Neat little guide for anyone trying to get into the biz

[OL]

was made at the polycount message boards, with questions being asked and answered by pros. could be helpful, i found some pretty interesting stuff in there.

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/docrob/Industry.html

[Pericolos0]

i wudnt call it little

[FrieChamp]

Thx, I'll give it a read this evening!

[Taylor]

Good read. You need to stretch somethings to make them apply to level design but it's all good.

[Mazy]

Hehe, had a read through some of it, I could have used some of that when I applied for my job, but I guess Im fine now

[Duff-e]

mapping is fine for some.....but for those who need more choices

http://www.dazereader.com/breakintoporn.htm

[st0lve]

[zaphod]

Artist's roles are less ambiguous, but they still vary from place to place. Some companies require all artists to be able to participate in every aspect of asset creation, from concept art to modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, world building and exporting. Other companies are specialized to the point where the texturers need never open anything but Photoshop, and the level designers need never open anything but the level design tool. However, both of those cases are pretty rare, and it's likely that you will need good skills in a couple of areas and an understanding of the rest

and at the same time,

If you use the Unreal Warefare engine as a yardstick you can already see that Levels are no longer created simply by a texture artist and a level designer working together.

Now its the case that a modeller will build prefabs, a skinner will unwrap and texture them, the level designer will use the prefabs like lego pieces, a programmer will then aid the LD with the scripting routines and the map texture artist will still provide regular textures also.

Also, now that technology allows such a wealth of detail, most LD's are unable to create realistic environments without a concept artists aid. If you look at Doom and Quake1, the levels are just hacks ( no offense to ID), simplified shapes. A square block with a sloped surface and an animated flame sprit above it represents a light.

So at that stage of Level design, almost anyone with a measure of creativity could make a level and it had the potential to look great.

Now that we have the power to model blades of grass, it takes a lot more imagination and LD's without 2d skills struggle to make the most of the technology.

The same is true of modellers, and of skin artists. In the past the resolution of a texture was so slight, you could be vague and get away with it. Modellers didnt need to understand any anatomy other than enough to compensate warping at knees and shoulders etc during animation.

But as technology improves, its becoming more vital to combine different specialist skills rather than rely on jack of all trades but master of none.

So for most people, focus is the best route now. Keep in mind, theres still room for multitalented people. I personally think multiskilled people are the way forward as they understand others jobs and work toward easing the transition between mediums more capably.

The job of being a level designer is going through a metamorphisis right now as technology advances and the amount of content in a level increases exponentially.

At some studios, artists make all the content for level designers to slap together, and LD's never open p any programs except the level editors. But then some studios go the opposite direction, and have level designers that are more level artists and create the maojority of the \ontent for a level (textures, and geometry) which is supplanted by a team of prop modelers.

both ways have thier strenghts and weaknesses. However I think knowing how to do the latter is a much more valuable asset to posess, both in mod making and things for fun, as well as looking for employment.

[-Stratesiz-]

Interesting stuff indeed.