this thread is 4 years old now - there's tons of info and decent number of environment artists. check out the polycount wiki, Eat 3D & 3D motive, to name a few resources.
I'll quote aesir on the vertex blending alpha thing, anyone can give more info on how ot that in a major 3d app? preferably in max since I saw the vertex painting toll was nice
Indeed there are less step by step tutorials out there for 3d package environment artists. I just looked. I just did some searching, and the dearth is quite staggering. Most of the useful information is actaully posted in the P&P forum of this messageboard. It's not something I have the time to do, especially at this time…
It's about time someone posted a thread like this... Thanks Ror. I always wanted to be a 3D Character Artist thinking that was the best shit ever when it came to game development. But since I got my games job and starting out on the environment team, I kind of don't want to go to characters. I like how most people think…
Also, I feel the need to point out that it a lot easier to get into world building from the outset than it is to get into character building - look at the tools. How many games ship with editors? 3dsmax costs £3000 or whatever, and Unreal Tournament costs £30 and you get the editor for free. You can build and texture a…
i love environment art and level building i started with leveldesigning fantasy maps for a hl1 mod and it was really cool to recreate your own vision in 3d. back in those days you could pull off whole maps as one person only, including textures, lighting and models. these days it gets quite complex and making a complete…
Just to throw a wrench in that point, I'm a character artist who leans a bit on the technical side. My last ipad contract I had to do a multi floor level using light maps, 2 uv channels, and fit it all in a very rigid texture and triangle budget to work on mobile devices. I was able to ramp up and create all characters,…
Well I may ba transitioning back to Environment art. I started back in the 8 bit days. Back then you did character animation (in the Hanna Barbera 2D tradition), and did the backgrounds as well. People were generalists back then. I still like to do a lot of things. But there I was mostly an animator because I had…
One Enviro artist normally isn't resposable for everything you see on the screen so its not as easy to pimp as a character. "I did the three buildings on the left, but only textured two of them, oh and the street lamp and the rubble pile are mine". Just to be a dick I'm going to toss this out there. Maybe enviro guys don't…
It came up in Strangefates post http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php...;gonew=1#UNREAD in pimp/preview section that there are very few that are interested in environment work in the ganes industry. Env work has always been regarded more as the shit work or the work that people use as a means to traverse to a position…