Environment Art - Share your experiences.
I'm a 3rd year uni student considering options for honors year. I'm dithering between something tech art focused or environment art focused, so I wanted some opinions on what working as an environment artist is like.
What is the availability of jobs like?
How much do you enjoy your job?
Do you get to work with the engine or with programmers?
What is the pay/hours like? (Though a job I enjoy is more important)
What is a typical day like?
How much control do you have over the design of your assets?
Annnnd anything else you might like to add.
Thanks so much guys
What is the availability of jobs like?
How much do you enjoy your job?
Do you get to work with the engine or with programmers?
What is the pay/hours like? (Though a job I enjoy is more important)
What is a typical day like?
How much control do you have over the design of your assets?
Annnnd anything else you might like to add.
Thanks so much guys
Replies
1) Good for both. More environment art jobs but A LOT of talent makes it an employers market. Not as many tech art (both general, environment, and character) but with a lot less talent looking for those jobs if you're a decent tech artist you have a better shot.
2)Loved it
3)Depends on the studio. SCEA Bend was a lot in the world, rarely with the programmers (unless you count tech art). Turbine was a bit of the engine but not a lot and never with the programmers (unless you count tech art).
4)Starting out in the states its about $15-$20/hr which is doable in most cities-with some budgeting. Mid level positions usually have a salary in the high $40K to the low $60K range-it depends on where you live (West is higher than NC for example). Tech artists might be able to ask for more since there tend to be less of them.
5)Very studio specific and I'm short on time, so the short version is that you usually have a lot of time to work on art and chat with your team members. Meetings suck but they are usually needed and it's nice to not stare at your screen every so often. Hours are pretty flexible.
6)Depends on the team and lead-but usually it can be pretty flexible as long as you remain within in the established style/guidelines and concept.
7)If I could go back to college right now, I'd focus on tech art or FX-more jobs and not as many good artists. Then again, bigger game world need more environment artists! Follow your passion and the money will follow!
Very few people talk about outsourcing on this forum and how lots of AAA games contain tons of models made offsite.
How much do you enjoy your job? I enjoyed it very much, until the layoff.
Do you get to work with the engine or with programmers? On my first project I barely worked with Programmers or the Engine at all (scenes were exported directly from max in their locations) On the second project I was starting on, we did work with the engine more (the engine had an actual editor)
What is the pay/hours like? As an Artist with not quite 3 years experience it was in the low 40k range. The hours were generally not bad, because Canada, I could not be forced to work more than 40 hours/week, but when I needed to I'd end up staying maybe, 2-4 extra hours one night a week, generally closer to 2, 4 was if there were some serious issues, I was at the very end of the art pipeline so, my work has gotta be done before the build could move forward, occasionally, I had to come in on a Saturday, but, I only ever came in when necessary, and when they were actually giving pay for weekend work. In the end, the over-time I put in resulted in special extra vacation time.
What is a typical day like? It varies.
How much control do you have over the design of your assets? I generally had to stick to the concept, but when I was lighting artist, I had a lot more control (as long as I got it approved by the Lead Artist)
Ruroni, would you say tech art is a better choice then? As much as your job sounds cool your really selling tech arts to me :P
Easterislandnick - really? I've heard about that with concept art but never with environment art, how many people actually producing assets tend to be in an average studio do you think?
LMP - Canada sounds awesome! If only it was like that over here in the UK...
What was being a lighting artist like? I imagine trying to get the atmosphere down would have been really interesting.
One of the things I really value is being able to be quite hands on with the engine and making sure things look good in game. After seeing programmers wreck my art I had to haha. Do any of you know what kind of job would entail this?
Thanks!
I've worked on a couple of big productions and quite a few smaller ones where the majority of env assets were outsourced. 90% of the env art team were dealing with/fixing/placing out sourced assets. It came as a real shock to me. Look at the credits of big titles, Uncharted and Gears relied heavily on outsourcing. That's not to say env artists at those studios are only dealing with outsourcing, we all know Epic and Naughty dog have some of the best artists in the business.
Outsourcing can help the expand and fire mentality of lots of studios by taking the strain off a team... need a range of statues making that will take a month? That's an easy thing to get another studio to make.
Anyway, it happens a lot. I work at Creative Assembly where the majority of work happens on site so after too many out source jobs I finally have landed at a studio where I actually make art!
Hey Im in the uk, been mostly creating environment art lately but my role is more a general 3d artist because our studio only has about 25 people so we need to work on a variety of things to get the game done eg vfx, animation, problem solving with programmers or techie guys. I love my job.
availability of jobs in the uk seems a bit poor, definitely more talent around than jobs from what I hear. Ive often got no reply whatsoever from companies Ive applied to.
I work in unity and gitflow and have to work closely with the programmers to understand the project.
Pay seems alright, its not big money but its good. I drive a 1999 corsa and can afford to rent a 1 bed flat lets put it that way.
I have no typical day as I work on so many different aspects of the game. We usually start the day with a little catchup meeting with the art team to make sure we all know what we are doing and then we get on and do it.
We have a great concept artist so by the time the concept arrives on my desk its usually more or less final. I can choose how to texture and detail the assets and try to make them look as awesome as the concept or better!
we make mostly ios or android games but these devices are getting seriously powerful, its quite a good time to get involved in a mobile game dev team and I feel its a good way into the industry at the moment seeing as there are quite a few mobile teams looking for artistic talent.
You got a bit of time to experiment, you'll be fine
2)It's fun but can be frustrating - lots of times a designer will come in with a "wouldn't it be cool" feature on the last day of your schedule.
3)really depends on the studio - at one studio I just exported a model & never touched the engine or talked to programmers and at others it was the exact opposite.
4)hours can be bad because it's game development, pay is good but I've heard that US game dev salaries are higher on average
5)there is no typical day, things change so much, especially at a studio with multiple projects!
6)it really depends, most of the time I would get fairly vague look & feel concepts, I was typically more constrained by the design documents specifying specific heights & distances for things in gameplay.
Ruroni - I'm actually at the point when I can't do both anymore! For our final year of uni we have to do one very focused project. Though doing something like tech art for environments could get round that I guess. As to weather I'm technical or artistic...I think I'm still trying to work that out.
Justin - I know! Looking at job vacancies I sometimes wish I'd studied programming! Wow...I was hoping that that attitude with designers was something that only students had, what a great thing to look forward to haha.
On average, It's not too bad, you'll have periods where it may slow down but it relapses pretty quickly, imo.
How much do you enjoy your job?
I love my job.
Do you get to work with the engine or with programmers?
Yes, but usually just requesting features that makes them laugh. Sometimes they consider it. and sometimes you may even get the feautre depending on time lol
What is the pay/hours like? (Though a job I enjoy is more important)
It's good. The hours can get crazy based on how you managed your schedule and/or production. And also, if or when crunch happens....
What is a typical day like?
I have a level open in maya that i'm in charge of texturing. Some levels I have the responsibility to set dress some i don't. I try to do more then just Texture the levels, but for the most part i work with a modeler to create a scene or what have you.
How much control do you have over the design of your assets?
I have complete ownership, but as long as the art director likes it.