WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

Quote from PogoP

At Crytek they split between Environment Artists and Level Artists.

same at my work, Level Artists make the general architecture and task out art to Env artists, then decorate when all is in.

I don't know for sure how it works in Crytek but as far as i see it, environment artist makes assets to populate a scene/level, and level artist or/and level designer puts the scene/level to life

Quote from knj

I don't know for sure how it works in Crytek but as far as i see it, environment artist makes assets to populate a scene/level, and level artist or/and level designer puts the scene/level to life

It sounds like at some studios the level designers do everything from scripting events and white boxing to scene population and lighting and at others they only focus on design stuff and artists do everything else.

I hear designvironment artists are the new thing in the industry.

At Crytek UK the designers create the levels in the whitebox stage (and control all the game mode related stuff) at the end of which the level is functional from a design perspective but probably looks a bit rubbish. Then designers work with artists on the next stage (greybox) where the level is fleshed out and a rough art pass is done, with some basic assets being added. Then the artists take control of the level and buff it up to final art quality.

Quote from knj

I don't know for sure how it works in Crytek but as far as i see it, environment artist makes assets to populate a scene/level, and level artist or/and level designer puts the scene/level to life

This is what I thought as well.

Here at Ubisoft, there is only level artist, no env.

so the level artist is making assets and then puts together a level ?

Maybe they just have 3D artists for assets and level artists/designers for their levels?

Level Artists should know a bit about asset creation but don't really have to do it if they don't feel comfortable. It's all about how much the person is willing to do. Env artists create proper assets, LODs, texture the stuff, etc. and the level artists make sure that those assets are used in great compositions, that the level looks beautiful without screwing up the work on the designer (AI markup and all). This level artist subject is tricky, even here in Frankfurt not all teams have those roles available. The team I'm in relies on env artists and LD together to beautify levels, instead of having a specific guy for that.

It depends on the company, none of these positions are really officially defined anywhere. At Dice level artists do a lot of asset creation as well, but usually assets that will be unique for the level they're working on.

Pretty weird how they aren't really defined that well in the industry, how do people know if the job they're applying for is the one that suits them the best (if each role is different everywhere)? And more specifically, how to define yourself?

Well, believe it or not, this still is a pretty young industry, and we are still putting the dots on a lot of these things.

But I gotta tell you, in a way, I'm glad that there's no set on stone positions for all companies, as it stands right now, it's how it should be. Every company has it's workflows/pipelines, and even teams inside that same company vary in positions for a lot of reasons. Maybe the project is completely different, or the higher ups of that team see fit that they ditch some positions and create others they wouldn't otherwise.

We still have common positions like Art Director, Level Designer, 3D Artist, etc, I'd say this positions exist on all companies, but from there it branches out to other more specific positions. Basically, the bigger the project, the more specific the positions will be, the smaller the project, the more generic your position AND your work will be.

Here in FFM, on the Crysis franchise team, on the environment production side of things, we have Level Designers, Environment Artists, Vegetation Artists, Level Artists, Lighting Artists, and to some extent Concept Artists.

To answer your specific question, here in FFM a Environment Artist creates the assets (it's a position known to some american companies as Prop Artist), be it modular assets, single props, LOD's, collisions, etc.

A Level Artist works very close to the level, and less closer with a asset-by-asset basis. We still paint textures, model assets, etc, but making sure the level looks stellar at all times sort of steals the majority of our time.

That's interesting, thanks HP. The latter sounds just like the job I can imagine myself having, assuming I get a job at Crytek one day.

so HP do you work on event's scripting ? or your job is to make a level as badass as it can be and optimaze it ?

Definitely the latter, I never touch flowgraph.

Quote from knj

so the level artist is making assets and then puts together a level ?

We make Textures, props and level building (but no lighting)

At my work, i'm doing custom assets, 3d model, HP/LP texture,LOD's and that's it, and i think of my self as an envartist (?) and level designers at my work, do all scripting and art passes

I fire ray casts at banana's until they burst into millions of bits and they call me designer.

Quote

":3h2z7enh]Definitely the latter, I never touch flowgraph.

*tries to recall the last time he saw a level artist optimize at Crytek*...