design or art?

[luque]

Dear fellow mapcore members,

I have been struggling with a rather big issue lately and I hope some of you can give me feedback or insights.

I have been working as a designer in the games industry for 6 months now and it has come to my attention that since I'm a designer I am not involved with doing any art for the game. From my mod and hobby projects as a level designer I always did the design of a level PLUS decoration, textures, prop placement, lighting, post process, etc, etc.

Now after working for 6 months I start to miss not doing any art. Whenever I get home from work I am really glad to finally do stuff in UDK again and touch up on some decoration or other art related stuff.

Now my question is: do any of you guys experience the same thing? As in if you are a DESIGNER are you kept away from doing pretty artsy stuff? For example do you deliver your mockup and then you only have support tasks left while the environment artists do their thing?

Of course I understand that if you are in a smaller studio you would do both tasks but in bigger ones(40+) is it always separated like this?

Would love to hear some other experiences

[2d-chris]

There’s no doubt design and art are even more divided these days,

I think it always comes down to the individual to make the difference. You could just sit there once your map is prototyped and let the artists do their job without much communication but you could also sit with the artists (3d and concept) and give your expertise/vision. So although you don’t directly make the final assets you are a big part of the process.

It really does come down to what you enjoy doing the most, some of the best artists we have here at Crytek started as a level designer and eventually moved into art.

Personally I feel a little left out these days as I’m not making final assets, but the truth is the game is better for it That being said at least at Crytek I'm encouraged to do some artistic level work (think decals, trees, terrain and props etc)

[Sentura]

i'm starting to like what mapcore is becoming, with threads like these!

[Grinwhrl]

Its the same for us luque. Like 2D Chris said, its best to work with the arists directly to create your overall vision. I enjoy doing design stuff only though.

[twiz]

Almost four years and 2754 posts later, sentura thinks he might like what mapcore might be, sometime in the future. Maybe by 10000 posts in 2017 he'll admit he has grown a bit fond of the old 'core.

Sorry I have nothing constructive to contribute to this thread. Just wanted to extinguish sentura's moment of hope.

[luque]

Ok thanks everybody for your insights!

I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with doing art in my free time

Might switch to art later but will stick to design for now, thanks again!

[PaulH]

I went through the same thing, having been used to being responsible for all aspects of level creation (including art, texturing, lighting etc) and then moving into a job as a designer where control over such things is taken away from me. I think over time i've got used to it though, from what i hear it's rare to find a job where you can be both a designer and an artist. Also I think i've come to accept that i'm a better designer than artist anyway, though I do still enjoy working on my own projects in my free time.

[Warby]

i feel your pain man it was one of the main reasons why i quit my job at ioi !

i love both art and design !

why is that so hard to accept for the military-industrial-cooperate-pigeon-hole-conspiracy-complex !

[Nysuatro]

I think that when you can switch between art and design from time to time that your work will become much better.

You sometimes need a moment to process all the experience you have earned by doing something else. This is one of the reasons why I chose to be a technical artist.

This gives me the opportunity to come in contact with art, design and even technical subjects. I believe this makes me learn a lot more then when focusing on one thing.

[Warby]

i think you are on to something there !

[-HP-]

Whatever you aim at life, don't aim at being a jack of all trades... you'll fail.

[Jetsetlemming]

Personally I enjoy the art to design, kinda like architecture. Building lines, lighting, spaces, the feel to an area and how people react to that.

[Sentura]

":yjempgvl]Whatever you aim at life, don't aim at being a jack of all trades... you'll fail.

this is pretty much what i think. it's fine if you have two categories of focus, but more is just going to wash it out (except for a very few talented individuals).

[Threeboy]

All creative jobs seem to become production driven if the company is big enough. Things get specialized and it's all about producing so they can get a good ROI. This stuff doesn't get made for free

[Nysuatro]

":ujlw45gn]Whatever you aim at life, don't aim at being a jack of all trades... you'll fail.

In what way do you mean Jack of all trades? Wanne be an expert in everything or having some basic knowledge of everything.

I don't have professional experience in the gameindustrie, but I am experiencing that because of my wide rang of skills I can easily communicate/help other to solve problems.

I guess this can only work good when working with teams of <30 people and not for big AAA studios.