Contextual Studies - The essay

How does one start as an environment artist? How does the role of 3D environment artist differ from company to company?

This essay will look at the role of an environment artist and how much the role can vary from company to company. It will also look at the arduous task an aspiring environment artist must face to start in the games industry.

What does the role of a 3D environment artist involve, what do they do? As stated on websites Cybergooch (Cybergooch.com, 2015) and Platinum Games(Platinumgames.com, 2015): an environment artist is an artist that specifically works on the environment and assets for which they have to do 3D modelling, texturing,lighting etc. This definition can be further expanded by Philip Simmons (an environment artist) during his interview on EA's website (Ea.com, 2015) . He defines that the role of environment artist is broken down to two roles; World builders and prop artists. The former makes the scenery and all the architecture the gamer interacts with, the latter is making props to be place within the world.

The role can vary depending on what company the artist works for, and it also depends on how big the company is. For example; Stef Bow a junior environment artist from 'Sports Interactive' has a broader role, due to working in a smaller company, as opposed to Chris Green (Green, 2015), whose role as an environment artist from Sony is quite specific, in his case he's an asset artist.

Also, working in companies can affect the way a team works. When working in a smaller company with a smaller team, the atmosphere is more casual. Where as a larger studio's schedule can be very aggressive, putting more pressure on the artist - this can be backed up by John Morris in an email interview (Morris, 2015 Appendix A) during his time at True Games Interactive. Which contrasts to his time at BioWare, an AAA game company; which was 'big, carefully-managed team' (Morris, 2015)

In addition, a company depending on size can give their employee benefits for working for them. For example AAA gaming company such as BioWare, will give more benefits to their employee. As stated on BioWare's careers site:

“We offer our employees great, competitive benefits including dental and medical coverage, annual bonuses, stock options/restricted stock units, three weeks accrued paid vacation, bonus winter holiday vacation time, daily breakfasts, free games, game discounts on all EA games, social activities, discounted gym memberships, and much more!” (BioWare,2015)

However, there are similarities in working in both smaller and bigger companies. As stated by both Stef Bow (Bow, 2015 Appendix B) and John Morris (an environment artist from BioWare), they both have creative freedom to a certain extent, as long as they stick to the brief.

“Generally speaking, Yes, as long as my work is consistent with the overall theme and setting of the project. I can't re-define the setting or genre of an entire project, but that still leaves a lot of room to create interesting spaces” (Morris, 2015)

In addition to this similarity, one major similarity that may affect an environment is the pressure of the deadline as stated by Stef Bow in an email interview (Bow, 2015), the pressure of deadline will of course rise as the quantity of the work that the environment artist is asked to do goes up. However more so for Stef, because she works on a smaller will have to also have to look for bugs in the game. Where as environment artist working for bigger companies such as John Morris and Chris Green wouldn't.

However, none of this will matter if an aspiring environment artist can't make it into the industry. As Scotty Brown (Lead environment artist at BioWare) suggests in his interview for Blender Cookie:

“if you are not learning the pipeline and ramping up on the game engine knowledge” (Brown, 2015)

It is important to have strong game engine knowledge whether as a starting environment artist, or even an artist already within the industry. This can be backed by both Stef Bow and John Morris , as both state within a guest lecture at NUA (Bow, 2015) and email interviews (Appendix A and B), that it is always important to keep up with new tools and techniques, software etc. This can make it hard to start in the industry, as the striving environment artist will always have to keep learning.

Also, two other vital factors that are important to starting out in the industry as an environment artist are a decent professional portfolio and the ability to stand out. The latter is more vital than the former. As Stef Bow proves in her guest lecture (Bow, 2015), that when she went to her job interview for 'Sports Interactive', her portfolio wasn't as good as most of the other applicants. But what made her employers choose her? What made her stand out? She stood out from the rest because she was a former teacher. Her employer wanted her because of this ability to cope with the pressures of the games industry in addition to her determination, more so than the 299 other applicants. This is why it's important to stand out, because it can stand you apart from many more applicants, who maybe more qualified and skilled.

In addition to these, one factor that can make or break a 3D environment artist is connections. This is a factor regardless of the sector you work in the games industry as all guest lecturers indicated, for example Hollie Bennet (Bennet, 2015) and Robin Silcock (Silcock, 2015) suggest that communication is key, as building connections, and knowing someone in the industry can make all the difference between an aspiring environment artist getting the dream job or not. This is backed up by Chris Green's guest lecture (Green, 2015).

To conclude, all of these factors are vital for a new environment artist to remember: To stand out, to connect to those in the industry and have a decent portfolio. In addition to these, that you find a development company that suits to you, as the industry is an arduous one as stated by many professionals. The hours are punishing, even more so near the 'crunch' of a game, this is backed by the Developer Satisfaction Survey 2014 – Summary report (igda international games developers association, 2014). However, once an environment artist enters the evolving and busy industry known as the games industry and finds the company that suits to them, their career will be very prosperous.