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What Game artist career is more difficult?

polycounter lvl 14
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NAIMA polycounter lvl 14
Wich one of the following game careers is more hard difficult ? I do not mean to pursue or get a job with it but actually as type of work and ability requested for it ?

Plus what exactly has to do usually and are there other figures as well that I didn't list? :) ...

Environment artist

Character Artist

Character animator

Tecnical Artist (btw what does he do ? )

Senior world artist

Level designer

Quest designer




Are there other profesiional figures?

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  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    They're all different fields with their own complexities.

    If there is one that's harder than the others, I'd suggest Technical Artist would probably be the one, given you need a handle of coding, or at least scripting as well as art.
  • chrisradsby
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    chrisradsby polycounter lvl 14
    I wouldn't really say that anything is necessarily harder than others. I do believe that artists in general need to put a lot more hours into what they do to become great, but then again it's pretty much the same with every job. Some people are good with coding, some people have an eye/hands for art. Each job has it's own skillsets and takes time and dedication to master, I don't believe you have to get stuck with just one though.

    I work professionally has an 3d environment artist right now, but usually create characters and stuff at home. I take my photographing seriously as a hobby as well as my coding abilities as a web-programmer/designer. Why limit yourself to just one thing? I believe that "the jack of all trades will never master anything" is a lie anyways.

    So..yeah, at the end of all that I'm not really sure I answered any questions at all. O_o
  • Visceral
    This is what i have heard from the educators at my school.

    Environment artist
    Easiest field. really needed by most companies that are expanding.

    Character Artist
    Most companies have very few character artist, its really hard to get a job in this field.

    Character animator
    I think you are looking for Animator. Its like the middle ground.

    Tecnical Artist (btw what does he do ? )
    This is what im aiming for personally, im still in school but i find that technical artist best suits me. Anyhow you work as a link between programmers and artists. This role differs alot from studio to studio. But its about writing tools and shaders and everything between. Kinda diffuse role really.

    Senior world artist
    No idea what this is, but seniors usually just mean you have moore experience so you get moore power.

    Level designer
    This falls under game design, and from what i have heard its a good career path.

    Quest designer
    Sounds like something from blizz.....or MMO specific...
  • tekmatic
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    tekmatic polycounter lvl 11
    This link is of great help for what you are asking.

    http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

    Good luck
  • Runner
    NAIMA:

    Are you an artist? Do you prefer 3d model or draw? Do you feel and see on your work that you have a more “artistic approach”?

    Are you a technical person? Do you think that you are able to model or draw because you have technically mastered the technique?

    Its important to know what type of artist you are before selecting a path.

    Environment Artist

    Not so technical but does requires a certain artistic skill. Remember that you will be modeling a great variety of objects. It may become technical on some fields.

    Character Artist

    Not so technical but does requires a certain artistic skill. Knowledge of anatomy and apparel are also important.
    Could become technical.

    Character Animator and Animator in general

    Can become very technical, not only do you need a great knowledge of motion/animation but you will also tackle technical issues/challenges everyday.

    Technical Artist

    The name says it all, you will need to be very tech savvy regarding this one. Worry not, technical artists don’t need to work on all areas you can specialize for example on VFX or shader writing.

    I will give you an advice, try to know has much as possible regarding all areas since they are all interconnected.

    Senior World Designer ?

    You will have to work your way up for this, it can also get very technical.

    Level Designer

    In the old days level designers were also Environment Artist but nowadays they mostly design the “playing area” and events during each level. Level designers are also a bit generalist working on missions/quests and all other sorts of shenanigans. This will surely get very technical.

    Quest Designer

    If its on paper you could probably go for a game design position but its hard to get one with no experience. It can get technical depending on the state of the design (Early or full on development).

    I hope this helps.

    I will say that by far technical artist is the hardest one to Master. Its also a great challenge =)
  • Ryno
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    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    Visceral wrote: »
    This is what i have heard from the educators at my school.

    Environment artist
    Easiest field. really needed by most companies that are expanding.

