How narrow can an environment artist's specialisation/focus be?
node
Here to hear your opinions.
What I mean is, to what extent, in your experience ,can you narrow your focus or exclude certain areas of modelling and asset creation from your practice, while still being (mostly) relevant in the industry. For example, can you focus more on a particular style or groups of styles and or aesthetics (ex. cyberpunk/sci fi in an FPS setting vs a medieval top down rts setting), subject matters (vegetation and organic, nature assets vs urban hard surface), and so on. Hopefully, you get what I mean.
From what I generally see online, it is more or less normal for studios, especially the bigger ones, to have certain people working exclusively on materials and nothing else, or have artists only do stylized work in their portfolio and nothing "photorealistic". I can also see that often people who showcase their work on, for instance, urban assets will credit others for the making the vegetation or things like custom destroyed versions of these assets etc used in the scene.
What I mean is, to what extent, in your experience ,can you narrow your focus or exclude certain areas of modelling and asset creation from your practice, while still being (mostly) relevant in the industry. For example, can you focus more on a particular style or groups of styles and or aesthetics (ex. cyberpunk/sci fi in an FPS setting vs a medieval top down rts setting), subject matters (vegetation and organic, nature assets vs urban hard surface), and so on. Hopefully, you get what I mean.
From what I generally see online, it is more or less normal for studios, especially the bigger ones, to have certain people working exclusively on materials and nothing else, or have artists only do stylized work in their portfolio and nothing "photorealistic". I can also see that often people who showcase their work on, for instance, urban assets will credit others for the making the vegetation or things like custom destroyed versions of these assets etc used in the scene.
Replies
I was hired into my current role as a mostly hard surface prop artist. 3.5 years later and I'm doing a lot of tech art because I'm the one with the Houdini license. Another artist does 95% of our trees and foliage because they like working in SpeedTree more than the rest of us.
just go with it.
nothing worse that modelling stuff you don't enjoy( though it is sometimes necessary i guess)