Becoming a 3D artist and Level designer (Need opinions/ suggestions)

[ItzOmega]

Hello guys!

I'm a guy from Spain and I have recently finished my carrer on Audiovisual Communication, but i have always wanted to work on the videogames industry, so I decided to take a master abur Art & 3D design for videogames, in a school in Barcelona called FX ANIMATION. 

The thing is that I am studing to become a 3D artist, but I have a lot of interest on the Level design world, so I would like to hear from you guys some tips/ comments on what I should do to become a Level designer, as long as a 3D artist too. I heard that you become that by working on a company and getting experience, but as I have seen that some of you already work on that I want to hear your opinion and what you think.

 

I have already done a map for CS:GO (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=908405993), which was what insipred me to study this.

Also during this master I'm gonna be studing 3Ds Max, Unity, Photoshop and ZBrush this year, and Unreal Engine, rigging and facial expression the next one.

 

What do you think? What I should do to gain more experience on 3D and also on Level design? Any idea will help me a lot.

 

Thanks in advance!!

 

 

 

[blackdog]

Hi, I see you got lots of views and no replies, there's surely better people than me that can answer... and I think there are similar topics/posts, or that can offer some insights around the forum (and that's why you didn't get replies). Look in the "how to break in the industry" and "level design resources" (or something along the lines).

Your map looks pretty good for a first map, at least visually. Of course over time you learn and focus more on the playability aspect of it as a designer.

It seems your education is taking care of your 3D proficiency, which will be useful because many companies work directly in their modeling package of choice to create maps, so I would just say that you need to keep doing what you are doing, just more and more, as much as you can! Level design is a trade that you refine over time. Read articles and watch talks, so that you get more critical when you play other people's levels and learn from it.

I'll link couple resources that have been linked many times on this forum and I've put in my Pocket app list and I'm slowly reading myself:

http://www.hourences.com/product/the-hows-and-whys-of-level-design-2/

http://www.clement-melendez.com/portfolio/articles/push-pull/introduction/

[ItzOmega]

Thank you @blackdog I appreciate your answer!

I will take a look at those links and get more info on this forum. Thx

[Psyrius]

I was pretty much in your position 2 years ago. And now I will start my internship at DICE in January.

All I can say is,

• Decide whether you want to become a 3D Artist or Level Designer, and focus on that. At most companies, those roles are separated. At some smaller companies, those roles can overlap and you might be able to work with them both, but it's not something you should aim for.
• Read articles, books, watch GDC, find inspiring people and subscribe to them (one example is Mark Brown on YouTube)
• Look up and find the best education possible and consider moving if required. This is also great for getting new connections.
• Start creating a nice portfolio and CV. Look how other 3D Artists or Level Designers have done theirs for inspiration.
• When all of this is done, you can start sending out personal letters together with your portfolio and CV to game companies and hope for the best.
• Or you could go the other way and start something yourself, but I don't have any experience with that

[ItzOmega]

Thanks @Psyrius! 

Will look forward to this content and get as much experience as possible. Thank you for taking your time to answer.

[Eric_Chocholacek]

Hey @ItzOmega, I  had a similar problem after being in QA for a few years, but remembered a website my  level design instructor constantly referred to throughout the course: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/

Some of the content is a little old now, but a lot of the design theory stuff in the Level Design tutorial topics will certainly help you hit the ground running. I highly recommend going through the content under the "Preproduction: Planning and beginning you Map/Level" and "Level Design Workflows" sections as they show off a good workflow you can initially follow and eventually morph into your own. 

I find a lot of experience will come from practice and repetition, so create lots, fail often, learn from those failures, and adapt a solid workflow. One thing I stress to a lot of friends and colleagues is to create a bit of a schedule of deliberate practice for yourself. Map out what you want to create/learn, then force yourself to work on that each day, even if it's just for 30 minutes. By doing this, you create a habit out of working on your levels that you'll constantly return to each day. This may feel tedious and demanding at first (because it is), but after doing it for a couple of weeks, I found myself rushing to get home from work just so I could get back into the editor. 

[blackdog]

Very well said @Eric_Chocholacek, that’s something I need as well. My problem is that I’m fairly competent in Source (started mapping back for HL), so I feel I just need to “build”… but despite mapping on paper, writing scripts, I still got stuck at various points in different projects and haven’t  finished them.

Now that I left my job where I worked shift, I want to start doing what you say and hopefully be able to keep up. I’m interested in learning Unity/UE4 and Blender, so there should be that push to learn that helps, compared to just iterate.

It is difficult because I’m quite stubborn and sentimental and still want to release at least a couple things done in Source just for closure. I guess I’m the living example of the “kill your darlings” saying, cos it shows you can end up never progressing if you don’t

[ItzOmega]

Thank you @Eric_Chocholacek I already took a look at that website when creating my first CS:GO map (You have the link at the first post), and it helped me a lot.

As some people already mentioned, I will try to practise as much as I can and take a look at as much videos as I am able to.

Thanks for the answer!