All Environment Artists work slightly differently, partly to fulfill their own role or specialty and also as a result of personal preferences. Since the Environment Artist is to responsible for creating an immersive 3D world in which the game takes place, the production pipeline is an important process for all game development. Here I’ve outlined an example work-flow based on my experience for creating a game level.
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The role of the Environment Artist is to help create an immersive 3D world in which the game takes place. Usually taking up the majority of the screen space during play, the environment graphics are a very important aspect of the games visuals. A good game environment needs to be immersive, fitting and consistent in style with enough interesting features and variety to keep its exploration fresh.

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I look at game artists’ portfolios on a regular basis. These websites are usually designed so poorly that I close my browser out of disgust. They’re even bad enough to turn away potential employers, regardless of the quality of the artwork. Tragic!
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All teams go through a predictable cycle of chaos and order that can be summed up in four stages: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

“Forming” is the stage where the team is first put together. Everyone is very polite and excited, but tentative. People are still floating, unsure of their role on the team.

The next stage is “Storming”. At this point, problems have started to surface, and people start to drive each other crazy. Everyone knows they are in over their heads, and they can’t get out. There is too much agreement in meetings, while inside everyone is smoldering with resentment. Fixing problems almost always involves stepping on toes. (more…)

Managing The Project

Chances are, you are good at managing yourself and your own time. That’s one of the things managers look at when they decide on whom to promote to lead positions.

But, managing a small portion of a project and managing an entire project require different skills. You are no longer just concerned with getting your slice of the pie done. You are also responsible for making sure that others get their work done, and that both the people you work for and the people that you manage understand where the project stands at all times. (more…)

What is a “lead artist”?

When you’re hired as a “lead artist” for a project you probably expect your role to be the keeper of the vision for the look of your project. What you may not expect is that you will really be the keeper of the team.

A lead artist is, first and foremost, a manager. How is a lead artist different from a production artist? Lead artists are less “artists who manage” than “managers who are in charge of artists”. You will likely spend the bulk of your time doing paperwork, email, meetings, and managing your artists. This was a shock for every beginning lead artist that I have talked to, and it was a shock to me when I first experienced it. (This is, by the way, a fact of life for any lead, especially engineers, who are just as likely to think they can contribute a significant amount of code and still manage a team.) You will have to change the way you gauge your own success, because you will no longer be able to look at the amount of art you have done to see how you’re doing personally. (more…)

In Adam Capone’s last two entries, Know Your Assets and Diffuse and Normals, he covered the basics any texture artist should know about the process of making textures and the skills you’ll need. In this final how-to piece, he covers specular extra map techniques with a closing on final stages and more advice about how to get ahead in your career.

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Last week I talked about assets, mapping, and light bake in Know Your Assets. Currently in industry, meshes are far more complicated and require various other maps, which in some cases require different tools from one another, so I’ve put together a breakdown of how I generally work. This week, I’ll talk about Diffuse Map and Normal Map.

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What is a game texture artist? The most basic answer to that is to say a texture artist’s job working for a game developer is to bring meshes created in 3D to life. The roles of a texture artist has expanded quite a bit in recent years since back in the early days of 3D graphics (Sony PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64) texture artists were only really required to paint colours onto one single map which would wrap around a very simple 3Dmesh. The difference now is that meshes are far more complicated and require various other maps which in some cases require different tools from one another. I will provide a breakdown of how I generally work with regards to current technology.

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