    Disagree here in general. Environment art can be easy if you're taking any one little part of it by itself. "Hey, I can make a door!" But it's a tremendously broad field. Some environment artists have to do tons of different tasks. Some aspects take meticulous planning such as building a skyscraper out of modular pieces. Other tasks require a keenly developed art sense to reproduce or re-invent things seen in nature, such as trees. Environment artists also often create custom shaders, and handle the FX too, as many smaller studios do not have dedicated FX artists. For instance, you might need to make a realistic cliff face with a waterfall pouring off of it, into a swirling pool, and steam/spray particles emitting from it. Stuff like that can be really tricky, and require a very diverse and thorough skill set.
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    They all are difficult if you want to excel. The difference is mainly that there's more demand for certain jobs. Higher demand/ lots of open positions= lower entry level requirements, because somehow the positions have to be filled - which makes beginners think a job is easy because they made it into the industry. If there'd be a high demand for riggers and the requirements were low, people would think rigging is easy...

    But once projects get bigger and people get more experience they realize that they have to work just as hard to excel as everyone else and that each field has its unique difficulties.

    If you're the environment guy who thinks "whoa this is easy, I just need to make boxes" then you better wake up and start learning, because there's a lot more to it, or you may be one of the first to get a pink slip if sh*t hits the fan.
    Visceral wrote: »
    Environment artist
    Easiest field. really needed by most companies that are expanding.
    so i guess that rather means "Easiest field to get IN to".
  • Joshua Stubbles
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    Joshua Stubbles polycounter lvl 19
    Why do you want to know the hardest? To avoid it? You do what you love, whether it's hard or not. IMO, character artists have the hardest job. You need to know anatomy, how muscles flow and work in order to build the mesh to animate well. Best to know rigging, too. Rough gig to find jobs for unless you have a lot of experience already.

    And no, environment art isn't easy. To make solid looking terrain and/or props and set pieces, you need a good eye and experience.
  • MainManiac
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    MainManiac polycounter lvl 11
    Id say its between character artist and character animation. Both require a good chunk of studying and extra knowledge that is not needed in the other fields.

    Some technical modeling can be very hectic and challenging though.


    I think if you enjoy doing it then its not necessarily difficult, but has its downsides (like uv mapping etc)
  • Rick Stirling
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    Rick Stirling polycounter lvl 18
    NAIMA wrote: »
    Wich one of the following game careers is more hard difficult ?


    The most difficult role is whatever one you are currently doing.
  • Will Faucher
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    Will Faucher polycounter lvl 12
    I don't think any of them are necessarily harder than one another. There is just a different demand for each of those. Like it's been mentioned above Environment artists are almost always in demand, while character artists are in much lower demand, and the competition is fierce.
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    most things have been already said but I just wanted to note that the thread title and initial question are rather provoking, intentional?
    Its just like those "what is the best ..." threads and causes lots of replies that just try to explain that there is no one very definite answer on things.

    Those are the threads I usually don't like because the thread starter leaves everyone in the dark by leaving out important information's (like in this case: what context has "more difficult" ?).
    Maybe I am getting to old but I sometimes wish for more mature or well thought / constructed posts / questions. I am sure NAIMA didn't meant to do this but please just in the future write some few lines about the intend or context as it will help us giving you quality answers instead of random oppinions that are not really related to what you had in mind initially.

    //rant out
  • Flynny
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    Flynny polycounter lvl 9
    Just to weigh in my opinion the hardest to be good at is going to be a technical artist, purely because by being more technical orientated you have to know waaay more fields beyond the scope of just what you see eg coding/scripting/integrating. Which in turn means keeping upto date on improvements on each of the above.

    Designers have it easy :shifty:

    Animators have it the hardest :poly142:

    But on a more serious note which ever field you choose will be bloody hard. So work at it!
  • monster
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    monster polycounter
    It really depends on the individual. I have a really hard time creating environment art, but my co-workers would have a hard time animating.

