"Nature" as a narrow niche of environtment 3d art? Need for advice...
I'm a medium newbie in 3d art, just had my acquaintance with all the tools in Blender, also have some experience in Unity. Looking forward to becoming a 3d artist myself, but can't pick a specific category of work (wanna separate from the mass to decrease competion with colleagues).
My main option is environmetal art (as I understand, creating props and whole sceneries), but to specialize even more, I want to study nature part of this niche (trees, stones, rivers, water, fog, lighting, weather, also possibly related categories like plant pots, terraces, natural errosion of the buildings, I don't even know yet, but all related to nature).
I'm feeling very unconfident. Would there be a demand for such a specific artist? After all, almost any environment needs some foliage
Are there artists who already narrowed their work to this extent? Or better, those who already work as a "natural" environment artist?
How well paid is this niche? How fun is it to only work on nature theme? How and what to begin with if my goal is to master this specialization?
Thank you very much for help! I'm really lost x)
My main option is environmetal art (as I understand, creating props and whole sceneries), but to specialize even more, I want to study nature part of this niche (trees, stones, rivers, water, fog, lighting, weather, also possibly related categories like plant pots, terraces, natural errosion of the buildings, I don't even know yet, but all related to nature).
I'm feeling very unconfident. Would there be a demand for such a specific artist? After all, almost any environment needs some foliage
Are there artists who already narrowed their work to this extent? Or better, those who already work as a "natural" environment artist?
How well paid is this niche? How fun is it to only work on nature theme? How and what to begin with if my goal is to master this specialization?
Thank you very much for help! I'm really lost x)
Replies
Being able to operate Speedtree effectively is a useful skill and will certainly be considered a plus when applying for work. This goes for worldmachine/gaea etc.
To get started - just start.
Grab speedtree, put things in unreal, sell some well optimised trees on the asset store to pay for your speedtree license, make some nice pictures for your portfolio and apply for some jobs
Thank you for being responsive!
Here are some links I found there, I hope this helps:
Vegetation artist: https://www.artstation.com/lamotterudy
Vegetation talk:
Also, in my first link there are 2 articles - maybe they will give some insight too:
https://80.lv/articles/tips-on-vegetation-creation-for-games/
https://80.lv/articles/creating-large-open-levels-with-vegetation/
Also there are plenty of complete tutorials on making tree on Youtube, the only problem that there are many different techniques, and afaik professionals usually use speedtree for that.
Also, here is some good info about vegetation in UE4, but maybe you don't need it right now -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoG9TB1eL6dm9eNbLFueHBQ
I think in different studios there are different approaches to vegetation, and it is still an area that require some tricks to look good as nature is too complex to transfer it to 3D (Though now, with photoscans and modern hardware it is easier). Somebody who is working in the industry can give you better advices )
As for me, I'm using UE4 and at the moment there are several beautiful environment sets in the UE4 Marketplace available for free, so I'm just trying to figure out how things work to better use them in my projects.
So I wish you luck with your studies!
Specialize in things that you are passionate about, don't pick them based on perceived competition, and don't commit to a speciality before you're in the industry. IMO its better to go into a junior role with a broad skill base and find your thing. Good hunting!
For me the big difficulty is identifying a backstop so I don't go too far. Nature is infinitely complex - computer graphics will never come close to capturing natures complexity - so you have to be very strategic about what resources you use so that you can sell a scene while also managing time, memory, etc.
Good thing is humans don't pay attention to shit, so you can make an entire forest scene with like 3 trees and 2 grasses and they'll believe it. It would be a good idea to get some scenes made by professionals that you can review time to time, just to help keep perspective.
I think the best part about making nature related art is you never run out of inspiration. You never get tired of the subject, the references. It's always beautiful. Go for a hike and take your camera, that is work time. How pleasant. How many space marines and assault rifles could you make before your soul withered away? Nature always replenishes/.