Questions for environment artists
So im wondering if i should invest my time and heart into becoming environment artist and i'd love to ask a few questions about that line of work to a professionals.
If somebody wish to enlighten me about hard work days of environment artist, i will greatly appreciate it. We can talk with pm or skype, whatever convenient to you.
Thanks in advance.
If somebody wish to enlighten me about hard work days of environment artist, i will greatly appreciate it. We can talk with pm or skype, whatever convenient to you.
Thanks in advance.
Replies
in your standard, cover/shooter? lot's of modeling and sculpting
really spends on how the company has segmented up the responsibility.
My first question is: Why did you become an environment artist instead of anything else the game industry can offer?
Some other threads about this.
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryDiscipline
- I like to do modeling + texturing + lighting and other stuffs. Doing environment art can make theses things together. I don't really like to get stuck at just 1 task (ex : rigging).
- I always prefer to take pictures of landscape more than taking human pictures. Maybe it's just a natural feeling. I like to play with light and mood. Personal preference...
- Environment artists has also more offers on the market than character artists. Lot of people wants to be character artist, but very few can actually do it.
UV mapping? Optimizations? Debugging scenes in GPAD and PIX? Hate it. But, it's a part of the job. At it's best, it's the greatest job in the world. At it's worst, it's still the greatest job in the world, just a little harder.
You can sometimes deal with a lot of shit and have to work long hours (if scheduling is poor or a demo pops up) but for the most part, it's an extremely rewarding career. You won't get rich, but so long as you love the work and not Ferarri's, you'll enjoy it
-You get to work on a variety of tasks, and a variety of environments.
-You get a lot of freedom to create the best environment you can imagine, rather than being tightly locked to a concept like a char artist would (depending on company of course).
-There are a lot more jobs available.
-Since so much stuff affects environments and is based on them, you have a lot of impact and collaboration with a lot of different departments, and it often feels like you have a direct impact on the final game.
- You tend to take large portions of the game all the way to completion and see it evolve, instead of just handing off an asset and never seeing it again.
Minus:
- The downside of the environments having so much impact on the overall game means that sometime shit rolls downhill, and since you have so much control over the game, you usually end up having to fix it, even if the problem was caused by another dept.
- At the end of development, you'll feel really envious watching character guys sculpt all day while you are fixing baked lighting seams and stretched uvs across 15 dungeons.
- Env guys often take pride in the fact that they have to make really efficient art, but sometimes it doesn't feel like you get to be really artistic with so many shortcuts, i.e. kitbashing and tiling textures vs unique sculpts.
What qualities must environment artist have to really be good at doing his work?
- Be able to work as part of a team
- Be Patient
- Have a passion for all things games
- Be able to work fast while maintaining a high standard of work
- Be able to understand the technical side of games development
things to think about:
-work on the shots that are most important,
ex: The view from when the player enters the room.
The view when accomplishing the point of the room (boss fight, puzzle)
From key points, is the whole room clear? Can you see a definite entrance/exit?
Make sure the lighting will be planned to help show the player where to go. Lighting is not a secondary thing to add afterwards.
-Spend time wisely, don't blow a ton of time on the ceiling when the camera naturally stares at the floor, (like in an mmo) and similarly, don't throw tons of time, textures, and polygons at places a player can't even get close to. (like a bloody ceiling.)
-Learn to concept! Even if it's crappy, learning to put an idea down on paper could be one of the biggest hurdles to getting things done. I don't get concept art all the time (or even half the time) so a lot of the props and rooms I end up making are of my own design. And when an art director is breathing down your neck, being able to show your ideas and what you are working towards can help prevent a ton of wasted time/confusion.
What soft do you use for modeling? Maya, 3ds Max or something else? What is the best of them?
Character art is more difficult than environment art because humans know humans really well. If you mess up on a character its really obvious. With environments this is less the case but there is more to keep track of in that regard.
i can use maya, modo, and max just fine, learning modeling is hte imporarnt part not hte app.