Whats the difference between an 3d asset artist and a 3d environmental artist?

Riikitou

I go to AIP and i am in the media arts and animation program there, i am in my 4th quarter and have 8 more to go and i am trying to decide what to go into. I definitely want to go into video games but i am having a hard time differentating what a asset artist and an environmental artist is. Can their jobs be combined into one job in the field or whats the deal? I've looked online for a bit and haven't found a straight answer. I want to Model environments and everything inside of it, like bottles and smaller stuff as well. along side the bigger objects, but people keep on telling me that is the job of two different people. Can someone clear this for me?

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Riikitou

Thanks for the advice it clears it up a bit. the 3d stuff i have done so far is nothing compared to what ive seen but im still learning and i hope people here can give me good critiques

PredatorGSR

It depends on the studio. I've worked at two companies as an environment artist, and all the title typically means is that you work on everything that isn't a character/weapon. Whether you will work on larger scenes, individual assets, or both typically will depend on your skill set and company structure.

I would recommend you promote yourself as an environment artist and list that as your job description. If you call yourself a prop/asset artist, it just means you are limiting yourself to jobs looking for prop artists, which tend to be junior roles, but environment artists make props all the time and are expected to have those skills just as much as a prop artist.

BradleyWascher

Easiest way to think about it:

3d artist/ Prop artist: Just model Props (Guns,Barrels,Crates,Debris,ETC)

Environmental Artist: Model building, streets, door/doorways, stairs. More things that need to have a more specific scale and then place them all into a scene where they then light it and do post processing.

//Now like everyone else has said before this changes from studio to studio but as a rule of thumb is an easier way to explain the difference.