Choosing best direction for development

Tom Ellis · May 2010

Hey there everyone, I will try as hard as I can not to make this a 'Polycount is not your blog thread' but I'm just looking for some opinions from various perspectives, people in employment, people in school etc.

I'm at a point in my learning where I feel I want to move towards kind of specialising in either environment art or character art. I know there are a few who excel at both but the large majority of portfolios I've seen seem to showcase one or the other and obviously they are two entirely different jobs.

So is it a good idea to focus on one rather than do both. The thing I'm thinking is that right now I've got a crappy portfolio full of very average characters and very average environments, and I'd rather have a portfolio of great characters or great environments. Well... I'd love to have a portfolio full of awesome environments AND characters but I feel to really excel at one or the other, I'm gonna need to focus on just one.

The problem is, which one.

I have to say I much prefer character art. When I draw, I usually draw characters and don't enjoy drawing environments. I've been to loads of anatomy and life drawing classes and the expression through characters is something I enjoy even in 2D, and even more so when they're fully realized in 3D.

However, from what I've read/heard, character art positions are in higher demand and shorter supply than environment art positions. But I kinda feel like all the enviro work I've done has been influenced by this thought, where I haven't really enjoyed it as much as character work but felt it was 'the more sensible thing to do'.

So is 'specialising' a sensible way to go? As in dedicating all my portfolio time to just working on either characters or environments?

In all honesty this post was kinda inspired by Dreamer getting a job. I've followed his blog for a while and it's just so inspiring seeing someone develop, but he focused solely on character work, and scored the appropriate gig, in fact IIRC there's even a post in there where he rushed through an environment piece and didn't put as much effort in as he could simply because it wasn't his thing (that's how I interpreted it anyway).

Opinions, suggestions, advice etc would be much appreciated!

Thanks

danshewan · May 2010

creationtwentytwo wrote: »

I have to say I much prefer character art.

There's your answer, right there.

But I kinda feel like all the enviro work I've done has been influenced by this thought, where I haven't really enjoyed it as much as character work but felt it was 'the more sensible thing to do'.

Hey, look - there it is again!

Seems like your heart's just not into environments, and as such, no matter how hard you try, your work will ultimately reflect this. Not to mention good character art takes dedication and commitment to achieve, so why waste your time doing stuff you don't enjoy when you've already discovered you prefer characters / anatomy / drawing?

Get to it! Now!

Tom Ellis · May 2010

Heh thanks for the reply, it does seem like a dumb question after reading back my post.

I guess I just wanted to hear it from somebody else. I definitely prefer character work, but I think I just wasn't sure if the best way to go for beginners is to try and get as much variation in their portfolio as possible but I suppose there can still be variation within one of the specialisations.

Thanks again.

Visceral · May 2010

I think its a good idea to know both. Companies tend to hire "jack of all trades" people. If you know some character modelling, some enviorment hardsurface stuff and texturing and some code thats the most attractive people to hire.

But sure if you have specialized on characters that will deffinatly show in your portfolio and will probably lead to jobs in that area.

What im trying to say is that its great to be specialized, but still keep up on your other skills you wont get left out from that.

PixelMasher · May 2010

I dont know if I would recommend the jack of all trades route to someone looking to break it, it tends to lead to a mediocre portfolio that usually has people asking...."ok so what should we hire this guy for exactly"

It might help at a really small studio but generally if you look at postings on all the major studio sites its very specific, environment artist, character artist and sometimes highly specialized like texture artist.

When you are beginning and developing the skills needed to prove you can kick ass I would focus on one school of specialization until you can pump out badass art thats up to industry standards then maybe begin to dabble in other areas. this is assuming you want a job as quick as possible rather than just enjoying art for what it is.

I have seen a lot of portfolios of people out of school who have a mish mash of different things and its usualy either some cool props and then there is a character with a weird face/anatomy that brings it down, or some cool characters spoiled by a badly textured crate or two. you are judged on your weakest peice so having a consistent level of quality if key. and when you are beginning to develop skillsets its hard to do that on both areas.

In my experience environment positions are more common place and in demand as its easier to get into the industry as a jr enviro artist doing simpler things like small props, collision fixing etc.

however you said you enjoyed character work a lot more so I would recommend working oyur ass off on making high level quality characters , rather than compromise and end up working a job you hate, because once you start doing this you are going to be doing it for a minimum 8 hours every day at work, so its far better if you enjoy the actual work.

So to summarize, go with your heart and work extremely hard to perfect that art form you want to break in with before trying to master everything, its easy to get distracted and want to taste/do everything when you are beginning but the job world usually doesnt work like that.

Tom Ellis · May 2010

It might help at a really small studio but generally if you look at postings on all the major studio sites its very specific, environment artist, character artist and sometimes highly specialized like texture artist.

I've noticed this, and while I'm not saying my first job will be for a 'big' studio, it seems more likely since the bigger studios are the ones who advertise entry level positions more often. I rarely see some of the smaller studios advertise for junior positions, I'm guessing since they don't have a big enough team to dedicate time to supporting inexperienced artists.

