Traditional art - which one to learn?

megalmn2000

Hi everyone,

I know that art is really important for 3D stuffs but the question I'm asking myself is which field of art I should focus more to make better contents? I've start learning history of art but there's too much stuff to learn! My main focus is on environment art.

Thanks for your time!

Neo_God

Well, for environmental art, I would say the "traditional" mediums you'd want to look into are a bit more lofty. I don't know if learning how to oil paint or sculpt in clay will effectively help you, unless of course you want to venture into something more stylized. Truthfully you'd want to look into things like masonry, welding, woodworking, or any sort of artisan trade. I'm not saying you need to learn how to construct a stone wall, but researching these things and how people work with them will help you better understand putting them together in the future.

Kwramm

now the obvious answer would be architecture, but many subjects have their merits when you apply the knowledge to your craft - and env art isn't just only architecture.

But having a good understanding of how colors and light work will help you with texturing and lighting and creating materials. Composition helps you seeing the big picture and how all the elements you create relate to each other.

Or just go exploring with a camera - discover things you haven't looked at before and think how to present them best (after all, presenting a game, is what our art does!) - look at buildings, textures, trees, environments in the real world and discover what is it that makes them look real and how you can simulate this in your own work for more realism.

If you want to stay on the theoretical side - I always enjoyed art history. It gives you a lot of pointers where to look for new inspiration - different cultures, art movements, periods...

pior

I would go as far as recommending storyboarding / visual storytelling. You cannot get more complete than that.

megalmn2000

Thanks for the replies everyone!