    If I had to pick one position as the hardest I would say Tech Artist. There is usually only one tech artist per team, and he has to support all the other artists by creating tools, he has to develop the art pipelines, he has to know every aspect of the game engine, he has to convert programmer jargon into artist lingo, and he's probably got a few art tasks he's responsible for as well.
  • Mask_Salesman
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    Mask_Salesman polycounter lvl 13
    Quite interesting really, I think it's pretty similar to how the different styles of kungfu used to battle it out to decide which style was the best. In the end they decided that no style was greater than another but merely the skill level of the individuals.

    Every single career is difficult and easy depending on the standard you are comparing it to and or aiming at.

    Env art may often be seen as easy for beginners but high quality env art will ultimately be very difficult, the same for each career.

    I find concepting env art difficult because if it doesn't meet the high standard I would want it to and want to aim at then I consider it shit, where as others may think it should be easy by comparison to what I usually do which they may perceive to be difficult.
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    Runner wrote: »
    NAIMA:

    Environment Artist

    Not so technical but does requires a certain artistic skill. Remember that you will be modeling a great variety of objects. It may become technical on some fields.

    I disagree to an extent. While being an Environment Artist do require a certain artistic skill, they are also the backbone of Level Art and work so closely with Design that the ability understand environments both on technical/artistic/development standpoint are so important.

    Knowing how to create environments, shaders, and textures is one thing. Dealing with your works primary software (especially if propietary) additional engines such as Physics, Collisions, etc are completely another matter. Not to mention pipeline and meshcount limits.

    Some places have a set pipeline such as modularity, mesh count, that designing around them is paramount and can be technically daunting.
  • ImSlightlyBored
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    ImSlightlyBored polycounter lvl 13
    Ryno wrote: »
    Environment artists also often create custom shaders, and handle the FX too, as many smaller studios do not have dedicated FX artists. For instance, you might need to make a realistic cliff face with a waterfall pouring off of it, into a swirling pool, and steam/spray particles emitting from it. Stuff like that can be really tricky, and require a very diverse and thorough skill set.

    hmmm.... not sure if that's ideal.

    I don't think any specific role is more difficult - it's more about your abilities and which would be harder for you. There's a reason there are specialist areas.

    And from my experience, environment artist is quite technical in the sense that the art is only the start of it; collision, budget, creating game play friendly assets, are where a lot of time can go too.
  • Runner
    kaburan wrote: »
    I disagree to an extent. While being an Environment Artist do require a certain artistic skill, they are also the backbone of Level Art and work so closely with Design that the ability understand environments both on technical/artistic/development standpoint are so important.

    Knowing how to create environments, shaders, and textures is one thing. Dealing with your works primary software (especially if propietary) additional engines such as Physics, Collisions, etc are completely another matter. Not to mention pipeline and meshcount limits.

    Some places have a set pipeline such as modularity, mesh count, that designing around them is paramount and can be technically daunting.

    Yes i agree with you that's why i said it may become technical but did not expand that.

    At the end of the day every field is interconnected and all represent a challenge, it terms of difficulty an equal challenge.

    The only reason that i said that a Technical Artist could be the hardest one is when considering a "normal artist" transitioning in to a more technical job often evolving some programing/scripting. No need to go into a deeper explanation about what a technical artist should know but i do think It might be a bit tricky for an "normal Artist" at first.


    But i agree with most of what was posted, its pointless to decide "what is the hardest".

    I support what Rick Stirling said:

    "The most difficult role is whatever one you are currently doing. "
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    Runner wrote: »
    Yes i agree with you that's why i said it may become technical but did not expand that.

    At the end of the day every field is interconnected and all represent a challenge, it terms of difficulty an equal challenge.

    The only reason that i said that a Technical Artist could be the hardest one is when considering a "normal artist" transitioning in to a more technical job often evolving some programing/scripting. No need to go into a deeper explanation about what a technical artist should know but i do think It might be a bit tricky for an "normal Artist" at first.


    But i agree with most of what was posted, its pointless to decide "what is the hardest".

    I support what Rick Stirling said:

    "The most difficult role is whatever one you are currently doing. "

    Absolutely
  • Eric Chadwick
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