Environment art - A foot in the door?
polycounter
Hey guys, I've been talking to a lot of recruiters lately and trying to prep for the Eurogamer recruitment fair in London to try and get some work in the industry. I've worked in advertising for a while and QA tested at Sega, but have always struggled to get a junior position in games and would like to one day work as a character artist (I need to get a lot better work into my portfolio beforehand though.)
I've had conflicting opinions about what my next step should be, some have said "If you want to do characters, then just spend time working on your anatomy, etc." and other recruiters have said "If you want to work in games, the best way in is to work as a prop or environment artist and 'work your way up' to a character position", although I thought character and environment art isn't necessarily harder than the other, there's just different ways of working for both. Personally I don't mind working on anything in a game (even rocks...lots and lots of rocks,) if it means I can contribute
So do you think its better for a budding artist who wants to work in characters to get into games through environment art, or just do a day job and in the free time bust his a$$ on character art?
I've had conflicting opinions about what my next step should be, some have said "If you want to do characters, then just spend time working on your anatomy, etc." and other recruiters have said "If you want to work in games, the best way in is to work as a prop or environment artist and 'work your way up' to a character position", although I thought character and environment art isn't necessarily harder than the other, there's just different ways of working for both. Personally I don't mind working on anything in a game (even rocks...lots and lots of rocks,) if it means I can contribute
So do you think its better for a budding artist who wants to work in characters to get into games through environment art, or just do a day job and in the free time bust his a$$ on character art?
Replies
BTW your day job should be an environment art position.
:P
Best of luck
because it's better to focus on one or the other when you are starting out rather than spreading yourself thin.
It's cause you're sitting there doing this stuff for 8 hours a day, and then your other portfolio doesn't get done. So you have to go home after a full day, and then keep going for another few hours. Then during the weekends probably spend a full day on it too. Otherwise nothing would get done.
So you'd sit there doing environment work for 8 hours, then go home and do another 2-4 hours of character work.
It's definitely possible. Just a ton of work, and it takes its toll on you.
If you want to be a character artist more than anything in the world then I would suggest focusing on your portfolio until you are simply so amazing you can get a job anywhere you want. Thats not really realistic though, having a "normal" day job does allow you more free time to work on your portfolio, and if you are disciplined enough to keep to it, good things should eventually happen.
If you want to work in games sooner than later however, environment/prop work would probably help get your foot in the door pretty quick, but if you tell people in interviews you are doing for an environment position that you really want to be a character artist but are settling for an environment job, its not going to sound good. you have to have a passion for environment work or you are going to want to blow your brains out, especially when it comes to crunch time.
How familiar are you with the environment creation workflow? are you going to be learning it from the ground up or have you made environment work before? if you are starting from square one, it would probably be more wise to manage your time building a few more fully textured/normal mapped game characters. you have some decent work in your folio, just needs more final game meshes I think.
One thing that I have noticed especially with employment agencies, is that if your portfolio is character based they will often rule you out of 3d generalist positions, whereas an environment portfolio will keep that job role open to you.
Breaking in is a bitch.... I have 4 applications in at the moment and if I get as far as a thank you but fuck you email then I see it as an achievement
I didn't mean it like that, what I meant is why not pick up the skill-set and core fundamental from both sides, and work towards what you want to be.
For example, if you want to be a character artist, that's the place you'll aim for naturally, but having a nice bag of knowledge of how the Environment set pieces work won't do any harm.
Besides, most people I have met always tell me that as long as an artist knows and understands topology structures on inorganic or organic models, and has proper texturing skills, trading one lesser area they don't excel at won't as much the challenge as say someone who has only sculpted 4 legged spiders all their life.
Boobies included naturally.
people want to hire env artists who are passionate about creating environments. not people who figured it was the easiest way to get to a different position.
also, your decision seems to imply that you can get an env position with no effort, but would have to bust your ass for a char position. i think you'll find you have to work just as hard to get hired in env.
I think I was freaking out a little since character artist is such a sought after position and since I'm 28 (and working in QA) I wonder if I'd be getting my first development job when I was in my early-mid 30's
Sectaurs - I was just about to say I'm not so naive to think that it would be a short process to create a good environment folio, I'd imagine it'd take quite a while to get some nice pieces together so I'd rather focus and specialise on characters.
All these replies have made a lot of sense, much appreciated
Character art is definitely a lot harder to get work for, but you've already got a good start on it. Good luck and stay persistent!
Character Art is more difficult to get into because there are, typically, less positions in any given studio, let alone open positions.
Being an Environment Artist does not mean your job is any easier than a Character Artist's job. You need to be just as dedicated, and just as skilled... just in different areas, obviously.
If you want to be a Character Artist, be a Character Artist. If you feel that you are a solid Environment Artist, then go for it. I would not be fooled into believing that there is such a huge demand for "okay" Environment Artists that you'll be able to get a foot in the door, and work towards Character Art.
Good luck!
Your portfolio is a start, but it's not strong enough to get any character position any time soon. If you focus on becoming an amazing env modeler, you could go a long way. Everyone and their dogs wants to be a character artist, so the competition is very high. I wouldn't hire you as a env modeler either though, because your portfolio is very focused on character art.
It's basically about what inspires you in the end. You will always be competing against people that are learning and practicing anatomy and cloth every day, all day.
When i play Uncharted, it is the Environment that awes me. Choos env art because it inspires you, not as a stepping stone, because you will probably always be looking over the fence, envious of your neighbors yard instead of focusing on your own
An Env art usually has to know a lot more technical things about the game engine, their fields are so different. You wont be sitting in zbrush most of your time as character artist does. You will be using the editor, testing, using profiling tools. Though this depends on the studio and how segmented the env department is (modelers/sufacers/level art).
Maybe. I am a jack of all trades :P Always have been, always will be. Has helped me out alot.
"Jack of all trades, master of none, often times better than master of one."
Yeah, in this industry, limiting yourself to only one discipline will cripple your worth to a studio. You have to know a bit of everything just to "survive".
so once you get home you can focus on something you love , which is character art.
if you work everyday doing art, you wont have enough energy looking the same thing/subject at home.
no matter people opinion about getting job, artist is artist.
as personal i dont see myself as successful artist before i reach this proficiency
http://soanala.cgsociety.org/gallery/
http://www.warproductions.com/
http://okonart.com/
If this ever happens to me. It will be a fuckin miracle... Because somehow my work just doesn't cut it.