Expectations for a Senior Environment Artist?
polycounter lvl 8
I know this is probably different per studio, but I see a lot of Senior Environment Artist applications and they seem to say different things for expectations in the job description. From anyone here thats been in the industry for a while, what things do Seniors definitely need to know vs maybe a mid level Environment Artist?
Replies
For me Senior just means you are able to work independently. You dont need input from the lead several times a day.
If needed you can work for days without feedback. You know how far you can go until you need feedback. You know the workflow.
And you are able to guide junior artists if the Lead is not available.
tbh I'd expect that from a full/mid/whatever you want to call it.
to me a senior ought to be able to take a chunk of work (eg, a section of a leve) and drive it to completion with only high level direction
Without significant rapport between the person delivering the direction and the person receiving it, how can there be confidence the target will be met?
Or, in other words, what constitutes high-level direction? Is it not always necessary to explicitly define the final product? Like, imagine I am the director and I have a list of adjectives used to describe how a level looks, feels, sounds, etc. And I deliver that to the world's most experience senior level designer... there is still virtually no guarantee we are seeing eye to eye unless we get down into details, right?
If we get to know each other eventually a lot of language can be discarded in lieu of trust that we share a common understanding. But to me that is contingent on a couple things:
I ask all this not a challenge for challenge sake, but because I am beginning to take on some help and to me, developing effective communications seems to be the major challenge and also an area a lot of people want to gloss over, as if just doing the technical work is all that's really necessary. But there is zero purpose to shooting if we aren't all aiming at same target IMO.
As an example lets take an artist since that's what I know about
I would expect to be able to hand a pile of concept art and a level design blockout to a senior artist and get a first art pass back without having to tell anyone how to do anything. The senior should be willing to try out ideas, seek feedback/assistance for themselves and provide solutions rather than waiting for a grownup to tell them something isn't right.
if you're leading a project you need to be strong on guiding principles (pillars) and flexible on specifics. People need space to do their best work but they also need boundaries to help direct their independent thought.
At the beginning you just need to invest time in regular review and feedback. Written feedback is basically useless when you're trying to get to know someone. You have to use your face and mouth and focus on establishing what they think your vision is vs what you think your vision is.
This is all very helpful information, thank you tons!