself, what do you enjoy doing? What are you *good* at doing? Its much more important that you're going to be doing something you enjoy doing, and are actually good at than just trying to pick something thats "in demand".

Lee3dee

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Level Design to me means someone who designs the layouts, sets up the flow of the level and does all of the scripting and ai work, places sounds, particle effects, etc.


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I would like to point out that this varies from company to company. At nfusion Interactive I created particle effects, created shaders, level layout, scripting etc. So while some LDs may only create the levels, others maybe also playing a role as 3d Artist. All depends on the size of the company and how they work internally.

There are more 3D Artists out there than level designers if your looking for a job. Having only been a level designer for 2 years I'm happy that I made the transition from 3D Artist because now I have the chance to create fun gameplay where as before I was just making assets for the levels and someone else was doing level design.

As EQ said, you should think about what you enjoy doing and focus on that as a career

buddikaman

IM starting to think of either trying for enviromental artist or level designer. I honestly think i would enjoy all 3, altough enviromental artist seems quite different than doing characters or levels, it still serves its purpose and seems like a place to start. Level design would be great as well, as making enjoyable levels that look great and are fun to play would be challenging and rewarding. Its really a cross between the two.

Question- With next gen engines like UE3 would an enviromental artist basically be contributing the static meshes found within the level, such as statues and such, and the LD be more building the shell of the level, any ideas?

-Buddikaman-

aesir

while it depends on the studio, the LD will be more the type of person who is placing all the props that the enviro guy is making into the level and arranging them how he wishes as well as doing the layout of the level. In many cases he'll also be applying textures that artists have created onto the walls and corridors that he makes in the level editor.

Parnell

I have to agree with Rawkstar. Environment artists are definitely in a very good place atm. A great environment artist. One that knows the tech side, is incredibly savy with their skills, and truly wants to work of environments is worth a SHIT LOAD to a company. Far more than a character artist. If they can concept environments too then they dominate. Companies need more and more of them too as content keeps getting bigger in games.
I'd want to work on environments more if they had boobs.
B

danr

"Levels" as people seem to be referring to them (interconnected rooms and corridors with placed props, scripted AI, "flow", etc etc) are only relevant to a small percentage of games. Shooters and linear action games usually. Don't get hung up on the L word, think more about the "design" side which is much more applicable to the games industry as a whole. Any company website with vacancies will tell you what they need from their designers, it varies quite a lot - although the core requirements (play and understand a shitload of games, be able to communicate ideas, and then apply what's decided upon on time) are usually the same

Ryno

In many games, there is a lot more environmental work than character work, hence the need for environmental/level/prop artists. On a larger team, it wouldn't be uncommon to see a game have 3 character artists, and 10 environment artists, with maybe a couple of vehicle or weapons specialists, and maybe an effects guy. Obviously the ratio varies wildly, depending on the type of game, but in general there tend to be more environment artist positions than character ones.

When you take into account that what seems to be 95% of digital arts graduates want to be character artists, you can see why there is such a shortage of good environment artists.

Ryno

You know what would be interesting, is to get stats from pros here, stating exactly what the positional breakdown of their team is right at this moment. For example, on my team for the projects we are currently on, here's the breakdown:

Environment/prop artists - 6
Vehicle artists - 4

That's it. No character work right now for us, even though a few of the guys will do that when we have the work. We're on a big push for some vehicles right now, so are a little more heavily weighted in that direction. Usually we're about 8/2 environments/vehicles or 6/2/2 environments/vehicles/characters-other.