Picking a game art category?

MainManiac

Im not sure where else I can put this, theres no general art discussion unless I missed it. And this wasn't general enough to go in general chat after a quick skim of what kind of discussions are there :S.

Well im curious if anyone else has had trouble picking a route between hard surface/vehicles, environments, and characters. Im constantly hopping between the all 3 but I cant settle with one and it is really hurting my progression.

I really hope someone can help me with this and choosing what is best for me, ill give some views of my own on each category.

Hard surface - This is where I made my most progression, I somewhat enjoyed making weapons and props. I've always wanted to try vehicles but sometimes I feel it may get too technical in some cases but that never really pushed me away, I just never got to it.

Environments - I've wanted to get into this but I have a major problem that affects me with traditional art and rubs off on environments. I always want to create these great and wonderful realistic environments with beautiful lighting but I am terrible at fitting and layering detail into large places. While I love to fit every small detail I can into one compact piece of art. This usually has an affect on my art, and before Im even done adding the first pass of details and props I end up saying "this will never get better" and just sort of step away from it. I've bought tutorials for it also but I just can't catch on.

Characters - Oooohhhh boy. I've always wanted this. I always feel like awesome characters = awesome game. They tell the story (as you), they are the story, and they add alot of life to the game. I started a mission to become a great character artist about 5 or 6 months ago and started learning anatomy. Im not complaining about the learning, but I've heard that a character artist is a hard gig to land and is extremely competitive and im starting to think Ill have a better chance with one of the above.



I really need some advice, im sick of picking a path and trying to find one with the best chance/availability of jobs.

Thanks in advance.

EarthQuake

Yes, when you consider that character artists only make 10% of the content of a game, and 90% of people want to be character artists, you'll see that it is a more competitive side to get into. Enviro/Prop is more friendly as an entry level position, and character art isn't really an entry level position unless you've got an all-star portfolio.

elementrix

From the way you talk about those 3 categories it seems you are much more passionate about characters, so I'd say go for that. If your going to focus on something that your not fully behind yourself you'll probably regret it after a while.

It is true that getting in the industry as a character artist is the hard way but it's not impossible and if you really have the passion and dedication to get there I'm sure you'll make it.

Otherwise, just brush up some environment/hard surface skills to get yourself a spot in the industry but keep working on that character dream.

nathy-d

Hey man, I'm kinda new here, but have been in the industry for almost 6 years now, and let me tell you first off, everyone hits a wall, especially background/environmental artist ( this is what i do ), you hit this wall during every bit of work you touch, and instead of feeling like an environmental artist you feel like a mental artist, the way i got and still get through this is good planning, sketches of parts and sounds silly, treating yourself to the cool bits a little sooner then save the rest of them till later, its a hard hurdle to step over but can be very rewarding, your building the world!!!, but what comes with that is a ton of bugs and optimisation later in the projects life, like I said, planning is key!
Character artists jobs, ye, kinda cool, you won't be plagued with the mass of budgets , bugs etc as a background artist does, but beleive me when i say, to be a character artist now, in an over saturated field you have to be the absolute bollocks!! no way round this.
The choice betweeen hard surface and organic is hard also, you just need to find your style and go with it, naturally always experiment, but you need to find your own happiness and satisfaction in what you do, dude I'v egot a file on my pc of unfinshed stuff as long as your arm, its just the way we are, we all child personality types at the end of the day, show some new candy and we'll drop everything and go running , good luck.

MainManiac

Thats what I figured EQ


Never though of doing them both collaterally elementrix.

After I saw http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82426 I was getting inspired to start hard surface again but this time try making cannons and artillery and fun little stuff and right now that sounds very interesting. I was also in an Indie studio as a weapons artist and I left to follow my 'character dream' (But it was also a let down seeing no actual game progression or even a game we could put the weapons into, that may have played a role)

This is usually the cycle it goes in:

I bought mw2.
I though wow these guns look awesome.
But look at the marines! They look so awesome!
* after a bad attempt at marine
Hmm this is a really cool sniping map, what if i try to make a grassy wooded map like this?!
Fail

and repeat.


Right now im thinking of going back into weapons or hard surface to see if I enjoy it, here was where I left off:







The best game art related things I have ever made, and I have been told that I have a definite potential with weapons and just to keep working at it, but I always felt like the process was somewhat boring but I was obsessed with the results.


GAH then I saw http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82237 and now I want to make characters. Its bickering back and forth like this that makes me waste so much time and I hate it

EarthQuake

ADD man, best to just pick something and stick to it, for better or worse. It takes much longer to progress as an artist when you're trying to do *EVERYTHING*, than it does to simply focus on one specific area.

Work on weapons/props, work on getting those skills up to a profession level, get a job, and then work on characters in your free time. Its good that you get inspired by the stuff you enjoy and then want to rush out and create that, but professionally you should be very mindful of having a clear goal to you work.

MainManiac

Well I think im going to make some sort of artillery gun or AA gun soon and see how it goes and to brush up on some leet skills yo.

Expect a post sometime this week

Im still open to any advice anyone has

CheeseOnToast

If you do make that artillery gun, put in in a small vignette. Something like a sandbagged emplacement, nothing too extravagant. Just a 10 metre square, with a bit of terrain, some sandbags and ammo crates, and any other paraphernalia you feel like adding. It'll stretch you a little without being overwhelming and will look better in your folio.

MainManiac

Starting to scratch the artillery gun idea, I cant seem to find a design that I wanted that was in my head.

I saw a couple possibilities that I wouldnt mind trying, but before I do can anyone think of any other type of metal machine I can do?

I wanted something that looks cool, and when I saw most artillery guns are a boring long barrel with some clutter at the bottom I wasn't too excited.

Good idea cheese, is marmoset free yet? Pretty sure ill need to render it in that. If its not free ill have to find the old one somewhere.

MainManiac

By the way, does anyone know when racers site is coming back? Its been down for months and I might need the ak tutorial for the texturing part.