Your Perfect Portfolio: Create an Ideal Profile for a 3D Artist, Environment Design

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An important step in getting a job in the game industry is an online portfolio that demonstrates your abilities and is done in the same style. Pay attention to the five pieces of advice below when creating your ideal 3D environment artist portfolio.

Scenes on Engines

When you get a job in the studio, you will have to work with the game engine. That’s why it’s important to know basic things: how to unload the model into the engine environment, add collision to objects, set up LODs for them, add materials, and work with them further.

Add an image with the assembled scene in the engine to show a potential employer that you know all these processes.

 

Large Objects: Tiles, Vertex Color, and Masks

Most game environments consist of large objects such as rocks or buildings. Artists use tile textures to texture such objects. Tiled textures are textures that can be seamlessly joined together on either side. They are used to create rocks, walls, fences, houses, and even landscapes. Some tile textures may have a prominent pattern on them, such as a rock or a crack. When using such a texture in a game, the player will immediately notice a repeating element. In this case, the environment artists cover the pattern with other textures or props.

To keep tile textures from looking boring and monotonous, vertex colors and masks are added to them. With vertex colors or masks, you can mix different tile textures to eliminate repetition. Using all three techniques will avoid repetition, give a unique texture and improve your portfolio.

The principle of trims is similar to a tile, but trim textures can only be joined seamlessly in one direction: vertically or horizontally. Artists combine them to make the texture more varied.

 

Decals

It is not always possible to mix different tile textures to achieve the desired level of details, then the environment artist uses decals. For example, you have a tiled model of a concrete wall, and you want to place lettering, a door, and ventilation in a certain part of the wall. You don’t need to create a new unique texture for that task, just use the decals of those objects. Decals can also be used to diversify the tile texture.

 

Background and Foreground

A game scene, like a movie scene, has a background and a foreground. The background objects are not usually visible to the player up close, so you can make them in low resolution. A scene where the background is less detailed will show a potential employer that you understand plans and know how to work with them.

Modular Geometry and Reused Assemblies

Artists use modular geometry when there are several different objects with unique shapes that are used differently in the same scene in order to streamline the game development process.

In addition to modular geometry, you can show off your ability to reuse assemblies. Create several variations of a barrel based on a unique model and show them on stage: without a lid, with a lid, cracked, broken.