Prospects of Texture Artists?

Blaisoid

Hello there.
I did search for a similiar topic, found none.

I am mainly a texture artist, i make both environment stuff and model textures.
i do have some experience in concept art and basic game prop modeling, but compared to those my texture experience and workflow are much better.

However during the time when i was working on my skills, technological improvements caused workflows of studios to gradually change.
It's become really rare for studios to put job ads looking specifically for texture artists.


On the other hand there's more and more ads looking for Environment Artists.
Since environment artists have texturing skills, i guess they make texture artists rendundant in most cases.
So i figured that this specialization is what i should aim for in order to become a more desired artist.


But the thing is, i find it hard to determine what skillset an environment artist actually needs to have.
Job ads that i browsed through require really diverse skills. It's like definition of environment artist and range of his duties greatly varies depending on the studio.

So what should i aim to learn first? modular sets, hi-poly props, or maybe sculpting natural environments? or something else?
Or maybe it makes more sense to start making hand painted textures or textures for mobile gaming?


I've seen that there are lots of professional environment artists here on polycount.
Can you guys give me some insight on how duties are divided at your (present or former) workplaces?

-Are environment textures being made by the same people who make environment props or is it a separate position?
-do specialized modelers (character artists, weapon modelers etc) texture their models, or is this task given to someone else? If latter, then whose job it is?
-where lies the border between environment artist and level designer?
-where lies the border between environment artist and 3D artist/prop modeller/generalist?



Thanks in advance
BK.


PS: i'll soon make a thread dedicated to what could be improved in my portfolio, i'll be happy to see some feedback.

passerby

there are less texture artist and more environments artists now because were moving away from textured bsp surfaces to meshes for environments and with meshes it makes more sense that the person that made it texture it to, since things are getting more of a hybrid workflow now, with baking, and using high polys/ sculpts to make details for in the textures normals and AO.

for learning just find or make some concepts and make the whole environment start to finshish, in UDK or something similar.

Autocon

Blaisoid wrote: »

-Are environment textures being made by the same people who make environment props or is it a separate position?

It really depends on the studio you work for. Most have the environment artist do both texturing and modeling but there are studios that just an environment artist who models and a texture artist who textures that shit.

Here at Naughty Dog thats what we do. Environment artist model everything and assembles the scene and the texture artist makes textures and shaders.

-do specialized modelers (character artists, weapon modelers etc) texture their models, or is this task given to someone else? If latter, then whose job it is?

Thats how it is at most studios. Although some like EPIC have people who work mostly on making HP assets and send them off to someone else to make the lows and do the textures. Same with characters. Some people might just focus on the sculpts while others work on the textures.

-where lies the border between environment artist and level designer?

A level designer designs the level and gameplay scenarios that will happen in a give level. And environment artist fills out the world that was designed with art making shity pretty. There is a lot of back and forth and collaboration between the two.

-where lies the border between environment artist and 3D artist/prop modeller/generalist?

A 3D prop artist generally focus on items that will require a unique texture/HP bake. They will spend more time on these "hero" objects as they take more time. These can range anywhere from Vehicles, Weapons to small things like interactive objects.

An environment artist generally makes assets using tiling textures for quicker turn around pieces as they have a lot of world to fill. There job is to take a grey level from design and bring it to the final product gamers play through. They populate the world with assets they make and assets others make to create a fleshed out environment. They also have to deal with a lot of the technical aspects such as keeping the level in frame rate and things like collision.




Again it all depends on the studio as there is no one way to do it and every studio is different.

Blaisoid

thanks for answers.

So, 1 month has passed and i got a more accurate view of the industry.

but in meanwhile Polycount witnessed a few amazing texture art dumps, which also revelaed that there are people working solely on textures in major studios.
More people than i expected at least.

So how did you guys get those positions?
Were there texture artist job ads, or did you apply for another position but got assigned textures?
Did you actually want to focus on textures, or did you aim to be an environment artist or a 3d artist?
Is shader creation assigned to texture artists often?
Any other useful insights you'd like to share?

passerby

really the more value you can give a studio the better, i see you labeled your self and both a concept and a texture artist, in your portfolio link, so maybe a studio that doesn't generally hire people who only work on texturing might grab you if you do both concepts and textures for them.

i know some indie studios do that, at Unknown Worlds, they got there Art Director (Cory Strader), who does concept art and will do textures and meshes when possible, than they contract out modeling/texture work when they need more done than 1 person can handle.

He defiantly accels at concepts, and getting the overall vision for the game, but he can and will do textures and meshes to a more than acceptable quality, when shit needs to be done and they don't want to put a contract out.

but that is partially because there texture styles really relies on baked normals and AO, and Cavity from HP geo.

AlecMoody

I think it will really depend on the kind of work you do. The two trends moving forward I see are texture painting becoming much more material oriented, and texture painting integrating with sculpting. Both of these things are already happening but right now a lot of the industry still gets by with diffuse painting + quick spec map.

Isaiah Sherman

I think you should just aim to learn and master in what you have the most fun in. Once you do get a job, wouldn't you be doing something related to what you enjoy most? If you just tailor yourself completely to what companies are looking for, would be doing something you like?

If you want to get in to the industry and do textures, just title yourself an "environment" artist. I would highly suggest taking modeling as a partner in crime. At our company, our texture artists are also very proficient high-poly modelers and understand how to bake out all those tasty normal and AO maps from high-poly.

In your PM you asked me directly how I got in as a texture artist. I was contacted directly here at Polycount for the position I'm in now. I wasn't actually aiming to be a texture artist solely, but I was shooting for environments. It just happens this studio works similar to Naughty Dog.

Our texture artists have more of an art sense, and our modelers have more a technical sense. We all understand the aspects of both quite well, though, we aren't speaking foreign languages to one another.

Hope that helps!