Vast landscapes, stoic mountains, buzzing cities.. All of these things need to be laid out and filled with all kinds of assets, also commonly known as set dressing. It’s an enormous task so it also requires a lot of skill & effort. This is where an Environment Artist comes into play.
What is Environment Art?
Environment Art is a specialization of 3D Art which is basically used to fill the fictional world of your game and helps to guide the player through the world. The environment must follow the laws of physics and must not break the established rules of the game world. The setting gets built by using a 2D concept as a base which then gets turned into a 3D world. While the concept art already gives you a rough idea of what the place is supposed to look like, it still needs to be refined within the technical limitations of the engine that’s being used for the game. Therefore Environment Art includes everything from tiny rocks scattered around the world to the huge mountain trails in the distance.
What does an Environment Artist do?
As an Environment Artist, your job is to fill the game world with life. Abandoned villages, islands on the blue ocean or mystical forests. Even the ground your player is walking on has to be built and designed by someone.
Here are some of the tasks an Environment Artist needs to do in his daily work routine:
- Create High & Low Poly Assets
- Laying out UVs
- Creating Textures & Materials
- Rigging & Topology
- Optimizing the model for the Game Engine
- Lighting & mapping out scenery elements and props
- …
While a lot of things are similar to what a normal 3D Artist does, sculpting and shaping a whole landscape, filling it with all different kind of things while staying within the technical boundaries is a whole different beast. While a 3D Modeler doesn’t necessarily need to know how a game engine works and operates, an Environment Artist builds the world in it using premade modular assets.
What kind of skills do I need as an Environment Artist?
An Environment Artist needs to be skilled in both the artistic and technical side of 3D to create impressives scenes and landscapes, which includes:
- Great knowledge of geography, architecture, laws of physics etc.
- Strong understanding of shading, lighting, texturing etc.
- Problem solving & project management
- Good reference & researching skills
- Excellent collaborations skills
- Programming & coding
- …
You also have to be able to work from both the 2D concept and the rough block out a Level Designer gives you. An Environment Artist has to shape the world so it meets both the visual and technical requirements of the game. It’s a balancing act to fill the world with just enough things that it looks both detailed & interesting but not too overcrowded in a way that the level design gets compromised or that you even run into technical difficulties due to the limitations you have.
How do I get a job as an Environment Artist?
It’s good if you start off your journey as a 3D Artist and specialize yourself over time. If you learn the basics and gather some experience you’ll have no problem getting a job as an Environment Artist. Consider getting a degree in 3D Modeling or Game Design to enhance your chances of getting hired, but it’s not a mandatory thing.
You’ll also need a portfolio to show of your skills to your new employer, so here are some useful tips:
- Go for quality of work, not quantity
- Include interactive projects and games you’ve worked on
- Make sure everything works properly and that it’s easily accessible
- Explain your thought process and how you got to your result
- Make sure it looks professional & craft your portfolio around the company you’re applying to
- …
Of course everybody has to start from somewhere, so if you haven’t worked in that field before, how can you include interactive games and other projects? The answer is simple: Make your own. Either alone or with some friends you can create your own worlds and later show them off to the recruiters. It not only gives you a better chance of getting hired but you also gain a lot of valuable experience.
What kind of programs should an Environment Artist look into?
An Environment Artist has to switch between a lot of different programs to achieve his goals:
- 3D DCC Tools ( Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Gaea, Substance Painter/Designer,…)
- Game Engines (Unreal, Unity,..)
- 2D DCC Tools (Photoshop, Illustrator,…)
- Project Management Software (Trello, Nuclino,…)
- Writing Software (Scrivener, Evernote,…)
- …
While writing and project management aren’t a top priority for an Environment Artist, you still have to multitask a lot and have to be very organized. So having some organizational tools up your sleeve can help you save a lot of time and give you a good overview of your upcoming projects.
How much money does an Environment Artist make?
Those numbers can vary greatly depending on the company, genre, style, experience, skills etc. but according to Glassdoor an Environment Artist makes between $56k – $87k and the average income is around $69k per year.
If you want to work as an Environment Artist in the game industry, you should definitely learn about Level of Detail (LOD) to optimize your environment:
Level of Detail – Optimize Rendering Without Quality Loss
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