When you are beginning and developing the skills needed to prove you can kick ass I would focus on one school of specialization until you can pump out badass art thats up to industry standards then maybe begin to dabble in other areas. this is assuming you want a job as quick as possible rather than just enjoying art for what it is.

This is exactly what I want... a job as quickly as possible. I mean, I do love working on game art, but I'm doing it as a career path and not just a hobby, so I'm prepared to put in the effort to get there, but I do want to get there as soon as I can.

I have seen a lot of portfolios of people out of school who have a mish mash of different things and its usualy either some cool props and then there is a character with a weird face/anatomy that brings it down, or some cool characters spoiled by a badly textured crate or two. you are judged on your weakest peice so having a consistent level of quality if key. and when you are beginning to develop skillsets its hard to do that on both areas.

This is kinda where my portfolio is at right now... except it's a whole mish mash of mediocre, with neither characters or props being particularly better than the other. The difference is, as I stated earlier, I enjoyed doing the characters more.

In my experience environment positions are more common place and in demand as its easier to get into the industry as a jr enviro artist doing simpler things like small props, collision fixing etc.

I think this is the one thing that has been pushing me into the enviro field over the last few months. But even though I said I want this as a career and not a hobby, it's important to me that I enjoy it, and for the most part, I don't enjoy environment work as such. Some props are enjoyable to work on but the prospect of creating pieces for an environment, or an entire environment is just not as appealing to me as characters and character based assets.

however you said you enjoyed character work a lot more so I would recommend working oyur ass off on making high level quality characters , rather than compromise and end up working a job you hate, because once you start doing this you are going to be doing it for a minimum 8 hours every day at work, so its far better if you enjoy the actual work.

So to summarize, go with your heart and work extremely hard to perfect that art form you want to break in with before trying to master everything, its easy to get distracted and want to taste/do everything when you are beginning but the job world usually doesnt work like that.

This is the biggest factor in how I feel. And I've spent some time over the last few days thinking about where I want to be headed. In terms of my learning and development, when I compare how I want to approach characters vs environments, the desire to do character work is much more apparent.

For example, I'm into the idea of spending a lot of time developing relevant skills to character art as well as the actual making of the characters. So I'm keen to develop anatomy skills, as I said, I attend life drawing classes, I sketch and work in 2D often, and try and do the 'behind the scenes' work with the intention of improving my skills when it comes down to getting stuff out in 3D. None of this motivation is there for environments, I just wanna get into the 3D, get stuff done, and as a result, it looks rushed and crappy. Not good.

It seems stupid to sacrifice my main interest just for the sake of a position that's easier to come by. I'd much rather hold out for the position I want than just go for an enviro position simply because there's more of them, and chances are I would never get to that stage anyway because I haven't got the motivation to develop my skills enough.

Thanks again for the responses, it's really awesome to get some other views and it's helped me clear this up and straighten my heading somewhat!

EDIT - Just noticed you're at UFG... A big thumbs up to you guys for Modnation Racers, I pretty much lost the last couple weeks to that game and it's toooo much fun!

pior · May 2010

Also consider that env work is not just about doing props or texturing buildings then stacking that together. Good enviro work relies on a lot of very smart things to do right (creative tiling, mesh modularity, texture blending, normals editing) that are rarely taken in consideration when doing char work. Char work is sexy and rewarding because it can be in focus, but env stuff is scalable and builds the world ...

The trick is that such depths in env work are only reached when working at a studio. When working on personal pieces from home the scope is much more limited and things tend to look more like big props rather than real game environments.

Also, you wont get stuck at one job forever. Within one company it's hard or mpossible to go from env team to char team, but when switching job its very doable. I saw junior texture artists becoming concept artists, env prop artists becoming wepon guys (from there its easy to end up doing armor sets and char stuff), and so on.

For me the piece standing out from your folio is the bike. I like the simplicity of the render and the focus on clean modeling.

Tom Ellis · May 2010

Thanks Pior, it's a bit of an honor to receive such a detailed response from you since I hold your work in such high regard; and you're working in my dream position

I totally understand what you're saying. I think it's the scope of environment work that added to the difficulty I had with it when attempting it. I've got massive respect for the enviro artists who can produce entire scenes completely self built. I find myself overwhelmed when concepting and planning a scene where there is just so much to consider and ultimately model/texture/place and light. However I enjoy the focus character art employs, of course it requires equal planning and attention to detail but that focused detailing is much more appealing to me.

It's interesting you mention the bike I did as a standout piece. It was the most recent piece I've done where everything else is quite old in comparison. If I was to choose a 'second discipline' then hard-surface / vehicle stuff would be it. Not so much because I am better at it, but because I do enjoy it. I think that will likely be my area of development outside of characters when I want to add some variation to my skillset.

Thanks again, really appreciate the response.

Choosing best direction for development

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