Kinda stupid question about vehicle modelling

Tom Ellis · Apr 2010

Hey there all, I'm not sure if this should be in TT or General, so apologies if it's in the wrong place.

I have a question regarding vehicle modeling for games.

Which artist would usually create them?

I know that sounds like an odd question but I'm just figuring out areas of my portfolio that are lacking and it was something I'd never thought about before.

So would it be an environment artist? Character artist (guess not), or a specialist (if such a thing exists).

It does seem like a kinda specialist area since a few of the best portfolios I've seen which feature vehicles, often feature vehicles either exclusively, or primarily.

Does it depend on the project? For example, a racing game, or game that contains a lot of driving parts, would have a specialist modeling team, whereas a project that called for like a burnt out vehicle or background prop would have the environment artists create them.

Odd question I know but I was just wondering.

Eric Chadwick · Apr 2010

I've worked mostly at smaller studios, like less than 30 people, so usually artists wear many hats. I would imagine in larger studios that character artists would be the vehicle people, since the assets are similar at a basic level: dynamic objects, rigged to skeletons, with various attachments.

Guriamo · Apr 2010

if you look around, yo'll probably find job postings for "vehicle artists". At least at bigger companies, as you said, its a very specialised area.

PixelMasher · Apr 2010

yea there are dedicated vehicle artists out there, sometimes prop/vehicle artists. for stuff like burnt out cars and background vehicles, usually an environment artists job to create, usually be re purposing/texturing an existing asset if possible.

I have created some vehicles and am an environment guy but I guess it all depends on the type of game and studio setup. something like forza of NFS has dedicated car modelers for sure though.

low odor · Apr 2010

probly depends on the how vehicle centric the game is...I'm sure the Enviro guys would handle the "ambient" vehicles(maybe prop is a better word)....Games like GTA or Saint's Row..probly had dedicted Vehicle guys...maybe even UT3... our team is so small we work on everything...so this is me purely talking out of mt ass

Rick Stirling · Apr 2010

We've got a team of vehicle artists.

Tom Ellis · Apr 2010

Ok thanks for the replies.

I kinda thought that's how it would be. Everytime I've tried to do a vehicle, it's come out a bit 'meh' and it seems like an area of expertise that really requires a lot of dedication to get it looking awesome. Obviously that statement could ring true for any position be it characters, environments etc, but I figured that vehicle centric games would require vehicle centric artists.

Thanks again

oXYnary · Apr 2010

I had to play vehicle artist on last game in part. It does take I guess a little knowledge of how things work to come off more effective. Sorta like someone trying to model a character without knowing anything about bones. There is the very precise mechanical aspect of it, and then the organic, S curves for the body itself.

Kinda stupid question about vehicle modelling

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